Last week I proposed the United States hosting the Race of Champions. After watching the event this past weekend, thinking about Mark Miles proposing a playoff and looking at what Miles did with the ATP, something popped into my head.
Why couldn't IndyCar have a Race of Champions style stadium event at the end of the year?
My thought process:
Make it a non-point event for lots of money.
Miles ran the ATP, which uses the ATP World Tour Finals as a season ending event for the top eight players in the world. This could be IndyCar's version.
Not a lot of racing this time of year, could give racing fans their fix while drawing people in who have never seen IndyCars before and are interested in seeing them at a stadium environment. It may also interest those watching at home.
If, and it seems unlikely, the Race of Champions come the United States, it would be very smart of IndyCar to partner up with the event and run it the same weekend, before the Race of Champions. If that does not happen, what is stopping IndyCar from doing this event on their own, preferably in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium? The DTM had a stadium at the Olympic Stadium in Munich, but that was a midseason exhibition.
How Could It Work?
If IndyCar was doing the event on their own, it could be a one-day show, a Saturday night under the lights. Have the stadium open all-day, practice in the afternoon for two hours, then have a giant meet and greet with the fans and the drivers. After that another hour of practice before the event begins. Work out a deal so whoever broadcasts the event so they make it a big deal in prime time.
A big pay day is a must. Make it $1,000,000 for the winner, with a $250,000 bonus if a driver can go undefeated. Looking back on October 16, 2011, putting what happened aside, the idea of giving a fan a shot at a nice pay day if their driver wins the event is actually a good thing for IndyCar to do. Each driver would represent a fan and the winning driver wins their fan a prize of $250,000. IndyCar is looking for younger fans, than it might be smart if the drivers represented college students who could use the money for tuition, room and board, books, etc. Just an idea.
Who Would Be Involved?
Unlike the ATP, closing down an NFL stadium for the top eight IndyCar drivers to go head-to-head is not going to be as good of a draw as if all IndyCar teams were involved. This year there were 26 regular drivers and my feeling is all should be included. Just like the Race of Champions, I would have a round robin leading to a knockout round. Two or six drivers could be added to create either seven groups of four or eight groups of four.
If only two drivers are to be added, I would suggest letting the top two drivers from Indy Lights be promoted to the event as a reward for their season, gives them seat time in an IndyCar while giving these drivers a shot at the grand prize, which would help pay for a full-time IndyCar ride.
If you're adding six, then along with the top two from the Indy Lights season, add the likes of Townsend Bell, hell even invite the likes of Tony Stewart. Look at it this way, Stewart would have no excuses this time for saying no. It's an exhibition for cash-only. The track would be new to every driver and their would be practice sessions the day of the event and they could probably do one the before.
Using this year and a 28 driver event as an example, rank the regulars by points, followed by the Lights drivers and the event would look like this.
Group A: Hunter-Reay, Sato, Wilson, Guerrieri
B: Power, Servià, Andretti, Vautier
C: Dixon, Barrichello, Tagliani, Legge
D: Castroneves, Hildebrand, Carpenter, Bourdais
E: Pagenaud, Rahal, Kimball, de Silvestro
F: Briscoe, Kanaan, Viso, Newgarden
G: Franchitti, Hinchcliffe, Conway, Jakes.
If it was a 32 driver event:
A: Hunter-Reay, Andretti, Tagliani, Invitee 4
B: Power, Wilson, Carpenter, Invitee 3
C: Dixon, Sato, Kimball, Invitee 2
D: Castroneves, Servià, Viso, Invitee 1
E: Pagenaud, Barrichello, Conway, Guerrieri
F: Briscoe, Hildebrand, Jakes, Vautier
G: Franchitti, Rahal, Newgarden, Legge
H: Hinchcliffe, Kanaan, de Silvestro, Bourdais
The top two from each group advance to the knockout round. For a 28 driver event, the top two third place drivers would also advance to fill the knockout round. Each round would be a single elimination with a best-of-three final round to decide it all.
A playoff is something very, very few people are for, but a season ending, winner-take-all may get people's attention.
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