My "what do you want to be if you grow up" answer was always the winner of the 100th running of the Indy 500.tifosi77 wrote:At this stage of my life, I tend to think this is the case generally.CBear3 wrote:The Indycar thing is pure fantasy.
CBear3 wrote:My "what do you want to be if you grow up" answer was always the winner of the 100th running of the Indy 500.tifosi77 wrote:At this stage of my life, I tend to think this is the case generally.CBear3 wrote:The Indycar thing is pure fantasy.
The clock is almost officially up on that fantasy.
The sad thing is that it was the perceived marginalization of the race that led FTG to break off after 1995.dodint wrote:I'd be a bigger fan of the Indy 500 if it werent' just another Indy race. It used to be an exhibition (before my time) and now it's the crown jewel in a series calendar.
Blasphemy. Or not...tifosi77 wrote:The sad thing is that it was the perceived marginalization of the race that led FTG to break off after 1995.dodint wrote:I'd be a bigger fan of the Indy 500 if it werent' just another Indy race. It used to be an exhibition (before my time) and now it's the crown jewel in a series calendar.
By the time I had been following the sport for maybe ten years (early 90s) the need to have Indy be a month-long rigmarole was over. 'Carb Day'?? Really? It took a month to prepare for the '500 in the 1960s when the cars were still fairly fragile and primitive. But by the 90s, cars could race for 500 miles without too much fuss. There used to be three 500-milers on the CART calendar. Even now I think it's overly long at two weeks.
The narrow rules these days have also eliminated much of the reason for the full month. Back in the day you could have cars with front engines, rear engines, gas engines, methanol engines, turbine engines, diesel engines, etc. with no fixed rules for chassis, wheelbase, min/max weight, fuel-tank size, and a host of other factors. From the book Black Noon it really struck me that every car was a work in progress and the teams were constantly rebuilding them over the month in the quest for more speed. For example, the book describes how Mickey Thompson's team was practically rebuilding its cars every single night, and many teams didn't pick their tires until right before the race. Today, we have one spec chassis, one tire supplier, and two engines that are also pretty limited by the rules. Teams can change their setups for the cars, but they can't really change the cars themselves all that much. And it doesn't take a month for an experienced team and driver to set up a race car.tifosi77 wrote:The sad thing is that it was the perceived marginalization of the race that led FTG to break off after 1995.
By the time I had been following the sport for maybe ten years (early 90s) the need to have Indy be a month-long rigmarole was over. 'Carb Day'?? Really? It took a month to prepare for the '500 in the 1960s when the cars were still fairly fragile and primitive. But by the 90s, cars could race for 500 miles without too much fuss. There used to be three 500-milers on the CART calendar. Even now I think it's overly long at two weeks.
Yeah, that's the problem.columbia wrote:I'm not paying attention to it, but there's something relaxing about the variable whir of these F1 engines.
They don't really have a preseason where they can test rule changes out to see if the changes make sense.tifosi77 wrote:So double points and standing re-starts are off the menu for 2015. The people running the sport clearly have no idea what they are doing. Both of those things were immensely unpopular among fans, and I'm glad they're gone. But introducing them and rescinding them all in the space of one year makes them look clueless.