"Say It Ain't So, Joe!"


© Gary Presley
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Oct 23, 2001


"Say It Ain't So, Joe!"

CART can't catch a break. At the moment, the series gives every appearance of turning into a type of Formula Ford spec racing group in 2003. Ford/Cosworth has volunteered to provide turbocharged engines, with Honda saying "Sorry, guys, we can't afford you and F-1" and Toyota moving to the IRL.

Combine this with the Brazilian race cancellation, the Texas mess, the oddball television contract, the loss of Michigan ...

Oh, let's not continue the litany of losses.

A casual fan can only look and shake his head. Think about it. These teams -- made up of people with names like Patrick, Bettenhausen, Penske, Mears, Andretti -- conjure up images of the Golden Age of open wheel racing in the United States. And the whole thing is melting like a ball of wax in the midday sun.

Some are saying CART, like other racing series, has dug its own hole in a competitive frenzy. In other words, it's all about money.

Brock Yates: Notes From the Margin
Wyoming, N.Y., Oct. 16 — Let’s not mess around with the trivia. Forget CART’s latest peccadillo or whether Michael Schumacher is better then Juan Manuel Fangio or who punted whom into the cheap seats at Martinsville.
Read the Yates column on Speedvision

But is it?

You have to think so. The engine manufacturers say they can't afford to make separate engines for CART, the IRL, and F-1. Then, as you see in the next story, it's a bet-the-rent-money wager that Roger Penske will be moving to the IRL because his sponsor (a tobacco company) is by law restricted in how it advertises, and it wants its logo at the Indy 500.

What we have here, apparently, is Murphy's Golden Rule -- "He who has the gold makes the rules."

The Beginning Of The "End Game" For CART.
by Methanol Boy
Detroit. Incredibly, one year from now will mark the end of the CART series as we know it.
Read the interesting Fumes article on Autoextremist.com.

All of this isn't surprising to those of us who see the cars as rolling billboards and the driver's as sometime shills for everything from motor oil to laundry detergent. It isn't about building fast cars and going racing. It's about selling products.

Most of the drivers are keeping a low profile on the issue, but, when you search out there comments, two basic ideas come to the fore:

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Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: View all related messages
3.   Oct 30, 2001 6:33 AM
In response to message posted by Tom:

The way I understand it, Tom, is that a tobacco company can choose one series -- thus, i ...

-- posted by GEP
2.   Oct 26, 2001 3:29 PM
In response to message posted by Tom:

The Ferrari's run the US F1 GP at Indy without Marlboro sponsorship. This caused us "for ...

-- posted by Philneast
1.   Oct 26, 2001 2:05 AM
Hey Gary,


I’m wondering about Penske’s plight with his sponsor. You had mentioned that he wants to run at Indy with Marlboro. The new tobacco settlement laws require that a company ...

-- posted by Tom



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