R.I.P. CART

[Tom Johnson]

Good Grief. Could CART have proved themselves any more a bunch of clowns?

With many of the drivers virtually pleading not to start the race they went ahead anyway, jeopardizing man and machine to try to make the TV schedule. (BTW, CART, did you ever think of buying enough TV time to actually cover an entire race?)

I think it was King Bernie who once called CART the best club series in the world. Boy was he wrong. Soap box derby is better organized and more entertaining...

And while I'm on a caffeine rant, will someone please offer Paul Page a job calling dog races or something?

[Scott Pinkney]

It's a good thing that Chris Kniefel's "door is always open", otherwise, if I were a driver in CART, I'd be kicking it down to discuss the lack of concern for driver safety. He did have that 'deer in the headlights' look when Paul Page interviewed him. Also, I thought ESPN did a particularly great job of cutting away to Women's Basketball just as the race re-started!! A class act all around. Whoops, I just spoke ill of CART management. I guess that blows my chances of getting that open seat with Chip next season!!

[ August 20, 2001: Message edited by: 53FC ]

[robbie ferstl]

tom , could you enlighten those of us that were out chasing little white golf balls as to what happened yeaterday?

[mark defer]

it rained about an hour before the race was scheduled to start. the race started on a drying track with a few particularly wet spots. one after the kink and canada corner. the race started under yellow and was run that way for a few laps. when they finally went green there was a three car accident in the wet spot after the kink. it look like it was due to a combination of cars slowing for the wet spot and the lack of visiblity at the same causing one car to run over the back of herta. after that the track had dried to where that was the only wet spot left, so several cars changed to slicks and promptly went off at that spot. it unfortunately came down to a situation where the track was dry enough that you couldn't run rains, but that one spot was so wet that you couldn't run drys. it was a very unusual situation that i don't think kniefel could have forseen. i mean how in the world did he know that it would dry like that? md

[ August 20, 2001: Message edited by: mark defer ]

[Tom Johnson]

At the start of the race, the track was drying quickly, except for a 100ft wide "river" flowing across the fastest part of the track. You could actually see the little wavelets as it ran across!

After three separate incidents CART finally red-flagged the race to dig some trenches. (The crew did an awesome job in about 1/2 hour. But this begs another question; why wasn't this done before the race? Sure, the rest of the track was wet, but there's a big difference between racing on a wet track and trying to drive across the Amazon. Gil D. referred to it as waterskiing.)

Anyway, by the time the race resumed, it was time for ESPN to accomodate the millions of WNBA fans and switched coverage to the latest playoff PMS report or something. It's disappointing that racing was replaced with a circus sideshow.

[Mike B]

Not to take any of the blame away from CART (they deserve most of it) but this situation has happened at Road America many times in the past. In fact, if I recall correctly, the race was postponed to Monday a couple years ago. An entire day of qualifying at the June Sprints was cancelled because portions of the track were under water (same year?) Why can't the RA board of directors spend a couple thousand dollars and install some drain tile and correct what is now a recurring problem? The country's greatest race track shouldn't have this problem.

[Scott Pinkney]

Mike,
I agree that RA should provide sufficient drainage for the track such that the cars would not require pontoons to stay on course. Having said that, however, if there is a history of problems at the track, particularly the spot after the kink, then how can CART express surprise that the problem didn't fix itself during the race. The fix should have been completed before the race started. The outcome for the TV audience would have been about the same, a partial race, then WNBA!

[Mike B]

Good point, Scott. Now we can assign FULL blame on CART.

On a side note, some of those chicks in the WNBA are hot!

[mark defer]

the problem at the sprints a couple years ago was a different spot on the track. i believe it was turn #5, and i think the year was '98.

[Daniel]

O.K., I'll defend Mr. Kniefel. I got all this info from the interviews with the drivers, the CART personel and what coverage there was. During the warm-up laps and the laps run under yellow before the "start" on lap 6, the drivers were all on the radio saying the track was drying nicely. CART knew there had been a drainage problem in that one spot but the track worked on it the day before and promised CART that the problem was fixed. Someone had to make a judgement call. (Remember what happened last time when they decided the race should be postponed at the last minute?) All of the crashes before the red flag were caused by stupid driver error with the wet spot being a contributing factor. Max Wilson went flat out in to the spray put up by Herta's car and slammed into the back of him, over the top of him, and that crash took out Tracy too. Wilson admitted he could not see where he was going but didn't back off any. The other two guys who crashed there (Takagi? and Googelwhatever?)had changed to slicks while everyone else was still on rains. If you listen to the in-car footage you will hear the cause of those crashes. The drivers, on slicks, were declerating (and making the rear end light) as they got to the wet spot. When the rear of their cars started to get squirrely, they completely cut the throttle transferring even more weight away from the rear and they spun into the wall. To quote Gomer Pyle, "Surprise, surprise."

I sent this email to ESPN yesterday after they cut the race coverage off:

"What is this Bull***t? You cut off the CART race to show basketball? Why do you always cut off the auto racing but never the other programs? If some idiotic stick and ball game ran over you would never cut it off to show the scheduled auto race. Basketball isn't even a sport. Neither is golf and you always cut off auto racing for golf. Take the idiot responsible for ending the CART coverage before the race was over and shoot the bastard through the head. Better yet, if you blow my brains out then maybe my I.Q. would be lowered enough that I could watch basketball without throwing up. At least NBC has the ALMS race on."

Anyone think they'll respond?

[Don Becker]

The exact same problem happened last year at the F2000 Pro race. It rained hard just before the race. Canada corner was flooded and had to be drained for about 1 hour. By this time, the rest of the track had dried except for this same river which runs across the kink. The race was postponed until the next morning.
This same problem must have occured each time it rains heavily at this track.

[Tim Reed]

Not that I would ever defend CART anymore, as they are rapidly becoming nothing but a joke, but apparently they did dig some ditches to fix a small river a little further down the back straight, which subsequently moved the river a little further back on the straight... They still should have postponed the start while they fixed the new river.

And yes, RA needs to address the drainage situation... I've had some magic moments there myself on the back straight in the rain...

Heck, if the CART drivers aren't getting dizzy because they are going to fast, or crashing because of a little water on the track, there is always Max Papis there to crash into his championship leading team mate, to keep the fiasco rolling... Even after all that is done most of the drivers are just cruising around trying to save fuel anymore...

ESPN's coverage of CART has always sucked, hopefully Speedvision will do a better job next year.

And, what is the WNBA?

TDR

[Scott Pinkney]

I think WNBA stands for We Never Broadcast ANYTHING. Or something to that effect!

[ August 20, 2001: Message edited by: 53FC ]

[Purple Frog]

The management at Road America needs to install proper drainage at that spot past the kink. It's not like this is a new track, or that it has never rained before. For about 1/10th of what they spent on that new fancy go-kart track in the infield they could correct a dangerous situation on a 175 mph part of the track.

Unfortunately, if CART said they wouldn't come back unless it is fixed... RA would say, "So ?".

Now back in the old days, before you young'uns was born, we would have just hung out a yellow and red striped flag at that point, and told them high-paid fellers to drive to the dang-gum conditions. Of course we would have stacked up half the field like cord wood along track right.

My old '84 Reynard with 2 inches of clearance would have motored through that little wet spot. What's the problem? [img]smile.gif[/img]

The ALMS coverage was much better, and surprise, surprise, they even covered cars that were not leading.

[JHaydon]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Purple Frog:
Unfortunately, if CART said they wouldn't come back unless it is fixed... RA would say, "So ?".<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I strongly disagree. For whom was a lot of armco moved in '96? For whom was the track lined with 4 miles of concrete barriers and opaque catch fence?
RA knows that of all events, CART and the BRIC bring in the serious money. AMA, the Sprints, and now even the Grand-Am are also big money weekends for them.
If Milwaukee Region or Midwestern Council (or Shelby Club, or any other club with one or two dates there) decided not to come back, RA would not care. Losing CART would be a big blow to RA.

BTW, this was my third CART @ RA event, and the second near-rainout. I'm delighted that I have never paid for the tickets. Grand Am, F2000, AMA, and even vintage put on consistently better shows. I also missed the Sprints in '97 (it was '97) due to the flood. I also kept the Vee on the trailer Sunday morning during our RA weekend last year because it rained cats and dogs... despite the weather forecast. Surprise.

[ August 20, 2001: Message edited by: JHaydon ]

[Steve Demeter]

everyone brings up an interesting point about the need for improved drainage at RA, but RA is not the only track with serious drainage issues.
what about turn 6 at IRP (but they probably care about SCCA there), or the entrance to 2 and the carousel at Mid Ohio (who should care)?
The simple fact of the matter is that there is a go and a stop pedal on the cars and the driver has to be smart enough to use BOTH of them and his or her head. Obviously, a lot of the CART guys (drivers and officials) are not smart enough.

[Purple Frog]

Unfortunately, some of the guys that used the stop pedal got hit from behind by those who didn't.

[JHaydon]

I'd like to retract some of what I posted earlier: If you have never been to this event, IMHO, it is worth every penny. It is a great, fun time and I do not plan to miss it in the future. But watching the CART race is more like hanging out by the stage door waiting to brush against someone famous. I was more entertained by the Barber race and by watching people in the paddock.

And actually, trying to stay dry under someone else's leaky umbrella while sitting in a friend's lawn chair perched on the rocky slope of corner 12, drinking cold beer with fellow racing fans and drivers, and heckling CART officials is more fun than it sounds!

I was just feeling especially poor & penny-pinching when I said what I said

[El Guapo]

Maybe CART could use this to their benefit. Instead of taking away downforce, limiting boost, or fiddling around with ways to limit pop-off valves, CART could use water. They could mandate that there be a minimum volume of water (GPMs) running across the track at all road courses or street circuits at the fastest parts of the track. Sort of a hydraulic chicane.