Um…. WHAT?!?!?!

ok… no really… WHAT?!?!?!

This morning amidst rumours of imminent bankruptcy filings, the folks from Pi and KK cleared out their stuff from Indy HQ.

3pm – Staff Meeting.

We all await the inevitable announcement… then comes this:

“Srap.

Evidently SJ got up in fron of the class and told them 08 is on. repeat 08 is on. BOD meeting tomorrow, with a budget to be approved. Ziggy (not ours ) has quit, and he has no idea where these rumors are coming from.

At the same time, the PKV crews were told they are leaving CCWS for ICS for 08. Yes, 08.

So, wtf is going on?
Unka Gerra going it alone for 08? with Paulie & Pettit?
Oh, the drama……I cannot f’in believe this crap.”

So… The much rumoured but poopoo’d dissent between the owners… TRUE. (again, validation… but this ain’t about me…)

Apparently my Ponder if you… will essay was not so far off the mark huh boys? *big cheeky grin*

So, Jerry Forsythe, who wouldn’t pay for hospitality for his team, and got into a contract dispute with his driver over money, just forked out a grand canyon sized crater of cash in the 11th hour to “save” this thing. Doubtful that Pettit opened his wallet. (otherwise there would have been 10 teams on the docket for this year… RIP RuSPORT) and we all know that Gentilozzi doesn’t have 2 dimes to rub together.

A friend on the insided offered this possible scenario:

*KK gets Pi, Long Beach, Surfers and Edmonton to take with him to the IRL

*GF gets Toronto, Mexico City and Cosworth as well as CCWS

Great… the split just turned into a fault line. Let the mud-slinging and side taking begin!

And what of the teams?

CC:
Forsythe
Rocketspurts (guess Jerry is gonna have to foot his bill now that Kevin is gone)
Conquest
PCM

Indy:
Team Australia (already rumoured to have jumped)
PKV

Wild cards:
NHL (I’m thinking they will jump with Kevin, or run both?)
DCR (with the right insentive ($$$) will jump)
Minardi (KK brought him in, and was rumoured to be funding… will likely jump unless Jerry opens his wallet again)

And let’s not forget the drivers! Only 6 (7?) were signed before the merger talks, half of which could hop the fence with their teams. The ones who didn’t I’m sure are wondering who to pin their future hopes on. (some have already signed elsewhere according to rumours)

Oh ya, and now we have no data acquisition, no race director, no head of tech, and the Manager of the Cosworth Engine program resigned a month ago too. (those are just the resignations I know of)

So… Best case scenario Champ Car now has:

7 Teams, 11 races (several not actually inked) and a tv package that rivals an infomercial. (at least infomercials are on network) & Steve Johnson

You know the movie Weekend at Bernies? Champ Car is Bernie.
How long will they be able to prop him up and drag him around the world before folks figure out he’s dead?

My gut says enjoy 2008, collect your souvenirs, take your pictures, say farewell.

Guess we wait now for the “official” press release and explanation. (oh ya, and the IRL will be waaaaaaay ahead of us out of the gate there too, as they actually have several people, a PR/MEDIA staff if you will, that do that)

I wish I could be happy, but I’m to busy being confused.

ponder if you will…

the against all odds possibility that this some how turns around in the next few days.
(no I’m not sharing a crack pipe, stranger things have happened, and I’m just putting something else out there)

It’s now painfully obvious that merger talks were/are happening. It apparently hinges on Honda moving a race date. (I do believe that is just one of the smoke/mirrors aspects of this move)
It’s also painfully obvious that for whatever reason (and trust me, from what I’ve heard over the last year the man has many legitimate reasons) Kevin Kalkhoven has had enough and that there is trouble in paradise between the owners/amigos/horsemen/rich guys with big toys, big egos and bigger bank accounts, whatever you wish to call them, despite their media spun show of solidarity last year.

So… what happens next?

Honda says go for it, moves the date, provides the engines and seed money for the absorbed CC teams, we spend the summer ignoring crapwagons and wondering how it all went so horribly wrong. War is over.
or…

Jerry Forsythe steps up in the 11th hour, buys out KK, (OWRS) and thereby the other two “owners” (CCWS,LLC), and becomes Champ Car’s Tony George, the sole owner and decision maker. Game on.

Scenario A, while definitely not palatable, kick starts the healing and eventual re-birth of AOW. No guarantees that it will survive past 2008 however…

Scenario B, while heroic and fantastical, puts Champ Car at the back of the grid, with a busted front wing and a tire going down. It will take a Tracy like drive to win this race. The fans will cheer and rally and decry “we will not go down without a fight!!” As in scenario A, there are no guarantees that it will survive past 2008…

Teams and drivers will be wary, as will event venues, promoters and those ever elusive sponsors. How can any of them be convinced that this is not going to happen again? It’s like the precarious balancing act people do after discovering their significant other was cheating on them, yet they are trying to work it out.
Mistrust, fake smiles, stilted conversations, lots of bravado… however, the wound never heals. You either stick it out always looking over your shoulder, or you move on.

If, IF, Champ Car’s execution gets a stay from the governor this week, what do we have?
6 Signed drivers, 9 teams* (this is assuming Walker hasn’t jumped, Bachelart stays, and PKV becomes Vasser Racer racing cause the P is gone and it’s highly unlikely the K is gonna stick around) 14 confirmed races, (11 of which now are likely run by now very pissed off & suspicious promoters who spent the latter part of the week watching their hard work circle the drain), no title sponsor, a handful of legit team sponsors, a shitty TV package, no Marketing/Media/PR team to spin this thing, an exasperated mainstream & motorsport media (who were used as a pawn & made to be the bad guys, which will only endear them to play nice in the future… NOT) and a battle weary fanbase who may or may not at this point be interested in still playing in our sandbox.

Either way this all shakes out, there will be a lot of questions, likely not very many answers that aren’t canned PR speak, and a possibly insurmountable new mountain to climb.

salt in the wound…

TSN is increasing its broadcasting of racing this year from 105 races to 121.

This includes all races from the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup series, all races from the NASCAR Nationwide Series (former Busch Series), all 13 races from the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, all 18 Formula 1 races, and all 16 IRL races.

http://www.tsn.ca/auto_racing/news_story/?ID=228926&hubname=auto_racing 

And what about Champ Car?

What was that?

*crickets*

TSN is the ESPN affiliate, so you would think that they would throw us a fucking bone. At this point I would take tape-delayed, day-delayed, 3 fucking AM airings.  Pretty sad that I have to borrow my bosses PC so I can watch the races on a fucking laptop in order to A) provide some sort of coverage and B) actually be able to follow the series as a fan.

GAH!!!

Driver shootout..

So, as we take to the track for the first testing session, the Champ Car website is still listing last years driver line up, which only highlights just how… off… things are

Let’s go through the list shall we… (signed drivers green, probable blue, maybe’s orange, no’s red)

Sebastien Bourdais
(off to Europe, ciao, er… “au revoir”)
Dan Clarke
(was overlooked until the first practice of the first race of the 07 season. Had an unfairly controversial year. Is a no show at testing, rumoured to be taking flight in the IRL)
Ryan Dalziel
(Shafted a few times before by CC. It finally looked like the fairy tale was coming true. PCM was the feel good story of the year until they shafted Ryan for last 2 races of season. He wouldn’t touch CC with a 10ft pole now. Sports cars in 08)
Mario Dominguez
(1st 3 races for FCR, supersub rest of season, took Dalziel’s seat end of 07 and appeared to be a lock for 08 w/Tecate at PCM… no sign of him anywhere, also rumoured to be looking towards the IRL)
Robert Doornbos
(The Minardi golden boy was rumoured to be in the running for both an F1 ride and the NHL seat, neither happened. He is thus far a no show but will likely end up at Minardi)
Alex Figge
(daddy owns the team… duh) (should he have stepped out of the car at let Dalziel develop the team? um.. ya. Oh well, every series needs a backmarker. Although he found some speed over the winter apparently… so we’ll see.)
Tristan Gommendy
(came out of no where to be announced during training in 07. By the time we got to know him, he disappeared after the euro rounds. Money? Nationality? who knows. Probably should be red, but stranger things have happened…)
Matt Halliday (1st 3 races)
(great livery, money ran out, hardly knew ya. rumored to be called back at the end of season… never happened)
Jan Heylen
(was brought in to replace Halliday and be a billboard for the Euro races. Did his job to a T, then was shafted for last 2 races of season. Is part of the 08 Conquest cattle call, but unless they do 3 cars, it’s looking like Pag & Perera will get the call…)
Neel Jani
(Red Bull has gone bye bye, rumored to have fulfilled their CC obligation. Jani has opted to continue his pursuit of an A1GP title and F1 seat in 09, w/a few parting shots on the way out the door)
Bruno Junqueira
(Brought DCR to the forefront in 07. That fact alone should have him signed. But true to DCR form, nothing will be official until race day at Long Beach)
Katherine Legge
(our girl found out she wasn’t going to be driving at PKV in 07 the same way we did… when the press release came out announcing Gommendy. Ouch. Brought up too soon, not developed properly, then unceremoniously dumped anywhere due to obligation, she struggled at DCR in 07 but was improving by the end. Her 2 yr deal is up. If she doesn’t bring a big cheque, I doubt we will see her on the grid. Very sad)
David Martinez
(drove the last 2 races of the season & was rumoured to be in one of the Forsythe seats in 08, yet he is testing at PCM?? I would love to see him in any car this year. Good kid.)
Simon Pagenaud
(another victim of the funding for one year brigade. Had a stellar rookie season with TA. But money issues have sent him on the hunt for a seat elsewhere. It’s looking like he will land at Conquest)
Nelson Philippe
(shafted after spring training in 07 he rampaged around the world a very angry man then surprised everyone when he returned for the last 2 races of season, unfortunately he didn’t light the world on fire. He is thus far a no show at testing)
Will Power
(off season rumours had him sniffing around the IRL, but his PR rep confirmed to me yesterday that he is signed for 08, despite TA being a no show at testing)
Graham Rahal
(another one who should have been signed and announced without a doubt and marketed like stink on a monkey over the winter, but wasn’t confirmed until this week)
Oriol Servia
(shafted at the top of 07, he subbed in at FCR where he stayed until his nationality didn’t fit the bill. PKV picked him up when Gommendy’s money ran out, then were the first to announce their driver in 08. He deserves to have a secured seat for an entire season. Go get em cookie boy!)
Alex Tagliani
(returned to RS to try to recapture “the magic”, the only thing he captured was more bad blood. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice… my lawyers will be contacting you. He is now testing with PKV. One would hope he “passes”)
Paul Tracy
(well, well, well… what can I say… it was an interesting off season. Let’s just hope that the bullshit is behind us and we can concentrate on hoisting the cup at the end of the year)
Justin Wilson
(landed in the most sought after seat in CC after an off season of lawyers and contract fine print. Show em what you got bad ass!)

Thrown into the shootout mix this weekend are a bunch of young european drivers most on this side of the world have never heard of, with varying pedigrees, and fat checkbooks. One signed, the rest probable. Welcome to the European F1 test driver repository. LOL!

Franck Montagny
Franck Perera
Enrique Bernoldi
Ernesto Viso
Mario Moraes

With all the F3, F3000, GP2 & F1 cast off’s potentially on track this season, one has to wonder how the styles of driving will change the season. Of course, Seabass won’t be here to whine about the blocking, and Cottman won’t be here to enforce the NHL rule book, so… Could be interesting.

like a bridge over troubled water…

Cause and effect. That’s what it’s all about.

Is the state of the series causing the bad press & bad blood or is the bad press & bad blood an effect of the state of the series?
I would have to say it’s a little of both.
So what’s the answer?

A very wise friend has pondered this very thought and presented it concisely and intelligently. go be edumacated…

It would be quite the undertaking to even begin to mend the fences, and the whole “group” would have to be on board for it to work. The leaders holding out an olive branch to the media will mean nothing if the underlings (series associates, employees, fans, “spokespersons”, etc…) continue to wage a war on and negatively label anyone (media, fans, driver) who doesn’t march in lock step with the collective.
In much the same way as a series/league merger announcement this year wouldn’t lead to the miraculous renewal of AOW in 2009. (that repair will take years to come to fruition, if it is even possible) A media/series merger would be but a start. But it’s a start that someone has to instigate, because our dugout is looking mighty empty and the away team has added another bench…

Edited to add:

Watching the commentary on Brad’s essay (not at the actual blog, but elsewhere) I have to just laugh at the majority who missed the point completely. IT’S NOT ABOUT ROBIN MILLER, or Tony George or the merger or open wheel in general!!! Take the fucking blinders off and look at the big picture. Geesh.

It’s about mutual respect, and allowing for individual interpretation of your product while controlling the outgoing message, so very  little is left to be speculated upon or blown out of proportion. Locking people out and being secretive only pushes them to seek the answers elsewhere and come up with their version of the truth. Get ahead of the message. It’s much easier to get out of the way of the avalanche, than to dig yourself out after the fact…