pretty neat stuff

My initial reaction was feeling flattered that my website would reach all the way to the Ukraine. Then I became curious how someone from so far away would become so interested in Indy car racing. Peter and I continued to correspond as the weeks passed. The more he wrote, the more impressed with Peter's racing knowledge I became. After awhile, I invited him to submit an offering for this website. I find Peter's observations very interesting and I offer them for your review.

I might add that Peter corrected me about some of the content in my own most recent commentary on this website. Peter questioned some information I passed along concerning the rear engine cars A.J. Watson brought to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May 1964 for Rodger Ward and Don Branson. I wrote that Rolla Vollstedt borrowed the plans for Watson's cars, when he built a rear engine Offy racer for Len Sutton for the 1964 "Indianapolis 500."

Peter wrote that he was under the impression the situation was actually reversed and that Watson borrowed the blue prints from Vollstedt. I asked Peter to offer a source. When he responded that he actually sent an e-mail to Len Sutton to clarify the issue and the second place finished in the 1962 "500" supported Peter's claim, I was blown away - - and delighted as well.

INDYCAR RACING: WHAT CAN BE LEARNED FROM FAR AWAY

by Peter Bilynsky (Lviv, Ukraine)

Life always produces favorites. Every person who lives on this planet has something in his life that he cherishes more than anything else, something special that gives him pleasure and entertainment.

For me that thing is racing. Frankly speaking I really don’t know why I love the sport of automobile racing so much. Over the years that I have been following my passion has become so intense that I am virtually addicted. For me racing is a dream and a reality at the same time. When I watch a race I really forget about life and all the problems I have in it. That is probably why I love it so much.

Racing is a sport that you can never get really tired of. It’s a sport that constantly changes. If you compare racing with athletics you can see the big difference I am talking about. Eight runners are running around a stadium and they will be running like that in ten, twenty and thirty years. Racing in thirty years will be completely different. The racecars will look different, the drivers of today will be gone and the sponsors won’t be the same either.

I didn’t grow up in a racing environment where May is the most important month of the year and race day at IMS is along with Christmas the most significant days of the year. My country is still putting things together after decades of communist rule and oppression. We have next to no racing and even the biggest fans don’t know a thing outside Formula 1. Living in a post-Soviet country and being a fan of Indy car racing is something almost impossible. 11 percent of the population in Ukraine live in what the EU claims are extremely tough conditions and those who aren’t in such typical circumstances are struggling as well.

I watched my first Formula 1 race in 1996. I honestly don’t recall but I think that Jacques Villeneuve won it in his Williams. Being a big Ferrari fan in those days the 1997 season brought a big disappointment for me as Michael Schumacher failed to win the World title. I really liked Schumacher and the Ferrari team but of course I have changed my opinion by now. The name Schumacher means almost nothing to me although it is associated with racing greatness in so many hearts.

I continued cheering for Ferrari and Schumacher until the end of the 1999 season when I finally lost patience with the Scuderia. Schumacher was involved in an accident in Britain and broke his leg. The sole driver, who could fulfill my dream of seeing a Ferrari win the World Title, was Eddie Irvine.

Eddie Irvine was a fine driver and took a few race wins but at the season finale in Japan when he still had a chance to take the title he was forced to let Schumacher who was returning to the circuit pass him. Irvine lost the title to Mika Hakkinen.

By that time I began to realize what kind of crap Formula 1 was. F1 is pretty popular here, as it is the only racing series shown on broadcast television. If you want to watch Indy car or NASCAR you have to have cable TV. That is probably why all Ukrainian racing fans watch Formula 1. But that isn’t the only problem. If the IRL or NASCAR want to be popular outside the US they have to explain what oval racing is all about. Fans here in Ukraine and in Europe don’t really understand that racing on an oval racing is just as tough (if not tougher) as racing on a road track.

But even the Formula 1 coverage we have is horrible. There are stupid announcers that mix everything up. One of them speaks Russian while the other one tries to speak broken Ukrainian. I don’t mean to get too political but as I come from the western part of Ukraine hearing Russian on Ukrainian State television isn’t all that enjoyable for me. The language has been a big problem in my country since we gained our independence in 1991. The people in the east speak Russian while those that live in the west and center speak Ukrainian. The two sides aren’t generally on very friendly terms but enough of that. I hate language politics.

It is hard to say why I became a fan of Indy car racing. It is true that in my country the Indy 500 gets no coverage and most of the people don’t even know about it. Maybe it was just my desire to be different from other fans that drove me to become a real fan of the Indy 500 and the IRL.

But Indy car racing has become more than a simple hobby for me. It is now more of an obsession. It’s something that brings me more satisfaction than anything else. It’s as though I was born to be a fan of the sport. It’s as though I live to see what happens next, who’ll win the next race who’ll win the ‘500’, who’ll be the series champion.

And of course, the thing I like most about Indy car racing is the greatest race of them all the Indianapolis 500.

The Indy 500 is my passion in racing. No matter what anybody says the Indy 500 was, is and will be ‘the greatest spectacle in racing’ no matter what happens. You can have your street parade in Long Beach, your F1 Schumacher parade at some road coarse or those 43 rusty old cabs at Daytona but I’ll have 33 sparkling Indy cars racing side by side at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway competing in the world’s greatest race.

There is nothing in the world that is so big and so great as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Generations of fans, drivers, owners and officials have passed through this place. It was at the same time a site of glory and deep despair, a site of victory and heartbreak. It is the greatest and most challenging track in the world and the home of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

My dream is to come to Indianapolis one day and see it for myself. That will be one of the best moments of my life. Seeing the racetrack where the best of the world have competed for the past 90 years sure will be exciting.

The ghosts, legends and memories of auto racing can be summed up in three words Indianapolis Motor Speedway. AJ Foyt, Mario Andretti, the Unser brothers, Little Al, Jim Clark, Roger Penske, Parnelli Jones, the famous 1 minute 150 mph lap. Mark Donahue, Bill Vukovich, Jimmy Bryan, the Ward Rathmann duel in 1960, the Sachs Foyt duel, Emmo, the Novi, the Granatelli turbine, Rick Mears, Bobby Rahal, Johnny Rutherford, the Lotus Indy cars, Gordon Johncock, the famous Johncock Mears duel in 1982, George Bignotti, the 200 mph record breaker Tom Sneva. These and many other things strike my mind when I think of the Indianapolis 500 and IMS. It’s fascinating that I can come across dozens of such images in my mind every ten seconds.

And of course the image that comes across my mind most frequently is that of the 1911 Marmon Wasp, which Ray Harroun drove to victory in the inaugural Indianapolis 500.

What I am trying to say is that Indy is where racing history is made. If you can list your name along with such ‘500’ winners as Foyt, Clark, Jones, Vukovich, Andretti, Unser, Mears and DePalma then you are one hell of a racing driver. Basically, if you win one race in your life you should win the Indy 500.

I have an urgent message for all you CART CCWS guys before you start making remarks. Winning the Indy 500 means much more than winning your whole championship. Winning the ‘500’ once means more than winning 30 of your street parades. The fact that your street exhibition series almost turned Indy car racing into crap is undeniable and I praise Tony George for the bold and correct step of forming the Indy Racing League.

I have a few friends, who also follow racing. They aren’t real fans but they do follow F1 just for the sake of knowing what is going on. We once started chatting about an F1 race and one of the guys asked me: ‘Whose your favorite racing driver’? I answered by saying that Buddy Rice was my favorite. Unfortunately my friend asked who he was and after I explained that he is an American, who had won the Indy 500 this year my friend also asked where the ‘500’ was held.

I have to admit that I was disgusted after a conversation like that. But the fact that the average Ukrainian doesn’t follow the ‘500’ won’t prevent me from being a fan. I love the ‘500’ with all of my heart and my biggest dream is to come over and see it one day.

This year’s edition of the ‘Greatest Spectacle in Racing’ was a very exciting one. The whole month of May was very tense with rumors that there wouldn’t be enough cars to fill the traditional 33-car grid. Luckily some last minute deals did put 33 driver-car combinations on the track for the race.

Tony Stewart turned up at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Bump Day and was talking with AJ Foyt about trying to qualify a third car for Foyt’s team. That deal fell through though when Stewart’s manager Cary Agajanian reminded him that he drives a Chevy in NASCAR and the people at Chevy wouldn’t be happy if he drove a Toyota powered car for AJ Foyt in the Indy 500.

I was real disappointed by that. Tony is an excellent race driver but I have to admit that I judge him as a traitor and an idiot these days. He doesn’t look as talented in his taxicab as he did in an Indy car either.

Speeds decreased substantially this May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. At first I was pretty disappointed. I still have never seen a track record set at IMS and last year it looked like there would be some in the near future. I am confident that if the IRL hadn’t cut the engine capacity from 3.5 to 3 litters the speeds would have come up to at least 238 mph during the second week of practice.

That wasn’t the case though. But with the season complete on the IRL Indy car Series schedule there has been only one serious injury to a driver. Darren Manning fractured his back while qualifying for the California Indy 400 and missed both Fontana and the second race at TMS. He was racing some time after the IRL season finale in a Grand Am race with his Ganassi team. Other than that the season went perfectly in terms of safety.

I am grateful to the IRL for taking the safety measures as they were very much needed. The IRL has had a big amount of unfortunate accidents that often led to serious injury or even death. This problem has finally been conquered but of course you never know what may happen.

I do long for the speed though. I’d love to see Indy cars average over 230 mph at Indy again but I guess safety comes first in the books of Tony George and the IRL. Let’s thank them for that.

Seeing drivers getting hurt or killed is the worst part of racing for me. Probably the most painful racing days of my life followed the unfortunate death of Tony Renna.

I remember it pretty clearly as it happened just over a year ago. It was about 2 o’clock in the morning here in Ukraine. For some reason I couldn’t fall asleep. I switched on the TV (that helps sometimes) and to my horror saw the following news column on the Eurosport News channel: American driver Tony Renna, 26 killed during tire testing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The news was like a shot to the head. For about 20 seconds I couldn’t move or think at all. Then slowly I started realizing that Tony Renna wouldn’t be seen in an Indy car any longer, that no one would ever see his smiling face again. He was gone forever. I couldn’t sleep at all after that and decided to look through some of Renna’s stats from 2002 and also play some game on my PC, which helped to clear my mind a bit.

Renna was never my favorite driver. I saw his race in Indy Lights in 2001 and he didn’t look as spectacular as his team mate Scott Dixon who won the title that year and also went on to win the IRL Indy car title in 2003.

But when Renna made the move to the Indy Racing League in 2002 I saw some flashes of talent in the young American from Deland, Florida. I remember when I read about Al Unser, Jr. missing two races due to alcohol abuse treatment and hearing that Renna will be the replacement. I admired Renna’s gratefulness for the opportunity. There wasn’t a single interview in which he didn’t manage to mention Little Al or Tom Kelley.

But I was also pretty upset about not seeing Little Al in the car for two races. At one point I even thought that he could retire while undergoing that treatment but luckily he continued and even returned to Victory Lane in 2003.

Renna took his chance with Kelley Racing and performed very well, scoring a personal best of 4^th at Michigan. He also was impressive in his first race at Nashville and even took the lead at one point in spite of little seat time.

Then came May 2003 and Tony landed an Indy 500 ride with a third Kelley racing car sponsored by Cure Autism teaming up with Scott Sharp and Little Al in Tom Kelley’s Indianapolis based operation.

The 87^th Indianapolis 500 was the race that really proved Renna’s ability to compete with the best drivers of the world. After qualifying 8^th he drove a steady race into 7^th which was second best among the rookies and the best performance for Kelley’s team.

After failing to get a ride for the rest of 2003 Tony landed a seat with Ganassi Racing as a teammate to 2003 champion Scott Dixon. Renna and Dixon were teammates at Pac West in Indy Lights. He was killed in his first test with Ganassi.

I don’t know whether Renna would have performed well with the Ganassi team. Personally I felt pretty optimistic about his chances of winning races this year. I didn’t know that Ganassi would be struggling as they have done in 2004. On the other hand my cousin, who is an anti IRL pro CART fan, said that Renna was a back marker and that Ganassi couldn’t have made a choice worse than that. I often feel that his comments were triggered by his dislike towards Indianapolis and not disapproval of Renna’s driving ability.

For the CART street parade supporters Renna’s unfortunate death was a chance to mock the IRL about its safety issues. Few thought of the fact that a person and a great racing talent was gone from this world.

Although so far away Renna’s death was painful to me and every time I thought about racing in the days following his accident he came to mind. That was the only time in my life when I wanted to forget racing altogether.

The sport of Indy car racing lost a great talent. I took part in the Tony Renna memorial on indyracing.com and posted a few words about how sorry I felt about his death.

I was touched by a message sent by Rodney Gabriel from Glendale, California:

First of all, my heart goes out to all of Tony’s family, friends and fans. He was truly an exceptional person. My memory I’d like to share took place in the month of May at the Indy 500. My company was showcasing our racing simulators in the Kelley Racing paddock. We had a young boy, about the age of 9, I’m guessing, who was getting quite good with our simulator and wanted to race somebody. At a nearby table, Tony was having lunch. To everyone’s surprise, the boy got out of the simulator and walked over to Tony and challenged the Indy 500 driver to a race. To everyone’s delight, Tony accepted the challenge. I told Tony, ‘Don’t go easy on this kid; he’s been practicing, and he’s very good.’ Tony looked at the young fan and said, ‘You’re going down, kid!’ The race was on. Five laps at the famed Brickyard. Tony and the young boy raced intensely as onlookers watched with the boy’s face lit up. He was racing Tony Renna! On the final lap, Tony was behind, setting up for a pass. The boy came down and slammed the door shut on Tony and took the checkered flag. After the race, Tony just smiled at the boy and said: ‘Thanks. That was a good race.’

Indy car racing is without a doubt a dangerous sport, probably one of the most dangerous in the world. Although since the CART- IRL split in 1996 more drivers were killed while racing in CART the IRL remains a very dangerous undertaking. But I guess that danger has become such an unstoppable thing in Indy cars that it is part of the tradition and the heritage of the sport.

Few fans that are serious Indy 500 supporters don’t know about the death of Bill Vukovich in 1955, which I judge as the greatest legend in the history of not only IMS but also the whole world of motorsports.

Older fans also probably recall the eight(??) car crash at the start of the 1958 Indy 500 that took the life of Pat O’Connor and the fiery crash at the start of the 1964 ‘500’. That time Eddie Sachs and Dave MacDonald paid the supreme price.

Swede Savage, Art Pollard, Gordon Smiley, Jovy Marcelo, Scott Brayton, Tony Bettenhausen, Jerry Unser, Al Herman, Mike Spence are some of the others that gave their life to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

I have lately studied the career of Swede Savage in detail. There’s an excellent Swede Savage tribute site on the Net. He was killed in the 1973 Indianapolis 500 at the age of 26.

Savage’s death was an unfortunate one. At that time he was driving for the Patrick Racing team which was an up and coming organization bound to have success in the future. Wally Dallenbach took Swede’s car after Indy and despite missing three races finished second in the championship and won the California 500 at Ontario Motor Speedway. Roger McCluskey won the title that year but I don’t know which team he was driving for.

The 1973 ‘500’ was a complete disaster and most people who are in some way involved with the race would probably like to forget it. Veteran ‘500’ racer Art Pollard driving for the Fletcher team (maybe I’m wrong) was killed in an accident on Pole Day. At the start of the race a multi car pile-up began on the front stretch when rookie driver Salt Walther crashed into Jerry Grant. The contact set off a chain reaction, which resulted in a big accident and a fire. Walther was heavily injured as well as some fans that sustained minor burns. Salt remarkably recovered and came back to start the 1974 Indy 500.

The race went on and on lap 59 Savage was heavily injured in a crash. He died a month later in hospital after his kidneys had failed.

STP Patrick pit crew man Armando Teran was hit and killed by a safety truck, which was speeding down pit road to Savage’s crash. All of this was also accompanied by a few rain delays that made the Indianapolis 500 the 72 Hours of Indianapolis.

USAC took immediate steps after the race to prevent a similar situation from happening. The fuel was stored in only one sidepod and the width of the rear wing was also reduced as of the Pocono 500 later that year. Turbo boost was also limited. The grandstands at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway were pulled back so the fans would have safer positions to watch the race from.

But the driving talent of Swede Savage and Art Pollard could never be recovered.

The winner of the ’73 ‘500’ and Savage’s teammate and friend Gordon Johncock once said: If you really stop and think about it and you follow racing, it seems like before they take serious or drastic measures, somebody always has to get hurt or killed. I feel that this statement is also accurate when we speak about Tony Renna.

I have one thing to say for the CART street parade fans, who mock the IRL for installing wickers and rev limits on the cars. If a Champ car that competes in high-speed parades (which are called ‘races’) would turn sideways at 220 mph I am sure it would get airborne as well. Thank God that Tony George still thinks about spending money on safety these days. I’m sure that the deaths of Gonzalo Rodriguez and Greg Moore could have been avoided if CART had made changes to the cars after Jeff Krossnoff’s fatal accident in 1997.

The 2004 IRL season is already over and there are a lot of rumors in the air about 2005. General Motors announced that it will pull their Chevy engine out of the IRL after 2005. That was a big disappointment for the IRL and me as GM has been involved with the League since the beginning. But I guess the costs have risen so quickly and dramatically that it doesn’t make any sense for Chevy to stay. The lack of Chevy horsepower compared to the Toyota and Honda power plant also played a decisive role.

Some time ago rumors were started about the IRL switching back to production based engine formula. Personally I think that this would be a rebirth of the original idea that Tony George had in 1994. Production based engines would cut the costs dramatically, eliminated engine leases and bring back the ‘little guy’ Tony wanted to help in 1996. Although teams like Rahal, Fernandez and AGR are heavily bankrolled by Honda I still doubt that they would leave either. After all, OWRS would have even less money behind it. So I welcome the idea of these engines coming back into the Indy Racing League.

My favorite driver is Buddy Rice and he brought the only really excellent racing event of the year for me. That was when he crossed the finish line to win the 88^th Indianapolis 500.

I started cheering for Rice when he scored the pole position at the season opening Toyota Indy 300 at Homestead Miami Speedway back in February. I knew that Rice was destined for glory in Indy cars when he finished second in his first ever IRL start at Michigan in 2002 but I never thought that he would become a winner of the Indianapolis 500.

Rice had a pretty good season with wins at Indy, Kansas and Michigan. His win at the 88^th Indianapolis 500 made him a true front runner in the IRL. But the last few races weren’t kind to him.

The road went downhill at Pikes Peak International Raceway when he crashed on the first lap of the race and was credited with the 22nd. He finished 4^th at Nazareth (behind three teammates from archrivals AGR) the next week but the scary accident in Chicagoland really buried any chances of winning this year’s IRL Indy car Series title.

To me it is clear that Tony Kanaan is this year’s champion. This has been a dream year for the Brazilian, Honda and the Andretti Green Racing team. It seems as though it’s a compensation for all the bad luck Kanaan has had in his career (and he’s had a lot of it).

I remember a CART race at Motegi, Japan in 2002. Kanaan was leading in a car owned by Mo Nunn when the engine failed. That was one of Kanaan’s many disappointments. The only time Lady Luck really smiled on Tony prior to the 2003 season was at the 1999 CART Michigan 500. That day Max Papis, driving for Bobby Rahal and David Letterman ran out of fuel on the last lap and allowed the McDonald’s Tasman Racing car driven by Kanaan to win. That was his only win in six years of racing in CART. He did win the CART Jim Trueman rookie of the year honors in 1998.

The Indy Racing League has been much kinder to Kanaan. He made his IRL debut at the 86^th Indianapolis 500 in 2002 as a teammate to IRL regular Felipe Giaffone. After qualifying fourth in a Mo Nunn Racing car Kanaan led 27 laps before crashing out in turn 3 while leading.

He joined Andretti Green Racing for a complete IRL Indy car season in 2003 and scored an early win in the second round of the year at Phoenix (by the way that is one of my all-time favorite races). Despite having a few chances Kanaan didn’t win again that year but he did finish fourth in the final IRL standings. He finished 3^rd in his second Indy 500.

The dream season for the 1997 Indy Lights champion came this year. Kanaan finished all 16 IRL Indy car races in the top 10, including a second place at the 88^th Indy 500 and three wins at Phoenix, Texas and Nashville. His worst finish was 8^th at Homestead. He also has completed every lap of the competition this season and finished way ahead of his teammate Dan Wheldon in the championship standings.

But frankly speaking I’m sick and tired of always seeing the number 11 7-Eleven Big Gulp Dallara/Honda up front. I’m tired of all the Andretti Green cars and of Michael’s arrogance. I would dearly love to see Buddy Rice beat the AGR Empire just like he did at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May.

Although I don’t like them I have to admit that the camaraderie and team work that AGR has developed between its four drivers is pretty remarkable. In my time following racing I still haven’t seen teammates that work so much together as Kanaan, Wheldon, Franchitti and Herta. This teamwork has made them a championship winning team.

Rice on the other hand is fast if he’s still in the race. But far too often he was caught up in wrecks or suffered mechanical failures. A perfect example was his flip in Chicago.

Actually there was a scary similarity between the Brack crash at Texas in 2003 and what happened to Buddy at Chicago. At Texas in 2003 car 15 driven by Brack made contact with car 10 driven by Tomas Scheckter and went airborne. This time car 15 driven by Rice made contact with car 10 driven by Manning and once again went airborne. But it’s only a coincidence.

Speaking of Tomas Scheckter how much bad luck can a guy have? He has only finished 4 races this season in the number 4 Pennzoil Panther Racing Dallara/Chevrolet but the only real trouble free run for Tomas was at the season opener at Homestead where he finished 5^th. I’m not really a fan of his but I do hope he’ll get it right some of these days.

Rumors have also started about next year’s line up. AGR, Rahal Letterman, Penske, Ganassi, Cheever and one half of the Panther team have already announced their plans for 2005.

1998 Indy 500 winner Eddie Cheever has built a very strong looking operation with veteran drivers Alex Barron and Patrick Carpentier. Patrick’s flattering comments about oval racing at the ‘500’ were probably a bitter pill to swallow for the OWRS guys. Cheever’s move to the Toyota engine from GM’s under powered Chevy may be the key to success in 2005 for the blue Red Bull guys. But the announcement of the drivers at Team Cheever brought disappointment to me. Throughout the 2004 season I was a big supporter of young Hoosier Ed Carpenter who has been replaced in the team by former OWRS standout Patrick Carpentier. Carpenter is talking with the brand new Playa Del Racing team and hopefully they’ll reach an agreement and we’ll see Eddy back in 2005.

The Rahal Team line up will be unchanged although there may be a third car added for Danica Patrick. That means that my favorite Buddy Rice will stay with his team. Buddy Rice can easily be the favorite driver for those fans who think that there aren’t any American stars in the series and in the Indy 500. The Speedway developed an IRL star in Tony Stewart some years ago. Unfortunately Tony abandoned both the IRL and USAC as soon as NASCAR showed its checkbook to him. The new poster boy for the IRL is Sam Hornish. The 24-year old American from Defiance, Ohio was racing for the first time with Marlboro Team Penske this year after two titles with Pennzoil Panther Racing in 2001 and 2002. He also finished 5^th with Panther in 2003 despite competing with the under-powered Chevy for most of the season.

The 2003 season was the year that showed what kind of driver Sam Hornish, Jr. is. I was astounded by the sheer speed of the Pennzoil car. Despite lacking a big amount of horsepower in his Chevrolet engine Hornish powered he way to top 6 finishes at the smaller racetracks and to top 10s at the super speedways.

After showing off his talent last year Sam was picked up by the legendary Indy car team owner Roger Penske. Despite driving with the best team in the IRL Indy car field Hornish has had a lot of problems. His main setback this year was getting caught up in wrecks not of his own making and also a few of his own mistakes.

I really hope that Hornish will stay with the IRL. There have been options to go to NASCAR for him but the passion to win the Indy 500 is much stronger than to race in a taxicab. The situation with Sam is pretty tough. I think that he can gain a lot of Indy car fans if he wins the ‘500’. But if he finally wins the greatest race of them all he may depart to NASCAR and leave the IRL just like Tony Stewart. Well, let’s hope that won’t happen.

I participate in racing forums on the Net and a lot of people, who gave been following racing longer than I have always draw parallels between Hornish and 4-time Indy winner Rick Mears. The similarity is pretty distinct. Mears was the absolute oval meister in his time, just like Hornish. Mears became a legend. Sam is bound to become one.

But Sam Hornish like the majority of drivers in the IRL Indy car Series comes from a road racing background (F2000 and Atlantic). What Indy car racing really needs are USAC open wheel drivers guys like J.J Yeley and Tracy Hines.

I once read a very powerful comment from Brock Yates about why NASCAR is much more popular than the Indy car Series these days. Numerous Winston Cup promoters will tell you that masses of their fans are disaffected old USAC buffs who, seeing CART disregard its traditional roots, simply transferred their enthusiasm to the multi-hued taxi cabs that were at least driven by people whose names they could pronounce. A legion of great young drivers who might have otherwise migrated to Indy has gone south with the flow. Latest defectors: Future superstars Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne, with others sure to follow.

This powerful statement may finally open the eyes of CART and show them what their series has done to the sport. But those guys are so sometimes so ignorant that nothing will stop their CCWS loyalty.

The Infiniti Pro Series was created in 2002 in order to introduce these USAC drivers to the Indy car style of racing. So far the only USAC driver to graduate from IPS to Indy car was Ed Carpenter. Other IPS drivers racing Indy cars are AJ Foyt IV and Mark Taylor.

Morris Nunn is planning to put his IPS driver PJ Chesson in an Indy car next year. Chesson has won three Pro Series races this year despite starting less than half the season with the Nunn team. PJ comes from a sprint car background. He raced in the Pennzoil World of Outlaws series for a few years and won some races. If Chesson proves his ability in the IRL’s premier series, then he may bring along many fans but the skills learned in a sprint car are a lot different from those required in an Indy car. Let’s hope his IPS experience can help.

But the driver I would personally like to finally race in the Indianapolis 500 is Arie Luyendyk, Jr. I sort of cheered for Big Arie in his final years and I have cheered for Arie, Jr. in the Pro Series.

Luyendyk, Jr. is truly the veteran of the series. He has started every race in IPS history and still hasn’t won an event. He did finish 2^nd in the 2002 point standings to AJ Foyt IV.

The IRL recently celebrated its 100^th race at Nazareth Speedway and most of the team owners that predicted the fact that the series wouldn’t last five years are now racing in it. I don’t mean to be political but I think that CART has lost the war with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that started back in 1979.

I just hope that Robin Miller will realize the same thing.

Even the biggest fool can see that by now. Did you see how empty the stands were at the CCWS race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway? Did you see the way the IRL outdrew Champ car at Milwaukee? Champ car should surrender and try to work something out and run in the IRL and not continue their stupid loyalty that they have shown these past few years.

I hate the arrogance of some CCWS fans. When Carl Hass announced a possibility of running an IRL race team the fans threw garbage at him during the next Champ race at Toronto (or maybe some other street parade)! Throw garbage at one of the biggest supporters of your series? Those guys don’t seem to be too civilized.

There has been a lot of talk about the CCWS race at Las Vegas. Champ car finally realized that to gain fans on an oval they need side by side racing and therefore adapted IRL like wings for the LVMS event.

The racing wasn’t bad (worse than the IRL of course) but the fans weren’t there. Most of the crowd that came to see the NASCAR Truck race left by the end of the CCWS event turning the lively Las Vegas track into a ghost town. You sure learned a lesson, CCWS guys. Even the trucks can outdraw you these days.

The sad question is what will happen with all the road races that occupied the majority of the CART and now CCWS schedule if indeed CCWS disappears. I’d sure love to see Road America and Mid Ohio in the IRL but on the other hand I wouldn’t like to see too many road races in the League either.

With sports car racing not being very healthy in the US at the moment the question is still unanswered.

I didn’t really welcome the announcement of the League’s first street race at St. Petersburg next spring either. I hate street racing. Street races are boring. There’s no passing. The CART race in St. Pete in 2003 was so dull I couldn’t stand watching it. Actually I can’t stand their road races either but enough CART bashing.

Hopefully the IRL will stop adding road courses. Three or four are just enough.

In conclusion, I would like to say that Indy car racing has brought me so many thrills and spills over the last years that I can’t even recall all of them. If you’re a racing fan and you’re reading this watch the IRL and the ‘500’ once and I guarantee that you’ll become a fan for life just like me.

Good luck to Buddy Rice, Ed Carpenter, Arie Luyendyk, Jr. and PJ Chesson at Homestead Miami Speedway.

J.J. Yeley competes in a USAC National Sprint Car feature at Winchester Speedway on October 22, 2000

Tracy Hines competes in a USAC National Midget feature at Winchester Speedway on October 22, 2000