Random Observation

While searching the IndyCar media site for photos of Tony Cotman, VP of Competition, I found one image.

Option 3. (Andyblackmoredesign.com)

Uno.

And it was of the back of his head while he was talking with Eric Bachelart. (I’m taking their word that Cotman is the random guy whose back is to the camera. Could be anyone.)

Out of curiosity, a search for photos with the keyword ‘Brian Barnhart’ returned 49 images.

Just one was of the back of his head.

I’m not sure what this says, if anything, but I’d think someone as important and influential to IndyCar’s future as Cotman would be better represented in the series’ own media gallery.

WHF1

Am I the only one feeling like the ‘US’ part of ‘USF1’ is a tool being used to garner public support and financial backing?

If I haven’t done so before, let me clarify that I’ve followed F1 with a passion since the late 1970s. I’ve always followed American drivers in F1, and even allowed myself to root for the FORCE/Lola/Carl Haas/Beatrice thing that posed as a US team ever so briefly in the 1980s.

"Tony, why won't they shoot a picture of you from the front?" (IndyCar Series)

We’ve been spared similar FORCE FUBARs since then, but our reputation as a nation capable of fielding capable cars (or sending capable drivers) to F1 has continued to take a steady stream of kicks to the groin.

If we allow ourselves to close our eyes and pretend the Michael Andretti’s and Scott Speed’s of the world didn’t tarnish our name thoroughly, we’ll need a BIG pair of binoculars to look back and find a collection of American-born drivers, designers or entrants that made us proud.

How far back, exactly? Back when the world was seen in black and white…Phil Hill won his world championship eight years before we landed on the moon…the once young (and hot) actress Nicole Kidman, now 42 years old, was born two days after Dan Gurney won his last F1 race….

With that long preface in mind, I wonder if I’m the only one who is sensitive to the fact that we now have an F1 team that has taken the name of our country – entering as ‘USF1’ – yet seems to conduct its business in a manner that’s rather neutral when it comes to nationality.

This is a silly concern – an utterly disposable worry – but I’m really not fond of a team using ‘US’ in their name while having so little interest in representing ‘US’ as a nation. I won’t rehash all of the yards of prose spent on the USF1’s first driver signing (what, an Argentinean driver bringing $8M doesn’t make you want to stand and recite the National Anthem?)

Let me be clear: I have no problems with USF1 signing non-American drivers. If that’s what is needed to get the team to the opening round, go for it.

But please don’t drape yourself in the American flag and make a lot of false promises (that are now sounding an awful lot like those made by the IRL when they first formed…something about wanting to give American drivers a shot in the big leagues…how’d that turn out?...), and expect embattled American fans of F1 to embrace the team as one of their own.

If you subtract all of USF1’s pro-American rhetoric and base your opinion of them on their actions, they could be any F1 team.

If an Argentinean GP2 driver is what they consider to be a move Americans will embrace, I have to ask who is advising the team and what kind of psychotropics they are on? They reportedly offered a young American open-wheel talent the second seat…for the same $8M. Last time I checked, the prize money in Atlantics and Lights wasn’t enough to get an IndyCar seat, much less a spot on the 2010 F1 grid.

So, if we’re no longer holding USF1 to be more than American by coincidence, why not change the name to ‘WHF1’… ‘Western Hemisphere F1’ is much more accurate. I’m happy to have an F1 team like USF1 based on American soil the same way I’m happy to have Toyota building cars in America. A lot of Americans get hired -- and that’s undoubtedly a good thing -- but it doesn’t quite promote our interests the same way a Ford plant does.

I’m still looking for signs that USF1 are genuine in representing the USA, but like everything else since their launch last February, their tight-lipped mentality makes it hard to adopt them as anything more than a foreign entity based in North Carolina.

They promised major access to the team, blogs, live web cams, and an assortment of insider content that would help fans to build interest and allegiance to the effort. Instead, we’ve been treated to an almost complete media blackout, with only small slivers of information that get released in a random fashion. We’re left in a perpetual state of having more questions than answers about them.

It’s hard to love something or someone you don’t know or won’t let you in, and in the ten months since USF1 was announced, the “no comment” approach to the media and American F1 fans is only going to drive them further away from ever truly representing us.

Ten months in, and their website is nothing but a placeholder, with the same “Coming Soon…” message that’s been there all along. Let’s hope they get their act in gear ASAP before our interest in them has “Come and Gone…”

Greg Moore Number Update

I asked for your input on what you thought the IndyCar Series should do with Greg Moore’s #99. Here’s where some of you felt on the leave it/retire it debate:

On the topic of retiring numbers; I don't think it's actually feasible. Enzo Ferrari was reputed to request the retirement of #27 following Gilles Villeneuve's death, but then he was also the least interested in last season (crushing old cars etc.). Motor racing in general is such a forward thinking sport or maybe I've watched too many episodes of the '60's show "The Prisoner".

Regards,

Graham Prime

Of course the IRL should retire 99, and I am sure the new owners will see to it. We may have to wait a couple more years, but the George family will eventually wash their hands of the IRL. Until then Sam Schmidt should willingly give it up.

KEVIN KOVACH
Allen Park, Mi

Retire #99.

Sean Ogilvie

Champ Car had provisions to keep #14 retired out of respect to Foyt until the Rule Book was simplified in the final years. Minardi USA ran #14 in the final season of Champ Car.

Keith

Let's roast the IRL for not recognizing Greg Moore's number 99, and at the same time lets not forget, the numbers for Mark Donohue, Tony Bettenhausen Sr., Scott Brayton, Bill Vuchovich, Jr and Sr, Tony Renna, Jim Clark, Paul Dana, Swede Savage..... Racing is a dangerous sport, and all who lose their life doing something they love for the sport enjoyment of the rest of us should be revered, but for you to skewer the IRL for not recognizing a driver who had little accomplishments - 5 victories.... (albeit one with tremendous potential) is ludacrous. Last I checked, Ernie Davis is not in the NFL Hall Of Fame despite his potential and tragedy of illness.

This is just another example of the Speed staff damming anything IRL.... you guys are jokes, it is just unfortunate that you are using the anniversary of the passing of a great driver to further your cause....

Thomas Cortez

(Good point, Thomas. We send Robin Miller to every race, me to about half, have about 25% of the drivers writing exclusive columns for our site, have Robin doing regular IndyCar TV segments on SPEED Report and Wind Tunnel, and all of those costly investments are indeed a part of our dastardly plan to...extensively cover the IndyCar Series. Oh, wait.)

Retire the number 99 out of respect for a fallen racer, Greg Moore - anything less is a slap in the face to all open wheel racing fans.

John Cassis

Marshall,

In response to your 10/31 triple stint, no, the # 99 should not be retired. As tragic as the loss of Greg Moore was, there have been other drivers lost over the years with greater career stats than Greg had, and their numbers were not retired.

Additionally, in response to writer Colene Allen’s comments to you in the same 10/31 article, regarding CART / Champ Car and A.J. Foyt’s # 14, it was reserved for his use only. However, that also was ignored once A. J. cast his fortunes with the IRL, as Dan Clarke carried the # 14 on his car during the 2006 Champ Car season. Obviously CC had no respect for A.J., who had more wins in during several of his seasons than Greg had in his career. Let’s keep things the way they are.

Jonny Shalloman
Foothill Ranch, CA

Should the IRL retire the #99? Well, many among the IRL supporters and employees would argue that the talented and affable young man never turned a wheel under their moniker, so it makes no sense to honor his memory by retiring his number. Well, what makes no sense to me is how the IRL can gloss over this omission yet continue to hand out the Greg Moore Legacy award!

As a sign of sportsmanship and dynamic personality with fans, media and the racing community (the very essence of what receiving the Greg Moore Legacy Award is all about) Sam Schmidt Motorsports should voluntarily release the number 99 for the IRL to retire, as having it forced upon them honors nobody. This would be a classy move for the team and the IRL, help link the chain of American Open Wheel Racing and get positive media coverage which is badly needed.

Nick Leonard

And finally, and answer from the IRL's outgoing VP of Communications, John Griffin, on the Greg Moore and CART/CCWS records discussion:

When unification was negotiated/occurred there were many things like this that were not a part of the negotiations. To be real honest and certainly not disrespectful, I would think this is something for the future. There is so much to be done around the series. We certainly have made strides since unification witness our [IZOD] entitlement but until we are up and running on all cylinders I would say things like retired numbers will have to wait.

Again, and I can not say this enough, this is not a sign of disrespect it is just a matter of getting our business/racing priorities in place.

Best,

John

IYCFJOTF2010 ALMS

Our first edition of "If you could fix just one thing for 2010" on the ALMS netted some interesting responses. I'll admit that I'm afraid to pose the same question for IndyCar, so . Please keep the responses solution-minded.

Marshall,

I have to admit as a long time fan, it was a tough 2009 for the ALMS with reduced car counts and no competition for the most part in P1, P2 and GT1 (at least no one who was really going to put up a real fight against the Acura factory baring some mechanical issues). Also, you would think that a purist like me would be jumping up and down crazy angry to learn about a spec P1 car and the addition of the GT3 challenge class, but the series is doing what they need to do to survive in a lean time.

What really got me this year was the Petit Le Mans. Now I won't argue about the red flag, the rain was coming down like crazy and the water was flowing across the track. I'm bothered about how the race ended. Our first opportunity since Sebring to see the Audi vs Peugoet battle, first time to see the Oreca prototype and Drayson Lola here at Petit, and the fans were treated to less than half a race. All other forms of racing in the states will try to race till the halfway point, only then is the race official. To make the situation worse listening to the drivers during red flag interviews, all seemed less than interested in getting back in the cars as the track crew worked like crazy to get some more racing in. Needless to say the whole situation left a slightly sour taste in my mouth as a staunch supporter of the ALMS and a long time 4 day attendent at Petit.

Sebring and Petit are about the only two races in the states with any significance world wide for sports car fans, especially since Daytona decided sports car racing shouldn't be about technology, they're too important to run without a solid conclusion. If the red flag comes out, the clock should stop. If we can't get to half way by restarting later that day, we line up and go the remaining distance left in the event the next day. Change the rule now, and let the teams know that they need to be prepared for an additional day if necessary. If we can't finish by the end of the next day, I'll choc it up to bad luck, but there's no reason not to be prepared to run on Sunday if Saturday can't provide a conclusion. Knowing sport car fans, Sunday would be just as packed as Saturday.

Thanks,

Mark Lauman
Atlanta, GA

Well of course the most hanging question would be attracting more entrants in Prototype and GT classes. Since starting in 2010 it is going to be one Prototype class see if any of the European teams would like to race in the longer races like Sebring, Laguna Seca ,Petit Le Mans and maybe 1-2 other races. The same would go for the GT cars.

I would like to see all the races on SPEED it just seems that the coverage is much better than on network TV and the races could be shown live not tape delayed.

Mike
San Antonio Texas

Fix one thing in the American Le Mans Series in 2010? Tough one. I could say "bring back Audi" but with the revised class structure, I can't see them being interested i na full-season run no matter what you did. But also with the revised structure, I don't think car count will be an issue, and I think following the classes will be a bit less confusing. As a result of all this, it's really hard to say what needs to be "fixed." But if I could "fix" just one thing, it'd be the competitiveness of the little guys like Intersport Racing. And looking around the European series and even ALMS LMP2, the answer may be as simple as them getting a Lola coupe.

-Ryan "D-Boy" Hewitt

If I could change one thing in ALMS in 2010, I would run ALMS with more Indycar races, Watkins Glen, Toronto, Road America and (either Infineon or Laguna Seca, take your pick). I would drop Mosport and Lime Rock because they are too small (LMP1s are made for big classic tracks). I would hope Indycar would get Detroit and Houston back on the schedule, those are important markets, that is probably more for 2011.

ALMS needs to get the manufacturers back. The manufacturers only want to run the big events Sebring and Petit Lemans. If you could grow the above named events, you could lure the big manufacturers to more races.

Steve from Fishers, IN

If i could fix one thing in the ALMS for 2010, it would be to make it more North American. There are great circuits that the ALMS have missed out on since its very inception and i feel that would make the series better and more internationally renown. Three circuits in particular; Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve, Circuit de Hermanos Rodriguez, and Interlagos would be welcomed to the series with opened arms. Sure a it would be a pain for logistics, but think about how much more publication in more countries the series would get. It wouldn't take much to replace some of the Meh races and put in the best circuits that the ALMS forget about.

~JM

I would first try to reduce the length of the yellow flag period. Sometime, we are wasting a lot of good racing time due to those lengthy yellow flags.

Daniel Brabant

Marshall,

If I could fix one thing (maybe two) for ALMS in 2010, it would be to make the competition in the lead class of LMP 1, actually interesting (and stop changing the name). I grew up with the days of Jaguar, Nissan, Toyota, Porsche, Chevy and others battling it out in IMSA's GTP Class. The competition between them was always exciting each week, the cars were fast and exotic. There was nothing else like it.

But unfortunately just like what killed open wheel racing in this country, the split between IMSA/WSC and the series that eventually turned into what we now have with Grand-AM, is the reason why sports car racing in this country is dead. I mean how many more times can you change the name of the series or the top class (LMP900, LMP1, LMP675, LMP2, LMP, IMSA, WORLD SPORTS CAR, USRRC, Grand-AM, ...and on and on it goes) You can't market a product that changes it's name every two years. NASCAR has been NASCAR for over 50 years that's way it is successful. ALMS has great looking cars, so to does Grand-AM. Grand-AM has the best competition hands down, each week, while the ALMS is now more boring than ever with Audi and Porsche gone.

The only way this will work is for them to wake up and re-join, but just like with the Indycars it will come down to the last man standing before anyone comes to their senses (I believe the man that wrecked IndyCar racing is out of a job...Tony George).

At least if the ALMS's main class was competitive again with multiple manufactures they might have a chance in someday getting people's attention off of just NASCAR. But we are in a down economy and will be for many years to come, all the more reason for them to unify and save what's left of sports car racing in this country or risk NASCAR running away with the fans and sponsors for another 50 years. I do think NASCAR's involvement with Grand-AM will allow Grand-AM to be more successful than the ALMS in the years to come.

Thanks
Kevin Roose

Misc

• I spoke with one current ALMS team owner that shared with me his team won’t be back until the final round of 2010.

• KONI ST champions Compass360 are reportedly building a fleet of new GS-spec Mitsubishi Evos. GS has always needed Japanese AWD turbo cars to tap into the popular Evo/STI culture that is now the better part of a decade old. Good on Compass360 to deliver on that need.

• One manufacturer with an eye towards building motors for the new 2012 IndyCar spec has a single-cylinder turbo test mule producing right on 250hp. With the new engine spec meant to be 4-cylinder turbos, that would put this marque’s engine at the magic 1000hp figure last seen in CART’s heyday…let’s hope they go through with joining the series.

• Congratulations to the newly married Marino Franchitti and his wife Holly.

• Muscle Milk’s branding is missing from the 2010 Trans-Am series schedule release.

• Rumors persist about Adrian Fernandez returning to the ALMS, and the popular Mexican is known to have kept one of his racing transporters for a possible 2010 bid.

• Michael Andretti chose ‘Andretti Autosport’ as his new team name. After their poor collective showing in 2009, maybe the initials ‘AA’ are apt…let’s hope they achieve the performance rehab they so dearly need…

• One popular independent ALMS GT2 team is building two Rolex GT cars for 2010.

• LMPC sales have reached 5, with Intersport, Gunnar and Genoa being the known/announced sales. The other two prefer to remain private for now.


Until next week,

Marshall

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

Marshall Pruett is Auto Racing Editor for SPEEDtv.com. Pruett grew up at "Pruett's Olde English Garage," his father's shelter for abused foreign cars, and spent his childhood being dragged across the West Coast to help with his dad's amateur racing exploits.

Pruett spent twenty years working in the IRL, CART, IMSA, and most of the known open-wheel feeder series before retiring from active duty in 2001. And in case you were wondering, no, he isn’t related to Scott Pruett.

Marshall lives in Northern California with his wife Shabral.