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OLSON: Splitting Hairs
Written by: Jeff Olson
SPEEDtv.com   http://www.speedtv.com
11/04/2007
Indianapolis, Ind.
 
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(Disclaimer: The following column – or a similar version of the following column – has been written countless times by countless writers, including the scowling hack pictured here. The surgeon general warns that reading this unification garbage could be hazardous to your health and has the potential to bore you to death, especially if you've read it before. Proceed at your own risk. Eye protection is required, helmets strongly recommended.)


A.J. Allmendinger isn't running for mayor of Indianapolis, but we should nominate him. Not for his racing accomplishments, or the fact that he won't triple your property taxes, but for his wisdom and perspective. In case you haven't been paying attention, and few are anymore, Allmendinger let fly last week with his true feelings about the form of racing he left. The feelings weren't pleasant. Or optimistic. But they were dead-on.

"It's sad to see that the two series have killed each other," Allmendinger said last week before the NASCAR race at Texas. "It's hard to say if it can ever get back to what it used to be, because NASCAR has grown so much and that's where the TV coverage is, and where the sponsors are.

"But first things first – you've got to have one series so you don't have to explain to the casual fan that, 'Hey, I race in this series, but it's not the same as the cars racing in the Indy 500.' That, to me, was always the most painful thing."

Bingo. Dinger for mayor on the Obvious and Sensible ticket. Leave it to a racer to lead them. Why is it that racers can see what the money men can't? Why is it that labor is always smarter than management? Why is it that the people behind the wheel know what's best for racing, not the suits who pull the strings?

It's been more than a decade since the split. The points have been made, the damage done. We get it. We're over each other. Time to end this nonsense and preserve the best of both sides before there's nothing left to preserve on either side. Other than a small group of hardcore fans who won't give up – and God bless both legions of 'em; together they've kept open-wheel racing out of the graveyard – there's little that offers hope for the future.

Instead, we've got one series that has to pay to get its races on television and appears to be in dire straits, canceling its season finale deep into August and standing by as its team owners dump established drivers at season's end for those who can cut a check. On the other side, the manufacturer that has all but propped and presented the product for the past two years is a few turns of the wrench from being fed up with the whole thing. Robert Clarke, who has done everything but beg the IRL to pursue other manufacturers to compete against Honda, is about to retire. Then what?



Get the inside scoop on Dario Franchitti's switch to NASCAR in our December issue, on sale now.


Listen to Allmendinger. Imagine trying to convince a public that's fully aware of NASCAR but illiterate about open-wheel racing that what he did in Champ Car was cool and worth watching. Imagine trying to pitch something so confusing to a potential fan. Every driver on both sides of the open-wheel fence has had this conversation in one form or another:

"If you told someone you were a race car driver, they'd ask what sort, you'd say, 'Champ Car' and they'd say, 'What's that?'" Allmendinger said. "So you reply, 'Well, it's Indy car racing.' And they ask, 'So you race the Indy 500?' Well, no. 'You race against Danica?' No – well, I did in Atlantics, but...' 'So what is it?'

"That kind of confusion is why it's so tough for either Champ Car or IRL to get the casual fan back. The die-hard fans, the ones that have been into it from the start, you don't need to get them. They're there already. They'll love it through the good times and the bad.

"Champ
Car has a lot of great fans. In fact, Champ Car owes their fans everything. They should have left. That's how bad it's been in terms of coverage and marketing, but the fans stuck there, so all credit to their commitment and love for the series."

True, but don't get the idea that a unified series would suddenly boost TV ratings beyond their current test-pattern level. The only ones watching this train wreck are standing on either side of the tracks. If the whole thing came back together tomorrow, the first race would still struggle to top 1.0. But if it wants a viable TV presence in 10 years, open-wheel better start looking at a single presence for 2008. Not next year or the year after, but now.

Lately there's been a bit of backward optimism around 16th and Georgetown. Kevin Kalkhoven's legal troubles are ongoing, Champ Car owners are brushing off reputable drivers for common ride buyers for the Mexico City finale, and rumors persist – no matter how many times they're debunked – that Carl Haas is considering a switch to IndyCar. The IRL's strategy of waiting for Champ Car to collapse under its own weight appears to be working. Or so people think.

But if Tony George waits until the floor drops out from under Champ Car, what will be left? A handful of stragglers with no hard feelings and nowhere else to go? If the end is near for Champ Car, why let half of the sport go up in smoke without an assist? Teams can be saved, venues rescued, wounds salved. If it happens the way the IndyCar side wants/wishes, action should be taken now, not when half of open-wheel racing is in ruins.

Listen to A.J. wax nostalgic about Champ Car. He knows of what he speaks.

"There is still a good potential package there," he said. "The racing and the venues are great, but the marketing and the sponsorship aren't there, and for that you need one series. So be it Champ Car dying and IRL taking over, or the other way around, it needs to be one series. To have all the best open-wheel drivers on this continent racing against each other, you'd hopefully get some sponsors back and get a decent TV package. In the long term, it would work for the standard of the series, too. You'd get drivers there on merit rather than because of how much money they bring."

Amen, mayor. Both sides have tremendous positives, and it would be a shame to lose any of them in the course of a botched or indifferent unification. Champ Car has the international market – or at least the North American market – cornered. It has remarkable talent like Justin Wilson, Robert Doornbos, Will Power and Graham Rahal. It has innovative ideas like power-to-pass and red and black tires. It has a beautiful car and a gift for great street races.

On the other side, there also is remarkable talent, including a developing duel between two of the best of their time, Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon. There's Marco and Danica and Helio and Wheldon. And a solid grip on the Midwestern ovals. And a handful of burgeoning street and road course events. And, of course, there's the Indy 500. Put the best of both worlds together and it's workable. Leave them apart and it's incomplete.

Look, we're all interested in the same thing: single-seat, open-cockpit, open-wheel racing. We have our differences about who should run it and what it should involve, but we're all in this thing with essentially the same interest. Right now that interest should be saving the sport. Who's to blame? Who the hell cares? The question we should be asking is, "Who's going to fix it?"

It's all about give and take. Somebody needs to give before there's nothing left to take.

(The end. You are now free to remove your helmets and cast your vote for Mayor Allmendinger.)


Jeff Olson is a Senior Writer for RACER magazine.


The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SpeedTV.com, FOX, NewsCorp, SPEED Channel, or Haymarket Worldwide.