Indy 500 Entries: Who Is TBA?
Written by George Katinger · April 16, 2005
The Indy Racing League announced the entries to the greatest spectacle in motorsport; thirty three drivers and three guys named “TBA.”
motorsport.com: Indy 500: Official entry list
“Too Bad To Announce”? “Team Barely Active”? “The Best Alternative”? “Top Bidder Awaiting”? I made a promise to myself to leave the IRL alone while they slowly over run OWRS and hopefully evolve as the single sanctioning body for open wheel racing. But it’s just “Too Bloody Achievable” to leave it be. Especially when the drivers line up is announced.
Not only do we have “Three Blank Amigos” but have you seen the names of the teams? Who are these people? Roth Racing, Curb Motorsports, PDM Racing, Playa Del Racing are all household names I’m sure we’ve all come to know and love. It’s great that racing people will put a team together to try and win “The Big One”, and I would sure root for the underdog who appears out of nowhere to win or contend. But this just smells like TG and the engine guys paying to fill the grid.
The point of all this sarcasm is directed to draw the readers attention to the sad level of importance the 500 has fallen to. Or more precisely the lack of importance. The only thing left for IMS is it’s historical context, because the teams and drivers currently entered don’t bring much in the way of competition. Besides having little name recognition to the average race fan, how could it be that you can’t find a driver ready to cut his own wrists to race at Indy?
And as far as having the magic number of 33 entrants, what would the count be without these suddenly appearing teams? Then subtract the extra cars that the IRL regulars have entered and totally forget the Vision team and you come up with 22. Thank you Newman-Haas for helping to fill the field. I wonder if Paul Newman will be at the race. If Bourdais or Junqueira win and you see a smiling Newman in Victory Lane then you’ll know it’s over for the OWRS!
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What, you never heard of the Unknown Comi…er, Driver who races into the first corner wearing his trademark “brown paper helmet”
everyone remembers TBA, he is the driver who up until a month before race day, made up over half the field at the LBGP. you almost cost me a monitory with that sounds like TG and engine manufacturers are paying to fill out the field statement. have you forgotten that if you take away EVERY car that is either given financial assistance from owrs or is a buy ride that you will have only 2 cars in the champcar field. evenif you make a acception for the teams owned by the 3 amingos you would still have less than 10 cars. now that is an example of paying to fill out a field.
Thanks Rick, your points are duly noted and recognized; OWRS has sponsor and driver issues. And to be fair, the Indy 500 was always historicaly benchmarked by one-off teams in the attempt to win “the big one.” But in the past, most of the 33 cars were regular competitors, and there would be another 10-15 teams attempting to qualify, hence all the excitement over bump day.
Until we are rid of one series or the other (most likely OWRS) we will never see those kinds of fields again.
The Guy Who wrote this article is a complete Idiot! PDM has been in the IRL since the beginning, Paul Diatlovich (the owner) was a racing mechanic/engineer for 20 years before he started the team. As for Playa Del the teams principal Ownership has had a hand in starting 2 or 3 different teams in the IRL in the past including Team Cheever. If TG is helping out Playa Del so much why didn’t he help them by the Kelly Assets when they were in that shop, had done due diligence, had changed the locks, and were supposed to close the deal by October 30th of last year. Tony gave them no money, they came up with the deal on there own. They are a future full time team in the Series. Then You have Curb/Beck, Beck has been in the series since I believe 98′ and Curb has been a sponsor in the series since 2000. He sponsored Billy Boat full time for 3 Years and has done an Indy one off the last 2. Look man you are writing about this sport when you obviously don’t follow it in the least, where were you last year when all teams you named except Playa Del were in the Field last year? And show me proof that Tony is helping any one of these teams, In the past I can say for a fact that he has, but now that he has his own team, that is struggling at that, you really think he would put his money in other places. If he needed to fill the field he would have run a 3rd or even 4th Vision Car!
Thanks for your passionate response, IRL MIPS Owner, but how about at least a first name to make responding a tad easier?
Why aren’t these teams you refer to racing full time in the series anymore? They no longer can afford to pay and play, can they? One race a year instead of a full schedule. And if TG is not putting his cash on the line, how about the engine companies? Are they subsidizing any costs (including Chevy), or are these teams paying full freight. Maybe they can afford an engine or three for the Big Race, maybe not.
And I would like you’re opinion of where the IRL would be if the dollar sucking teams that killed Cart (Penske, Rahal, Andretti, Ganassi), who also account for 12 cars of the IRL’s field, where would the series be without them? You may find out sooner than you think when the big money engine makers bale out and those pirates all come back to Champ Cars.
As someone who knows more than I, (granted, respectfully) I would love your comparison of Indy Past and Indy Present, and more importantly Indy Future. TG has an opportunity to open the door to merger, and from what I have read is not even willing to discuss it,
Do you think there is a chance of merger, or is this a fight to the death?
Respectfully yours,
George The Idiot
George,
I must agree with MIPS Owner. These teams listing the TBA’s (excluding Playa Del & Roth) have done this since the inception of IRL whether it be funding a one off program at Indy or just a select schedule of races throughout the season. Roth Racing is a MIPS team that is attempting to step up their program to the next level. In my opinion this is what has made Indy exciting all of these years.
Now I feel more than anyone that there needs to be one form of top level open wheel racing in this country. However, I can understand why TG is not entertaining a merger. In all honesty what does Champ Car have to offer? They are losing all of their famed venues just as they had lost all of their top teams a few years ago. They don’t have the technology aspect over IRL anymore as they have had the same chassis and engines for the better part of a decade and now they want to share a format with the IRL. There really are no top level sponsors within the series excluding the ones with Newman Haas. Not to mention the amount of by a ride driver. I hate to say this as I have been a long time Champ Car fan but to me the series has kind of turned into “Budget Rent-A-Racecar”.
It has taken me a long time to reach this point but I must say I support TG in his efforts and commend him for starting Vision Racing. I just hope America can get back to watching real racing cars rather than the taxi-cabs we have become accustomed to.
Thats my rant,
Bryan
Thanks for the thoughts Bryan. As one who has recently tossed in the towel http://www.fastmachines.com/archives/champ_car/002817.php
on champ cars I know how you feel. What I don’t have to settle for is TG’s smug arrogance that all is well and he is the winner. I’ll reserve judgement on that until the engine specs come out in June: If Honda and Toyota stay in the series, it’s sayonara for OWRS, the series. If Toyota bales will Honda stay as sole supplier to the IRL? It’s hard to imagine. That’s how much time TG has to work things out, end of 2006, when Honda contract (and maybe the IRL) expires.
Which leads me to TG’s total intransigence to reconciling anything. Maybe the discussions with Eidswick were the first steps in a delicate dance that may bring things together, rather than the usual nonsense we have all heard. Why else would TG bring the street-road courses to his series, that he has so steadfastly ignored for nine years? Is he merely trying to sucker the fans into thinking, “look, I tried to settle, OWRS refused.”
Granted, it’s a two way street, OWRS needs to talk in good faith also, it’s not just TG. But when all the reports say that the leading team owners in your own series, guys like Penske and Andretti (Mario) are trying to open doors just to the idea of discussing compromise, TG says “I’ll buy you out or nothing.”
Other people have pointed out that if I need to watch road racing to get my jollies, I should stick to F1 or sports cars. I am a huge fan of F1, but I won’t run away from home either. If OWRS collapses tomorrow, we at the least owe them a thank you for keeping road racing alive for two years, post Cart.