Thursday, December 18, 2003

Revista Motorsports , Los mejores 20 pilotos de Sportscars.

20. Ludwig
19. Brundle
18. Surtees
17. Brooks
16. Andretti
15. Fangio
14. Elford
13. Redman
12. Bellof
11. Mass
10. Pescarolo
9. Wollek
8. Stuck
7. Gendebien
6. Hill P
5. Siffert
4. Bell
3. Rodriguez
2. Moss
1. Ickx





Creo que yo pondria a Sir Stirling de #1, simplemente fue dominante en su tiempo - en sportscars era mejor que su co-equipero y rival Fangio. Su manejo en la Mille Miglia con Denis Jenkinson de co-piloto es una verdadera proeza, dadas las velocidades que pudo desarollar.

Tambien Brian Redman merece un mejor puesto, era reconocido como alguien que podia manejar de todo.

Omisiones significantes:

Mark Donahue: Ganador de 24 hrs. de Daytona en un Lola, campeon de serie Trans-Am para sedanes contra rivales de la talla de Gurney, Parnelli Jones, y Peter Revson, Campeon de Can-Am con el monstruoso Porsche'Panzer' de 1000 caballos de fuerza, legendarios duelos con Pedro Rodriguez en Sebring y Daytona.

Dan Gurney: Ganador en Daytona y en las 24 Horas de LeMans en Sportscars y en GT. Un innovador tecnologico quien luego tuvo mucho exito como constructor en IMSA, Indy y CART.

Bruce McLaren: Ganador en LeMans y en Can-Am, una serie donde los mejores pilotos a nivel mundial competian. Una leyenda por ser constructor.

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

TG made three giant decisions in the history of the Speedway in the 90's.

Two worked out, the Brickyard and the USGP.

The third one has completely bombed, and should be considered the worst decision made by a major sports owner/operator in the last 20 years. Destroyed the sport in general, and screwed up his signature event.

The fans that hate him, absolutely and completely hate him to the point where they will not attend or patronize a series that they see has destroyed the sport in general.

This is a major stumbling block in creating a series where Tony George would play a principal part.

He should recognize this, and graciously step aside, and remain at Indy.

or he can forget about most traditional road course fans attending any IRL event.
I like this guys opinion on the merger...



[quote]
People on these boards are talking about the CART situation like it is one of the above. Forget it. MPH was a closely held, largely institutional stock, held by less that 10 mutual funds. Even those mutual funds were small-cap, high risk funds at any one time, MPH was held by less than 400 individual stockholders. The company is in an advertising-driven business and every annual and quarterly report since going publichas highlighted the precariousness of MPH's business. The difficulties facing the company were never glossed over, nor were they ever concealed...in fact, they were emphasized

Let's face it - CART's 'business' (as all racing outside of NASCAR is) is small potatoes, and none of this is going to be hitting the airwaves on CNBC or CNNfn. Management formulated a corporate strategy for the 2003 season, presented it to the independent BOD and implemented it. It hasn't worked.....tough. They have also formulated a strategy for the present difficulty facing the corporation, and enlisted outside consultancy. They have even offered the sale of the company to its chief rival. The entire process was held in public and forthwithly reported to shareholders via standard dissemination services and methods.

If you are looking for corporate impropriety here, you won't. Every move MPH and management has done was done in public, reported to the board with propoer research and due diligence. You can disagreee with Pook's strategy, but if it failed, that's not illegal..just unfortunate.[/quote]
If I am correct from my reading of the contract, upon approval of the deal, the company will then file the chapter 11 petition. The contract itself will not close, untill the Bankruptcy Court approves it. There is a proposed order that will be attached to the petition, where the contract proposal will be sketched out. Creditors (as well as a shareholder committee)will be able to set out their objections to it.

However the assets in question, are mostly the promotion contracts. Most of the major liabilities of CART, as well as enforcement rights are attached to those contracts, including the ISC claims.

So essentially, the bankruptcy court would get 2 million in cash, combined with whatever cash is left over from the operational side of CART. That would be left over to be distributed to the stockholders.

RACEWRITER ON IRL ACCIDENTS

I like Racewriters take on IRL Safety from this Trackforum thread. Some interesting figures too.

Trackforum Link
There are about 5,000 hardcore fans who think Tony George is a genius, and the rest think he's an idiot. And I think everybody else thinks he killed the golden goose.”
-----
Robin Miller



That pretty much sums it up. Around Indy there are maybe 4 or 5 Hulamanophiles, the propagandists who sing Tony George's praises. In Indianapolis Mr. George only hears what his amen corner tells him, and since his familiy, like Dan Quayle's is part of the Nap-town-Oligarchy no one dares criticize him too strongly. That has further empowered him to continue his obstinate and obnoxious course, despite the fact that sane people in the rest of the nation thought he was on the road to ####. Now it is a case of most people don't give a ####. And even some of the locally-based hardcore have given up on the IRL after it became Penskified.

And there are also die-hard fans, some who loved the 500, loved CART, and love road racing, who absolutely and completely despise Mr. George. He is seen as the ruin of the sport, and anything associated with him (except for the USGP) is garbage. All teams who abandoned CART are traitors and the #### with the drivers. No way are these fans going to go over to a George led IRL even if it races on road courses.

I used to have delusions that somehow a merger could be worked out, but a couple of weeks in Trackforum disabused me of that notion rather quickly. I got back on 'the Wagon' pretty darn quickly after that, if you know what I mean.

I do not want a series that in any way was affiliated with the management, sales, and marketing arms of the IRL. I believe they do not have the kind of long-term vision and international perspective that are necessary to lead an Open Wheel series in the North American continent. Their mentality is collectively stuck in the grimy pavement around the Taco Bell on 16th Street.
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