IROC Skips Daytona ... Texas

[RaceFanStan]

http://www.irocracing.com/2002season/site_images/front_page_top.gif
IROC has announced a delay in the start of the 2007 season due to not having a title sponsor in place. :s
Race 1 @ Daytona was CANCELLED in February & now Race 2 @ Texas has also been CANCELLED. :s

[Jonesi]

I think if they don't have a sponsor in the next month the whole year will be called off. With all the full conflicting schedules it may be its time has past. The I in IROC has been gone for years and the C hasn't always been well represented. Maybe they should just develope what the series was heading to anyway a Nascar Senior tour.

[RaceFanStan]

The "I" is still revelant :
3 of the drivers in 2006 were non-Americans http://www.motorsportforum.com/forums/images/icons/tongue-anim.gif

The "C" is also still revelant :
ALL of the drivers are Champions in their current or a feeder series http://www.motorsportforum.com/forums/images/icons/tongue-anim.gif

I hope IROC can find a title sponsor.
I'm sure 4 races could still happen ...
The Daytona roadcourse & Atlanta are still scheduled ...
2 more races could be added anywhere ...
I'm thinking Richmond & Talladega would be great tracks for an IROC race. :D

(That would make a race @ the 4 most common type tracks)
(1 Intermediate Track – 1 ShortTrack – 1 Super Speedway & 1 Road Course)

[Jonesi]

>The "I" is still revelant :
3 of the drivers in 2006 were non-Americans http://www.motorsportforum.com/forums/images/icons/tongue-anim.gif

Granted '06 was an improvement over the last few years, but most of the 00s there were less.

>The Daytona roadcourse & Atlanta are still scheduled ...
I'm pretty sure they said they wouldn't do the Daytona road course in July again. Although if a big $ sponsor shows up, many things are possible ;-) (They already have a $1mil sponsor if they race at Eldora ;-)

[racefanfromnj]

irocs shop is right behind my shop and you gotta love the sounds when they fire up the cars to test engines sounds cool

[Mark in Oshawa]

The main issue I have always had with IROC is basically it is a NASCAR invitational. For years they never touched the road courses, and while a few select "foreigners" were able to get rides, the overwhelming NASCAR boys were on their turf driving cars that were basically better handling versions of what they already drive.

IN short, if the didn't win, you had to almost wonder what was wrong with them. That said, it was cheap fun at times, and the problems and logisitics of getting drivers from many different series together at once in midseason are pretty much hostage to the NASCAR schedule.

In the perfect world, an IROC sched would be to have the current IROC cars run at Daytona during Speedweeks. Have the same 12 guys race maybe a DP like car on a road course for a second race later in the year, and have the same drivers race open wheelers on a oval and maybe a road course later in the season. NOw that would be something and fair to all, but alas, that is fantasy land and not realisitic.

IROC was an interesting diversion, but lets face it, no one put much stock in it.....

[tstran17_88]

Stick a fork in it...I think it's done. Too bad.

[GayParis]

Like the NBA slam dunk contest or MLB's home run derby, change to IROC is needed. It probably wouldn't hurt if IROC went away for a few seasons and came back say every 4 years or so.

[RaceFanStan]

IMO the biggest thing that hurt IROC was some of the invited drivers.
Too many times a driver was invited but the invitation was declined by the candyass drivers.

The wimp drivers gave several lame excuses .....

"I'm concentrating on winning the xxxxxx xxxxxx Series Championship" comes to mind,
did that driver win the Championship ? Fukk No ! :rolleyes:

"It conflicts with my xxxxxx xxxxxx Series Schedule" was also used a lot,
heaven forbid that an "elite" driver be inconvienced by trying to schedule hiis time wisely. :rolleyes:

"I just don't have the time" was another one they used, why couldn't they be honest ?
They should have admitted they didn't want to race a car that was ONLY equal to the other cars ! :rolleyes:

Yes, I blame the drivers who chickensh!tted out of competing for whatever their reason for bringing IROC down.
I could accept broken bones as an reasonable excuse, other than that I have no tolerance for wimps ! http://www.motorsportforum.com/forums/images/icons/tongue-anim.gif

[DEI8151]

I disagree with someone of you saying the IROC series was going down hill, my goodness IROC racing is so exciting and competitive. i still really havent heard why Crown Royal left the series but im very sad over this.

I would have thought someone would have jumped at the opportunity to sponsor the IROC series its puzzling to me.

its time to go back to the roots of IROC though like going back to talladega and going back to a 2 mile track like california go back in Indy. hope a sponsor is found

[ms0362]

50% of their season is called off.... they can't pull it out, it's done. We season ticket holders at TMS don't get our money back. They're showing the Earnhardt movie on big screens. (I'd rather see it in a theater where you can actually hear and see it).

[Lee Roy]

As far as I'm concerned, they could kill IROC all together and I wouldn't miss it at all. I attended the finale of the first IROC series at Daytona in 1974, and the current iteration of IROC is not very appealing to me.

One of the biggest changes is that in those days, the drivers from other series were even bigger names than the NASCAR drivers. The rivalries between the different series drivers meant something.

F1 is now way bigger than NASCAR and how are you going to tell Fernando Alonso that he'll need to drive a car at a race in Texas to prove he's the best? He'll point to his paycheck and tell you to argue with that.

For the other series, particularly both of the American Open Wheel series, are so pathetically weak that the drivers are just happy to be on the track with the NASCAR drivers in hopes that they can get just a little recognition that their chosen series doesn't afford them.

Kill IROC until there are other series in the US that can provide stars of equal, or nearly equal, stature of NASCAR's stars.