rec.autos.simulators

   Not yet, but it is only a  matter of time.  They have left the usa
because Honda paid for the league to run that track(Twin Ring Motegi,
Japan), they will race roadies when they find a manufacturer who will
grease the rails.  ONe of the reasons Mario Andretti pushed so hard to get
Road America back on the Cart schedule was the perception that the IRL
would love to steal RA and Mid Ohio.  
dave henrie

Hopefully not. Well, maybe one or two, just to mix things up but those races
won't be nearly as exciting as the IRL oval races.  It's another thread I
suppose but road courses can't duplicate the races they run on the ovals in
IRL. The Texas races being a prime example of that.  Wheel to wheel for 25
laps and a photo finish.  Beautiful.

This is off the topic, but man, how can ChampCar allow IRL to get a sim to
market before them?  A missed opportunity.

   But now the series for the 'common' man.  The low bucks series designed
to save American openwheel racing is such a high cost endeavor that many
long time particpants can no longer compete.  I am especially embarrased
for Chevy...nearly a decade of R&D and they are miles behind the first year
efforts of Toyota and Honda.  
   How many chassis did the 'man whose name I will never utter' subsidize
for this year's field?

dave(thinking of Franchitti vs Bordais at a street circuit)henrie

More a case of caught with their pants down.

-jde

    Leaving the ONE true American Star with little chance of winning.  Poor
Sam Hornish...hopefully he'll either get a new engine package next year or
he will bolt to Nascar.  DEI is casting the net.

dave henrie

   So it was CART that removed the single biggest race in the USA with the
largest advertising campaigns from the CART budgets?  It was CART that made
NO attempt at reconciation?  It was CART that said it was an American
series for American Drivers on American Ovals????   The single biggest
crime of the irl is the splitting of sponsorship $$.  Whatever faults each
league has, they are maginified by the deminishing sponsorship pool.  
   Ask the two time defending IRL champ how much of a budget he has.  And
why he's stuck on the 7th row with the fastest Chevy block.  Ask Penkse why
Marlboro was mad their red & white cars didn't have any logos on them back
when Helio first won.  Ask any sponsor which series they prefer.  Most will
probably say...."Series?  We just want 'The Race.'"  Indy towers over all
the CART and irl events.  Indy is a club that has been weilded, not by
CART, but by that heinous slimeball who sprang up from the loins of the
very Devil himself.
  Yes I am well aware of CART's mis-steps.  I am well aware of the mistakes
that help push Toyota and Honda over to the 'dark side.'  But I also am
quite clear on who pushed who first.  A childish little man with his step
Daddy's toy.

  Maybe we can get lucky and Nascar will bail out the sorry mess of open
wheel racing and put those butt-ugly Daytona Prototypes in the IRL as well.

  and on another note...one of the stick and ball magazines quoted a
statistic that in the USA, ONE SINGLE Nascar race, a nightime event at
Richmond, drew more viewers than all the F1, CART and irl races so far this
season.  Sad.
dave henrie

Actually that's kinda a funny thing:

Playstation: Launch title: SECA's Champ Car World Series ( Good start but
never built on)
Dreamcast : Launch title : Flag to Flag (OK in  a SEGA arcade kinda way)
Playstation 2 :  One of the first titles CART Fury (Worst ... game ...
ever.)
Gamecube: One of the first racing titles: Driven   (Worst ... movie ...
ever.) (Really bad game too.)
PC : One of the first Direct X games  Microsoft's : CPR  ('nuff said)

So actually CART has almost always beaten every one (NASCAR and F1 included)
to the punch.  Unfortunately, they have almost universally stunk. Getting to
market first isn't the trick it's having something worthwhile once you're
there.  And the writing on the wall for Codemaster's IRL doesn't look good.

I realize I see the world through the prism of an RAS guy but I always
thought a good litmus test of Chris Pook would be if he could get a licensed
game out there that was popular and good.

Rudeboy

   "Bridgestone Presents the Champcar World Series Powered by Ford, coded
by Papyrus and critqued by RAS."  or BPCWSFCPCR for short.   :)

can't wait for BPCWSFCPCR Championship edition and BPCWSFCPCR 2004 and
BPCWSFCPCR:2.  BPCWSFCPCR:The Turbo Years.  
I've got more....
:)

dave henrie

Person1: "Man, this tire model sucks. Might I recommend..."
Person2: "You're wrong. Shut up, idiot."
Person3: "Yeah, tard. It's perfect!"
Person4: "Be lucky there's even a Champcar sim to begin with!"
Person5: "You don't know what you're talking about."

;)
-Will