Randy Bernard's appearence on Wind Tunnel

[Mark in Oshawa]

Randy...meet Robin.....(guess host tonight was Robin Miller)

My first impression? The Hulman clan is in this for a long haul. Bernard was signed to a 6 year agreement according to Randy. He is also of the opinion he wants the best drivers in the world he can get, no matter where they are from BUT he wants to encourage Americans in karting and the like to move forward into The IRL. He feels obviously this hasn't been done. Probably isn't alone, and to that Miller retorted "you should get JR Hildebrand and help him, he is your Indy Lights Champ"...

This guy tho really admitted he isn't anything close to an expert on the technical side and is putting together a 7 member body to help guide him on the most important rules formulation in the history of the IRL. One of those members will be a team owner (as elected by the teams) but who the 7 are hasn't been made public or even picked maybe yet. He also stated the IRL survey's that were sent out (not to me but apparently a few of you) are to be coming into tabulation and that he was optimistic on what they will say.

IN short, for a guy who saw his first race in Sao Paolo ONE week ago, he isn't making any assumptions. He also didn't strike me as someone who was going to make decisions without a lot of consultation with the people in the sport, and his attitude towards the competition for fans was very intersting. He bascially see's the competition for the dollar and interest of the fans is not just other forms of racing, but other forms of sport and entertainment. A logical answer, yet most racing bodies don't really see themselves as part of this greater whole.

Was I impressed with the guy? Yes, only because he seems to know what he doesn't know, but he DOES understand the need to get back on Network TV full time (more screens being a good idea); and that he has a track record for growing an obscure sport. Bull riding wasn't seen as anything but a weird western thing until he came along and put rodeo on the tips of people's tongues for advertisers and the national media. If he didn't have that track record, I would say this guy was out of his depth. BECAUSE of his track record, and his honesty in not trying to blow smoke up my tush about what he knows or doesn't know, I have some faith this guy will take the series somewhere. Maybe I am wrong, maybe he fails, but when we see the dust settle in the next 5 years, either this series is ahead of where it is now, or it is dead. If it is dead, it will because the bleeding was too great to stem, not this guy IMO.

[Scotty G.]

He is also of the opinion he wants the best drivers in the world he can get, no matter where they are from BUT he wants to encourage Americans in thinks like karting and the like to move forward into The IRL.




Yes, this seems like the canned response we get from Indy Car leadership, when they can't rationally come up with reasons why there are so few American drivers in their series. Heard the same crap from CART and Champ Car too.

Unless they start getting some of America's best drivers again (which they used to in the 60's, 70's and 80's back when Americans made up 80% of the Indy 500 field every year), instead of ignoring them and losing almost all of them to NASCAR or Sports Cars, then it won't matter how many "world-class" Brazilian's and Frenchmen come into the sport.

He can "encourage" all the little carter girls and guys out there he wants. Proof is in the pudding.

Never been that impressed with Bernard as a spokesman for the sport. Not a exciting interviewee. His lack of knowledge of the sport, is painfully obvious.

His job (and really ONLY job at this point) is to find sponsors and find money to pay off debts for the league. The rest of it, he should leave to racing folks.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Yes, this seems like the canned response we get from Indy Car leadership, when they can't rationally come up with reasons why there are so few American drivers in their series. Heard the same crap from CART and Champ Car too..

He isn't to blame for that Scott, and what he is saying is he wants to reach out. By your ongoing tirade, you keep thinking this is a purposeful or concentrated effort to keep Americans OUT. I will always disagree, most of the Americans cant get sponsors to write the checks, and THAT is a knock on corporate America to an extent, but I will also point out most USAC guys driving sprint cars who used to end up in Indy cars are not driving the right kind of car to adapt TO The IRL. When I see a winged rear engined sprint car, it will be my first. The fact is not enough Americans past the karting stages are always going up the OW ladder, and when they do reach the top, the lack of corporate support puts them in Grand AM or NASCAR where Corporate America IS willing to back them...so the question should be where is corporate America? I won't blame the IRL for the lack of Americans in the sport, I blame people not supporting their own. I blame Corporate Canada for not backing PT and not backing Andrew Ranger when he wanted money either....


Never been that impressed with Bernard as a spokesman for the sport. Not a exciting interviewee. His lack of knowledge of the sport, is painfully obvious.

His job (and really ONLY job at this point) is to find sponsors and find money to pay off debts for the league. The rest of it, he should leave to racing folks.

He admits his lack of knowledge. I never sensed TG knew much but he it didn't stop him from trying to run the sport out the 6 inches between his ears. I bet Randy never rode a bull either....but it didn't stop him from selling bull riding..

His job as you say, is what it is, and he admits he is having a techincal board to help guide him through the next formula for the sport.

Point is, like him or not (not Mr. Excitement is Mr. Bernard) has a track record of raising the obscure to the relevent in a sport that is so not politically correct in today's world, so this should make the Indycar world a little easier to navigate...

[px400r]

Point is, like him or not (not Mr. Excitement is Mr. Bernard) has a track record of raising the obscure to the relevent in a sport that is so not politically correct in today's world, so this should make the Indycar world a little easier to navigate...

Mark, I like your optimism. Personally, I haven't decided yet whether or not Bernard's hiring is a good thing. The only opinion I have formed so far, is that bringing in an outsider can't all be that bad. He brings a new perspective that could help. He can't do any worse than the "insiders."

But I wouldn't be so quick to hang on the "proven track record" mantra. Yes, he guided the PBA to where it is, but one accomplishment does not a track record make, IMO.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Mark, I like your optimism. Personally, I haven't decided yet whether or not Bernard's hiring is a good thing. The only opinion I have formed so far, is that bringing in an outsider can't all be that bad. He brings a new perspective that could help. He can't do any worse than the "insiders."

But I wouldn't be so quick to hang on the "proven track record" mantra. Yes, he guided the PBA to where it is, but one accomplishment does not a track record make, IMO.

Well the way I see it he has one more accomplishment under his belt than the previous head of the IRL when HE started...

Also, the way to approach this is very simple. The series on the technical side and the team side has decent people in place. Everyone pretty much agrees on that. Where it is falling down, and where it has been weak since the start is understanding the marketing of sport, and the role this series has in the greater entertainment world. Randy Bernard I think grasps this concept and is finding out where the sport sits and can then identify how to pull it up the ladder. This is about marketing, not actually about the racing.

Tony George never understood that knowing where the sport fit in the hiearchy of racing and the hiearchy of sport entertainment is why we are where we are. The sport is a well established sport, with close to a hundred years of history (Centennial year next year for the 500) and yet is an afterthought. Criminal.....

Really, Bernard really can only go up. He doesn't know enough about the racing side of things to do anything so radical he upsets the applecart on that end when he has good people advising him, so his main task is to sell and market. His track record with PBR says to me if he can sell that politically incorrect gig, he can sell this one...

[SUBARUTEAM]

there has been a lot of politics in AOW racing for years - the series and the sport needs someone with no bagage or agenda or pre concieved ideas.

it was a great call to hire this bloke and I firmly beleive that the series is past the worst and is on the way up.

[peasant]

there has been a lot of politics in AOW racing for years - the series and the sport needs someone with no bagage or agenda or pre concieved ideas.

it was a great call to hire this bloke and I firmly beleive that the series is past the worst and is on the way up.

Perhaps, but I think only if they make the decision to open up to multiple manufacturers. If they go spec - I think it's turn the lights out.

Multiple manufacturers, some innovation on green(er) technology and no Barnhart - they have a very good chance

[SUBARUTEAM]

As long as there can be parity between the chassis’s and engines
Imagine a situation where ½ the field run away from the rest, or if we get a situation where one team gets looked after more then others (eg AGR a few years ago). they have it right in v8 super cars (two manufacturers/engines) but the irl had it wrong when toyota were producing under powered engines.

you must admit that the racing wasn't too bad last weekend

[SUBARUTEAM]

further to the above - we ended up with the current spec chassis because the the current one was far better then the alternative - so all teams changed. i think there are more implications to this decision then we think. In theroy, i am in favour of opening it up, but only if its a level playing field.

indy car will never be at the cutting edge of technolgy ever again - leave that to f1.

what is needed is good value for money for the teams, good tv coverage/ratings and good close racing. nothing else really matters does it?

[e2mtt]

For real cool racing, they just need to get rid of the mandantory rev limits & run all tracks with superspeedway spec wings!

The current chassis needs to be updated, yes... but there isn't any real advantage in the racing to having multiple chassis or engine manufacturers. Giving the teams freedom with engine/fuel mix tuning, tire compounds, wing settings, and even limited custom aero bits would provide good variety, even with all the same chassis & engine.

[Mark in Oshawa]

further to the above - we ended up with the current spec chassis because the the current one was far better then the alternative - so all teams changed. i think there are more implications to this decision then we think. In theroy, i am in favour of opening it up, but only if its a level playing field.

indy car will never be at the cutting edge of technolgy ever again - leave that to f1.

what is needed is good value for money for the teams, good tv coverage/ratings and good close racing. nothing else really matters does it?

Spec racing wont work. A slight bit of change and evolution occurs when you have two similar but slightly different platforms. If one chassis works better on ovals than the other, and there is about a 50-50 split in road/street and ovals, then you have different strengths and weaknesses being dealt with, and you have more differential in the field, which promotes passing.

IT wont be cutting edge no...but it would be nice to see people trying things...right now..there is NO changing...

[Jag_Warrior]

When Alan Mulally arrived at Ford, I was convinced that he was going to be the final nail in the coffin, because he was NOT a car guy. Alan has, thus far, shown himself to be one of the best CEO's Ford has had in decades. Alan's strength is that he is a process (nuts & bolts) guy and he is a fantastic operational leader. If you don't know much about the product, you can still distinguish yourself by breaking everything down as processes, and just improving those.

Obviously Randy Bernard doesn't know the Indy car product. But I think it's still possible for him to improve the product... IF he has skill sets similar to Mulally's. If he doesn't, then this is going to end badly. By that interview, I'd say the jury is still out on whether he was successful at PBR because he was an expert on that particular product, or because he had the ability to see things as processes and set realistic improvement/growth targets.

jm2c

[Mark in Oshawa]

Obviously Randy Bernard doesn't know the Indy car product. But I think it's still possible for him to improve the product... IF he has skill sets similar to Mulally's. If he doesn't, then this is going to end badly. By that interview, I'd say the jury is still out on whether he was successful at PBR because he was an expert on that particular product, or because he had the ability to see things as processes and set realistic improvement/growth targets.

jm2c

I don't think he was an expert on the bullriding to be honest Jag. I think it is exactly like your Mullaly compasion. For too long, racing has been run by racing people in a lot of cases, and the simple reality is, this is a business. Tony didn't run it as a business, he ran as a personal crusade. The businessmen in CART were handcuffed because the owners were the real power and the leader had to follow the actual powerbrokers. In short, the business of OW racing in North American really hasn't been run by people knowing what they are doing for a while. Kevin Kalkoven should have been that guy with the CCWS, but he listened to people like Gerry Forsythe and that idiot Gentilozzi too much. Too much knowledge of this sport in some ways by the leaders has hurt it.

The best possible leader for racing is of course someone smart enough to underrstand the nuances of racing without forgetting business principles. NASCAR was fortunate, they had two of those guys in Bill France Sr. and Jr. I don't think we have really ever seen that in American OW racing....

[PA Rick]

Finally we get a leader who cut his teeth in open wheel racing. The sport was great and prospered under Tony George, but we needed someone who understood the way it was under Eddie Rickenbacker and try to recapture the magic.
The first choice was Dave Littlefield, the record breaking general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, but Dave got lost and kept circling the track and never made the interview.
Seriously, open wheel used to be about the cars and it was entertaining. Now it is about entertainment and there are cars.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Finally we get a leader who cut his teeth in open wheel racing. The sport was great and prospered under Tony George, but we needed someone who understood the way it was under Eddie Rickenbacker and try to recapture the magic.
The first choice was Dave Littlefield, the record breaking general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, but Dave got lost and kept circling the track and never made the interview.
Seriously, open wheel used to be about the cars and it was entertaining. Now it is about entertainment and there are cars.

ummmm sarcasm is a lot of fun...but I think the problem is the IRL hasn't been about entertainment, and it hasn't been about the cars for a while...

[Chris R]

Yes, this seems like the canned response we get from Indy Car leadership, when they can't rationally come up with reasons why there are so few American drivers in their series. Heard the same crap from CART and Champ Car too.

Unless they start getting some of America's best drivers again (which they used to in the 60's, 70's and 80's back when Americans made up 80% of the Indy 500 field every year), instead of ignoring them and losing almost all of them to NASCAR or Sports Cars, then it won't matter how many "world-class" Brazilian's and Frenchmen come into the sport.

.

I am just not seeing how the Indy 500 field was made up of better drivers in the 60's, 70's and 80's... if you look back and compare 10 year blocks of time it is easy to come up with a full field of good drivers - but on a year to year basis here were a bunch of field fillers that may have been good in their regular form of racing but were not necessarily any better than today's ride buyers.... He are some of the name that pop into my head form the 1970's"
John Martin
Eldon Rasmussen
Larry Cannon
Jerry Karl
Bill Puterbaugh
Jerry sneva
Bently Warren
Salt Walther (ride buyer if there ever was one!!)
Sam Sessions


Nothing against any of these guys - they were all good enough to get to the 500 and deserved to be there - I just do not see how they are any better than what we have now.... Yes they were Americans, but field fillers are field fillers and I have not better idea of who they are/were than some of these new guys...

Granted, today we do not have 10 or so top drivers who happen to be american - but really AOWR has not had guys with careers that regularly last over a decade (like Foyt, Andretti, the Unsers, Rutherford, etc....) in a while so it is pretty hard to keep anyone long enough to be a household name because they drive and Indycar.....

[Mark in Oshawa]

I am just not seeing how the Indy 500 field was made up of better drivers in the 60's, 70's and 80's... if you look back and compare 10 year blocks of time it is easy to come up with a full field of good drivers - but on a year to year basis here were a bunch of field fillers that may have been good in their regular form of racing but were not necessarily any better than today's ride buyers.... He are some of the name that pop into my head form the 1970's"
John Martin
Eldon Rasmussen
Larry Cannon
Jerry Karl
Bill Puterbaugh
Jerry sneva
Bently Warren
Salt Walther (ride buyer if there ever was one!!)
Sam Sessions


Nothing against any of these guys - they were all good enough to get to the 500 and deserved to be there - I just do not see how they are any better than what we have now.... Yes they were Americans, but field fillers are field fillers and I have not better idea of who they are/were than some of these new guys...

Granted, today we do not have 10 or so top drivers who happen to be american - but really AOWR has not had guys with careers that regularly last over a decade (like Foyt, Andretti, the Unsers, Rutherford, etc....) in a while so it is pretty hard to keep anyone long enough to be a household name because they drive and Indycar.....

Rasmussen was a Canadian I believe...but your point is well made. None of these guys was really star material, and all of them I suspect would be able to walk through town on a Saturday not be recognized....

Today's IRL has a lot of guys who wouldn't be raising any eyebrows too..except for their accent.

The sad reality is, the IRL has promoted only ONE driver other than Danica, and it was more ABC's doing and his happy feet that made him a household name....