Marshall Pruett is my hero
Posted 1 month ago.
Posted by: Kohl
Marshall Pruett of SPEEDtv.com released an article today (http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/pruett-say-no-to-kee-rock/) that accomplishes something that I have wanted to do for years, but because i’m not as prominent as Pruett, I couldn’t. That is throw the “almighty” Brian Barnhart under the bus.
Many people do not understand the incompetency of the race control within the IZOD Indy Car Series, but if I were to make decisions like that at work, I would be demoted to my entry level position in a heartbeat. Brian Barnhart should have been released when the mergification took place, as he could not handle an international race series, heck, even after Danica’s “hard fought win” that was brought by Helio letting off the gas. Yes, I said letting off the gas because no one can get passed that fast, and suddenly get back to speed.
Heck, some of the questionable calls come from King Barnhart himself. And to think before he speaks is even funnier. I’ll give you all a quote of him using his “witts” talking about the new cars…err…car, at Watkins Glen this year, that will be chosen by he himself:
We’ve gotta learn how to race these cars…but equally, if not more important, we’ve gotta learn how to crash those cars.
Now, if you read deep in the article provided above, Pruett basically stops short of Barnhart plagiarizes the Delta Wing concept, but he does say that Barnhart intentionally…err…Dallara released the drawings of the car before the launch of the Delta Wing. Barnhart and Dallara working side by side…hmm…another Dallara chassis spec series? The IRL doesn’t need this, neither do the fans.
Case in point, Brian Barnhart needs to go. Marshall Pruett is someone I highly respect, and respect even more to give you THE NEWS. He won’t beat anything around the bush, he’ll tell you how it is.
I would also like to congratulate Paul & everyone here at Planet-IRL.com for making yesterday one of the best days in the history of the website. You guys deserve it! Also, I will be at the Delta Wing launch on Wednesday, bringing you pictures & maybe some news with the top newsmakers.
Jeremy, this would have been fun to do as a counterpoint. The basics are that neither Mike Hull nor the rest of the folks behind Delta Wing believe that to be THE one and only answer. The goal of the Delta Wing project was to get the League to think outside the box – to push the boundaries of comfort in the modern IndyCar. The Delta Wing group has ONE idea that they think can do that but getting THEIR car made wasn’t necessarily the goal of the group. Marshall Pruett used his column to wage a personal attack on Brian Barnhart that isn’t supported by the people he think, or at least not in the manner he thinks. I strongly suggest that you, and everyone else, take a listen to Mike Hull’s interview here at Planet-IRL (http://planet-irl.com/podcasts/hull.mp3), starting at about 25:30 into the interview. Listen to what Mike Hull says and then tell me if you HONESTLY think that those are the same words that Marshall Pruett is putting into the Delta Wing group’s collective mouths.
Paul, I was having some difficulties trying to pull this up, but I will take your word on it. I will agree to disagree with you and I will explain why on Monday on The Inside Line, live at 5:00 pm et. on evanstononline.com (not a shameless plug, just an opportunity to thoroughly explain myself in a way I truly know how to.
Jeremy, the link has been fixed. You can listen to it now.
Thank you sir.
Agreed! Marshall hit the nail on the head with a Mack truck!
The three of you must get on very well together.
Andy Bernstein
Andy,
What are you insinuating here?
Andy, I’m sure you’d be surprised to know that Jeremy and I had a very pleasant lunch just this afternoon. We get along fine. Stephanie and I get along great as well. Believe it or not, there are people within the racing community that can be agreeable while disagreeing.
I wasn’t insinuating anything. I wrote ten words, play anagrams with them if you wish.
I’ll try re-phrasing it: In my humble estimation, the three journalists who contribute to this blog appear to have a lot in common, and likely share a sense of community as a result. Like three peas. In a pod. It’s a podcast.
Andy
OK Podistas, first point is that I don’t have a dog in this fight. I try to understand what the facts are, realize the conclusions that were drawn from them, gain insight into the thought processes of the people who made them, and form my own opinion about what is really going on.
Here’s the best place to start: Ben Bowlby’s quote in an interview with Racecar engineering, September 2009:
‘We don’t want technologically retarded vehicle racing, we want absolutely the latest stuff. However, it’s got to be compatible with our economic and environmental concerns. We will have to run less horsepower, while still achieving the same lap times, get the efficiency of the cars up and get the carbon footprint down. It’s a good time to be thinking about change. It’s do or die for motorsport.”
That’s a fairly concise list of Mr. Bowlby’s parameters. If you broke them out in bullet points and held them up against the press release on IndyCar’s website from Feb. 4, 2010, you’ll see some parallels. Keep in mind that this was Mr. Bowlby speaking freely about principles he had been putting into practice during the months already devoted to the project before September 2009.
Mr. Bowlby and many of his peers discuss these issues at length in the following Racecar Engineering article:
Racecar engineering 9/12/09
http://www.racecar-engineering.com/articles/other/386862/the-future-of-indycar-and-the-indianapolis-500.html
I had listened to a previous interview of Mr. Hull on “Trackside”, and he delivered the same messages in your podcast. Beyond the detail Mr. Hull provides, his statements reveal much more about his character. He is dedicated and passionate. He is frustrated, and just a touch angry.
Mr. Bowlby’s words quoted above show his enthusiam, and the importance he places on his project. Here’s what else he had to say in that interview:
“The current rules are an enormous factor in determining the detail construction of cars, because the rules govern largely by design specifications rather than performance specifications,’ he says. ‘I don’t feel that this situation serves motorsport that well. It has become a dumbed-down form of entertainment. That’s not what motor racing is all about – it’s lost its relevance. If racing was relevant to people, there would be far more value in what we do. The rules would not be about making cars less and less efficient in order to contain speed and cost.”
I’m gonna call that dedicated, passionate, frustrated, and just a touch angry.
Back to Mr. Hull’s interview on your podcast:
“It might be like a foxhole culture, almost,” he says. “It’s like we’re shoulder-to-shoulder on everything that we do here together, and that’s probably the definition of who we are at Chip Ganassi Racing.”
That’s where these guys are coming from. They have been in lengthy discussion with management, Les Mactaggert in particular, as seen in the article linked above. That article reveals the same dedication and passion expressed in the quotes of their peers from other teams.
In a summary of Hull’s interview, Stephanie wrote this line:
“Hull falls just shy of pointing a finger of blame, but his comments on the shortfalls in promoting the series are revealing.”
Not quite. Mr. Hull doesn’t call anyone out, but the frustration, and a touch of anger, is evident when he talks about “management”…in reference to promotion of the events, and the limits of the spec series he participates in.
I think that establishes the context well enough from the DeltaWing side of the issue. I think Marshall Pruett went just a little bit farther, without the restrictions of diplomacy.
These guys are all racers, and so is Pruett. He and Robin Miller hang with them. They know what’s up, and hear the same sentiments you read above. When the tape recorders aren’t running.
Everyone involved saw Mr. Barnhart on stage announcing the IICS bullet points, and they all screamed at once. Pruett screamed his reaction on his webpage. The thunder was stolen. There will be more.
The Delta project was hatched from a sense of frustration, and grew with the dedication Mr. Bowlby and his peers were free to exercise. Yes, they were cooperative with management in sharing their efforts and defining their goals. Yes, they spoke of delegating construction and component supply to Dallara and others.
So Mr. Pruett prattled on about how he felt just a little bit betrayed when reading the IICS announcement, and seeing the Dallara photos. He was speaking out for his friends: he doesn’t really have a dog in this fight. They do.
And Jeremy prattled on about how he thinks Mr. Barnhart does such a lousy job, and how Mr. Barnhart deserves all the blame for this issue too. He doesn’t.
None of us knows the set of rules Mr. Barhart operates under. Undoubtedly some are his own. Safety and economics are the two overriding concerns in every decision he makes. Consistent policies are necessary to reassure the suppliers and the team owners that they are doing business in a stable environment. Too bad if people think he speaks in bullet points and buzzwords. To some extent, he has to.
Dallara got the bullet points. Most of them were clear from day one. More were learned through intensive research in 11/ 03 – 2/ 04, which was supplemented by concurrent independant studies. Dallara has designed many race and road car chassis since, and have learned a great deal along the way.
Andrea Toso didn’t start creating his renderings at Dallara last week, or last month. They likely have been independently working on their design before Mr. Bowlby began his. Dallara is a very large corporation with world class research and production facilities. They create a hell of a lot of racecars, and make a lot of money doing it. And Thursday, they laid up a little thunder.
Whether this leads to the drafting of battle lines remains to be seen. If there is a spirit of cooperation which guides the parallel developments, it must be bilateral. Curt Cavin likes to say, “Somebody’s feeling are going to get hurt”. Yeah buddy.
Repeating Bowlby’s words from above: “It’s a good time to be thinking about change. It’s do or die for motorsport.” I’m thinking he’s pissed today.
Mike Hull: “Whether Ben’s got the right idea or not, all it’s done is opened up the avenue for discussion. But something needs to happen.” I’m thinking he feels a little bit jilted today.
Chip Ganassi, in his speech from January:
“We in the racing industry need to be bold in meeting and demonstrating tomorrow’s technology and innovations, showcasing what can be achieved as we embark on a new era of efficiency,” he said. “In order to keep the sport of auto racing healthy, it’s going to take our collective efforts.”
Mr. Ganassi is going to be really happy today… if he trusts the management’s leadership, and Mr. Barnhart’s execution of it. I guess it comes down to the “…our collective efforts” part. Who is he addressing, the teams AND the management? Cool, then nodody’s feelings are going to get hurt.
By now you’re all mad at me for prattling on so long, and it gets worse. I’m going to tell you why I GUESS that most of I just wrote doesn’t matter. Here’s what matters.
From IndyCar’s website, Friday, Feb. 5, 2010:
“The new Dallara IndyCar will be built in Indianapolis, and it will set new standards in terms of safety, fuel efficiency, raceability, technology performance and cost containment,” Gian Paolo Dallara said. “We will achieve all of these objectives. Dallara as a company, a trusted, credible, stable and loyal partner for the Indy Racing League for the past 12 years, commits to support, service and develop this new car by locating a dedicated facility in Indianapolis.”
That, my Podistas, was probably a very careful translation from Mr. Dallara’s native language. To me, it says “Game Over”.
So here’s my editorial. I’m guessing that after 65 years, the Hulman family and all that is IMS and IICS have a deep relationship with local and State politics. The Mayor of Indianapolis led a delegation to Europe last fall (source: Indiana Business Journal) to develop the business relationships that would find investors and create jobs for Speedway. Didn’t Mr. Dallara’s public committment just seal the deal?
From my pod, I say the models of racecars and the feelings of racers don’t matter. Money talks. Game over.
All that matters as a result is how Mr. Ganassi, and his staff, and all the other owners who support the Delta project, choose to react in the days to come. If they are dedicated and passionate and frustrated and just a touch angry, Curt Cavin is going to wind up sounding like a prophet. So will Marshall Pruett.
Not my dogs, not my fight. Here’s what I want to know. Who in hell will be minding the store in the meantime? Who is working on improving the quality of the competition for 2010 and 2011? Who is focused on attracting new audiences, and making sure they will come back for more? Who is dedicating their efforts to making sure there are enough entries to fill the grid this year, or next? Who is trying to keep struggling teams afloat, so there are enough survivors left to melt down their old Dallaras and buy what comes next?
That’s what frustrates me. Makes me a touch angry, too. That’s why I read a lot of stuff on my computer and it makes me scream…the dedication and passion never goes away. Let’s hope the future doesn’t either.
Andy Bernstein
If you just read all of that, thanks for your patience.
Here’s the follow up piece that Pruett wrote a week later. While I think he’s still overstating the case, his article expresses the same sentiments you just read above.
http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/pruett-triple-stint-29/
Andy Bernstein