IndyCar: Classy, Exciting, Entertaining and… Over ?
By Mike Hutton
The 2015 Verizon IndyCar season was exciting, entertaining, competitive, dramatic and thrilling.
That’s the good news.
It also was scary at times and downright tragic at others.
That’s the bad news.
The season in now over, and that’s the worst news of any. That’s right – as of August 30, one week before Labor Day – the series is on the shelf until probably sometime in early 2016. The official schedule has yet to be announced, but the rumored first race next season will be in Mexico City in February.
This season, IndyCar was classy in how it dealt with the Justin Wilson tragedy. It was exciting with the rise of second-generation driver Graham Rahal and fan favorite Juan-Pablo Montoya being title contenders up to and including the final race at Sonoma. It was exciting to see solid performances from drivers who might not be household names such as Josef Newgarden, James Hinchcliffe and Carlos Munoz take home wins.
And now it is over? Are you kidding?
RACER Magazine’s Robin Miller recently summed it up perfectly in his video rant to Mark Miles, CEO of Human & Company, the parent company of both IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Miller’s comments came immediately following the June 27 MavTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA. In that race, there were 80 lead changes during the event. The rules package also featured what many call “pack racing,” which older drivers generally dislike but which younger drivers find exciting. Miller, who has covered racing for almost 50 years, called it one of the five best races he had ever seen.
http://www.racer.com/indycar/item/118583-racer-video-robin-miller-s-message-to-mark-miles
Ending the season on August 30 is insane. As Miller correctly points out, the drivers don’t like it, the owners don’t like it and most importantly the sponsors don’t like it. If you lose the sponsors, you lose the teams, and without the teams, you don’t have a series. Tony George almost extinguished open-wheel racing entirely when he started the IRL in the mid-90’s. Let’s hope Mark Miles doesn’t finish the job.
There are many tracks which have gorgeous weather in September-October and should be considered for a date. Phoenix, Portland, Road America (rumored to be on the schedule for 2016,) Kansas, Gateway and Kentucky quickly come to mind. Sponsor dollars are not easy to come by, and those who make a commitment deserve more exposure than a season-ending date in August brings. Those companies can and should look elsewhere with their marketing dollars if IndyCar cannot or will not cooperate.
The IndyCar series has many talented drivers – experienced and youth alike. he series has a mix of oval, road and street circuits. The series has technology. The series has speed and excitement. Bottom line, this series is a damn good value for participants, spectators, media partners and sponsors. It has everything it needs to make American open-wheel racing what it was when we heard names like Foyt, Unser, Andretti, Rutherford, Johncock, Mears and Sneva on a weekly basis.
Let’s make sure that the next time the sun sets on this series, that it is a cool, crisp fall one and not a summer scorcher, The series only stands to get burned if nothing changes.