Merge This

Much to the dismay of many Americans, we have received the notice that the IRL and Champ Car have “merged.” That does not do a lot for the American race fans who are still waiting to see the same drivers at Indy that they can see at places like Springfield, DuQuoin, Eldora, Knoxville, Belleville, the Pennsylvania Posse, Arizona, New York and California.
All we have in Champ Car is more of the same of the “unknowns” and “pavement pounders.” The greatest thing they could do is “merge” with USAC and the Silver Crown division, and then at the end of the year, they could name him (or her) the Gold Crown Champion.
We would like to see Sam Hornish come back to Indy as a driver, or a car owner, and bring Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman, Jason Leffler and Tony Stewart with him. If Tony had stuck with the IRL, he would have his picture placed on the Borg-Warner Trophy twice by now.

Applause For Paulsen

Kudos to Chris Paulsen on his treatise of the necessity of addressing the design of cars.
Certainly spec engines have no place in top-notch racing, especially Indianapolis. Oh, for the days when you could tell the difference in cars simply by the sound of the engines. The roar of the Offy, the scream of the Novi, the whine of the Ferrari and the deep throat of the Buick!
Spec racing is boring as evidenced by the death of IROC.
Innovation is what spectators look forward to! Who is going to bring out something new and different? How can you measure the attraction of the Novi, the Cooper, the Lotus, the Swooshmobile?
With all the three and four-liter DOHC engines that are commonplace in stock automobiles why should a spec special-built engine be mandated? Indy was not built on that premise, remember the days when it was cubic inches and blown or unblown as the only specs!
When the bore and stroke of the Offy was juggled to produce the best combination. Put innovation back into racing and that goes for the Silver Crown and sprints, too!
Let’s save our open wheelers!

Very Different

Need a graphic illustration of liberal and conservative differences? Read Stan Alsman’s “Politics” letter (April 2 issue NSSN) then read Dave Argabright’s uplifting column about “good people” in the same issue. And guess who is the stereotypical bitter liberal.

What Can Be Done?

What can be done to revive interest in open-wheel racing?
Here is my opinion for what it’s worth:
Limit engines to normally aspirated, but limit its cubic inch displacement ,otherwise no restrictions
Wheel base restriction with minimum and maximum
Minimum weight restriction.
That’s it. Open Indy racing engineering and ingenuity like days of the Novi, the Offy, the rear engine V8 and, yes, the Watson chassis, instead of the parade of the CoT; ala NASCAR.