Looks like its over...
 

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/report-champ-car-indycar-deal-done/

I will shed a tear for CART today. So many great memories and great personalities over the years. Seems like losing an old friend :(

Tony George, may you burn in hell. FTG!

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RIP. Unfortunately, I think it may come far too late for anyone to care.

The worst part is that they will ditch the slick new Panoz in favor of those ugly Dallaras that the IRL uses.

The sound and smell of those turbo V8's won't be forgotten.

One more Pineapple..

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Tim

I hope Tony George gets run over by one of his normally-aspirated IRL POS cars.

Wow, it's been 12 years since the IRL started, that makes me feel old.

Who would have thunk when the IRL started, that it was going to be CART that could not survive?

My thoughts exactly...

That's good news! It was sad to see CART fall to such depths these past several years. The merged series is good for the teams and the fans.

I just hope there's more street circuits. Oval tracks. Bleah.

RIP CART (and Greg Moore). One of the best racing series of all time.

So, other than flexing ego, what has Tony George accomplished? IRL is now on road courses and street circuits. And are there really any more American drivers involved now, than there were 12 years ago? Maybe at the tail end of the field, but at the pointy end, there are still a lot of furners. Plus, Tony Stewart, Hornish, and Allmendinger are three top American drivers that have gone to the greener pastures of NASCAR.

Funny comment on that link: "Tony George--saving you from Indy 500 scalpers since 1996."

While I’m glad the war is finally over and there is one open wheel series, I’m sorry that it’s CART that lost and IRL that won. The oval IRL races are nothing more than NASCAR races with open wheeled cars.

Noah is correct.... I cannot think of ANYTHING positive to happen to the sport of open wheel racing in the US since 1996. It is in a complete shambles right now. Sponsors are non-existent and venues come and go like crazy. All because of FTG, the idiot grandson's small dick and over-inflated ego. It drives me nuts just thinking of it. Now, we get to listen to those buzzy crapwagons, designed to fly and break backs, go 5 seconds a lap slower than the ChampCars. I guess I'll be watching F1 and the bike races exclusively this year. I refuse to support the gomers by watching or attending races. Too bad.... I've been going to the CART races for 20 years now. So long Laguna Seca, Long Beach, Cleveland, etc. That was great racing, not manufactured aero racing.

That's easy to answer... TG had the Indy 500. He took his ball and went home. And if anyone wanted to race they had to follow. Look how long the Penskes of the world held out. But in the end they wanted to race.

motion's original point got me thinking: how did the Indy 500 and IRL fare before and after "The Split?" After all, Tony George's original rant/motivation was the fact that Americans were no longer winning the Indy 500, or involved in the top tier of American open wheel racing, right? We had to get back to our Indy 500 roots of dusty dirt track bullrings and sprint car racing. Too many fancy-named foreigners were invading our turf, winning our race, and, presumably, sleeping with our women.

Well, in terms of Indy 500 winners, pre-Split, non-Americans had won the race 4 times in the 7years immediately preceeding the Split. The guilty infidels were Jacques Villeneuve, Emmo (twice, no less!), and Arie Luyendyk (who also looked like a less-muscley Fabio, so no doubt that was no good for keeping our women ours).

I guess Tony George would look at that as loss of control of the Americanization of the Indy 500, seeing as how prior to that run, you'd have to go all the way back to '65 and '66 (Jim Clark & Graham Hill) to find non-Americans winning our most hallowed race. But hey, at least they spoke English as their native language, right, Tony?

Of course, since the Split, Americans are only 4 out of 12 in winning the 500. Prior to the Split, America was 3/7; post-Split, 4/12 (Tony's saviors being Buddy Lazier, Eddie Cheever--who was raised in Europe, BTW--Buddy Rice, & Sam Hornish). Somehow, the odds weren't changed that much for the better, Tony.

So, let's look at the season leaders from 2007 in the IRL: top 4 spots are all foreigners. Thank goodness Dario Speedwagen married Ashley Judd; he's half-American by that connection. Rounding out the top-10, there are 6 Americans; that's admittedly some progress. CART had about 6 Americans spread throughout the entire field. If you look at the latter half of the 2007 IRL field, Americans made up 5 of the lowest cumulative point scoring 8 IRL regulars. So to say that the IRL has given opportunities to American drivers is not entirely correct. Yes, they're there. But the cream still rises to the top. And it's not filled with as many American drivers as enVisioned (pun not intended) by Tony George.

There are some potential positives. Graham Rahal vs. Marco Andretti. Danica vs. Katherine Legge. Paul Tracey's I-Don't-Give-A-***** attitude is always good for some entertainment :cool: Yeah, the spec-car formula sucks and there are too many ovals, etc. But OTOH Champcar has been nearly unwatchable for the last 2 years. Let's see what shakes out.

To think that a series that many in early 90's were saying would rival Formula 1 itself, has been reduced to this .... well, it really sucks. But those days will never be back. Unfortunately, open wheel racing will never hold a candle to NASCAR in the USA - how could it with auto racing fans who now think motor racing is a contact sport judged by fender-rubbin' and bump-draftin'. Of course, Tony could always put fenders on 'em ..... :rolleyes:

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