It Was More Than That

There are those who say they won’t support a series that doesn’t run the 2.65L turbo. But before the current engine, many different types of engines have been used in the Championship, including Ford, Offenhauser, Honda, Miller, Duesenberg, Cadillac, and over 200 others. Engine types included turbocharged as well as naturally aspirated, four cylinders, eight cylinders, 151 cubic inch, 220 ci, 252 ci, and many other configurations and technologies, some that are lost to history. But it was not about the engines. It was more than that.

There are those who say they won’t support a series that doesn’t use the Panoz, or one that uses the Dallara. Before Panoz, there was Lola, Reynard, March, Swift, Eagle, Penske, TrueSports, Chaparral, Fiat, Acme, and over 400 others. But it was not about the chassis. It was more than that.

There are those who say they won’t support a series that doesn’t run at a certain track. Races have been held at Long Beach, Japan, Brands Hatch, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Daytona, Long Island, Watkins Glen, Laguna Seca, Pikes Peak, and over 200 other locations around the world. They raced on bricks, city streets, permanent road courses, paved ovals, dirt ovals, hill climbs, and board tracks. But it was not about the tracks, the type of tracks, nor the locations of the tracks. It was more than that.

There are those who say they won’t support a series if a particular driver doesn’t drive. Sebastien Bourdais, Paul Tracy, Cristiano da Matta, Gil de Ferran, Juan Pablo Montoya, Alex Zanardi, Jimmy Vasser, Jacques Villenueve, Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt, Ralph DePalma, Earl Cooper, and countless others have competed for the Championship, but it was not about the drivers. It was more than that.

It also was not about the teams, the sanctioning body, or the owners. All of these things, engines, chassis, tracks, drivers, teams, are all part of the Championship that evolved over nearly one hundred years of American-based open-wheel racing. Each one of those things was important, but none were constant and none would be able to be part of the competition for the Championship forever. No, the Championship was more than that, and that is something was lost on February 22, 2008.

What we now have is a series that exists to support and promote one race.

The “division” in American-based open-wheel racing was never about technology, owners, or drivers. It was about whether the Championship, or one race, was more important. Working together, we could have had a great series that had as its focal point, a great race. Instead, we now have a series that exists to promote one race, keep drivers and teams occupied the rest of the year, and to have a sideshow that comes to towns to show the cars that run at that one race to those who haven’t been.

The Championship was more than that.

Posted 2008 02 24 at 7:56 AM

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