US Open Wheeled Racing Unified

[Lnin0]

At long last the stubborn stale mate between IRL and Champ Car has ended


http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080222/SPORTS0107/802220517/1052/SPORTS01

[Burr]

Thank goodness. This was long overdue and the split never should have happened to begin with.. Unfortunately it's probably too late with the way NASCAR has taken off.. *sigh*

[quashpdarkman]

it didn't clarify if the cars would be honda, ford, neither or both.

i kinda hope they coexist in the same class. it would be nice to have some variation in a motorsport that isn't completely based on strategy.

[Lnin0]

Rumor is it will be Honda engines and dallara chassis for 08. I would love to see the sexy panoz chassis racing this year but doubtful. I guess that ugly dallara is so old there are a bunch of extras laying about that they can 'donate' to the teams coming from CC.

Still, the boys from CC will have a tough year - getting your first hands on a car two weeks before the season has to suck. Hopefully in 09 they start to expand the chassis and manufacturers again.

08 will mostly be the IRL schedule but they will add Long Beach, Edmunton and maybe one other race during the season. Also add Surfers as a non-point race at the end of the year. Chicago is under contract to be championship race for IRL so it has to be the last points race on the calendar and Surfers is scheduled after that. Just hope 09 will seek to build a more diverse schedule. There are some good road couses in CC they need and some lame ovals in IRL that need to be dumped. I would like to see somethig that balances everything.

The series needs a lot of work but this is a good first step. Still a long way from being compared to F1 or NASCAR again. I am so hoping a name change is in the final press release as well - my vote is for the Indy Car World Series

[quashpdarkman]

i was kinda hoping for the cosworth motors to be in the panoz chassis, but i guess beggars can't be choosers.

still, i'm pretty excited about this. i can only hope that this becomes a success and stays true to traditional open wheel racing.