Tony George’s Media Musings
Written by Josh Katinger · February 25, 2004
Tony George has been on a bit of a media tour this week. Monday the Indy Racing League President was on SPEED’s “Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain” as well as in the pages of USA TODAY. Here are some of the key quotes…
“I suppose if all the stars align, it would be possible,” he said when asked about a possible future relationship with Champ Car owners OWRS, “But that’s not, as I understand, what they are interested in.”
Keep in mind folks, Tony’s idea of the “stars aligning” means that magically someone would want to give him total control or a merged series, which he currently enjoys with the IRL.
“I, as much as anyone, understand and appreciate what CART has meant to North American motorsport in the last 25 years. I think they did a good job of broadening the fan base, especially when there were not a lot of financially-viable oval tracks to go to at the time. They did a good job of trying to grow the sport……But things change. Things are a lot different than they were in the 1940s and 50s, when my grandfather was around. Certainly, they are a lot different than they were in the 70s, and they are even different today than they were in the early and mid-90s. You’ve got to be nimble and be able to adapt to change.”
Yeah, but back in the mid-90s, when you broke up US open-wheel racing, I thought CART was doing just fine…that is until you broke it up. Maybe I’m missing something.
“I never said we were going to be an all-oval series or an all-American driver series,” he claimed, “That’s something that people are really confused about. I don’t understand why anyone, after ten years, would continue to foster that vision on my behalf.”
Well Tony, I guess we just assumed it, seeing as how you own “THE” oval track (Indy) and since you founded the series in 1996, that’s all you’ve run. We’re sorry for fostering that vision on your behalf. However, to the IRL’s credit, it does consider one of its much touted “Founding Principles” as creating an environment where “teams and sponsors could afford to compete.” Of course, I’m going out on a limb here, but the recent defection of TAG Heuer as F1’s official timing and scoring partner led them into the arms of the IRL, where I’d bet money that they are saving money.
More on sending the IRL teams road racing…
“Road racing is a priority in as much as we intend to do it. It’s not going to be a 50-50 ratio [between road/street courses and ovals], but it’s going to be two or four at least, to make expense to the teams worthwhile. And it has to be the right opportunity, the right markets and the right business opportunities. What’s not relevant to CART’s vision is that our sponsorship base want to race in the United States. We are being told by sponsors and teams is that they have domestic budgets.”
Again, TAG probably came over to focus on the US market they were not reaching via F1. This makes sense to me, but I just hope that the IRL doesn’t go road racing in the same manner that NASCAR does. What is the point of the two road races per year? Thought the IRL’s ratio of oval to road would be better than NASCAR’s, they are still almost an after thought competition wise. Before you know it IRL teams will be bringing in road racing “hired guns.” Who needs that?
Crash.net: George sets record straight on IRL vision
Crash.net: George: I appreciate what CART did for racing
USATODAY.com: George goals: open-wheel unity, growth
Comments
4 Responses to “Tony George’s Media Musings”
Got something to say?
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Hold on Tony, let me get my waders on, as you are piling it mighty deep. I haven’t seen such a big turn around since Nixon went to China! Does this guy think no one out there reads, or has a memory of the recent past? How about racing in the US? The last posted story (George Goals: Open Wheel Unity) says you would love to be in Mexico and Canada. Oh, silly me, in your world that’s all part of the US anyway. You had a chance to pull open wheel racing together and instead tried to stomp it into oblivion in bankruptcy court. My fondest wish now is for OWRS to succeed and in 10 years buy the IMS in a foreclosure proceeding!
George - You’re an idiot. The IRL is going to be around a great deal longer than OWRS and whoever buys them out of the next Bankruptcy court. I for one love what growth the IRL is going through. I live in Texas and have witnessed first hand the incredible product the IRL has become. If exposed to the IRL, the younger generation will love it… more than watching NASCAR with their dads and his beer guzzling buddies… The IRL has a future and is going about reaching it’s potential. OWRS will struggle just to make it. I really wish that someone like Tony could have purchased CART so the sport could be unified. Team owners can not and should not be running the sactioning body. Just my thoughts. The future of open wheel racing will only survive in the US with people like Tony George at the helm. He thinks big. Re-read the founding principles of the IRL. That’s called vision.
Whoa there, pardner. I will attribute your poor choice of words (idiot) to your passion for the sport, which is what we here at FM are all about. Passion for racing, which does tend to stir the emotions. My hostility to Mr. George is directed at only three things. His apparent need to be the Czar of open wheel racing; his over bearing commitment (until the recent past) to ovals; and his unwillingness to facilitate the merger of the two competing factions.
As to your specifc comments, lets look a little closer. “I for one love what growth the IRL is going through.”…”The IRL has a future and is going about reaching it’s potential.” If you think having only 18-20 cars at a race is growth, I don’t want to know what you define as regression. And how about the Indy 500, what used to be the centerpiece of American racing? There was nothing better then watching “bump” day, to see who would make the field. Now they will have to call it “hump” day, to see if they’ll get a full 33 car grid! that’s what I call progress.
“I live in Texas and have witnessed first hand the incredible product the IRL has become. If exposed to the IRL, the younger generation will love it…” 100% on the money, John. There is nothing like watching a closely fought racing duel between nearly equal cars. The IRL had some of the most exciting racing finishes in history, in all forms of racing. But the popularity of the sport won’t grow from the meager fan attendance at the tracks, only from the exposure of the sport thru TV, advertising, and marketing. Look up the TV ratings and tell me who is watching. The answer is nobody, which is why sponsorship money is hard to come by, which contributes to the loss of teams. Tony could have allocated his resources to grow the sport instead of fighting a mutually destructive battle with CART.
“Team owners can not and should not be running the sactioning body. Just my thoughts.” Right again. It was the greed of the CART owners (Penske included) that drove them to go public, and the constant inside bickering over venues, engines, and money that ruined a great series.
“He thinks big. Re-read the founding principles of the IRL. That’s called vision.”
Well, lets take a look at the so called IRL “Founding Principles”
1. Establish and maintain a governing structure that represents all constituencies in the sport fairly and equitably.
2. Control costs associated with racing with a concern for safety and competitive parity.
3. Preserve and nurture the heritage of oval-track racing.
4.Provide opportunities for new sponsors, teams and drivers to enter the sport at its highest level.
5.Bring Indy-style racing to new markets for both sponsors and fans.
I sure don’t think Tony was representing ALL the constituencies when he went all oval, and their sure isn’t anything fair or equitable about his antagonism to anything outside of his sphere of influence.
Control costs, that he did, in the early years. Now with all the major engine companies back in the IRL, watch those costs soar! Preserving oval racing is there only because there were no road coarses he could jump into in 1996, and he was trying to preserve his own cash cow, the Indy 500.
And his desire for new sponsors and fans is self evident by todays results. He may have had a plan, but his so called vision was crafted to suit the only market open to him, ovals. REMEMBER, Tony is the one who left and started his own series.
Lastly, your comment about OWRS in bankruptcy soon is not far fetched. To figure out whether they (OWRS) survive, begs a question; does the IRL make money? How about it Tony, haven’t you been supporting the series artificially, much like CART had to the last couple of years? The founding partners of OWRS are collectively worth 2 Billion dollars. I don’t think they jumped into this with the idea of throwing wads of cash into it for 4-5 years, then going away.
A single, unified series is what all racing fans want to see. The perfect series? How about 20 races to start; 12 ovals, 8 road-street courses. Combined, they should muster up 35-40 cars. Develop the fan base through smart marketing, advertising and increasing public awareness. Come on Mr. George, be the leader John thinks you are and excercise a vision that benefits the teams, fans AND yourself.
Tony g. screwed up a perfect sport and ruined it for me for ten years and ran the great drivers away. its a bush league series now and it sucks. nascar thanks you tho. billion dollar series now….