Posted 1 year, 2 months ago.
Posted by: Kohl
This weeks Uowwb question reads “What’s on this year’s Christmas List for the IRL?” A title sponsor- I realize in this economy it would be tough especially since one of the names being tossed around was CitiGroup, but a title sponsor would be a huge asset to the series.
Road America and Laguna Seca need to be widened and if that should happen they need to replace the snoozefests’ we must suffer through at places like Sonoma and St. Pete.
Cooperation with Versus and Espn- The two should work together to provide the best show for the fans instead of the feuding we see between Nascars’ broadcast partners. Versus or Speed need to also start a weekly show to get news and features out to the fans like Espn does with Nascar Now.
And the biggest of them all and this isn’t just for Indycar but Open-Wheel as a whole; the Open-Wheel racing “ladder” needs a lot of help it needs to go somewhere. In the current system there are several feeder series that don’t feed anything, they are dead ends on the path to racings’ upper series.
Posted 1 year, 2 months ago.
Posted by: Kohl
I have just finished reading an article by the “slayer o’ the wurrd butccherers‘ ” also known as Jeff Olsen. You may remember the now famous article about how we “Untrained and unprofessional word butchers” are making a mockery of the art of journalism. Well he may have put his foot in his mouth on that one but he made up a little bit (*puts thumb and index finger half inch apart*) by writing this piece.
http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/olson-the-smartest-fans-in-all-of-sports/
Posted 1 year, 2 months ago.
Posted by: Kohl
As all have come to know by now, Indycar is switching from corn-based American ethanol to a sugar cane-based Brazilian ethanol for the ‘09 campaign. I have heard many more negatives than positives about the move, but to me it makes a lot of sense to switch. Angstadt and the IRL have thought about this for quite awhile, with help from the execs across the street at IMS of course. Let’s face it: this series cannot afford to lose a large sum of money in this economy, and with that said it is a perfect solution IMO. Why? Because sugar cane-based ethanol that is imported to the country will NOT increase the price of food (food inflation skyrocketed this past year), due to the fact that it is a foreign product and is not included in our GDP, so it cannot and will not affect our economy negatively in that respect. Also, Brazilian ethanol will help create jobs here, as there are plants that will help to produce the ethanol in the U.S. It makes too much sense to switch now, especially in these cost-cutting times.
So, how does this affect things such as sponsorship within the IRL? First off, and certainly the most obvious, Rahal Letterman Racing will have the most interesting sponsorship questions. Also, it must be noted that two cars, HVM’s Viso and D&R’s Duno, have Venezuelan oil companies (PDVSA and the well-known Citgo, respectively) on the sidepods of their racecars. Isn’t that somewhat of a double standard?? The IRL purchases 120,000 gallons of Brazilian ethanol for the ‘09 season (which I’m SURE Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez is fuming about to begin with) and these teams still somehow are supported by big oil companies. The one huge opponent of all of this Brazilian ethanol importing was, in fact, Hugo Chavez! In no way does he want to support America, and the IRL should stop supporting his companies accordingly.
It’s a lot easier said than done, however. In these trying times, companies as large as Citgo and PDVSA would be hard to just drop altogether. These profitable companies are important sponsors for the league, but I just think a plan to phase these two sponsors out should be put in place. I love what the IRL is doing, and the way I see it, they should be able to be as proactive as they prefer when it comes to sponsors of this magnitude.
