MVN - Most Valuable Network

Options on table as open-wheel bigwigs aim to end war

A couple of options are in play as executives from both the Indy Racing League and Champ Car are expected to meet today to finish off any remaining issues that could stop the unification of open-wheel racing. According to Curt Cavin of the Indianapolis Star, IRL spokesman Fred Nation said that a Friday press conference is possible if an agreement is reached today.

As for the options I mentioned, they’re confusing me a little bit. Cavin writes that the Apr. 19-20 weekend that features Champ Car’s Long Beach Grand Prix and the IRL’s Indy Japan 300 is still a factor in all of this. LBGP president/CEO Jim Michaelian tells him that both races could still be run in the weekend with the Champ Car drivers at Long Beach getting as much points as the IRLers racing at Twin Ring Motegi.

The other option? Scrapping the Motegi race for 2008 and tick off the fans that have already bought tickets for that race. Not to mention Honda — unless the IRL officials’ recent trip to Japan really worked out well and got the manufacturer to see the big picture even though their race would be replaced for ‘08 by a Toyota-sponsored LBGP. But since both Japanese companies are blood rivals (or oil rivals, in this case), I’m less inclined to believe this option has a chance to be realized.

So what happened here? Did the IRL get Motegi to switch their date or not? I’ve heard reports about the Japan race moving to mid-summer, but nothing from the officials. Hopefully, if all of this works out today, we’ll get a definite answer in due time.

UPDATE: 2.21.08 (12:51 p.m. ET) – Looks like Paul Tracy has no clue what’s going on in all of this. Even worse, he’s told the Winnipeg Sun that his Forsythe/Pettit Racing team is on orders to prepare for Champ Car testing in March at Laguna Seca in California.

And now Robin Miller’s reporting that both sides have indeed settled on running both Long Beach with Champ Car and Motegi with IRL on Apr. 18-20 — with both events counting for IRL championship points.

Miller’s citing an ACCUS agreement in which no other auto race save for the Surfer’s Paradise, Australia event on Oct. 26 can be ran six weeks before or after the F1 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka on Oct. 12; apparently Motegi tried to move their IRL event to October.

Talk about a unique set of circumstances…still, let’s wait for an official announcement before we start screaming like monkeys.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 at 9:12 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.