2013 IZOD IndyCar Series news | Montoya's back!

kals · PostPosted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 7:11 pm

Great article. I'm guessing Robin will get his wish of switching professions as I'm in no doubt the HG family will now pathetically bar him from all future Indycar series events for daring to challenge their authority.

StefMeister · PostPosted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 7:58 pm

After 3 years of been positive about the direction of the series, I'm back to wondering why I even still give a damn about Indycar!

NVirkkula · PostPosted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:43 pm

First time ever, I was more excited about IndyCars and probably posted more in IndyCar threads, compared to Formula One. And this during a year when Kimi Räikkönen make's a come-back and is a championship contender with a mediocre car, challenging for a win at Bahrain and being the driver cheered by media and fans all around the world. The king of Spa who got a great cheer from the spectators during the podium interview. A fellow countryman, an idol, a hero for every motorsports enthusiast in Finland. Really?

I gave nearly 50% of my motorsports interests on IndyCars to see this day? Spent long sleepless nights just to wait a crappy live streams to be available for The Race of a day after seeing Räikkönen on podium earlier in the day? I heard IndyCar calling me, I reached out, felt in love with it and got a slap on my face? Really?

Next week Tony George will be announced to be the head of IndyCars AGAIN, after all the shit we have to be through with him for about two decades. Now, when we've finally got things going, had 27 cars in the grid almost in every race and witnessed spectacular racing nearly every God damn time with a quite short schedule. The IMS board gives the power back to this piece of turd so we could go back to 17 cars and amateur hours? Really?

I try to understand all of this, but maybe there's nothing to understand about in this. Maybe Miller hit it dead on with "There is no cure for stupid".

I've unsubscribed all of my FB and Youtube connections from IndyCars that I had. Have fun with your trip with T-F-G.

Gabriel · PostPosted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 1:21 am

OK. I'm pissed because they fired Bernard, but this doesn't mean that Tony George will take over. For the moment it's just a CEO being fired. Reasons? I don't know, maybe the whole China deal, the price of spare parts, his claim that the teams were trying to get him fired BEFORE the 500, the Las Vegas deal, who knows. Maybe they just didn't liked a guy who had no motorsport background and used to think way outside the box, while the IMS board surely has a more conservative approach to things.

But get this. There are no signs of Tony George getting the power back. He was forced to quit from the board because his own sisters can't stand the way he bled millions of dollars to keep the series alive for over a decade. IMS claims that the series is not for sale and I'm believing that as I have no reason not to. Zak Brown has claimed he's not interested on being in charge of the series. Who would, anyway. It seems there's no way a guy can be on the same page with the teams and the IMS at the same time.

I think the new CEO will come from a motorsport background, as a way for IMS to win the team owners back. And I think Tony George Jr., as the current head of Indy Lights, has more of a chance to be the new CEO than his father.

Gabriel · PostPosted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 1:28 am

Oh, and I'm a racing fan. Never a political deal will make me stop being a fan of a series. That's stupid.

RtN · PostPosted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:09 am

Gabriel wrote:

But get this. There are no signs of Tony George getting the power back. He was forced to quit from the board because his own sisters can't stand the way he bled millions of dollars to keep the series alive for over a decade. IMS claims that the series is not for sale and I'm believing that as I have no reason not to. Zak Brown has claimed he's not interested on being in charge of the series

Yeah, about all of that...from Jenna Fryer;

Quote:

George's IndyCar offer Was Attempt To Remove Board

Tony George was not trying to regain control of IndyCar for himself in his recent attempt to purchase the series, but rather bring in a new management team to replace the current board of directors, according to a copy of his proposal obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

George's five-page proposal was made Oct. 5 to the Hulman & Co. board of directors. In it, the group ICS Acquisition called for a management team to take over IndyCar's operations and separate the series from Indianapolis Motor Speedway. A sanctioning agreement would be created with IMS to run the Indianapolis 500, the series' signature event.

George would only have been a board member in the proposal that expired Oct. 15, and offered $5 million cash and proof of $25 million in reserves for stabilization of the series, according to the document, which was obtained from a person familiar with the situation on condition of anonymity because the details have not been publicly disclosed.

The offer was not considered and George resigned from the board on Oct. 19 citing a conflict of interest in holding a seat while trying to reacquire the series he founded in 1996.

IndyCar is owned by the Hulman-George family, and its portfolio is managed by the Hulman & Co. board of directors. That board has repeated several times in the last month that the series is not for sale.

IndyCar itself is managed by the 11-member Indianapolis Motor Speedway board of directors, which voted in an emergency session Sunday night to have CEO Randy Bernard step down. Owner Roger Penske said the move showed the board "continues to show poor judgment," and fans have been outspoken through social media in their outrage of the firing.

Fans were just as opposed to George regaining control of the series, which was apparently never his intent.

It was believed he had rallied other team owners to pool their resources in a bid to buy the series and oust Bernard so that George could get his old job back. He was stripped of his power in 2009 by his mother and three sisters for spending millions of dollars of family money on the series and never turning a profit.

But no other IndyCar team owners were part of the proposal.

ICS Acquisition listed a management team of Zak Brown, founder and CEO motorsports marketing agency Just Marketing; Mike O'Driscoll, chairman of Jaguar Heritage and a non-executive director of the Williams F1 team; Terry Angstadt, former president of IndyCar's commercial division; and Claire Roberts, the CEO of ArbiterSports, an NCAA-owned sports technology company.

George's plan called for Brown to be the CEO and commissioner of IndyCar and O'Driscoll to be the president and chief operating officer. O'Driscoll would have also run the day-to-day operations of the series.

Juihi · PostPosted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:32 am

Hmmmmm interesting.... the plot thickens!

Tommy Vercetti · PostPosted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 4:05 am

Alright, who let Vince Russo into the IndyCar front office?

Shane · PostPosted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 8:20 am

I find Penske and his comments regarding all of this to be highly peculiar.

iks · PostPosted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 9:10 am

It's clear that the common denominators here are the bitchy teams and the IMS and, unfortunately as an extension of that, the Indy 500.

CART really was the way forward but had the wrong kinds of people in charge and ultimately, was horribly executed...despite having some great races, cars, drivers, tracks, etc.

The IMS needs to be put out of business or this bullshit will keep happening. I love the Indy 500 but not more than AOWR itself.

CART was still amazing without the Indy 500...

I'd rather have an amazing series without those IMS-people-that-act-like-they're-royalty interfering than a shit series with the Indy 500 as the centerpiece.

Of course the economics complicate things but you have to start with what is ideal.

ellis · PostPosted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 1:49 pm

I agree with iks post.

But you know what IndyCar needs? You're not going to like what I say, but you all know it's true - they need someone like BERNIE. Not the Bernie of now, who is just a figurehead at circuits. The Bernie of old who took no BS and sorted out any issues there was with F1. IndyCar doesn't have that one man in charge, and when they did, he was a fucking moron.

The teams should not have a say. The tracks should not have a say. The boards should not have a say. The series needs a dictator who answers to basically nobody.

StefMeister · PostPosted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:13 pm

ellis wrote:

I agree with iks post.

But you know what IndyCar needs? You're not going to like what I say, but you all know it's true - they need someone like BERNIE. Not the Bernie of now, who is just a figurehead at circuits. The Bernie of old who took no BS and sorted out any issues there was with F1. IndyCar doesn't have that one man in charge, and when they did, he was a fucking moron.

The teams should not have a say. The tracks should not have a say. The boards should not have a say. The series needs a dictator who answers to basically nobody.

Agree, However the team owners & series management are never going to allow anyone in that's going to tell them what to do.

ellis · PostPosted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:21 pm

StefMeister wrote:

Agree, However the team owners & series management are never going to allow anyone in that's going to tell them what to do.

Then this is going to continue to happen because somebody somewhere will always been unhappy.

Gaara · PostPosted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:27 pm

You can't make everyone happy. If you try you can only fail, eventually a foot has to be put down.

RtN · PostPosted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 2:45 pm

ellis wrote:

StefMeister wrote:

Agree, However the team owners & series management are never going to allow anyone in that's going to tell them what to do.

Then this is going to continue to happen because somebody somewhere will always been unhappy.

Cool. Then let it continue. Let some incompetent come in and take the series back to when it was losing $7 million a year. Let it act as an anchor around the neck of IMS, dragging it into the ground with them. Let the board realise somewhere down the line that they are bankrupt and have to sell IMS in order to cover costs. Let them watch the property developers and the bulldozers get to work.

We all thought that the merger was the first step towards the rebuilding of open-wheel racing in north America. Now we realise that it isn't. The only way AOWR can be truly fixed is for the whole thing to be brought down and started again, with a permanent reminder of what happens if they fuck about. The loss of IMS would serve very well in this regard.

Chris D · PostPosted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 4:03 pm

KV confirmed that Simona will be joining them next season.

Gaara · PostPosted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 4:06 pm

That's good for her, hopefully there's still a championship for them to run in. It's close to disappearing up the boards backside...

electrodevo · PostPosted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 5:46 pm

Gabriel wrote:

Oh, and I'm a racing fan. Never a political deal will make me stop being a fan of a series. That's stupid.

I guess, even if it *doesn't* become the Tony George show, the sheer bumbling around in handling the firing should be seen as an obviously troubling sign.

Randy at least had direction, what is the board's vision? The impression one gets of the Indycar board is rudderless, directionless, and without a clue. Roger Penske is completely right in this regard. Company boards that fire and hire CEOs on a whim, for no long term strategic reason, tend to be mediocre to absurdly poorly performing. (Think in the corporate world of those companies with revolving door CEOs, like Yahoo and HP.)

It would've made sense if, say, the board had some strategic notion. If Bernard was fired and replaced by, say, a well known, well liked insider, that would make sense. Instead, the firing was the hasty, quickly-fill-with-an-interim-CEO type that makes it seem like a board in chaos.

The racing will go on, but with that kind of leadership, I predict it will get worse before it gets better.

ptclaus98 · PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 12:57 am

ellis wrote:

I agree with iks post.

But you know what IndyCar needs? You're not going to like what I say, but you all know it's true - they need someone like BERNIE. Not the Bernie of now, who is just a figurehead at circuits. The Bernie of old who took no BS and sorted out any issues there was with F1. IndyCar doesn't have that one man in charge, and when they did, he was a fucking moron.

The teams should not have a say. The tracks should not have a say. The boards should not have a say. The series needs a dictator who answers to basically nobody.

I very much like and agree with what you say. That is the only way to start moving forward.

Beezle · PostPosted: Wed Oct 31, 2012 8:44 am

A dictator with a vision?

Sorry...

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2013 IZOD IndyCar Series news | Montoya's back!

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