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Written by:
Jeff Olson
Senior writer, RACER Magazine http://www.racer.com/speedtv
Senior writer, RACER Magazine http://www.racer.com/speedtv
02/23/2008 - 11:49 AM
Indianapolis, Ind.
13 years later, how much is really different? (LAT photo) ยป More Photos
Leave it to a bunch of fantasy-league geeks to have an extra-sensory moment regarding the end of the open-wheel split. If only we could take credit for it.
If only we would have been in charge of it, too. Not that we’re bragging or anything, but our racing fantasy league could have solved this mess years ago over beer and pretzels. But what the hell do we know? We’ve only got $100 and bragging rights invested in it. Not like we have a fleet of airplanes and a flock of lawyers. Just a love of the sport, that’s all.
Here’s how it went: More than a month ago, our fantasy league voted to drop Champ Car. Not happily, either. Nobody cheered when we made the decision, nor did we understand how prophetic our vote would be. We had to do it simply because we didn’t know what was going on.
Our decision was as blank and plain as the lack of signatures on contracts. Since our league uses a combination of racers from Formula 1, NASCAR and open-wheel racing, and we had no clue who would be racing in Champ Car (or if anyone would be racing at all), we put it to a
Nice call on our part. The news that we’ve been expecting for weeks became official, at least in principle, on Friday afternoon. It’s over, but none of us is high-fiving. Bless the sensible who mercifully brought it to a conclusion, but don’t even try to bless the nonsense of the past 12 years.
The entire conflict can be filed under unnecessary. In more than a decade of posturing and preening, this I’m-richer-than-you-are silliness did nothing but drastically diminish this form of motorsports and its best race. The Indianapolis 500, need you be reminded, currently draws a fraction of the TV audience of the Daytona 500. That’s beyond revolting. It’s criminal.
What we have in 2008 is almost exactly what we had in 1995. The only differences are a new leader, naturally aspirated engines and more ovals. Oh, yeah, lest we forget: We also have a much smaller audience.
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