Politics and Racing

There has been a lot of talk of Tony George’s role in last month’s USGP. Almost universally, FTG has been absolved of any blame in the matter, although it came to light this week that as the promoter, FTG did have the final say so on the proposed chicane.Be that as may be, a lot of people have come up with yet another, although completely unfounded reason why FTG started the IRL. They say he did it so he could have control and so something like what happened at the USGP would not happen at the Indianapolis 500. In the words of Lee Corso, not so fast my friends.

Now this is not designed to tear down FTG nor is it supposed to prop him up. My dislike of the guy has been well documented on these pages and there is no reason to keep dredging up the old stuff. But to claim FTG started the IRL on the premise of no boycott happening is ludicrous at best!Now we all know what happened at Indy in June. Seven teams boycotted the USGP. Okay, but why? There are only two possible reasons. Michelin’s bad product or politics.

Maybe Michelin did bring an inferior and dangerous product to the Speedway and we just take them at their word. However, they had been at the Speedway the past four years and they were supposed to have a “safe” tyre that could be used. Somehow, all of the teams forgot to pack those tyres. That leads to the idea that this was all a political ploy. Based on the climate of F1 over the past 2 years and the fact that the GPWC is a legitimate entity with manufacturer backing, it is highly likely it was political.

The bottom line is that we ended up with a boycott.

Now back to FTG and his “control”. Despite the fact that he has control of the IRL and the Indianapolis 500, what is there to stop a boycott of the event should issues get out of hand? You see there is none. We all pray that things would never get to such a point in the IRL that would precipitate a boycott, but there are no guarantees.So before anyone goes handing FTG the Abe Lincoln Medal of Honor, keep in mind that racing, unlike many other sports, has a very legitimate life threatening element.

Passions run deep in all sports, but auto racing seems to be more fervent than others and it may be because of that life threatening element. FTG has made it clear he will relinquish no control of the league. For the time being that suits even me as fine. But what happens if there become disagreements and he refuses to budge on an issue?

Don’t ever forget the reason why FTG started the IRL and celebrate it if you wish, just don’t honor him for something he did not do.