Full circle for open-wheel racing?

By Jim Benton, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Photo by Shuji Kajiyama

Danica Patrick won the Indy Japan 300 on April 20, becoming the first woman to win an IndyCar race.

Vail's Bob Lazier drove in the 1981 Indianapolis 500 when the race was in its heyday.

His sons, Buddy and Jaques, have seen both sides of the race -- when it was thriving, and later when the 12-year split of America's two open-wheel circuits dampened the luster of "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing."

So the Lazier family is in perfect position to feel the excitement of a renaissance in open-wheel racing that is expected to attract more television viewers Sunday for the 92nd running of the Indianapolis 500.

"It's coming back big-time," Bob Lazier said of the race.

Earlier this year, Champ Car and the Indy Racing League unified to bring all the top drivers in American open-wheel racing under the same umbrella. And the popularity of drivers such as Danica Patrick, the first woman to win an IndyCar race, and Helio Castroneves has given the race an additional boost.

"When Buddy started his career 20 years ago (the Indianapolis 500) was a huge deal," Bob Lazier said. "That's started to come back. The two groups getting together is very positive. It should make it twice as much fun and twice as exciting."

ESPN said ratings have increased for all IndyCar Series races this year, and Indianapolis 500 pole-day ratings were up on ESPN2 and ABC. ESPN2 reported a 52 percent jump, ABC a 16 percent increase.

Ratings were up 18 percent for "Bump Day" on Sunday, when Buddy Lazier, the 1996 champion and two-time runner-up who lives in Vail, became the final driver to qualify.

ESPN/ABC analyst Eddie Cheever, a former Aspen resident and the 1998 Indianapolis 500 winner, believes the resurgence of IndyCar racing is just beginning.

"With the arrival of the new teams, you have a whole new DNA in IndyCar racing," Cheever said. "The Penskes, the Ganassis and the Andretti Greens have always been bumping up the bar, but if you look at the whole grid, it's a strong grid.

"IndyCar racing is now ready to propel itself into a level where it has not been for 30 years."

Five reasons to watch

* Getting together

The IRL and Champ Car unified in February after a 12-year split. Now there are more quality teams, cars and drivers trying to win the Indianapolis 500, and that's creating more excitement and entertaining racing.

* Danica-mania

Danica Patrick has directed much-needed attention to American open-wheel racing. It seems everybody, even nonrace fans, recognize Patrick. She has been featured in commercials and in Sports Illustrated. Her picture adorns the side of AirTran planes. Patrick, 26, won the Indy Japan 300 on April 20 to become the first female to win in IndyCar, and she's one of three women who will race Sunday. The others are Sarah Fisher and Venezuelan Milka Duno.

* Indy is hip

Two-time winner Castroneves created more awareness for open-wheel racing when the Brazilian won the fifth season of the reality television show Dancing with the Stars with partner Julianne Hough. That helped create what former Indianapolis 500 driver and current TV analyst Scott Goodyear calls "the Dale Jr. effect, where people recognize the person away from the racetrack."

* New blood

Fresh faces in this lineup included Graham Rahal, son 1986 champion Bobby Rahal. The younger Rahal recently won in St. Petersburg, Fla., to become the first driver from Champ Car to win an IndyCar event. Two-time Grand Prix of Denver winner Bruno Junqueira, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Will Power and Oriol Servia are other former Champ Car drivers in the field.

* Tradition

It's hard to beat the Brickyard for racing lore. The race first was called "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" in 1955. The phrase was coined by copywriter Alice Greene and spoken by radio announcer Sid Collins. The Victory Lane tradition of the winner drinking milk started in 1936 was revived in 1956 and continues today. As for the Brickyard, paving bricks made up the racing surface during the early years but now the only bricks exposed are part of a 3-foot wide column across the track that makes the start/finish line.

He said it

"There's a general feeling now that the sport has become unified, there is an opportunity for a new beginning. There's a new beginning in something that already has a lot of age." Cheever

Numbers game

9 countries are represented in the starting field for the race. The 33 drivers come from the United States, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Venezuela, England, Japan, South Africa and Canada.

Double duty

NASCAR regular John Andretti, nephew of racing legend Mario Andretti, will drive for Roth Racing. John Andretti was the first driver to race in the Indianapolis 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 in Concord, N.C., on the same day. Daily double attempts now virtually are impossible after the starting time for the 500 was moved back.

500 600 Year Driver finish finish

1994 John Andretti 10th 36th

1999 Tony Stewart 9th 4th

2000 Robby Gordon 6th 35th

2001 Tony Stewart 6th 3rd

2002 Robby Gordon 8th 16th

2003 Robby Gordon 22nd 17th

2004 Robby Gordon 29th 20th

Race details * When: 11 a.m. MDT Sunday.

* Where: Indianapolis Motor Speedway (257,325 permanent seats around the 2.5-mile track).

* Television: KMGH-Channel 7 (prerace coverage starts at 10 a.m. on Channel 7; at 9 a.m. on ESPN2).

* Pole winner: Scott Dixon, 226.366 mph.

* Defending champion: Dario Franchitti.

• May 22, 2008

  8:58 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  ham writes:

  IndyCar racing, open wheel racing, in the United State is unified again, but the wrong side won. The Indy 500 is nothing more than Spec. racing. But so is NASCAR, I guess, and most people don't seem to be bothered by that. I long for the old days, when truly different and unique cars battled for wins.
  And please, no more pictures of Danica Patrick. Nobody has been so overhyped since Michelle Wie.

• May 22, 2008

  9:27 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Gene writes:

  If the other side had won, that wouldn't have been spec.?

• May 22, 2008

  11:33 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Fireball writes:

  I am truly glad for a unified series, it is the best for the sport. I love road racing, not the round-d-rounds, except for the Indy 500. Now, lets bring back the Denver Grand Prix so we can see all of them, making both left and right turns.

• May 22, 2008

  12:18 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  mark79trans writes:

  ham

  I stopped watching NASCAR because it is all the same cookie cutter garbage and too much drama, and I agree with most of your post. I too long for the old days. I will only follow NHRA and local events now.

• May 22, 2008

  2:33 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  ham writes:

  Gene: No, you're right, CART racing at the end was spec racing too. Spec chassis, spec engines. But those turbo cars were sounded so much sweeter and the Panoz chassis looked so much more graceful. I was mostly referring to a few years ago when they had at least 2 chassis (Lola and I forget???), and Honda, Ford/Cosworth and Toyota(?) engines, and in the not-too-distant past, Chevy.
  Tony George's IndyCar has been a spec series from the beginning. He just ruined it all, in my opinion.
  Now, if they had merged the 2 series and come up with some kind oof equivalancy formulation for CART turbo vs Indy V8, that would have been neat to watch. But the best racing has different chassis, different engines, and American drivers vs the rest of the world. Indy used the be the absolute ultimate, in my mind, and any more, it's just not the same.
  The best real racing in the world in Moto GP. There isn't a lap that goes by where somebody isn't passing somebody, and those guys are amazing.

• May 22, 2008

  4:21 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Gene writes:

  Ham,
  I’m a F-1 guy mostly, but I can appreciate all types. I think Tony George’s normally aspirated engines are a lot more dramatic than the the turbo Cosworth, where the turbo acted like a muffler of the sound. I think my hearing was permanently damaged a couple years ago at Indy, watching the 2 Ferrari side by side on the main straight with the 10-cylinder, normally aspirated engines at 19,000 r.p.m.. You probably know, but this year at Indy, instead of the F-1 they are having the Moto GP. I just got a ticket form in the mail the other day.