AFTER 12 YEARS OF ACRIMONY AND SELF-DESTRUCTIVE COMPETITION, the two major Indy-type racing leagues announced yesterday that they are merging the circuits. The Indy Racing League (IRL) and the Champ Car World Series circuit have come to an agreement in principle and have signed the preliminary papers. However, a press conference scheduled for Friday afternoon was postponed until after the weekend.

The period of upset in the open-wheel racing world began back in 1979. For the 25 years prior to that, all the Championship Car (as the largest of the open-wheel racers were called) races were sanctioned by the United States Auto Club (USAC) and the premier race was the Indianapolis 500. The wide popularity of that one race led to the nickname of Indy Cars for the formula.

Indy 500 - 1927

But a major dispute between USAC and the Champ car team owners directly led to the owners forming their own racing circuit to be self-sanctioned and called it the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART). Initially, it was a good move. The rules were strengthened and the car/engine specifications were made more practical and updated. The CART series flourished and the Indy 500 remained the crown jewel of the circuit.

After a few years of success and growth, the CART league started expanding into bigger markets and began introducing road course races into the schedule. As more and more road courses were added, fewer and fewer ovals were being raced on. This caused three things to happen. First, the fan base for the league was not only eroded, but the staunchest fans became unhappy with it. Secondly, because of their prior experience, a lot of foreign race drivers migrated into the circuit. This had the effect of disconnecting the fans from their favorite drivers that they had followed for years as they came up through the junior circuits of midgets and sprint cars. No more were there people at home or the track rooting for an Andretti, Foyt, Mears, Johncock, Rutherford, et al.

Louis Chevrolet (left) and his mechanic
at the “brickyard” in 1916

And thirdly, CART decided to compete against Formula 1 by traveling to other countries and upgrading the car specifications to a more highly-refined formula. This caused the costs of racing to skyrocket and the feeder system that had provided drivers and mechanics for 50 years became disconnected. That made it almost impossible for the American drivers to work their way up into the Champ car series.

(left) Ray Harroun, 1911 - (right) Louis Meyer, 1928

In 1994 Tony George, the owner of the Indianapolis Speedway, said “Enough!” and announced that he would form a new champ car circuit that would go back to its base and become affordable. He would personally finance the start-up of the league, to be called the Indy Racing League (IRL), which would race on oval tracks only. And as owner of the world-famous track he would reserve the Indy 500 for the new IRL. In 1996 the new league debuted and the internecine war of survival began.

There are plenty of sources that will give you the story of the fractious results, including CART’s miserable attempt to stage their own Memorial Day 500-miler. There is not space here to recount them. But the end result came in January, 2004 when CART’s assets were auctioned off in a bankruptcy sale. In a last-ditch effort of survival, four men jointly bought CART’s remnants and formed an offspring circuit, the Champ Car World Series. But the revenue wasn’t there to sustain it and with this year’s racing season about to begin, they still hadn’t paid off last year’s bills. It was over.

The IRL is the last-man-standing and will be absorbing most of the Champ Car teams and maybe three of the racing venues. But none of the assets or liabilities. They remain with the defunct corporation. But now the future of major open-wheel racing is 500% brighter and you will see a much-improved product and the racing business will see their fans returning to the grandstands.

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