Way off topic: Open Wheel reunification?

This doesn’t have squat to do with elections but it’s been one big political hot potato since 1996. The political sides though instead of being Republicans and Democrats was the Hulman-George family and the car owners that made up the former Championship Auto Racing Teams (or CART) circuit. As we all know the Family and its front man Tony George formed the Indy Racing League and the split in open wheel racing occurred starting in 1996 when CART staged a race at Michigan on the same day as the Indianapolis 500. A few years ago, CART declared bankruptcy and Tony George attempted to purchase the assets of CART and merge them into his Indy Racing League. That didn’t happen as a group of CART car owners formed OWRS, or Open Wheel Racing Series Inc. and assumed the former CART series, retitled “Champ Car”.

IRL enjoyed a TV contract with a major TV and cable network, mainly due to the Indianapolis 500 in spite of low car counts and sub-par drivers getting to race in the 500 (Milka Duno comes to mind). Champ Car, on the other hand, had to purchase time on multiple US TV networks to get coverage sometimes tape delayed for days and sporadic scheduling. Ironically Champ Car enjoyed a broad appeal outside the United States. The number of entrants into Champ Car series racing was dwindling and its TV ratings were almost sub-zero as most fans couldn’t find them on TV because of the erratic scheduling and network hopping. Added to Champ Car’s woes one driver, Sebastian Bordais, dominated the series when the competition was older drivers (example being Jimmy Vasser) and washed-out Formula One drivers (Robert Dornbos for one).

It seems the schism may be “mending” as it appears Open Wheel Racing Series, the corporate parent of the Champ Car series will likely declare bankruptcy in the coming days and as a result merge into the Indy Racing League. Which Champ Car venues will move to the IRL schedule remains to be seen, though it appears Long Beach could be an IRL race this year.

In the meantime, the “tin top taxicabs” of NASCAR experienced massive growth in popularity and no doubt a lot of that growth was open wheel fans fed up with the schism in open wheel. Time will tell if the IRL can bring back its fan base as it was in the “old days”.