Q: With all of the technology contained in IndyCar and F1, why hasn’t anyone developed a small video screen and placed it on the roll cage to provide side and rearview images for the drivers? The existing mirrors can’t give much of a view and the placement would allow drivers to pick up more of a view while still looking forward.
Craig Nelson
MP: I love the assumption that drivers care about or want to know what’s behind or alongside them! Video cameras are the norm in sports cars, so I’d bet an open-wheeler with a wraparound halo or aeroscreen could incorporate a slim, wide screen if each series wanted to seek a vendor/partner for it.
Q: I’m curious to know if VIR or Road Atlanta ever come up in IndyCar scheduling conversations? Both host IMSA races so I would think that logistically they could support an IndyCar race. Either would add a fresh new race in areas where there isn’t a huge IndyCar presence at the moment. With VIR’s multiple long straights, I feel like it’d be an entertaining race.
Connor, Columbus, OH
MP: They would, and no, the speeds and safety involved with sports cars that fully envelop the drivers, and the speeds and safety measures to handle rocket-fast open-wheel cars with those exposed wheel and roofless machines, mean there’s no way IndyCar races at VIR or Road Atlanta without the tracks undergoing vast changes.
Q: In a response in the July 5 Mailbag, you wrote, “IndyCar needs to snap out of its olden ways and try a few things that aren’t predictable and safe.” OK, here’s my suggestion:
End the season at Watkins Glen on the first weekend in October.
F1, of course, raced at the Glen in early October and drew large crowds for 20 years. A large portion of those crowds were college students, and there are a lot of colleges within relatively easy reach of the track. Market the race not only to the racing audience but also to the weekend-party college audience. By early October those students are ready for an off-campus blowout.
Your first reaction may be to recall the Watkins Glen “bog” and the infamously unruly activities that took place there. Today, the bog is history. Tracks, including Watkins Glen, have learned how to minimize the potential for such things.
Your second reaction may be to object to a race during the heart of the NFL season. I will grant that the NFL has grown to be even more popular today than it was during the F1 years, but I think that the majority of the racing audience will remain loyal to racing. The Pittsburgh Steelers were arguably the most popular NFL team during the F1 years at Watkins Glen, but the Steelers did not have a negative impact on F1 attendance at the Glen. And the college party crowd was not then and is not now a slave to the NFL schedule.
Your next reaction may be to object to an October date in the Finger Lakes regions. It can be cold and wet. It was often cold and wet during those F1 races, but the crowds were there. It can be cold and wet at NFL games, but the crowds are there. People are remarkably accepting of iffy weather when doing things they want to do — just look at the crowd that stuck around in Chicago last weekend. And bad weather is not a given at the Glen in October.
Having now addressed some of the possible objections, let’s look at the positives: It would be an IndyCar race in the northeast market, a market that is the largest in the country and which has been ignored by IndyCar in recent years. It would be both a “throwback,” hearkening back to the F1 years, and at the same time “new,” trying something outside of the current IndyCar box. It would extend the IndyCar season into the fall which, frankly, it needs in order to cut down on the dreadfully long off-season.
I am very much an oval-track guy, yet here I am, advocating for a road course. It would be, as you asked, not “predictable and safe.” But it could be a success, and it would be lot of fun. It ought to be tried.
Bobster
MP: Thanks for the ideas, Bob.
Q: Been a few years since I’ve been to Mid-Ohio, and I was glad to see the west side stands were upgraded to new gleaming, shiny steel, compared to the old, rotten wood seats.
The downside: the few times it was sunny, I felt like I was in one of those easy-bake ovens. Can they dull out or paint the stands, or (miracle happens) put a roof over the damn thing? Also, while I’m still in my whiner rant mode, how about a few porta-potties on that side of the track? We had to make the long trek under the tunnel every time.
John Becker, Illinois
MP: Duly noted, John.
Q: The IMS authorities have been touting their drive for “diversity.” This year’s Indy 500 featured only one woman, and the 2022 race had none. I cannot think of any prominent woman who could get a ride for 2024. Beth Paretta’s project seems to have just dried up and blown away.
Three years with half the population not represented in “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” seems a pretty poor showing given the stated aim of reflecting diversity. Am I wrong?
Anthony Jenkins, Brockville, Ontario
MP: I hear you, but we’re in a generational phase where, barring Simona De Silvestro or Katherine Legge, there are no turnkey solutions that come to mind at the Speedway. Behind them, there are some extremely promising young women who could join in, but the Calderons and Chadwicks and Pins and Powells have a combined total of zero oval races on their records.
We hope Jamie Chadwick will show well on her oval debut at Iowa and again at WWTR, and while she’s only shown an interest in NASCAR, Hailie Deegan might be the closest to taking on something like the Indy 500 based on her multiple seasons of ARCA and Trucks experience. But if we’re talking about readying the next Simona in American open-wheel, there’s a big void to fill in regards to having ass-kicking women running up front in the USF Championships presented by Cooper Tires or Indy NXT by Firestone.
So, while we don’t have a number of next-generation women racers who are ready to race in the Indy 500, we also have almost nothing being done about it, except for Michael Andretti with Chadwick. IndyCar teams like Carpenter and Ganassi will take boatloads of money to develop any driver who can pay for the opportunity, and so far, all of those drivers have been young men. There are a few young women who come from the same kinds of wealth, but they’ve chosen IMSA as the place they want to race. I can only hope that young women with the financial means start choosing USF/NXT/IndyCar.
Separate from the driving side, we’ve had an explosion of diversity on the team side at Indy, and that makes me happy.