Q: While going through my library I came across Dick Wallen's book "United States Auto Club, Fifty Years of Speed and Glory." Found a picture of you racing a midget on Page 261. Please do an article on your racing career. How many years did you race? How many races did you drive in? What was your best finish? Who were some of the people you drove against? How many flips or crashes did you have? I think it would be a great story. Not many, if any, writers have the racing background you have. A book would be better. I'd bet it would be a best seller. I'll buy one sight unseen and money in advance.
Don Betsworth, Torrance, CA
RM: It would be a funny book because I did everything wrong and should have NEVER been allowed to own my own race cars. I’m still alive because my pals felt sorry for me and made sure all four wheels were on tight. I bought a midget from Gary Bettenhausen in 1974 and raced USAC until 1983. It was a great time because a lot of the Indy veterans were still running midgets and sprints to make ends meet. One of the first features I made was at Kokomo and 10 of the 20 starters were in that year’s Indy 500. Running second to Bubby Jones in a heat race at Little Springfield was a highlight and passing Mel Kenyon on the outside at Erie, Colorado. Never won a feature, led 45 laps at Salt Lake City before falling out of the seat and my best day came in 1980 at the Hut 100 when I qualified fifth and had a good battle with Johnny Parsons for third before blowing up. I think my best finish was fifth and I had my share of crashes because I did some stupid things. Kept running a Chevy II when everybody else had a Volkswagen and I was a mechanical moron, which didn’t help either. I was six figures in debt when I quit but no regrets, it was the best time of my life and gave me a great perspective.
Q: First, if IndyCar is looking for race sponsors, maybe they should take a page from NASCAR. Lots of "Chevy Dealer 500" and "Ford Dealer 500"'s going around. Seems like good advertising for a mere $1.2 million. Second, CART had a great support series in Trans-Am and it made for a great road course weekend. Wonder how we get something like that to return? Spin off part of the ALMS.
Jim, Apex, NC
RM: The Toyota dealers of southern California still sponsor Long Beach and Honda is a title sponsor for about five shows so maybe GM will join in. INDYCAR and ALMS should do doubleheaders whenever possible. Period.
Q: Since Michael Andretti is going to be on Trump's Apprentice show, what do you think the odds are that we can get Ganassi & Foyt on The Biggest Loser?
Joe (could stand to go on BL myself), Bloomington, IN
RM: I’ll suggest it to them.
Q: I just finished reading Dr. Steve Olvey's "Rapid Response" book for a second time, and wondered what he and Dr. Terry Trammell are doing these days? Are they involved in motor racing in any capacity? It seems to me that the Holmatro Safety Team does a good job, but does anyone have the background and experience that CART's safety team had back in the day? It seems that it was such a well-oiled machine back in the late 90s and early 00s, especially with the way they saved Zanardi at the Lausitzring. I'm also hoping Milwaukee does happen this year. My dad & I have gone every year since 1991, twice during the years that IndyCar and Champ Car both ran. What would you say the odds are at this moment for the race to happen?
David von Faulkenstein
RM: It’s a good read and really lays out how primitive safety was before Wally Dallenbach and Olvey did something about it. I believe Steve is on the FIA safety committee and Terry still goes to INDYCAR races. The CART crew with Lon Bromley, Dave Hollander and Company were the BEST ever and Trammell’s save of Zanardi at Germany was unprecedented. Milwaukee is going to happen.
Q: I agree the former Copper Classic was a great weekend of racing and needs to be revived, we have towed all the way from Ontario Canada to run a super in the 80’s, but Phoenix is not the right track any more the improvements would defiantly be dangerous for all as the speed would be increased and the cars would not be able to withstand the impact, Concord North Carolina possibly would be good but, no cars that reassemble TAXI CABS this means no doors roofs or fenders, possibly beside sprint, midget, Silver Crown and Supermodifieds.
JACK DARCH, Mississauga, ON
RM: Milwaukee would be perfect if it had the right climate because the Copper Classic was a great way to start the season.
Q: While I have great memories of Indy Car racing dating back to the early 1970s, and I enjoy reading about and watching videos of earlier eras, I know that what open wheel fans have today is quite different. Fans today need to attend events, invite friends over for racing parties on TV, and try to share what we DO have today. We barely survived the split, and bitching about how TK or Dario and the rest of the current drivers never pulled a left front off a dirt track isn't helpful. Neither AJ or Mario raced back in the 1920s on a 1.5-mile board track with 30-degree banking did they? The board tracks were faster than Indy in their era, and I think 3 or 4 Indianapolis 500 champions died on board tracks. Do people piss on AJ's record just because he didn't race the boards in "the good old days?" No way. Things are just different now, and the long past is gone. Can we try to work to get back to the recent past, maybe the great racing of the early 1990s of CART? That's a time I'd like to revisit.
Kevin S., Manhattan, Kansas
RM: Yep, these are the good old days for Dario, Dixon, Helio, TK and Power.
Q: I just finished reading Marshall Pruett’s article about Engine Supply and Demand. I think overall the IICS finds themselves in a good situation — they thought 18 to 25 cars, optimistically. Now we have a reality of 30 to 33 cars, that’s a nice problem to have. Especially since in ‘07 both series were struggling to field just 16 cars. Might the solution be a F1 type model? What I envision would be; Chevy, Honda and Lotus selecting “factory or anchor” team(s) (just like they have already done) and those engines are mandated to cost the $690,000 (and each supplier must supply at least 6 engines at that cost). Each team that would sign these engine contracts would have to sign to a 3 year term and help develop the engine with the manufacture. Then each engine manufacture could have a maximum amount of “customer” cars for a mandated cost of $1.2M, with a 1 year term. These would likely be the smaller teams that would be able to move to the more dominate engine year to year, thus giving them a greater chance to compete with the larger teams, thus making these teams more attractive to the manufacture. Which might spur said manufacture to sign some of the smaller teams to these “factory” deals. Under this arrangement you would still have a sliding scale of engine responsibility with a maximum representation of 40% of the field. This would ensure that each manufacture is well represented in the field and would still have their selected teams that would be responsible for the lions-share of the testing and engine development. I would also have the same rule of not allowing any custom or special engine pieces — if these pieces are developed thru the year then all of your factory and customer teams must have access to these parts at the same time. In the event of a new engine manufacture coming to the series — teams and manufactures would be able to renegotiate the term of the contracts to allow said new manufacture access to teams. (ex. Ford with an engine built by Cosworth comes into the series — KV and Chevy would be able to renegotiate the term of their deal thus allowing Ford to make KV a factory team, which would allow KV to leave Chevy and not having to compete with their own interest.) This also elevates the moral issue of a manufacture having to choose to take $1M from a team or turn them away and said team might lose sponsorship or the ability to compete due to no engine. Under this you would still have the proposed tier pricing, but you would have the term stipulations that might help some of the smaller less fortunate teams compete year to year. And still give the series the flexibility to add more engine manufactures, if needed. This might also ease the anxiety that the series and engine manufactures are feeling. The engine manufactures are anxious, since they don’t have the budget to field more than 10 teams for the $690,000 per engine price tag. The series being anxious, that if they mandate that Chevy and Honda pick up Lotus’s slack and filed extra teams thus putting a major strain on the budgets — which would mean money is reduced for each manufactures marketing budget. Meaning that the series doesn’t get maximum exposure — which could lead to one or two of the manufactures leaving the series in a few years. This would also elevate a problem that is brewing — contraction. It’s the nightmare scenario for the series, having to tell SFR and ECR that they aren’t getting engines and to go home — meaning you’ve lost two American programs with Fuzzy’s Vodka and Walgreen's as sponsors.
Josh from Augusta, GA
RM: I think Sarah is going to get a Honda and I hope Ed gets the Chevy he wants.
Q: I haven't had the desire to even think of writing after reading week after week of race fans complaining or raving about tracks, new management, new cars, new engines and the promise of an enhanced model in 2013. My question is so obvious that it seems stupid to even ask. How in the hell do we get interest back into OWR in the USA? The only legitimate OWR racing we have is sprint cars. Why? Great drivers, great rivalries, monster fast cars with 800 HP, continued innovation and tracks that the fans want to fill each race. With or without wings they are the best show in town. The drivers and cars have real sponsors that fans can identify with. I've been the first to rant about Tony George totally screwing up OWR as we have known it for years. I've been a diehard Indy Car enthusiast for decades. However when I think about those decades, I realized that even before the IRL the fans were drifting away to NASCAR in droves. We now have a series which only a handful of the populace even know is running. Ask anyone about the "Chase" and they immediately get going on Stewart, Johnson, Jr. and on and on. Ask anyone about Indy Car racing and all they can come up with is the Indy 500. So how smart or lucky was NASCAR to kick off their season with the biggest race of the year? If you watch TV you have been bombarded all year long with the upcoming NASCAR race, the chase blah, blah, blah! OWR is a ghost phantom series that shows up occasionally on Versus and ABC. No real promo or title sponsors that catch the people's attention. The gimmicks didn't work, so much for the lottery starts, double headers, free seats and the lady drivers. Who really gives a crap? The best idea for lady drivers was one that I proposed repeatedly all year long. A Powder Puff Derby if IndyCar really wants a double header. IndyCar milked the Danica thing to death and she bolted for NASCAR where we read about her preparation for Daytona every day. I'm sick of hearing that speed and track records don't count. All I've read this week is how the Daytona tests have hit speeds of over 200MPH. The thrill and excitement of the Indy 500 was who was going to break new speed records and sit on the pole. Now it's evolved to can Dallara come up with an oval car that anyone can drive? I think the real question is, does anyone care? With no breakthrough on series sponsors, TV coverage and viable team sponsorship. Is there any hope for OWR to survive? I don't think so.
Gary
RM: The first 2012 rant from Gary.
Q: Robin, there is so much complaining amongst IndyCar fans these days that the Mailbag has perhaps become the biggest buzz kill in racing...maybe in all of sports. If the sport was as big as NASCAR, the constant futile whining would rival college football fans whining about a playoff. The future of the sport is so much brighter than it was 5 years ago that the hate can only hurt the progress. Do people not appreciate just how long it takes to rebuild something that was practically destroyed? Can you imagine college football making such a drastic change that a USC-Ohio State matchup in the Rose Bowl doesn't sell out? Or horse racing doing something so detrimental that the Kentucky Derby stands are half-empty? That's essentially what happened to IndyCar. The Indy 500 is one of the most iconic American traditions, and the sport screwed up so badly that it has taken 15 years just to get close to being a sell-out once again. The sport is rebuilding. Not just a team, or a chassis manufacturer. The ENTIRE sport is rebuilding. That takes years. YEARS. Just 4 years ago we had 2 different open-wheel leagues. Four years later, we have a hot-looking car (you haters need to jump on board - the drivers love the look of the car), TURBOS are back, 3 different engines, new aero kits just around the corner, and a LOT of excitement amongst those who are making the changes at the top. PLEASE, fans, for the love of everything that is fast and goes vroooom, STOP WHINING and GET ON BOARD!
Steve, Seattle
RM: A fan who sees the glass half full, and then some.
The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED.
Robin Miller brings 40 years of experience to his role as SPEED.com's senior open-wheel reporter, and serves as a frequent contributor to SPEED Center and Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain.
