Friday, January 20, 2006

The Re-constructionists Could Be Wrong

When I hear about anyone proposing that the IRL and CCWS rejoin and become one again I am reminded of how it used to be and I’m prompted to think about what Dan Gurney proposed back in 1978 in the famous white paper.

There have been many proposals from many of the so called major players in OWR since the split in 95. Some have called for a 50-50 split of power for each of the series others have suggested that TG retain the Indy 500 and CCWS control the rest.

There have been calls for homologation of the rules so that the two series could run selected events with like equipment, particularly Indy.

All of this would fix OWR in this country according to the re-constructionists as I call them.

Who is to say OWR wasn’t in a state of decline prior to the split in spite of what seemed to be it’s hey day?

How do we know that NASCAR wouldn’t have become what is today if there hadn’t been a split.

It’s all pretty much subjective; there are no specific metrics by which the success or failure of OWR in this country can be measured. It’s sort of like trying to assess the success of a shark patrol on the Mississippi river.

Back to Gurney’s White paper; the one single thing that I believe has the best chance of being successful is the control of a series by a Czar like figure much like F1 has in BE. I think we all know why that wasn’t adopted when CART was formed! Any combination of control as in the old CART structure or the ones that have been proposed are doomed to failure just as they have failed in the past.

So re-constructionists I say to you Agree or Disagree I don’t care but I stand by my conviction, and perhaps that of Dan Gurney, that only a single strong leader can make OWR in this country what we all want it to be!