IndyCar Hindsight

Sadly, hindsight is 20/20. I thought about it long and hard, asked Twitter whether it was a good idea or not, but ultimately I felt I would be doing this not to hash up bad thoughts and the bad taste of the split but just look at what could have done differently.

The ALMS/Grand-Am merger has got me thinking a lot about American Open-Wheel unification. Like I said, hindsight is 20/20, we can all look and say this and that should have been done but it will not change a thing. So why then should I do being those? To compare the two different unifications.

Granted the sports car unification is just beginning and the more is still to come out but they are not in a rush to form one series again. They will let 2013 go as planned and work as one in 2014. IndyCar and ChampCar announced unification in February 2008, one month before the start of the unified season. To be honest, IndyCar and ChampCar could not wait any longer. With all the bad blood, the series could not continue as two separate entities. ChampCar was already pushing bankruptcy while both series struggled for car count. IndyCar did their best getting ChampCar events on the schedule. They sacrificed having one large race for having one last weekend with two races in Motegi and Long Beach. Edmonton was pushed back a week later than scheduled, while Surfers Paradise became a non-championship event. I skimmed over both that IndyCar calendar and the ChampCar schedule that never happened to see if anything else could have been done. Cleveland was scheduled for June 22, the same day as Iowa. The week before was open and a race could have been pushed up a week. The Kentucky IndyCar race was scheduled for August 9th, with Road America scheduled for the 10th. The following week, August 17th was open. The American Le Mans was running at Road America that same weekend and they also had the August 17th week off. Could they've work with ALMS to make that weekend happen a week later? Maybe. The problem that arises would have been a fourteen race stretch from Indianapolis until the final race at Chicago the Sunday after Labor Day. Could one year with lots of travel to keep popular races on the scheduled been worth it?

I am not sure but think about the prices for the teams. Would have keeping the DP01 and turning up the Honda engines output been cheaper for the team? I think we all know Honda was keeping the lid on their IndyCar engine once it became sole supplier and it was not impossible for them to make it more powerful to compete with the Cosworth and the DP01. We all know there were plenty of Honda engines and Dallara chassis to go around, they proved it in 2008. If there were any problems with the Panoz chassis' availability or parts, there were extra Dallara that could've been loaned. One thing is sure, if the Panoz was allowed, the rush for a new Dallara and new Honda engine would have came earlier than 2012.

We can't go back and fix what happened, nor should we dwell on what could have been. The facts are the current series we have has been great. If all that I typed above happened, would the racing this year have been as good as it has been? Would there be less turmoil? More? Would the owners be calmer? Would we fans be happier?  We shall never know but let's enjoy 2012 and the championship race that awaits.