By now, most of you are aware that the 2006 IRL schedule has been released. It's kind of surprising to me that the upcoming season was cut back, instead of expanded. I would think it would be in the best interest of the league to expand. The more events you have in marketable areas, the more new fans you generate, and with more events, there are more opportunities for corporate sponsorship.
Any idiot can see that NASCAR has grown by leaps and bounds in the last few years by their expansion into new areas. If the IRL wants to quit, they should just do so, and get it over with. After all, GM quit them and so is Toyota. How about calling it the Honda IRL Series?
The IRL season is already pitifully short compared to some of the other racing venues, and now they're cutting it down even more? It appears that the league is suffering under the leadership of Brian Barnhart. What appears to have happened here is that Barnhart got caught with his pants down, and is wiggling his way out of it with the "compact schedule" crap.
Events have to be scheduled at racing facilities months in advance. Barnhart appears to have been beaten to the punch, so to speak, at some of the major racing facilities. There are getting to be more and more racing series coming to the race tracks of America. He couldn't get IRL dates for certain tracks that would give his schedule a continuous flow, so he had to cut it down. Maybe he better get his 2007 schedule done now?
You'll notice that the 2006 schedule is void of repeat events at any of the scheduled venues. California, Phoenix, and Pikes Peak have been eliminated from the schedule altogether. What? No west coast event, out there where a lot of the big money and media events are staged? That is a huge setback for any racing series. Phoenix isn't any slouch either, as far as big money, media attention, and dedicated fans are concerned. Pikes Peak doesn't seem to me to be a great loss, a mountain top off in the middle of nowhere in the Rocky Mountains. Sure, Denver and Colorado Springs are near by, but they aren't really big media attractions. Racing in the thin high altitude Pikes Peak air has always been a problem, as has been controlling the aerodynamics, which severely affects the handling of the racecars. All racing series seem to have problems there.
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