Atlantics: 2010 series a no go

[Placid]

It may not be Indy Lights. But this is American Open Wheel.

The 2010 season has stalled.

http://www.flagworld.com/news/?p=33294

[Mark in Oshawa]

I am shocked it made the bell last year. There are too many open wheeled formats, all working against each other, and the IRL complicated things with their creation and their creation of Indy Lights just made things more muddled.

[Phoenixent]

What a sad lost for American Open Wheel racing. To bad Tony George and others did not have the vision to see the destruction they would cause. What a bunch of blind fools like the George Family, Roger Penske, Foyt, Rahal, Ganassi and others. :mad:

My heart goes out to the Teams, Crew Members, and their families in this difficult time. ;(

[TURN3]

What a sad lost for American Open Wheel racing. To bad Tony George and others did not have the vision to see the destruction they would cause. What a bunch of blind fools like the George Family, Roger Penske, Foyt, Rahal, Ganassi and others. :mad:

My heart goes out to the Teams, Crew Members, and their families in this difficult time. ;(

My thoughts exactly. A loss of a great American institution.

[Mark in Oshawa]

What a sad lost for American Open Wheel racing. To bad Tony George and others did not have the vision to see the destruction they would cause. What a bunch of blind fools like the George Family, Roger Penske, Foyt, Rahal, Ganassi and others. :mad:

My heart goes out to the Teams, Crew Members, and their families in this difficult time. ;(

I cant blame Tony for this one. Atlantics were alinged with CCWS and owned by Kalkoven and co. at one point. I wont blame Tony for this one. He has messed the sport up, but Atlantics dying is more a symptom of all the general stupidity....

[Phoenixent]

I cant blame Tony for this one. Atlantics were alinged with CCWS and owned by Kalkoven and co. at one point. I wont blame Tony for this one. He has messed the sport up, but Atlantics dying is more a symptom of all the general stupidity....

I can blame Tony, Roger, Chip and the rest for the downfall of this series. Alantic Series was aligned with CART in 1995 as part of the feeder system. Once that split happened the slow death started. It was the stupidity of a track owner and the CART team owners in 1995 that killed open wheel and leaves us with NASC***.

It's so late in the game for those teams to change over to Indy Lights. Another good thing destroyed by rich people who don't have a clue. :mad:

[Easy Drifter]

It has had some rough times but this is pretty bad.
I was repping at a meeting in Chicago in 79 when basically the owners decided to fund the year.
Later Vicki O'Connor in the East and Rick Shea on the West coast kept Atlantics alive.
It doesn't look like Vicki can save them this time. She is no spring chicken. Husband Bill was an Atlantic driver in the mid seventies.

[Ironcurtainantihero]

I can blame Tony, Roger, Chip and the rest for the downfall of this series. Alantic Series was aligned with CART in 1995 as part of the feeder system. Once that split happened the slow death started. It was the stupidity of a track owner and the CART team owners in 1995 that killed open wheel and leaves us with NASC***.

It's so late in the game for those teams to change over to Indy Lights. Another good thing destroyed by rich people who don't have a clue. :mad:


The ATLANTIC series was part of the CART ladder for many seasons-as was Indy Lights, a fact which most seem to conveniently forget-because it doesn't fit the agenda and beliefs people have.

By the way, I also find it interesting that no one is blaming Ben Johnston, who bought the series and apparently failed to pay the champion Newman-Wachs team last year for the demise of the series. It's always Tony George's fault or someone else's fault. Typical of the people on this board. Never let logic interfere with your non-factual illogical beliefs. :D :vader:

[Easy Drifter]

I didn't blame anyone as I do not know the facts. If the money was not paid out no wonder there is a problem.
I have heard Vicki O'Connor has left but don't know when.
She was the series for many years!
I did wonder when changes to the purse structure were recently announced. That was not a good sign at a late date.

[V12]

I am shocked it made the bell last year. There are too many open wheeled formats, all working against each other, and the IRL complicated things with their creation and their creation of Indy Lights just made things more muddled.

When I first got into American motorsport in the early 90s, I was always under the impression that Atlantics was a "Formula 3" equivalent/level series, with the old Indy Lights at F2/F3000 level, below the IndyCar series/CART. Then for some reason Indy Lights was canned and Atlantics became the series directly below the CART/Champ Car series.

The question is, could Atlantics have been repositioned as an Indy Lights feeder, rather than having the two competing against each other?

[px400r]

It's sad, but when Cooper Tires became title sponsor for IMSA Lites, I knew something wasn't right.

[booger]

Once there was Indycar and Supervee. Anybody remember Supervee? Anybody care?

[Lee Roy]

A sad, sad day. It'll be missed. Especially by those who knew the series back in the day. It's like may never be seen in North America again.

The first time I saw a F/A race was at the 1996 Candian Grand Prix weekend. Wonderful race cars and fantastic racing.

[bblocker68]

Bummer.

Can Eddie Wachs and John Edwards find an IndyCar deal now??

[px400r]

Actually Atlantics (then Formula B) predated Supervee.

Yes, but Supervee predates Atlantics as a part of the Indy Car ladder.

[Easy Drifter]

In the 70's more than once there were qualifying races to determine the last starters in the feature. There were that many cars. Sometimes the non qualifiers were just out.
At one Gimli race a top runner in SCCA FA came up. He did a few laps of practice, parked and watched the rest of the weekend from the roof of his trailer. He just said "I don't belong out there. I am just in the way."
The talent was immense. Adding to Starters list, EFR, Jacques Villeneuve (l'Oncle), Richard Spenard, Vern Schulpan, Jim King, Chip Mead, Bobby Brown, Bruce Jensen, Hector Rebaque, David Walker (ex Lotus F1 driver) Damien Magee (the original mad dog), Gary Magwood, Bertil Roos and many more.

[Mark in Oshawa]

I can blame Tony, Roger, Chip and the rest for the downfall of this series. Alantic Series was aligned with CART in 1995 as part of the feeder system. Once that split happened the slow death started. It was the stupidity of a track owner and the CART team owners in 1995 that killed open wheel and leaves us with NASC***.

It's so late in the game for those teams to change over to Indy Lights. Another good thing destroyed by rich people who don't have a clue. :mad:

That is assuming of course you put Roger, Chip and the rest for Tony wanting to run everything. They just knew he couldn't do it and hoped he would go away. He proved he couldn't do it so I WONT blame them. Sorry, Atlantic is a casualty of all this stupidity, but the reality is it could have fed the IRL and Atlantics if IRL owners had looked to Atlantic drivers and signed them. Instead, they started the Firestone Indy Lights because Tony of course had to have his own ladder system, which was not economically viable any more than having two Indy car formats makes any sense.

This desire to point fingers at everyone lets everyone feel better, but the evidence of this stupidity is there for all to see. We need one OW series at the top, and one, to maybe 2 (Lights and Atlantics) sub series. Ideally, Atlantics work just fine. The guys who have jumped from Atlantics to Indycar or Atlantics to F1 is a pretty stunning list. We didn't need a step between the Atlantics and the top level of racing. Sorry, the whole reason FIL was started so IRL events would have their own sub series to keep people entertained. Again, stupid, because with Atlantics, Mazda's, FF2000 and all the various SCCA Pro Series over the years, adding yet another series such as FIL was stupidity compounded on.

The whole issue with North American racing is there is too many vain and stupid people trying to run their own kingdoms. It is why NASCAR has dominated because the Frances are benovolent dictators and have enough leverage to stop the egos before they start up competition.

[Scotty G.]

Bummer.

Can Eddie Wachs and John Edwards find an IndyCar deal now??



Nope.

If John could find some Veneuzelan oil bucks, he'd be golden.


He'll just have to go to sportscars with all the other AOW castoffs who weren't "special" enough for the Indy Car world, and kick ass there.

[booger]

And alas there was Peter Moody from Jamaica. Now there was a race car driver! Lucky there were no drug tests then!

[booger]

Wachs is a guy on a real ego trip that will never be anything in racing. Mid pack Can Am at best when he raced and all he does now is brag about vintage. Wripped off millions in the middle east with his "pipe dreams, er, pipeline" deals. Went to "funded drivers" about a year after they put all the hoopla into the Atlantic race car driver "idol search". This crap needs to be exposed to you fanorama yahoos.

[Mark in Oshawa]

I will miss Atlantics. Once upon a time two of the best Atlantic drivers were guys named Gilles and Keke. One won an F1 Championship and the other was fast enough to. Gilles went form 240hp Atlantics to F1. Bobby Rahal and Danny Sullivan went to bigger and better things from Atlantics. The whole thing fell apart when Atlantic champions didn't always get rides in CART or the IRL.

The really sad reality? Some of the best races I have seen ANYWHERE took place in Atlantics. It is a formula that isn't out of control, and the cars were economical for the perfomance they offered. They were the perfect ladder formula.....

[DavePI2]

a sad day indeed, was hoping to watch them again at midohio this year. A hole in the schedule that will be hard to fill.

david

[shazbot]

British Leyland
Lola
Elan/Panoz
Atlantic Series

What do they all have in common I wonder? Anyone know the answer?

[Mark in Oshawa]

British Leyland
Lola
Elan/Panoz
Atlantic Series

What do they all have in common I wonder? Anyone know the answer?
No, but I am sure you can tell us.....

[nigelred5]

........:welllll.............weeeeere waaaaitinnnnng. ;)

[shazbot]

Maybe I should say 'who' do they have in common......

[Mark in Oshawa]

Maybe I should say 'who' do they have in common......

Eric Broadley? I dunno...

[Riley]

Hmmmm, lets see.

British Leyland - produced crappy cars with crappy management and thankfully dissapeared
Lola - seemingly solid company, but went through a rough patch a few years back
Panoz - Could have done a better job than USF1 a few years back, but run into the ground now and surviving on military and civil avaition work (probably better than racing cars I guess)
Atlantics. No more it would seem.

So we are looking for a key figure involved in all four? Who ever it is has left a wake of destruction behind them! Sounds like Ken Anderson but I can't link him to any of these!

[Mark in Oshawa]

Hmmmm, lets see.

British Leyland - produced crappy cars with crappy management and thankfully dissapeared
Lola - seemingly solid company, but went through a rough patch a few years back
Panoz - Could have done a better job than USF1 a few years back, but run into the ground now and surviving on military and civil avaition work (probably better than racing cars I guess)
Atlantics. No more it would seem.

So we are looking for a key figure involved in all four? Who ever it is has left a wake of destruction behind them! Sounds like Ken Anderson but I can't link him to any of these!

Ken Anderson, didn't he just run Toyota's F1 team? If he was at Leyland, I would hardly blame him. THAT deal was mismanged with awful unions helping sink the ship...

[F1boat]

Rip Fa :(