Month of May Changes

[Scheckterfan54]

http://www.indystar.com/article/20091215/SPORTS01/91215016/1004/SPORTS/Month-of-May-schedule-changing-at-Indy

[MDS]

I wonder if these changes are in part to pave the way for adding Houston to the schedule next year.

[Oli_M]

Wow! Really surprised at this. It seems a sensible decision..... never understood why it took them a whole month to practise and qualify for just one race.

Maybe theres a chance of some spectators turning up for the qualifying weekend now.

[Scheckterfan54]

This was intended to save money. IMO, instead of trying to spend less, why not keep the previous format and add more substance to that schedule. Why not take "daytona speedweeks" and adapt it to indy. IMS and the IRL need to do something that is outside of the box to stir up interest in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. All this change does is saves money and sends a message to fans that the future of this race/this series is bleak at best.

[dataman1]

How would you like to be on of those companies that paid big bucks for the year long suite rental? I hope they get a discount for fewer days to entertain guests. Of course that would be looser for the track in less rental dollars but might make some unrented suites more reachable to new customers. It's a gamble for sure.

[Pat Wiatrowski]

CART/Champ Car was right after all!

[MDS]

From Paul Tracy's Twitter:
I am so happy about the new Indy 500 schedule , it makes it more cost effective , :-)

[inimitablestoo]

Strictly speaking then, it should now be the Fortnight of May...

[Blancvino]

Message to those that think the fans are getting shorted ... The fans are not coming.

Not even to first day qualifying

Any clue how much it costs to get the hundreds of off duty police to work the event? If they cut out a weekend, the money saved is huge. The days of wild extravaganzas are over.

I would rather see an action packed week than spreading it out over a month with no buzz.

Be happy there is a show to put on. If the sisters were to get their way, goodness knows what the place might become.

[methanolHuffer]

I'm sure they could save even more money if they cut the number of laps from 200 to 100.

And could eliminate more waste by having only one entrance for spectators to come through.

The fly-over thing: scratched (really who does pay for that?)

Singing of "Back home in Indiana" can be played through a tape deck.

And the winner of the race can drink tap water.

[gofastandwynn]

CART/Champ Car was right after all!

Actually it think this would make CART right (BTW, for those you who don't know CART/Champ Car is a defunct racing organization that was bought by the Indy Racing League in 2008), this would make the original IRL was right, since they ran this format from 1998-2000. I don't really have a problem with this given the age of this car and the economy. This isn't the first time they did this (ran it similar to this in 1974, and practice used to start on May 1st, not matter what day of the week it was) so i would bet things will change back to the traditional 2 week schedule when the new car comes.

[Dr. Krogshöj]

I wonder if these changes are in part to pave the way for adding Houston to the schedule next year.

No way. Series officials were adamant that there will be no changes to the 2010 schedule. It's set in stone. There is nothing more expensive for the teams than last minute changes.


CART/Champ Car was right after all!

Being right is overrated.

[Jonesi]

Wow! Really surprised at this. It seems a sensible decision..... never understood why it took them a whole month to practise and qualify for just one race.

Maybe theres a chance of some spectators turning up for the qualifying weekend now.

Yes that was mentioned by the CART board in the early 90s, then somebody had a Billion dollar tantrum.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Well, whatever side of things you used to be on, it is done for financial reasons. That is a bad thing in a sense, but in today's world where people have so many interests, and the coverage of sport is so deep, tying up people covering basically something that means very little in the final scheme of things was just silly. If we had 50 cars and a real bump day going, we are NOT having this conversation....but in the end, as long as you make the show, THAT's the story. we don't need a month to tell it...

[MDS]

Actually it think this would make CART right (BTW, for those you who don't know CART/Champ Car is a defunct racing organization that was bought by the Indy Racing League in 2008), this would make the original IRL was right, since they ran this format from 1998-2000. I don't really have a problem with this given the age of this car and the economy. This isn't the first time they did this (ran it similar to this in 1974, and practice used to start on May 1st, not matter what day of the week it was) so i would bet things will change back to the traditional 2 week schedule when the new car comes.

Actually that's not technically correct. What Pat was getting to was one of the original thorns of contention that caused the IRL to be formed in the first place.

In the 90s when CART was at its peak it appeared to many team owners that the speedway was doing everything it could to bleed money out of the teams during May. If I'm remembering right (I was in high school at the time) two of the things the owners were most unhappy about was having to use track catering, when all the teams had their own food service, and the top teams like Newman Hass and Penske had some high-priced chefs on the payroll, and a general increase in the fees. CART, then controlled by franchised owners, were discussing cutting there schedule down to two weeks because it was getting prohibitively expensive, and unneeded, to spend a whole month at the speedway. Tony George was concerned about losing revenue and not having a voting seat on the board and he founded the IRL.

I strongly suspect the IRL started as a bargaining chip and when the owners failed to meet Tony's demands the IRL was haphazardly formed as a strike league.

Also, when I speculated about adding Houston to the 2010 schedule I meant to say 2011, my bad.

[Blancvino]

I'm sure they could save even more money if they cut the number of laps from 200 to 100.

And could eliminate more waste by having only one entrance for spectators to come through.

The fly-over thing: scratched (really who does pay for that?)

Singing of "Back home in Indiana" can be played through a tape deck.

And the winner of the race can drink tap water.



Denial is not just a river in Egypt.

[Scotty G.]

Yes that was mentioned by the CART board in the early 90s, then somebody had a Billion dollar tantrum.

Uhh, this is teh exact same schedule that the IRL used from 1998-2000 at Indy.

CART killed itself and was irrelvent in American racing. Get over it.

The CART board was made up of zillionaires who only cared about theri own self interests. They only needed the Indy 500 to make themselves and their racing series relevent.

[Scotty G.]

One interesting thing about the new schedule, is that there will now be no conflicts (unless you count the Charlotte All-Star Race on Saturday Night) with any Cup races during Indy practice/quals. Indy quals weekend, falls on a off weekend for Cup and Nationwide schedules.

So that will make it a bit easier for a Robby Gordon or ???? to put together a Indy 500 effort. And Gordon is very much interested in doing the 500 again.

Of course, with teh decision to keep the 1:00 EST Indy race start time (STUPID move, BTW) it doesn't help anyone "do the double".

Also rumor is the Indy engine lease will be reduced by 75K, from last year. That will help. Should help entice more entries and more "one-off" teams.

[FormerFF]

This seems reasonable to me. It should save money for both the big guys and the one offs. Since the attendance for qualifying is so small these days, there's no need to drag this out as much as it has been done in the past. It should help keep the event in the media's eye now that qualifying is only a week away from the race.

I just hope it doesn't rain. I suppose that would push everything to Monday/Tuesday.

[V12]

:down: oh well that's a shame, more tradition in the bin. But as long as it "cuts costs" :rolleyes: hey. I was going to say the cheapest way to do things is to just sit the cars in the garage and not run them, but methanolHuffer already made that point a bit better than me.

[ChicagocrewIRL]

Absolutely ridiculous.

Just one more move to make the Indianapolis 500 just another race. The MONTH of May WAS special in Indy. Now it's the 2 weeks of May in Indy.

RIDICULOUS !!!!

This is a sad move especially on the doorstep of the Speedway's Centennial.

The 500 is sadly fast becoming JUST ANOTHER RACE.

[maxmach]

The I500 will never be just another race. And it wasn't special because it was a month long to begin with. It was big and people watched it, and talked about it afterwards. And right now it's not, it's kinda big. I, being an open wheel racing fan, am glad to see it reduced to two weeks, a month was just too long. And we can work on making the two weeks excitng, instead of a 4 week snore.

[garyshell]

Absolutely ridiculous.

Just one more move to make the Indianapolis 500 just another race. The MONTH of May WAS special in Indy. Now it's the 2 weeks of May in Indy.

RIDICULOUS !!!!

This is a sad move especially on the doorstep of the Speedway's Centennial.

The 500 is sadly fast becoming JUST ANOTHER RACE.


When was the last time the "Month of May" really WAS the "Month of May"? When was the last time folks were lined up at the gates waiting to get in for pole day, bump day, carburation day, practice days etc? This move changes absolutely nothing except to align the calendar with the REALITY of what has already transpired since the 1990's.

Gary

[Mark in Oshawa]

Absolutely ridiculous.

Just one more move to make the Indianapolis 500 just another race. The MONTH of May WAS special in Indy. Now it's the 2 weeks of May in Indy.

RIDICULOUS !!!!

This is a sad move especially on the doorstep of the Speedway's Centennial.

The 500 is sadly fast becoming JUST ANOTHER RACE.

Ironic isn't it? The guy who was trying to stop CART from making it just another race is gone but the changes he made to the sport brought it to that same conclusion.

It isn't quite another race, but if the Daytona 500 can be run in a 2 weekend span and is "just another race" on some levels in the much more watched NASCAR season, than the Indy 500 can survive also. Put down your razor blades...this is the new reality.

[gofastandwynn]

My question is what will happen when the whole weekend of qualifying gets washed out? (and with Indiana weather in May, this is a when and not if).

It had been one weekend of qualifying form 2005-2007 iirc. I do think that this is only a temporary move for the times, and things will go back to the whole month when the new car comes, just as they did in 2001.

I do think that if the speedway does this they should do something else at the tracks in the time earlier in the month, like bring back private testing at the track or run some sort of historic races (which would be really cool right up until the point somebody got really hurt)

[nigelred5]

When was the last time the "Month of May" really WAS the "Month of May"? When was the last time folks were lined up at the gates waiting to get in for pole day, bump day, carburation day, practice days etc? This move changes absolutely nothing except to align the calendar with the REALITY of what has already transpired since the 1990's.

Gary

It was a month when the race allowed different chassis and engines to compete. When teams still actually ran one-offs and had a chance of winning. When innovation came from a month of testing and dialing in the car to get every last bit out of the car just to make the field. When a 2.5 mile track , a 500 mile race and 200 mph speeds was something more of a spectacle that happened once a year. When it was virtually the only race of the year one could actually watch on television. When the ability of a car, chassis and driver to actually last 500 miles at those speeds was in question.

There is no perceived leap in technology between an indycar and even the average sedan any longer. I think the sterilization of the race track itself also led to a decline in its' aura. It's almost too safe. It was necessary, but I haven't liked the track itself since the corners were reconfigured and the acceleration/deceleration lanes were added in '93. The racing line is too narrow and predictabe. It's no longer that ultimate test of a driver and his ability to cheat physics and perhaps even death for 500 miles. Unfortunately to an extent, racing car technology outpaced even the mighty Brickyard. even more unfortunate, is the average weekend racing fan can recognise when the cars are artificially slowed down to keep things safe. When my daily driver is capable of 180 mph, watching cars race at 200 just isn't that exciting. I went through that same experience with the hydroplane racing I also grew up around. When my own boat was capable of speeds as fast or faster than those of the boats I watched friends race, It just wasn't that interesting any more.

[racer69]

A shame but can see why it has been done

What about the format of each day? Will they still be allowing this "4 goes per days" business?

[Jonesi]

A shame but can see why it has been done

What about the format of each day? Will they still be allowing this "4 goes per days" business?

It never was 4, it was 3 per day.

[Wilf]

Actually that's not technically correct. What Pat was getting to was one of the original thorns of contention that caused the IRL to be formed in the first place.

In the 90s when CART was at its peak it appeared to many team owners that the speedway was doing everything it could to bleed money out of the teams during May. If I'm remembering right (I was in high school at the time) two of the things the owners were most unhappy about was having to use track catering, when all the teams had their own food service, and the top teams like Newman Hass and Penske had some high-priced chefs on the payroll, and a general increase in the fees.
How may people tailgate INSIDE a stadium?

[MDS]

How may people tailgate INSIDE a stadium?

The teams, not the fans. The teams would be at the speedway 20 working days and instead of feeding themselves, and their corporate VIPs and guests with their own chef. Providing one to two meals a day for 60-100 people, even the tiny teams would feed 20 or so, was expensive, and by doing it in house they got to save time and money. What IMS did in the 90s was forbid the use of outside food, which cost the teams a good bit of money for no apparent reason other than TG's greed/spite.

[Blancvino]

Boy, this thread seems to be twisting into CART/Champcar vs. IRL.

On topic, if you ask me, feel lucky they did not shrink it to one week.

[spiritone]

"Shrink it to one week"




THATS NEXT YEAR.