When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
"The issues they have with the Honda power unit are just so big. They have reliability issues and a lack of horsepower - they don't really go hand in hand with development. They'll improve but they're so far away it would be Houdini-like if they were able to come back and genuinely be competitive this year just because the pace of the racing season. McLaren will [stick around], but whether Honda do or not is another question."
This is the sixth installment in RACER’s ongoing 25th anniversary celebration during which we share the 25 most important issues from our first quarter century.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand." So reasoned President Abraham Lincoln 138 years before May 1996 about a subject far more significant than IndyCar racing, but the logic behind his words applied just as clearly to the split between CART and the Indy Racing League as that fateful month approached. Profound differences in philosophy over rulesmaking, the need for more homegrown talent and even the style of racing separated CART – and its passionate fans – from the new regime founded by Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Tony George to take over the direction of the Indianapolis 500. And the increasing hostility generated by those divergent views forced anyone with an interest in the sport – whether financial, emotional or both – to take sides.
That included RACER. IndyCar racing had been a core editorial focus of the magazine from the start, but had taken on particular significance for the company since a deal had been struck to produce a dedicated Fan Guide for CART's 1996 PPG IndyCar World Series. That special issue, bound in with the April issue of RACER magazine, aimed to raise the standard for pre-season annuals and give fans a genuine insight into the sport's personalities, cars and tracks. But when one sport became two, inevitably that emphasis served to position RACER within the CART camp, at least in the minds of the most dedicated partisans on both sides.
In that light, several significant additions joined RACER in 1996. In an effort to balance Gordon Kirby’s pro-CART viewpoint, Jeff Olson was hired to cover short track oval racing, and he was soon elevated to covering the new Indy Racing League from an unbiased perspective. Former Goodyear PR rep Bill King joined as a contributor with a regular column on the business of racing. The following May he would become the founding editor of RACER.com.
Editorially, the May issue attempted to bridge the gap with a stark assessment of "A House Divided" by editor
Zimmermann, that depicted the challenges and possibilities of two competing 500s being run on Memorial Day weekend.
Opportunity or apocalypse? John Zimmermann previewed the Dueling 500s.
But that was only part of IndyCar's story that spring. The reigning champion of the sport (and its last unified champion), Jacques Villeneuve, had switched from IndyCar to Formula 1 – and not just with any team, but perennial superpower Williams-Renault. Yes it was an F1 story first and foremost, but also of special relevance to IndyCar fans in light of the difficulties experienced by then-IndyCar champ Michael Andretti on his F1 foray three years earlier.
Although the pressures of publishing deadlines meant that Maurice Hamilton's assessment of Villeneuve's prospects had to be written before his spectacular debut, the respect and admiration for his talents that the French-Canadian had already secured from team bosses Frank Williams and Patrick Head – two men never known to coddle drivers, newcomers or otherwise – rang through Hamilton's interview, "Thinking Big." It made Villeneuve's subsequent appearance as an overnight sensation in F1 less of a surprise and more of a "I told you so" for RACER readers.
Maurice Hamilton was present at the creation of Jacques Villeneuve's F1 stardom.
That looks P good. Wish the car had a little moar black and silver. They could keep the main color pink but I think a silver and black with the pink would go a long way.
Re: The Official Formula 1 2017 Season Thread
That included RACER. IndyCar racing had been a core editorial focus of the magazine from the start, but had taken on particular significance for the company since a deal had been struck to produce a dedicated Fan Guide for CART's 1996 PPG IndyCar World Series. That special issue, bound in with the April issue of RACER magazine, aimed to raise the standard for pre-season annuals and give fans a genuine insight into the sport's personalities, cars and tracks. But when one sport became two, inevitably that emphasis served to position RACER within the CART camp, at least in the minds of the most dedicated partisans on both sides.
Maurice Hamilton was present at the creation of Jacques Villeneuve's F1 stardom.
