INDYCAR: Tony George Ousted From IMSWritten

[Racerbvd]

Who didn't see this coming

INDYCAR: Tony George Ousted From IMS
Written by: Robin Miller 05/27/2009 - 10:06 AM
Indianapolis, IN The controversial, ground-breaking, tumultuous 20-year reign of Tony George at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is over. SPEEDtv.com has learned George was voted out of power in a Tuesday night board meeting in Indianapolis

A source close to the situation confirmed that the 49-year-old grandson of Tony Hulman would no longer be CEO of the Speedway after a vote of the IMS board of directors which includes mother Mari, sisters Josie, Nancy and Kathy, attorney Jack Snyder and George.

Calls to Snyder and Fred Nation, IMS vice president of communications, were not returned and George did not respond to an email.

George, who started the Indy Racing League in 1996, will continue as CEO of the IndyCar series and is expected to take more of a hands-on role after Tuesday's developments at the Speedway.

It had been rumored for several years that his sisters were concerned with the amount of money George had spent on keeping the IRL afloat and changing the look of the Speedway.

It's estimated that between paying purses, supplying cars, engines and parts for other teams, hiring high powered public relations firms and starting his own IRL team, plus remaking Indy to accomodate Formula One, the IRL founder has spent more than $600 million during the past 13 years.

And his siblings were reportedly concerned about running out of money.

The Speedway currently has two Challenger airplanes for sale, sold the helicopter used by George's family and has cut some 60 people from its IMS and IRL staffs during the past six months.

George's ouster comes a couple weeks after his wife, Laura, was removed from her job as staff advisor at the Speedway.

Since starting his own IRL team, Vision Racing, in 2005, George has stepped away from the day-to-day responsibilities of the IRL and turned them over to Terry Angstadt, president of the commercial division, and Brian Barnhart, the president of competition and racing operations.

He helped orchestrate the unification of open wheel racing with Champ Car's Kevin Kalkhoven in 2008 but since then has mostly concentrated on trying to improve Vision Racing for stepson Ed Carpenter and Ryan Hunter-Reay.

It's assumed Jeff Belskus, the IMS chief financial officer, and Curt Brighton, general counsel for the Speedway, will run the show until a replacement is hired. One name making the rounds has been Humpy Wheeler, the longtime promoter at Charlotte who was at last Sunday's Indy 500 for the first time since 1970.

The heirs to Tony's throne are Kyle and Jarrod Krisiloff (sons of Josie), Jesika Gunter (daughter of Nancy), Olivia Conforti (daughter of Kathy), Tony Jr. and Lauren (son and daughter of Tony and Laura George). None are on the board as yet but Jarrod Krisiloff currently works in IMS Productions and has spent the past four years learning the ropes of other departments while brother Kyle pursued a driving career in Atlantics and NASCAR before retiring to go to work for the Speedway late last year.

Tony Jr. works with Roger Bailey in the Indy Lights program and Jesse recently began working at IMS.

After being named IMS president in January of 1990, George attempted to purchase CART in 1991 but was rejected and angered by the overall attitude of the car owners. He vowed on the flight home to remedy that situation some day.

His first major break from tradition came in 1994, when he staged the inaugural Brickyard 400 and gave NASCAR a foothold in openwheel country. It also gave IMS a three-day cash cow as the stock car crowd embraced the concept with sold out grandstands.

George. who felt unappreciated by the CART owners who seldom sought his opinion, dropped a bombshell in '94 when he announced he was starting his own series. In 1996, the Indy Racing League debuted in Orlando using old CART cars and engines.

But he created a firestorm by reserving 25 of the 33 starting spots for the Indianapolis 500 for the Top 25 in IRL points after Orlando and Phoenix. CART opted to stage its own 500-mile race at Michigan on the same day and the costly open wheel war escalated.

With CART's big stars and teams absent for the next several years, the month of May suffered and has never recovered in terms of practice and qualifying crowds but the race remains the largest single day event in North America.

George then decided to bring Formula One to Indianapolis and, after spending an estimated $70 million to construct a road course, pit suites and a new Pagoda, the United States Grand Prix debuted in September of 2000 to a packed house. But attendance gradually dissipated and, following a debacle in '06 when only six cars took the green flag because of tire issues, Tony pulled the plug on F1 after 2007.

Because Bernie Ecclestone controlled television, the title sponsor and demanded a multi-million dollar fee from IMS each year, F1 was a financial disaster. It was replaced in 2008 with the MOTO GP motorcycles which, despite a fierce rainstorm, drew a decent crowd and turned a profit.

[Zeke]

Interesting news. I know few people like what George did to open wheel in the US. Now is as good a time as ever to turn over a new leaf.

One thing I can say is that it is seldom good policy to compete against those that pay you.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Get rid of the stupid oval tracks for starters and get some genuine street circuits going again. Champ Car had the right idea.

Now is hardly the time to be looking at reinventing auto racing however. Existing series are folding, teams are losing sponsorship and going under, etc. I'm afraid we're stuck with the crapwagons only for the foreseeable future.

[herr_oberst]

I never had the impression that TG was the brightest bulb on the Christmas Tree, I still can't stand what he did to open wheel racing, but he did have some ideas and he worked through them, credit where credit is due. I just wish he would have had the vision to see what his petulance was going to cost champ car racing fans.

[URY914]

This is BIG news for the open wheel crowd. Just about everyone hates him.

[teenerted1]

hey Traci is working with Foyt for the next few months...now that looks like fun... CHROME HORN BABY!!!!!
both past winners in Milwaukee. love how you can see the neighborhood over the fence of the back stretch.

Too bad the INDY 500 isnt part of the drivers championship anymore, like is was back in the day.
CART before Tony was great.
I was a kid in Indy back when USAC actually had some clout.
Remember sitting in the stands behind the pits for qualifying...back when the WHOLE month of May was all about the 500 and nothing else mattered.

[javadog]

It may not be a done deal. IMS and Tony are both denying it. I hope it happens, although who would succeed him might not be to everyone's liking. Lots of family members left in the woodpile, not necessarily fit for running things.

Now if we could only get rid of Max and Bernie.

JR

[MT930]

As a Indianapolis native I feel he did no favors to the heritage of the track, he really pissed a lot of people off. Hopefully things improve.

[Jeff Higgins]

He spent $600 million over 13 years and got Indy and the IRL in trouble financially. That, my friends, is the yearly budget for F1 teams like Ferrari, McLaren, Toyota... How much longer can that last?

[Dennis Kalma]

The only thing that comes to mind is that we all need to burst out into song and sing!!

Ding Dong! The Witch is dead. Which old Witch? The Wicked Witch!
Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is dead.

Wake up - sleepy head, rub your eyes, get out of bed.
Wake up, the Wicked Witch is dead. She's gone where the goblins go,
Below - below - below. Yo-ho, let's open up and sing and ring the bells out.
Ding Dong' the merry-oh, sing it high, sing it low.
Let them know
The Wicked Witch is dead!

That turkey screwed up so many things in so many ways that I hope that he suffers very, very much.

Glad to hear his sisters had the cojones to turf him...

Dennis