IndyCar is working on the tires, reconsidering Indianapolis 500 qualifying points and keeping double points. Pirelli World Challenge is gaining two Corvettes and keeping a top driver in the series. However, PWC is losing Patrick Long and Christina Nielsen is the odds on favorite for a third consecutive IMSA GT Daytona championship. It snowed in my neck of the woods. Here is a run down of what got me thinking.
Should IndyCar Race Year Round?
As of Monday, there have been 85 days since the most recent IndyCar race and there are 90 days until the 2018 season opener at St. Petersburg. The midpoint of the IndyCar offseason is sometime during lunch on Tuesday.
We have been keeping busy. There were nine NASCAR races, six Formula One races, four endurance races across IMSA and WEC, MotoGP and plenty of other motorsports since IndyCar last hit the track and there will be plenty to fill the time for the first two and a half months of 2018 but if there is one thing we would like is a tad more IndyCar to make the winter seem shorter.
Typically the second weekend of December is motorsports offseason. The focus has turned to Christmas and the New Year. The only major series gearing up for on-track action is IMSA, as the 24 Hours of Daytona is a little over a month away. However, this past weekend was quite dead in terms of sports. It was the 14th NFL Sunday but other than the Army-Navy game there was no other Division I-A college football on Saturday, as teams prepare for bowl games starting next week. MLS Cup Final was Saturday night and there were NBA, NHL and college basketball games but all three of those entities are still in the early days of their seasons and don't have the audience's attention yet.
A fair portion of the East Coast was snowed in on Saturday and were probably sitting in front of the television or tablet or laptop watching the Star Wars marathon on TNT and Christmas specials that have already gone stale. While most motorsports series have called it a season, perhaps the second Saturday in December is when IndyCar should end its season.
The series has talked about avoiding going head-to-head with football and it is understandable as rating tank out when autumn rolls around but ending the season so early leaves teams in the dark for the better part of five months, crew members are laid off and fans get impatient. IndyCar can race during football season but it has to be done strategically.
The only race currently during the NFL season is the season finale at Sonoma and that has found its special window as a Sunday evening race that starts a little after 6:30 p.m. ET. The issue with Sonoma is it isn't a good place for a finale in terms of on-track action. Many want an oval to be the final race and Fontana's 500-miler did a successful job from 2012 to 2014. It was a long race, had loads of passing and kept you on edge. Nine times out of ten a Sonoma race won't do any of those things.
Fontana was hung out to dry when Mark Miles wanted the season decided by Labor Day and the track couldn't find a place. Labor Day was hot and the race moved to a Saturday afternoon in June when it was just as hot. Fans didn't show up because why would they want to feel like they were sitting on the face of the sun and the race disappeared.
A December date could solve the issues with the last go-round at Fontana. The high temperature was a much more manageable 81º F in Fontana on Saturday and by the time the evening rolled around the temperatures were in the high 60s. You couldn't ask for better than that for a race any time of the year. If you were offered 81º F for next year's Indianapolis 500 you are taking it. If it was going to 68-72º F next year for Pocono I am taking it.
The other positive was sunset was 4:40 p.m. local time in Fontana, meaning 7:40 p.m. ET. An issue with a few of the Fontana finales was the sunset being too bright. I didn't think it should be an issue. The drivers should wear sunglasses and drive. However, if they have a problem with it then the start of the race had to wait.
This caused the green flag to be pushed later and later and to the point the race didn't start until closer to 10:00 p.m. ET. The race ended around 1:00 a.m. ET and everyone complained the champion was crowned too late. A 7:40 p.m. or 7:45 p.m. ET start time would not be bad. Even if the race took three hours it would be over before 11:00 p.m. ET. Plus, it would be a primetime race with not much competition. The Army-Navy game was over before 7:00 p.m., the MLS Cup Final was over before 6:30 p.m. There would be NBA, NHL and college basketball but nothing that has national attention. The race would go against the Heisman Trophy presentation, big whoop.
Let's just say Fontana hosted the season finale on the Second Saturday night in December. How could IndyCar fill the three months from Sonoma and Fontana? I agree that IndyCar should avoid racing on NFL Sundays. It gets lost. People will be hook on Red Zone and bars won't put it on. Bars are wall-to-wall football with every television showing a different game and some games on multiple TVs. However, the series would need at least two races and they have to be strategically done. The other thing to consider is cost and the teams can't take on a NASCAR amount of races.
I have been for IndyCar racing on Saturday of the United States Grand Prix weekend. The weekend needs a major support series. IndyCar needs to get in front of eyeballs of not only spectators but international media outlets. Saturday at Circuit of the Americas draws more people than every IndyCar race but the Indianapolis 500. IndyCar should be saying they would do it for no sanctioning fee because of the potential exposure. I am sure IndyCar could work out a deal with Formula One to make it happen and perhaps it could help get the race on television in more countries around the globe.
That is one weekend down and we will need another. A December finale opens the door to flyaway races, something IndyCar has not delivered on despite an international series being one of Mark Miles' pillars when he took over as CEO of Hulman & Company. Maybe the series could find a way to go to Australia in November and run a race in the early afternoon there, which would be a primetime Saturday night race in the United States. I am not sure where IndyCar could go. The Supercars are scheduled to be a Pukekohe Park in New Zealand in early November and run a street race in Newcastle Thanksgiving weekend. I am not sure either track is suitable for IndyCar plus I am not sure Supercars would want IndyCar to join its bills.
Back in 2013, IndyCar had a month between the Baltimore round on Labor Day weekend and the Houston doubleheader the first Sunday in October. Many were up in arms over the gap in the schedule so late in the season and I was one of them. Now I am proposing to spread the final three races over three months. What gives? It is a mixture of things. One, I think it is better for IndyCar to be around once a month especially when you get to the final quarter of the calendar year than not be around at all. Two, I think IndyCar does a good job of keeping people in the loop and filling the down time. I think IndyCar's social media team has done a good job of making the offseason feel not as long. Plus, the series covers its drivers when they go to Petit Le Mans and other events.
It could be a case of less is more. The races are few and far between but the races would be critical to the championship. The schedule used to have this kind of space toward the end of the season. In 1969, Sacramento was September 28th, followed by a doubleheader at Seattle International Raceway, now Pacific Raceways on October 19th with Phoenix on November 15th and the season finale at Riverside on December 7th. In 1987, Nazareth took place at the end of summer on September 20th but the final two races Laguna Seca and around Miami were October 11th and November 1st respectively.
I think we are living in different times and changing times. IndyCar needs to race regularly through spring and summer but once the temperatures start to cool off the series can spread the races out. The series can't afford to go away and if spreading races out meant teams could keep people employed that they otherwise would layoff in the early part of winter then it wouldn't be a bad thing.
Winners From the Weekend
Irishman Keith Donegan won the Road to Indy U.S. F2000 $200,000 Mazda Scholarship at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park (formerly Firebird International Raceway). The 20-year-old finished second at the Formula Ford Festival at Brand Hatch to Joey Foster by 0.104 seconds in October, earning him an invitation.
Donegan finished second in the 2013 Ginetta Junior Championship before taking a few years off to focus on his academics. He returned to racing this year and before the Formula Ford Festival he competed in 12 races during the 2017 British National Formula Ford 1600 Championship. He had two runner-up finishes.
Coming Up This Weekend
Nothing but I am sure there is something.
We are done with Musings From the Weekend until 2018. Look out in the coming weeks for more review of the year, including the sixth For The Love of Indy Awards. We will also start looking ahead with 2018 predictions.
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