Anyone notice the month of May has been shortened?????

[trinksuk]

for the eagle eyed people out there, did you miss this?

http://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/schedule/

Looks like official practice doesn't start until Wed afternoon and then the following week, practice has been shortened to by a day. So two and a half days of running less all told. All in the interests of saving money. Could be interesting if it rains.

[FormerFF]

It was in the Indianapolis Star on Saturday:

http://www.indystar.com/article/20090117/SPORTS0107/901170391/1052/SPORTS01

Seems reasonable to me. If rain affects the schedule too much, there's plenty of time to add more practice.

[MDS]

Its been two weeks too long for 13 years now.

[Claus Hansen]

I was about time, the value of the Indy 500 is low, that i made sense !

[philipbain]

The Indy 500 schedule is just plain outdated, it harks back to a time when the Indy 500 was a one-off, when the time was required to prepare the cars and ready them for the 500. Now the majority of the cars do the whole season (certainly the ones that are anything like competitive) this amount of practice is a) not required, b) just gives the teams added expense of running extra days for no good reason and c) creates a big hole in the schedule that could be filled with more racing. My proposal would be not to make the 500 like an ordinary weekend, that would be an insult to the tradition of the race, but to bring it more up to date, it would be a 2 week event max with the first weekend being preceded by practice sessions and pole day qualifying on the 1st Saturday with Bump Day on the Sunday, meaning that qualifying is wrapped up in 2 days a week ahead of the event it's self and then further practice on the week leading up to the event to allow teams that qualified to sort thier race setup. This more rational schedule would allow for at least one extra round to take place prior to Indy without extending the shedule and make the 500 it's self even bigger in my view, no waiting around for a fortnight knowing whos on pole, the last week wouldnt be an anti-climax of little running before the race it's self and it would make the whole thing more affordable for the teams.

[PA Rick]

It depends on how much "tradition" you can stand. I would love for practice Thursday, qual days Friday and Saturday and the race on Sunday just like the rest of real racing has evolved into since 1911. I would drive the motorhome out Wednesday and come back Sunday night or Monday morning.

[SoCalPVguy]

Anyone notice the month of May has been shortened?????


Acutally, May is still 31 days long as it was before...

but the Indy 500 campaign has been shortened -as it should. Not so bad now - but when I was a CART fan May was a looooonnnngggggg month.

Even the super bore, er, bowl, is a 2-week process and that's what Indy ought to be.

[Wilf]

Anyone notice the month of May has been shortened?????


Acutally, May is still 31 days long as it was before...

but the Indy 500 campaign has been shortened -as it should. Not so bad now - but when I was a CART fan May was a looooonnnngggggg month.

Even the super bore, er, bowl, is a 2-week process and that's what Indy ought to be.

Does anyone think a driver can learn to run flat out at 225 mph on a relatively flat track in two or three days. There are seven to ten teams that will not have any experience working together much less than with their driver and or the car.

The driver has to learn the track. The team has to learn to adjust to the various possible weather, temperature, wind conditions which could be presented on race day.

Is it just another race or the race that defines American Open Wheel Racing? Two and a half weeks is really not that long to invest in what could make or break a team, a driver, a series.

[carracing]

The driver has to learn the track. The team has to learn to adjust to the various possible weather, temperature, wind conditions which could be presented on race day.

Is it just another race or the race that defines American Open Wheel Racing? Two and a half weeks is really not that long to invest in what could make or break a team, a driver, a series.

Good point.

[EagleEye]

for the eagle eyed people out there, did you miss this?

http://www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/schedule/

Looks like official practice doesn't start until Wed afternoon and then the following week, practice has been shortened to by a day. So two and a half days of running less all told. All in the interests of saving money. Could be interesting if it rains.

A great move by the IRL. They will soon announce changes to the other races, with most be two-day shows.

[indycool]

One would tend to think that the shortening is a cost efficiency for the teams and track, and also if the IRL goes to two-day shows, the same thing.

[Rex Monaco]

It's just the natural progression of the Indy 500 becoming another race on the schedule. And why not. It's just a spec race anyway.

[indycool]

Yep, Rex, a nearly 100-year-old spec race that draws 275,000 spectators and TV around the world. No matter how much you want to hide it, that effort, IMO, will be futile.

[MDS]

Believe all you want that the Indy 500 is the biggest motorsport event in the world, but its not even the biggest race in American that weekend.

I think the league would be better served with two races in May. This year they could run at Houston, Michigan or Gateway on May 3 and then open up the track for testing on May 10, have a full week of practice before doing two days of Qualifying on the 16 and 17 and then run the race on Memorial Day. Tie the two May events together by offering an additional $1 million if the winner of the first May race can win the 500, or $500,000 if the winner of the pole can win Indy's pole and you have nice additional storyline to follow and a new, low cost sponsorship opportunity.

It'll never happen, but if they can run the Daytona 500 in two weeks...

[Wilf]

Believe all you want that the Indy 500 is the biggest motorsport event in the world, but its not even the biggest race in American that weekend.

I think the league would be better served with two races in May. This year they could run at Houston, Michigan or Gateway on May 3 and then open up the track for testing on May 10, have a full week of practice before doing two days of Qualifying on the 16 and 17 and then run the race on Memorial Day. Tie the two May events together by offering an additional $1 million if the winner of the first May race can win the 500, or $500,000 if the winner of the pole can win Indy's pole and you have nice additional storyline to follow and a new, low cost sponsorship opportunity.

It'll never happen, but if they can run the Daytona 500 in two weeks...

Probably true, and we all could place bets on what lap the big one would occur. That would surely add excitement and get people talking.

IndyCar is not bumper cars. Yes, it could be done in two weeks, but what is wrong with two and a half weeks?

By the way, do you have a sponsor in mind for that $1.5 million 30 day story?

[indycool]

Well, what do YOU think is the biggest motorsport event that weekend?

[MDS]

It's not spending $1.5 million, its putting a $1.5 million prize, if no one wins it you don't have to spend it. There are two ways of going about it. One is you put up the prize money, and some promotional dollars, and if no one wins it you keep the purse. Or, what a lot of companies do, is that they will take out an insurance policy with Lloyds of London. Lloyds calculates the odds of a driver winning two races back to back and then you pay a percentage of the total prize money to Lloyds and then Lloyds would pay out the full sum should someone win.

If you consider the biggest to be the most watched, on Memorial Day Sunday it goes Grand Prix of Monaco, Coke Cola 600 and then the Indy 500. If you want to consider other non measurable factors, then you can make an arguement for Indy, but as far as media attention and viewership its Monaco, Charlotte and Indy, even once you count Indy's international audience.

[indycool]

Oh.