So the first season post-unification is over as Scott Dixon claimed the title in Chicago. A well-deserved champion to a hard-fought duel with Helio. A season with ups and downs, but most of all a season that tried to unite teams and fans to try and take its place back as one of the leading open wheel series in the world. Did it succeed?
Let me get one thing straight first of all. I'm a road course guy. I was born and bred with Formula 1 and I was incredibly amazed when I first saw those sexy looking Reynard's and Lola's running through the streets of American cities back in the day on Eurosport.
I won't be writing my columns from the point of view of someone who watched the Indy 500 for 15 years, because I didn't. I do think however I'm able to offer an interesting view from a relative outsider. In the end, it's the people coming from outside the sport that the IRL has to reach to expand its fanbase. I hope I can contribute to that.
How do I rate the first season after the re-unification? In terms of racing: not bad. In terms of the global importance: paramount. As a Champ Car adept, I was sad for the things that I liked about the series that disappeared, but I was equally happy for the unification itself. As expected, the road course fans complained about the ovals, the oval fans complained about the non-ovals. A lot has been said about venues and drivers possibly returning to the sport and many fans are frustrated with the current car (and I am one of them).
Let's not forget this though: There are things called contracts. People who expected the merger would dramatically change the face of open wheel racing on the short term are kidding themselves. A lot of tracks have long-term deals, the new car and the new turbo-charged engines (yeah!) are only coming in 2011. The keyword here is patience, and I will get more into this in a future column.
Let's focus on the racing side of things for now. On one hand we had no less than six first-time winners, new stars stepping in the limelight, a thrilling title battle and season finale with great racing. On the other hand, we also had several less successful and even plain boring races, both on the ovals and the road courses.
Going through the biggest events of the season, one cannot get around the maiden wins of Graham Rahal and Danica Patrick. They created a huge buzz in the racing scene and gave the IndyCar Series a lot of attention and momentum after the rather poor showing in Homestead. It established both drivers as stars, be it one for the race track and one for the newspapers. I'm not being cynical, because both are equally important for the series.
Apart from Dixon's domination and Castroneves' consistency, the most remarkable tendency is how hard the transitional teams have been working. From finishing five laps down in Homestead to contending for a top-5 finish on the Chicagoland oval - and winning on the road courses, let's not forget that - they truly have come a very long way. In no way they resemble the bottom feeders that rushed into the season on short notice with a minimum of technical resources.
In this respect, 2009 will be the first truly unified season. Although the big three (Ganassi, Penske, AGR) will undoubtely be the teams contending for the championship, most people are looking forward to see how the newer teams (KV and NHL in particular) close up on the ovals. The Ganassi boys (with superstar Dario Franchitti joining the ranks) will be a hard catch, but it's beyond doubt the field will be as competitive as it's ever been.
As a road course guy I personally enjoyed most of the races I saw. Even though the Indy 500 wasn't the best edition, I appreciated both the racing and the buzz around and it's easy to see why Americans love it. Chicago was as good as it gets, St. Pete and Edmonton were very exciting too. On the other hand I didn't care much for Sonoma and Detroit. And most of the 1.5 mile ovals for that matter.
Also Mid-Ohio was a disappointment, since I regard it as one of the best road courses in North America. It just doesn't work with the current car. Or to quote Paul Tracy: “It doesn't kick ass like the Champ Car”.
All in all, I – and many people with me - can't wait for '09. Even though 2008 was still a stepping stone and left a lot to be desired for a lot of long-time fans, it remains a historic year.
The most important thing to remember from this season is not how exciting it was, it's the fact that it happened.
Filip Cleeren
Written by Filip Cleeren on Tue, 30 Sep 2008 10:32:42
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