Heritage Motorsports and Jeff Ward- Victims of Expansion?

[BootsOntheSide]

Since losing his Ganassi drive to Scott Dixon and Tomas Scheckter (neither of whom are All-American in the way Tony George supposedly wanted), there seems to have been little itnerest in Jeff, despite his strong showing in 2002 and before. Jeff is clearly a racing enthusiast (his sons are called Alain and Ayrton) and spent his IRL career doing the msot to make a career. Now he has been spat out and cast away.

The same thing happened to his former team, Heritage Motorsports, a respectable hard-working outfit who have had no chance to compete with the incoming big-bucks teams and their well-heeled Brazillian drivers. Others such as Team XTreme and 310 have been forced out recently.

Where is Tony George's assistance for these teams? He's so willing to baankroll Andretti-Green, which has little semblance of being an All-American oval-dedicated effort of the type he claims to support, so what about the little guys? The ones he claimed to set his series up for? Is he going to jsut let them wither?

[rustyfan]

I think this "George's all-american series" argument is getting old. Yes one of the reasons the IRL started was that it would offer a place for Americans to race, but that was back in 1996. It's 2002 now, and the IRL has grown from being a small, relatively poorly organized championship to something much bigger, and I'm quite sure the "americans only" thinking was dropped years ago.

As for teams and drivers being forced out, it's just the natural evolution of racing. It happens in Formula 1, it happens in NASCAR Winston Cup and, yes, it happens in CART as well, so why should it be so different - and worth making a dramatic post about - when the same thing happens in the IRL?

[BootsOntheSide]

The issue is that Tony George's hypocrisy has been shown up. He never had any intention of helping out American racers. That was just a means to an end. All he cares about is exploiting the fact that he was born into ownership of a profitable racetrack. Now he is bending over backwards to bring in big sponsorship and big-name drivers.

CART's entrant support programme has selfish intentions (getting them enough cars to fill the grid) but is aimed at small teams who otherwise would be unable to achieve their ambitions. The IRL scheme which has bought shares in Andretti-Green has no similar intentions.

You are correct that teams being forced out is nothing new, and in essence, most are forced out by one thing- MANUFACTURERS and their scheming. In F1, the likes of Prost and Arrows have been unable to get manufacturer support to compete with the sharks. The struggling CART teams like PWR and Sigma have found engine costs too high. ANd the same thing is happening in IRL.

I just felt that this deserved bringin to people's attention, as so many regard Tony George as some kind of saviour of US open-wheel racing, when the reality is largely true.

[rustyfan]

Since I watch both CART and the IRL, I don't preach the CART gospel, nor do I live the lie that George alone was the reason for the split - grumpy CART owners played a vital part in the split as well, but funnily enough the number of CART-only followers rarely acknowledge that.

As for scheming, CART did a fair bit of that as well when it comes to the Michigan-issue. No, the track management wasn't innocent either, but CART could have handled that a lot better and kept the race on the schedule, rather than axing one of the best race tracks they had and replacing it with utter ****-tracks that the racing isn't worth a damn on.

Just my opinion of course. Oh how I long for the good old days of the late 90's when the on-track product CART delivered kicked butt.

[rush1]

The IRL has opened the door for American drivers. Winston Cup champ Tony Stewart got his first major ride in the IRL. Other than that US drivers have performed poorly in the IRL, with the notable exception of Sam Hornish.

Mark Dismore was inconsistent and Jeff Ward managed only one race win in his IRL career, even with very good equipment. Pole sitter Scott Sharp sent his car into the wall on the first lap of the 2001 Indy 500 and Greg Ray crashed while leading the 2000 and 2001 Indy 500.

There is a reason these aforementioned drivers never got a shot in CART. You know driver quality is picking up in the IRL when some of these clowns are flushed out of the league.

[gofastturnleft]

Only thing hypocritical I find is CART fans that used to proclaim the superiority of the series based on the teams, drivers and engines now proclaiming they are the source of the problem.

Isn't it ironic, don't you think?

BTW - Your take on Heritage, 310, Xtreme et al prove you have limited knowledge of the situations.

Dan


www.tracksideonline.com

[JohnSSC]

rush1, you are too generous! Scott Sharp was not actually racing when he spun from the pole at Indy - they were still on the pace lap! His dad may not have made the big-time but he was a heck of a racer - Bob probably passed out when he saw that!

Scott joined an elite group, tandem actually, with Roberto Guerrero as the only 2 guys I know of to spin from the pole position before the race even started.

[gofastturnleft]

Scott Sharp spun in Turn one after taking the green flag.

Dan


www.tracksideonline.com

[rush1]

yes, Guerrero spun out on the pace lap of the 1992 500. Sharpie chocked it in turn 1 of lap 1 of the 2001 500.

[JohnSSC]

I stand corrected! Of course I am not sure that Scott's move was any less goofy than Roberto's! Do you think anyone warned him about the cold tire thing/before the race started?

[Snrub]

Originally posted by gofastturnleft
Only thing hypocritical I find is CART fans that used to proclaim the superiority of the series based on the teams, drivers and engines now proclaiming they are the source of the problem.

Isn't it ironic, don't you think?[/url]

I haven't heard much of that. No CART fan is going to tell you that it was good that the manufacturers or the big names leaving was a good thing. Some of the names upon leaving have caused some problems, that's about it.

[gofastturnleft]

Sorry Snrub, didn't mean for that to sound like I meant all CART fans. My bad.

Dan

[BootsOntheSide]

We can sadly now add Larry Blair and Alex Barron to this list. Larry was one of the few who could hold a candle to Ganassi, Penske and Nunn, and the kind of American 'little guy' forced out of CART, and now his team is gone.

[rustyfan]

From what I have read their sponsor, Rayovac, withheld money that Blair was supposed to get, and how are you supposed to be able to run the 2003 season when you're not even recieving money for the 2002 season?

So if what I have read indeed is true, I'd say that Blair more is a victim of a sponsor not playing the cards fair, rather than a victim of expansion.

[gofastturnleft]

I find that hard to believe.

The Rayovac deal was one year from the very start. It was part of a promotional campaign to debut their new product colors and logo. Supposedly they were very pleased with the deal and their return but it was strictly a one year promtional budget. No pretense that it would be any more.

Dan


www.tracksideonline.com

[rustyfan]

I'm just telling you what I read online, that Rayovac didn't fully pay for the 2002 season. Also, it wouldn't be the first time a sponsor has failed to live up to a deal.

I'll see if I can dig out the article when I get home from work.

(edit) My point being that if Rayovac indeed forced Blair to partially fund the operation out of his own pocket, it sure didn't help the team's chances of being on the grid for 2003 nor make it easier to find a new sponsor.