Indy Car: Difference between revisions

 

[[Indy Car]] (Known formally as the [[Indy Car]] Series), is perhaps the greatest racing series in America... that everyone forgot.

 

 

The reason for the decline stems from a split within the series itself back in 1979. Back then, the United States Automobile Club (USAC) had organized and run the Indianapolis 500 as well as other American championship car races since 1956. However, many prolific team owners such as Dan Gurney, Roger Penske, and U.E. "Pat" Patrick had long disagreed with USAC due to alleged ineptitude on the organization's part. As a result, they formed Championship Auto Racing Teams, (CART) which was founded as an advocacy group to keep USAC in check. However, such an agreement was flat-out denied by USAC bigwigs, which then led to CART becoming a breakaway series. After several years of legal battling, USAC finally allowed the Indianapolis 500 to be part of the CART calendar, and all was good. CART enjoyed immense success in America as drivers such as Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti, and Nigel Mansell, coming off of highly successful Formula One drives, touted its competitiveness.

Now on the decline, CART began to get desperate. Trying to outdo IRL with a race at Texas Motor Speedway in 2001, [[Threat Backfire|they found that the greater performance of the cars led to many drivers coming close to to blacking out under the extreme g-forces imposed.]] Forced by the series doctors to cancel the race for medical reasons, CART took a huge blow in prestige, which was then compounded when a row over engine rules resulted in key engine manufacturers Honda and Toyota defecting to IRL. CART tried to pick up the pieces in 2003 by reforming under the name [[Brand Names Are Better|"Bridgestone Presents]] The Champ Car World Series [[Dualvertisement|Powered by Ford]] (Champ Car)." After declaring bankruptcy in 2003 and again in 2008, Champ Car was finally bought out by IRL, which then became simply the [[Indy Car]] Series. In a final twist of the saga George was voted out of his position at the head of the series by his own sisters, allegedly angry at the amount of family money that had been spent over the years, and a new boss was brought in (Randy Bernard, a former head of Professional Rodeo). Now the 'IRL' name is largely history too, and the series is officially the 'Izod Indycar Series', a series [[Shaggy Dog Story|contested between US and non-US drivers on oval, street and road courses.]]

 

'''Chip Ganassi Racing:'''

* ''Charlie Kimball'' - [[Handicapped Badass]]. Although 2011 was his first time in the Indy 500, he deserves recognition as being the first ''ever'' driver at the race with Type 1 Diabetes. He didn't get a podium finish but for him to complete the race ''at all'' (which he did handily) was a noteworthy achievement. Due to his condition he needed to have ''two'' drink reservoirs, one with water, the other with a high-glucose drink, and a switch to let him select which reservoir he'd be drinking from, chosen based on a blood-sugar-level gage integrated into his car's custom steering wheel. In the event that an insulin shot was needed, his pit crew included a doctor who could provide him with the needed injection on the next pit-stop.

 

'''Dale Coyne Racing:'''

* ''Alex Lloyd'' - [[Kid Sidekick|The Kid Sidekick]]. His 4th place finish at the 2010 Indianapolis 500 meant that he would live to race another day, but his form is still to be seen.

 

* ''Tomas Scheckter'' - [[Glass Cannon]]. Son of former [[Formula One]] champion Jody Scheckter, Tomas is best known for his spectacular outside lane charges on the ovals...and his spectacular wipeouts that often result from it (especially when he drove for Red Bull in the early 2000s).

 

* [[Berserk Button]]: Legendary driver A.J. Foyt as a team owner in the late 90s. Slapped driver Arie Luyendyk in the face when he (correctly) contested Foyt's driver Billy Boat being declared the winner, and at one point Foyt smashed his laptop in anger.

* [[Badass Grandpa]]: Mario Andretti, who walked away from [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMeE9NAh60I this] crash back in 2003 with only a nick on his chin. Currently he's one of the drivers involved in the two-seater ride, aged 71!

* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: James Hinchcliffe.

* [[Continuity Snarl]]: The rapidly changing array of tracks. Outside Indianapolis of course.

* [[Every Year They Fizzle Out]]: Beside 1969, Indy has not been nice to the Andrettis.

* [[Family Business]]: On track: the Unser and Andretti racing families. Off track: The Hulmans, owners of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

* [[Fan Boy]]: Dario Franchitti has a room dedicated to Jim Clark, winner of the 1965 Indy 500. The tiles are the same colour as his fellow Scot's helmet.

* [[Flame Bait]]: To this day, the CART vs IRL debate is taboo in [[Indianapolis]] and its surrounding environs.

* [[Fragile Speedster]]: Many engines throughout history, most notably the Novi (1941-1966) and most recently the Infiniti (1997-2002).

** In fact, quite a lot of NASCAR drivers started their careers in open-wheel racing. Drivers such as A.J. Allmendinger or Juan-Pablo Montoya.

* [[Hollywood Dateless]]: Some Indianapolis 500 champions have been unable to find full-season, competitive, or any [[Unfortunate Implications|rides]] afterwards, including Arie Luyendyk after his first win in 1990, Buddy Rice (2004), and Dan Wheldon (2005).

* [[Laser-Guided Karma]]: Live penalties during a race for ''avoidable contact'', which are only used in extremely severe cases in other racing series.

* [[Loophole Abuse]]: In the 1994 Indianapolis 500, Roger Penske entered a brand new pushrod engine. The top teams at that time used overhead cam engines, and so the rules favored pushrod engines over overhead cam engines as only small teams were expected to build them. Penske's cars turned out to be unbeatable in the race. By 1995 the loophole was closed, and pushrod engines no longer were at an advantage.

* [[Ludicrous Speed]]: Physically, modern IndyCars, even as far back as the ground effect days in the late '70s and early '80s, were and still are extremely physically demanding cars to drive. Modern drivers are often examples of physical fitness just to cope with the G-forces of acceleration, braking and turning. Mentally, IndyCars accelerate and corner so quickly and are meant to be driven so fast in order to generate grip via downforce that a normal person would simply be unable to think as fast as the car can maneuver.

** The official fastest lap in motorsport belongs to Gil de Ferran in the CART series in 2000 at Fontana: 241.428 mph. Paul Tracy recorded a record top speed of 256.948 mph on the backstretch at Michigan in 1998.

* [[Money, Dear Boy]]: As with most upper echelons of motorsport, you get the occasional accusation of hiring a driver simply to gain money from the sponsorship they bring in.

** Milka Duno was brought in to drive for Dale Coyne because of the sponsorship money she brought with her from CITGO and... [[High Hopes, Zero Talent|well, we know how that turned out.]]

** Understandably, the movie was panned by critics and regarded as an all-around bad movie.

* [[New Technology Is Evil]]: The reason why Tony George began the IRL series in the first place. He believed that the technology available to CART teams was such that it was more a case of better car than better driver. Therefore, his new series has been strictly spec-racing and has remained so even after Champ Car merged with IRL.

* [[Nitro Boost]]/[[Super Mode]]: Okay, while IndyCars may not use literal nitrous, the series has the "Push to Pass" Button, which gives cars an extra 5 horsepower for 12-18 seconds (depending on the track) to make overtaking a car easier during a race. However, they are only allowed a certain number of button-pushes (Again, depending on the track), and there is a cooldown period of 10 seconds after using it. The new engine packages in 2012 tentatively will have a 100 HP boost when activated.

* [[No MacGuffin, No Winner]]: Essentially the whole story of the 12-year 'Split' between CART and IRL. [http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/columns/story?columnist=hinton_ed&id=5195237 Right from the beginning in 1996] pundits were predicting that the only benificiary of an Open-Wheel racing civil war would be NASCAR.

* [[Part-Time Hero|Part Time Driver]]: The Indy 500 plays host to ''many'' part-timers who only race during that event. The reasons are simple:

*** The grid for the Indy 500 is 33 drivers instead of the usual 26-28, so it gives part-timers a chance to compete.

 

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[[Category:Sporting Event]]