Open-wheel racing in the United States has suffered greatly because of the
split(it really was not in great shape to begin with). However, unless you
are under 10 years old, you did not "grow up" with the IRL. My father first
took me to the Speedway in 1969, and I attended my first 500 when I was 6
years old. I saw Mears first and last wins at the 500, Snevas terrible
crash, Al Unser Sr.'s 4th win, the controversial Bobby-Mario-Bobby 500,
Rutherford, Foyt, Johncock, Rahal, Sullivan, Fittipaldi, Little Al, etc.
The IRL is NOT the racing I grew up with. The Indy 500(USAC/CART) used to
attract the best drivers in motorsports. Nascar and F1 stars would come to
race the 500 every year. Just to name a few: Jimmy Clark, Graham Hill, Mario
Andretti, Emmerson Fittipaldi, and Nigel Mansell were all F1 world champions
who won the 500 and/or the CART championship(many doing so in the prime of
their careers). Now I realize that modern day contracts, sponsorships, and
tighter race schedules would not permit this, but there is no doubt that the
IRL/500 has now become little more than a starting or ending point for
drivers. Stars like Tony Stewart and Kenny Brack immediately move on to
greener pastures once their stock has gone up, while Arie, Goodyear,
Cheever, Lazier, and now Little Al ride out the end of their careers.
I have not attended the 500 since the split, however, I did attend the
Atlanta race and I can tell you that more people show up at the "Dixie
Speedway" every Saturday night for the local dirt track boys, than attended
that IRL race. However, CART is not much better. The crowd at Homestead this
year was terrible. There are now only 3 U.S. drivers in the series(Andretti,
Vasser, Herta), and the TV ratings are dropping.
The IRL/CART need to do something quick to fix this, but I do not see it
happening with the "egos" involved on both sides.
CART, with all its problems, is still much closer to the racing I grew up
with. It is the only major "international" motorsports series that
challenges its competitors on Road Courses, Street Circuits, Bull-rings, and
Super Speedways. The racing is almost always close, even on the road
courses, and there are enough races on the schedule to keep the championship
race interesting. The IRL season has too few races, spread over way too many
months to keep anyone's interest. Also, CART has much more history than the
IRL. Michigan , Milwaukee, and Nazareth have been raced since the 60's,
while Long Beach, Mid-Ohio, Elkhart Lake, Cleveland, Laguna Seca, Portland,
and Toronto have been run for 15 years or more. Besides Indy, the IRL has
Phoenix(not for long), and Atlanta(not the same configuration or track that
they used to run).
Anyway, enough rambling.......
Don Chapman
