I recieved this in email:

Virtually all the IRL teams are stopping at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma for testing tomorrow and Wednesday. Gates will be open both days, for no charge, at 8:00AM, with testing beginning Tuesday at 12:30PM and 9:00AM Wednesday.

Greg, who misses American motorsports

 

There's going to be a bunch of people who, for whatever reason, thinks the Spec Ford Champ Cars by Whoever the Heck are the shnizits and the IRL cars are crapwagons. I personally think that we are going to look back at this situation in a couple of years and be glad that the IRL cars started racing on road courses.

K

 

So Kirk, what makes you think that the IRL will be any more successful with CART's failed business model?

Don't get me wrong, I think alot of what Champ Car is doing is wrong, but they aren't facing the problem of losing all three engine manufactureres and the huge sponsorship checks that come along with them. Chevy is gone after this year, Toyota after '05 or '06, and if Honda does stick around, they wont be propping up teams like AGR, Rahal, and Fernandez.

It will take alot of TonyBucks to save the series once that happens.

 

They both have it wrong enough that there will be only one left standing in a few years. I think the tipper in IRL's favor is that they have done more to contain engine/chassis costs - particularly with the NA formula. This isn't a big difference and the bloodlines are going to be hard to trace backward when the merge comes but the cars that we'll see are going to have more in common with the current IRL cars than with Champ Cars.

K