[Shotimes] OT IRL/CART merger needed

[Mark Nunnally]

>Take all the drivers and put them in Champ Cars and take the best races
>from both series and make one series out of it.  You'd have the Mexican
>and Canadian races, which are huge draws, Indy and Long Beach which are
>traditional favorites, not to mention Road America, The Burke Lakefront
>airport race, Milwaukee mile, and other great events.

I became a big CART fan back in the late 80's/early 90s.  Andretti, Unser, Mansel, Fittipaldi, etc.  I think mansell's first season in CART (93) was one of the best racing seasons I've ever seen.  The race at new hampshire that year was THE best oval race I've ever seen.  It was classic Ford vs Chevy, Lola vs Penske.  CART had some great Indy 500's during the early 90's as well, it just has never seemed as "big" since.  A lot of streamers and balloons and hoopla, but that "magic" seemed to be gone.  I can remember going in 93 and 94, and it was just awesome.  The amount of people, and the hair on your neck would stand up from the electricity when they came around to take the green for the first time.  Post 96/97 it got boring, the stupid IRL cars weren't even lapping 195 mph when they first ran them there.  I think cheever ran a race lap in 95 or 96 in a turbo CART car at 236 mph.  And this was back when the straight and corner speeds varied by 25 mph.  Now the dumb things run flat out all the way around, like a stupid restrictor plate cup car.  You gotta make it to where you lift for the corners, separate the men from the boys.  Drop some downforce or raise the hp.

My race fan "fantansy" would be tony stewart go on a diet and drop 30 lbs and go run an F1 car.  They need some personality over there :)

mark