Champ Car has lost another fan to the IRL

[Pieter Dams]

Now that Paul Tracy, the only real character left in the Champ Car World Series, is out indefinitely and has been replaced by Oriol Servia, I can finally stop forcing myself to watch their races. I have been a Champ Car fan from Zolder, Belgium, since 1995 but have grown more and more frustrated over the years by the loss of North American drivers and the invasion by uncharismatic European and South American Formula 1 rejects or wannabes. Champ Car has evolved from being a great racing series in its own right to not even a Formula 1 but a third rate GP 2 wannabe series.
It is with a great pain in my heart that I have made this decision, because Champ Car still has the greatest tracks and cars out there, but the only reason why I have watched a race since 2003 was Paul Tracy and, briefly, AJ Allmendinger. I will not even attend the Belgian Champ Car race which will be held at 5 min. from were I live, because I don't think the series deserves my finacial or psychological support any longer.
I will now only watch the IRL, even though I think their cars are very ugly compared to the Champ Cars, but at least they make a genuine effort to recreate the CART series of the old days and to promote home grown talent. Also, at least their drivers stay in the series.
I can only hope that one day, the powers that be will finally come to their senses, get rid of the Tristan Gommendys and Paul Stoddarts and reunite American Open Wheel Racing.

[F1boat]

I'm very surprised by this. IMO Champ Car has very nice cars this year and Bourdais IMO is as good as the IRL top champions.
I love both series.

[millencolin]

why did you have to post this twice? and does anybody give a crap? from the responses in the EXACT SAME THREAD you posted in the ChampCar forum, the answer is NO! No one gives a crap

[ChicagocrewIRL]

why did you have to post this twice? and does anybody give a crap? from the responses in the EXACT SAME THREAD you posted in the ChampCar forum, the answer is NO! No one gives a crap

CHILL DUDE !!!


p.s. for the record ... I give a crap

[millencolin]

im not angry, im just pointing out his stupidity.... its fun, you should try it some time

[weeflyonthewall]

Now that Paul Tracy, the only real character left in the Champ Car World Series, is out indefinitely and has been replaced by Oriol Servia, I can finally stop forcing myself to watch their races. I have been a Champ Car fan from Zolder, Belgium, since 1995 but have grown more and more frustrated over the years by the loss of North American drivers and the invasion by uncharismatic European and South American Formula 1 rejects or wannabes. Champ Car has evolved from being a great racing series in its own right to not even a Formula 1 but a third rate GP 2 wannabe series.
It is with a great pain in my heart that I have made this decision, because Champ Car still has the greatest tracks and cars out there, but the only reason why I have watched a race since 2003 was Paul Tracy and, briefly, AJ Allmendinger. I will not even attend the Belgian Champ Car race which will be held at 5 min. from were I live, because I don't think the series deserves my finacial or psychological support any longer.
I will now only watch the IRL, even though I think their cars are very ugly compared to the Champ Cars, but at least they make a genuine effort to recreate the CART series of the old days and to promote home grown talent. Also, at least their drivers stay in the series.
I can only hope that one day, the powers that be will finally come to their senses, get rid of the Tristan Gommendys and Paul Stoddarts and reunite American Open Wheel Racing.


If one driver has that much impact on your support of a series then it sounds like a personal problem to me. Then enjoy the twirly.

[Pieter Dams]

if you can't discuss this matter in a civilized way, please don't reply at all.
i was under the impression this was the indycar forum, not champ car and wanted to see what the IRL fans had to say about this.

[openwheeler]

welcome aboard!

ya picked a good time to increase your interest in IndyCar, as we have this little thing we do every May, lol

[Pieter Dams]

hahaha! no! really? and a certain mr michael andretti wouldn't be taking part in that activity, would he? ;-)

[millencolin]

do you follow a football team by any chance pieter? be it soccer, gridiron, rugby league, rugby union etc etc... do you stop following that team because your favourite player tore a hamstring or sprained his ankle and has to be sidelined for 2 weeks? I dunno about you but most people still follow that team even though their player is sidelined because they know that he/she will come back eventually once the injury has healed. One of my favourite players was sidelined for 2 weeks due to him being suspended due to a dangerous throw tackle (rugby league), but i still supported the Brisbane Broncos even though they didnt have Tonie 'Tunza' Carrol and only won one game this year even though they are the defending champions.

injuries are part of sport, i should know, i strained a muscle in my shoulder last night at indoor cricket and copped a fast ball in the elbow. Injuries go with sport just like winning, loosing, and crowds drinking beer. If Will Power or Mark Webber was injured, i'd still support them because i am a fan. i dont know if you were really a fan of Paul Tracy, because if you were you would wait until paul come backs and races again.

[LOTI]

I could not of said it any better millencolin.

[Jag_Warrior]

why did you have to post this twice? and does anybody give a crap? from the responses in the EXACT SAME THREAD you posted in the ChampCar forum, the answer is NO! No one gives a crap

Maybe this is some sort of cry for help?

[bblocker68]

Tristan Gommendy has actually fared pretty well in the first two races.

GP2 wannabee series? Tisk, tisk. Take a listen to those cars and you'd never make that comparison again.

[Pieter Dams]

hey millencolin,

as i said in a post on the champ car forum, "of course i wouldn't have stopped watching CC only because of tracy's injury if there were some other interesting drivers in the series, like there were back in, say, 1996. i wouldn't stop watching the IRL if sam hornish were to break his back. tracy not taking part in the races and being replaced by servia was simply the last drop. but in my opnion tracy is the face of the series and the only real champ car driver left, apart maybe from tag whose been around for a few years and is a product of a north american ladder system, unlike say robert doornbos, who only races champ car because he can't get a race drive in F1 and would leave as soon as he'd get the chance. the same is true for bourdais, jani, and 90 per cent of the other drivers on the grid. in contrast, almost all drivers in the current IRL are back from last year or had previously raced in the series whereas almost 80 per cent of the CC drivers are new to the series."

but since these posts seem to be read by guys from the champ car and indycar forums, i'm going to stop replying to this thread here, if you don't mind. i would like to thank openwheeler for his warm welcome and am looking forward to discussing some more motorsports with all of you, without meaning to insult anone.

[millencolin]

So your really not a fan of Paul Tracy then? your just a fan of this ideal of drivers coming through the american racing scene? hmm is Champcar that much different to Indycar? Vitor Meira, Scheckter (ex-jaguar f1 test driver), Matsuura etc etc... not much diffenece to champcar then mate...

[Pieter Dams]

PT is definitely my favorite driver, but I just feel that champ car being originally a north american racing series, their drivers should primarilly come from the US or Canada, like was the case in the mid 90s. these days, whenever a driver can't get a ride in F1 and he has some motorsports crazy sponsor backing him, he just buys himself a ride in camp car in stead. how many americans have ever heard of jan heylen's sponsor muermans i wonder?
and since the teams can't seem to land any american sponsors, they happily accept all of those formula 1 rejects. but the sport has lost al cridibility all over the world because of this. it used to be so that you had F1 on one side and champ car on the other. and neither series was considered inferior to the other, just different. F1 was more high tech and champ car was more about sow and close racing. but the driver talent was basically the same. then came along nigel mansell and champ car teams were all on the lokk out for the next hot eueopean driver. next, not only did former F1 drivers come over to race champ cars, people started using champ car as a way to get to F1. villeneuve, zanardi, da matta and montoya have all done so. so, champ car suddenly lost all of its champions and more and more people came over from europe and south america hoping to get to F1 via the champ car ranks. but american and canadian drivers generally were very happy to stay in champ car. that is until the series lost all of its splendour and even AJ Allmendinger, the one guy who could beat bourdais and an american on top of that, had no choice but to leave the series that could offer him no security. graham rahal will leave as soon as F1 comes calling as will bourdais. but since bourdais has no real competition and will no go down in history as the most succesful champ car driver because of that, no one in F1 gives a damn about him. so not only can you no longer use champ car as a stepping stone to F1, it's also become a haven for all of those who couldn't cut it in europe. and that trashed champ car's reputation even more.

you're right of course, when you say the IRL also has a lot of foreign drivers, but at least that series makes an effort to attract american drivers and recruit drivers from its feeder series. also, at least their foreign drivers are happy to stay in the series and have no intention of using it to go somewhere else. if we'd have one big series like we used to have in the past, sam hornish wouldn't even be thinking about a career in stock car racing, nor would AJ have left. and marco and graham wouldn't want to go to F1 either.

[millencolin]

i think the problem is that your not looking at the name of the series

Champ Car WORLD series. featuring teams and drivers from the world, with races all around the world.

and for the record... Aj Allmendinger was offered a 5 year deal with forsythe... in motor racing terms thats more than a secure job. he left for nascar because toyota/red bull was offering him way too much money. and i bet that Bourdais will end up in F1 nextyear replacing Scott Speed at STR, he has achieved everything he needs to in Champcar.

Rahal and Marco will not end up in F1. Marco only has a test with Honda, bit of a showman test, nothing else. Rahal just isnt good enough... yet.

[Pieter Dams]

well, like i said in a post at the champ car forum, there's not very much world about the champ car world series. one race in australia, 2 in europe and the rest are all in north america. i'm still not convinced they will ever race in asia. champ car has always been a primarily north american racing series and that is perfectly all right. and its drivers should reflect that.

btw, AJ didn't say he was offered a 5 year deal at forsythe in his interview with racer a couple of months ago. sure he left for the big buck. but also because forsythe, who has gone on record saying he will not fund a secon race car himself, couldn't offer him a long term future. and i don't think AJ was all that trusting of the champ car management either. the frances are doing a much better job at developing their product. as does tony george, actually.

[luvracin]

also, at least their foreign drivers are happy to stay in the series and have no intention of using it to go somewhere else.

Rubbish.

They're only staying because they know the F1 organisation consider's oval racing as inferior and so their chances to go F1 are non-existent.....unless your name is "Andretti".

I would say "at least the IRL drivers are realists", as opposed to the Champcar guys who all live in fantasy land.

[Pieter Dams]

hehehe you might have a point there :dozey:

[indycool]

millencolin, why demean the thread starter here? You obviously are a CC militant or at the very least like it much more than the IRL, he said his piece both places and it can be responded to in kind both places. IMO, it would be proper, as these forums go, to demean him on the CC board and ignore him here.

If you think you earn some CW points by doing it here, guess you probably do, though.

[drewdawg727]

Pieter, i think you need something else to believe in, and stop your whining while you're at it..you aren't getting any sympathy from this one.
If you want to leave the Champ Car fan base, then fine. But whining and complaining about things that aren't important are unnecessary.