More readers speak out on IndyCar
And I don’t think we can or should get away from that. What has developed today is stupid – but slowing the cars down is not the answer – it is the problem.
A spec series were all the cars drive the same and it doesn’t take much skill to at least run as fast as the pack (it does take skills to win) is boring and stupid and unsafe … but nobody put a gun to any of those drivers head, and a hell of a lot of us would do it if we had the opportunity.
What needs to happen is fast and possibly less safe cars were skill is needed to drive them, were people can break away from the pack – and the pack can break away from the incompetent. Carl Forshage
Dear Carl, CART had it right with the Handford Device. Lot's of passing, but no 'pack' racing. It was exciting times. You remember CART don't you? The best IndyCar series in the history of the sport, bigger than NASCAR, but destroyed by Tony George with voodoo economics. He was also the creator of this 'pack' racing concept. The man's legacy will be "How one man's stupidity destroyed a dynasty." Mark C.
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Dear AR1.com, I wouldn't mind seeing the Adrian Newly designed concept car as an IndyCar option. I just wonder how long it would take to do a tire change in a pitstop? Maybe we could get the Wood Brothers to start working on that right now? George Atkins
Dear George – see my answer in this news item. Simple solution. Mark C.
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Dear AR1.com, I think it is obvious that many Indy Car/Open Wheel fans have concluded that these cars should no longer be racing on high bank ovals like Vegas, Texas Motor Speedway and Kentucky. Randy Bernard has been a savior for Indy Car but now it's time for him to save drivers lives by having them race on road & street circuits which as grown popular believe it or not in Indy Car. Al Fannell
Dear Al, If they design the cars with these ideas in mind they can still race on the ovals tracks – 1) A closed canopy to protect the driver's head, 2) Covered wheels to prevent tire-to-tire contact that launches cars into the air, 3) A futuristic looking car instead of that hideous thing Dallara built. Mark C.
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Dear AR1.com, First off, I cannot begin to express my sadness for the Wheldon family and IndyCar community. How tragic, and how tragic that it would come during the last race in the car that has come to symbolize all that went wrong with IndyCar (Tony George), at a venue that has come to symbolize the hallucination, excuse me, the vision TG had of putting these type of cars on a track like Las Vegas. I do think a canopy is intriguing and worth serious consideration. Robin Miller mentions the Handford Device as a way to break up packs. To me speed and relative lightness of the car is the flaw with putting these type of racing machines on high banked launching pads, I mean race tracks.
Way back when the IRL decided to go to places like Charlotte, Atlanta, even the Dover mile, I will never forget conversations I had with Neil Micklewright, Peter Gibbons, Diane Hall, some of the best engineers in the CART side of the sport at the time of the split, and they all said the same thing; want to race at these high banked ovals BUILT FOR NASCAR, then you need to go the same speeds, if not slower, than NASCAR. It is those speeds, which NASCAR has maintained relatively constant for over a decade, that the tracks were designed and updated to handle. Given the lighter weights of IndyCars, to go faster than NASCAR on such tracks is just plain stupid. And I am sorry Mario Andretti, but I could not disagree more with what you said on Pierce Morgan’s CNN show that these sanctioning bodies and tracks aren’t stupid. Perhaps he is trying to protect a series I long predicted after Paul Dana’s death was becoming too weak to survive too many more driver deaths, especially if it happens on a tracks they obviously should not be racing on. But I will say it, not because of piss poor attendance, but because it is plain stupid, IndyCars needs to get away from these 1.5 mile high banked ovals, Texas included. Andy Fogiel