As motorsports has become more political, more corporate, more cut-throat, more impersonal, it has struck me hard how much the likes of Lee Moselle are missed.
Moselle was a classic example of what I'll call a Gentleman Promoter. Not "gentleman" as in a pay-as-you-go "gentleman" driver, but a solid, successful businessman who happened to stage major racing events. And did so with class and humanity.
Moselle, a lawyer by trade, became executive director of SCRAMP -- Sports Car Racing Association of the Monterey Peninsula. That's the group that organizes and promotes events at Laguna Seca Raceway, which used to be part of Fort Ord, and now is officially titled Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.
Moselle was the kind of man who would offer to pick you up at the airport, show you around the beautiful Monterey-Carmel area, take you to lunch/dinner, and get you back to your hotel or the airport. He would not have thought otherwise. I first met Lee in 1982 when I was CART's communications director and the series signed to make its Laguna debut in 1983. I made my first visit for a site inspection in the fall of 1982. Lee was such a nice guy I almost hated to tell him his small media work facility wasn't up to series' standard. I think he already knew that and built a new media center for our race.
Moselle was one of those old-school people who grasped the value of one-on-one relationships. When the CART race was scheduled, he immediately reached out to series sponsor PPG's Jim Chapman. When the time came for Chapman to make hotel reservations for the large PPG group, he couldn't get what he needed. Chapman telephoned Moselle, who promised to take care of it. Lee drove over to the downtown Hyatt, sat down with the GM and explained, "This is our series sponsor." Chapman got all the rooms he required. It was no surprise Chapman and Moselle quickly bonded on both a personal and professional level. Chapman supported Laguna in every way he could and Moselle returned all the favors.
Moselle spent race weekends and test days not in his office, but down in the pits and paddock, visible and easily accessible. He made it a point to go see drivers, owners and sponsors and ask if all was well. Because he was so connected and respected within his community, many was the time Lee was able to obtain hard-to-get golf tee-times and dinner reservations for racers. Lee used to host a cocktail party on Friday night of race weekends, in part because he believed such hospitality was correct and proper, but it also gave him a chance to allow the SCRAMP Board as well as local government and business leaders to mingle with the drivers. Lee would mail out formal invitations a few weeks ahead of time but he never had to go around and ask the Big Names to attend -- they gladly did so, because of the courtesy he showed them.
Lee was honored as CART's Race Organizer of the Year and always would make it a point to stand up at sometimes-stormy CART promoter/sponsor meetings and say something nice and point out the positives. On one such occasion, he hand-wrote a simple note complimenting presentations Kirk Russell and I made to the big group, and passed it around from person-to-person. I sure did appreciate it! A few years later I had changed jobs, and Lee asked for my help in starting the big publicity push for his event. I happily assigned budget and a Mario Andretti appearance day I controlled to this purpose and Mario spent a day in San Francisco singing the praises of Laguna Seca to media and fans.
Lee died a number of years ago. No disrespect to anyone else, but Laguna Seca has never seemed the same to me. He's one of those people I'll always feel blessed I got to know and call "friend." Especially in this modern era of the Business of Racing, where the trackside atmosphere all-too-often is impersonal and uncaring, Moselle's way would be a good one to follow.
Let me see if I've got this straight: Because Tony Stewart threw his helmet and Danica Patrick pointed, Bristol was a "great" race. Moments of entertainment, OK, but absolutely not a "great" race. This is what passes for "informed media commentary" these days: ESPN Empty Suit Jonathan Coachman said Stewart's helmet throw "was one of the best things I've seen in a long time." Which is why he's one of the emptiest of the ESPN Empty Suits.
Speaking of class, and doing the right thing: Or, in this case, not the right thing. I recently read in Golf Week that British Open winner Ernie Els gets to keep the Claret Jug trophy for one year. But if he wants a permanent Jug, he has to ask the Royal & Ancient Golf Club to order him a replica -- at his expense. That's said to be up to $15,000. A world-class athlete wins a world-class event but has to PAY for the trophy? Ridiculous! When PPG sponsored the CART series, it presented championship Cups to both the driver and team owner. But I know from first-hand experience that when Newman/Haas Racing was champion, Jim Chapman ordered a second owners' Cup -- at PPG's expense -- so that both Carl Haas and Paul Newman had their own. Chapman wouldn't have considered anything else the "right way" to do things. Class.
I've noted here in recent weeks the Wind Tunnel format changes. Now, John Daly, of The Daly Planet, has put his authoritative voice to the subject (a MUST read):
http://dalyplanet.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-untimely-death-of-wind-tunnel.html
NASCAR reinstated Aaron Fike. Read new NASCAR.com writer Holly Cain's excellent and inspirational (I'm sure we all hope it stays that way) story:
http://www.nascar.com/news/120821/afike-sobriety-road-to-recovery/index.html
[ more next Monday . . . ]
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Sunday, August 19, 2012
CHANGING OF THE GUARD CAUSES WORRY
The news this year has been a lot about who gives us the news.
Fox politely steered Dick Berggren into retirement after honorable service on the NASCAR pit lanes. Bob Jenkins announced in May he'll retire from race broadcasting after the Sept. 15 IndyCar season finale in California. And, last week, I got onto a story that went to the top of the charts in the NHRA world.
Wednesday night, my exclusive report that Paul Page will not return to the anchor post on ESPN2's NHRA coverage in 2013 was posted on CompetitionPlus.com. Here's the link:
http://www.competitionplus.com/drag-racing/news/22119-source-paul-page-out-in-nhra-booth-for-2013
Friday morning, ESPN issued a predictable statement:
“Paul Page will pursue other opportunities after the 2012 season and will not return to the ESPN NHRA anchor position in 2013. He has been a tremendous presence on our motorsports coverage, most recently NHRA, for decades and we wish him the very best in the future. We have not finalized our plans for 2013 and we don’t expect to make any NHRA commentator announcements until after the 2012 season.”
(On another ESPN front, read this from Friday's Arizona Republic:
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/heatindex/articles/20120816espn-has-lost-nauseated-viewer.html . The validity of this column was proven again Sunday when ESPN actually wasted precious TV time by asking NASCAR drivers about a SportsCenter drummed-up "issue" -- if they wanted Tim Tebow or Mark Sanchez as the New York Jets' quarterback. What a disgrace!)
From my own years of experience I was not surprised at what followed my Page exclusive. When a Big Story like this is published, sources come out of the woodwork to tell you stuff. Not that I believe it all. But I now am in possession of more information -- and perspective -- since I wrote the Page story. I was pleased with how comprehensive that first report was -- almost 1,000 words -- and let the record show for the new generation of "journalists" and "PR" people that I actually picked up the telephone and called the four people who needed to be called. I didn't E-mail them, or Tweet, or not bother to ask at all or just repeat Internet rumors. That's rare these days. Even more rare than the way Kirk Russell eats his steaks.
So, there's more to this important story, and right now I plan to share that in my September CompetitionPlus.com column.
The Page story is a reminder of how dramatically the dynamics of racing TV are changing. David Hill, who as boss of Fox Sports brought NASCAR onto the network and gave Darrell Waltrip the stage to become what DW has become, has moved on to other duties. How that might change NASCAR on Fox is yet to be known. NASCAR bought back its digital rights from Turner, effective next January, which will alter what people have become accustomed to on NASCAR.com. Speed's production has been on a roller-coaster since last December and those pesky fan telephone calls on Wind Tunnel have been punted over to the Internet "extra" program. (I'm still trying to figure out the channel's disjointed dress code, where some people have to wear jackets while others wear sponsor ID shirts and at least one flip-flops.) When I asked a network TV producer about what might come out of the next round of NASCAR TV rights negotiations it was eye-opening to be told the landscape is evolving so rapidly who knows what online entities like YouTube might do.
The departure of respected people like Berggren, Jenkins and Page marks the end of an era and that is not a good thing, in my view. Those three bring an air of authority and credibility and -- even in the Twitter age -- that's important.
IndyCar's NBC Sports Network's anchor position looms as very troubling. Producer Terry Lingner is pushing hard for Kevin Lee to follow Jenkins. What a terrible mistake that would be -- and haven't we had enough of those to last the rest of the century from everyone and everything associated with open-wheel racing? (!) Lee simply does not have the journalistic chops to sit in that chair. He's widely viewed as an IndyCar, Hulman-George family and Randy Bernard cheerleader and while the hard-core fan viewers might like that, I think we've clearly established there are not enough of them to produce a rating sufficient for teams to sell the needed level of sponsorship. If the goal is to drive away the casual viewer even more than has already happened, go ahead, hire a cheerleader. Might as well hire the Dallas Cowboys' cheerleaders if that's what you want. No one can question that Bob Costas doesn't love baseball or Al Michaels the NFL, but they sure don't pretend that there are no problems or controversies in those sports when they call the action.
Lee ignored a fundamental of journalism on his Indianapolis radio show last year. When Bernard ripped Phoenix International Raceway President Bryan Sperber on-air for supposedly not responding to IndyCar, Lee swallowed whole and picked-up Bernard's batton. He never bothered to invite Sperber on the show to get his side of the story. I was the one who exposed in the Arizona Republic that Bernard later admitted he had never called or tried to contact Sperber and came to Phoenix earlier this year to apologize to Sperber in person. Lee never owned up to any of this or apologized for his lack of journalism or the disservice he did to listeners. That's not what the IndyCar sport -- or industry -- needs in its TV anchor chair.
Not when solid pros like Page and Rick Benjamin are available.
The times, they are changing. And not necessarily for the better. That worries me -- a lot.
One racing series is aggressively charting its course for the future. Another seems to be spinning its wheels. Read my August CompetitionPlus.com column:
http://www.competitionplus.com/drag-racing/editorials/22095-michael-knight-anyone-have-a-plan-to-grow-the-sport
[ more next Monday . . . ]
Fox politely steered Dick Berggren into retirement after honorable service on the NASCAR pit lanes. Bob Jenkins announced in May he'll retire from race broadcasting after the Sept. 15 IndyCar season finale in California. And, last week, I got onto a story that went to the top of the charts in the NHRA world.
Wednesday night, my exclusive report that Paul Page will not return to the anchor post on ESPN2's NHRA coverage in 2013 was posted on CompetitionPlus.com. Here's the link:
http://www.competitionplus.com/drag-racing/news/22119-source-paul-page-out-in-nhra-booth-for-2013
Friday morning, ESPN issued a predictable statement:
“Paul Page will pursue other opportunities after the 2012 season and will not return to the ESPN NHRA anchor position in 2013. He has been a tremendous presence on our motorsports coverage, most recently NHRA, for decades and we wish him the very best in the future. We have not finalized our plans for 2013 and we don’t expect to make any NHRA commentator announcements until after the 2012 season.”
(On another ESPN front, read this from Friday's Arizona Republic:
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/heatindex/articles/20120816espn-has-lost-nauseated-viewer.html . The validity of this column was proven again Sunday when ESPN actually wasted precious TV time by asking NASCAR drivers about a SportsCenter drummed-up "issue" -- if they wanted Tim Tebow or Mark Sanchez as the New York Jets' quarterback. What a disgrace!)
From my own years of experience I was not surprised at what followed my Page exclusive. When a Big Story like this is published, sources come out of the woodwork to tell you stuff. Not that I believe it all. But I now am in possession of more information -- and perspective -- since I wrote the Page story. I was pleased with how comprehensive that first report was -- almost 1,000 words -- and let the record show for the new generation of "journalists" and "PR" people that I actually picked up the telephone and called the four people who needed to be called. I didn't E-mail them, or Tweet, or not bother to ask at all or just repeat Internet rumors. That's rare these days. Even more rare than the way Kirk Russell eats his steaks.
So, there's more to this important story, and right now I plan to share that in my September CompetitionPlus.com column.
The Page story is a reminder of how dramatically the dynamics of racing TV are changing. David Hill, who as boss of Fox Sports brought NASCAR onto the network and gave Darrell Waltrip the stage to become what DW has become, has moved on to other duties. How that might change NASCAR on Fox is yet to be known. NASCAR bought back its digital rights from Turner, effective next January, which will alter what people have become accustomed to on NASCAR.com. Speed's production has been on a roller-coaster since last December and those pesky fan telephone calls on Wind Tunnel have been punted over to the Internet "extra" program. (I'm still trying to figure out the channel's disjointed dress code, where some people have to wear jackets while others wear sponsor ID shirts and at least one flip-flops.) When I asked a network TV producer about what might come out of the next round of NASCAR TV rights negotiations it was eye-opening to be told the landscape is evolving so rapidly who knows what online entities like YouTube might do.
The departure of respected people like Berggren, Jenkins and Page marks the end of an era and that is not a good thing, in my view. Those three bring an air of authority and credibility and -- even in the Twitter age -- that's important.
IndyCar's NBC Sports Network's anchor position looms as very troubling. Producer Terry Lingner is pushing hard for Kevin Lee to follow Jenkins. What a terrible mistake that would be -- and haven't we had enough of those to last the rest of the century from everyone and everything associated with open-wheel racing? (!) Lee simply does not have the journalistic chops to sit in that chair. He's widely viewed as an IndyCar, Hulman-George family and Randy Bernard cheerleader and while the hard-core fan viewers might like that, I think we've clearly established there are not enough of them to produce a rating sufficient for teams to sell the needed level of sponsorship. If the goal is to drive away the casual viewer even more than has already happened, go ahead, hire a cheerleader. Might as well hire the Dallas Cowboys' cheerleaders if that's what you want. No one can question that Bob Costas doesn't love baseball or Al Michaels the NFL, but they sure don't pretend that there are no problems or controversies in those sports when they call the action.
Lee ignored a fundamental of journalism on his Indianapolis radio show last year. When Bernard ripped Phoenix International Raceway President Bryan Sperber on-air for supposedly not responding to IndyCar, Lee swallowed whole and picked-up Bernard's batton. He never bothered to invite Sperber on the show to get his side of the story. I was the one who exposed in the Arizona Republic that Bernard later admitted he had never called or tried to contact Sperber and came to Phoenix earlier this year to apologize to Sperber in person. Lee never owned up to any of this or apologized for his lack of journalism or the disservice he did to listeners. That's not what the IndyCar sport -- or industry -- needs in its TV anchor chair.
Not when solid pros like Page and Rick Benjamin are available.
The times, they are changing. And not necessarily for the better. That worries me -- a lot.
One racing series is aggressively charting its course for the future. Another seems to be spinning its wheels. Read my August CompetitionPlus.com column:
http://www.competitionplus.com/drag-racing/editorials/22095-michael-knight-anyone-have-a-plan-to-grow-the-sport
[ more next Monday . . . ]
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
EXCLUSIVE: PAUL PAGE OUT of NHRA TV BOOTH IN 2013
I have been doing the basic reporting on this story for the last couple of days. It was written Wednesday and posted Wednesday night at CompetitionPlus.com:
http://www.competitionplus.com/drag-racing/news/22119-source-paul-page-out-in-nhra-booth-for-2013
http://www.competitionplus.com/drag-racing/news/22119-source-paul-page-out-in-nhra-booth-for-2013
Sunday, August 12, 2012
MAKING a BAD SITUATION WORSE
Crisis Management and Crisis PR have become very significant subsets of the overall communications industry. There are some major PR agency players in New York City and Washington, D.C. making Big Money because of their expertise in this area as well as many independent experts.
Sometimes their fee is deserved. Sometimes not.
But, the point is, the capability is there -- so why so often don't auto racers get that? Just as IndyCar completely mismanaged its situation after Dan Wheldon's fatal accident -- the series' "Run Silent, Run Deep" approach left a huge void which was filled with tons of negative media stories -- AJ Allmendinger has made his own situation much worse in the aftermath of his NASCAR suspension for a positive substance-abuse test.
The information AJA allowed to go out on his behalf wasn't consistent or well-considered. AJA finally decided to grant a series of one-on-one interviews last week. Big Mistake. With the media as-a-whole already unhappy and growing more suspicious by the day, it sure wasn't the time to play favorites. The ONLY way to go was one big group news conference and for the driver to sit there and answer every question. (That could have been followed with a couple of very carefully chosen one-on-ones.) And, I can tell you from personal experience, in this situation it's an absolute MUST to know in advance exactly how all likely questions will be answered. If you want to consider that rehearsing, so be it. (Yes, I admit, I've done it with drivers, team owners and sponsor reps.) I saw AJA's TV sit-downs and he sure didn't come across to me as someone who had thought it all out first.
I certainly don't always agree with Kyle Petty, but what KP said last week was 1,000 percent accurate:
"I hope that every PR rep in the country who has anything to do with a major athlete looks at how this situation was handled by AJ’s camp and does exactly the opposite the next time this happens.”
IF -- and that is a huge IF -- Allmendinger is to have any hope to resume his career at a high level, he must do so with a completely different management team. In other words, people who actually know what they are doing.
Given her massive conflict-of-interest, why does ESPN production management allow Nicole Briscoe to comment on anything regarding Roger Penske? As she did Sunday at Watkins Glen. Her husband, Ryan, is trying to hang on to his Penske IndyCar ride. I don't think he'll be back with Penske next season, based on too many unforced errors, inconsistent performances, and especially not agreeing to take downforce out of his car on his last pit stop during the Indy 500 last May when he obviously needed to gain speed to try to win the most important race of the year to Penske.
Dodge announced its withdrawal from NASCAR last week but there was some good Business of Racing news for the stock car sanction. Sprint Nextel's stock has been on a huge roll lately and CEO Dan Hesse is getting rave reviews by analysts. This reflects well on NASCAR, at least indirectly, and is the kind of B of R knowledge you need to have to be an in-the-know racing fan.
NASCAR returns to Michigan this Sunday and then on to the used-to-be-must-watch Saturday night race in Bristol. With the All-TV-Ratings-Conquering Summer Olympics over, we'll find out if the somewhat surprising Sprint Cup ratings uptick earlier this season was fact or fiction. And it will provide more evidence on the effect of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s success. If that bump is real, it better show up now, because the NFL and college football seasons are about to start.
I was delighted to learn of STP's title sponsorship of the World of Outlaws starting next year. If the much-needed activation of the sponsorship comes together the way indicated, including with TV commercial support, it should give this under-appreciated series a meaningful boost. As long as this is not another Full Throttle, which has done precious little to out-reach its NHRA series entitlement, making me wonder why the Coca-Cola brand even bothers. (Or maybe it won't going forward.) But the Outlaws are having a classic season with the likes of Steve Kinser and Sammy Swindell in title contention. I consider myself an Outlaws' fan and am a voter for the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame.
Some amazing stats from Saturday night's Knoxville Nationals, the season's biggest race. Kinser and Swindell failed to advance to the feature. It was the first time since 1975 that neither driver made the Big Show. For Kinser, it ended a streak of 34 consecutive years in the Nationals field. Donny Schatz won for the sixth time in the last seven years.
Interest in the Olympics -- due, in massive part, to the success of U.S. athletes as well as the American-friendly London venue and Yanks' fascination with the Royals -- was so huge it even gave a tremendous boost to the headed-downward Today show. In the world of the fierce morning TV news competition, the dirty little secret is ABC and CBS and CNN and Fox knew viewers who wanted Olympic news were going to tune to NBC. Producers were looking for alternative stories to tell. NHRA blew it again by not getting Courtney Force and Erica Enders booked after their historic double-female wins at Seattle. No, I'm not surprised.
The other week I received an E from Jaclyn Raineri, ID'd as "Community Manager, Social Media Marketing & Product Planning Volvo Cars of North America." This is someone I have never met or spoken with. It was about a Twitter chat with a Volvo product manager. First, if Jaclyn had bothered to do any homework, she'd have known I don't Twitter. Second, and what I consider to be outright rude, the message did not begin with "Hello" or "Hi" or use my name. This is how the E began:
"Hey,". (Bold, color and italic emphasis added by me.)
I immediately deleted it. Do the responsible management people at Volvo know this is how they are being represented? If not, WHY NOT? Add her to the long list of so-called "professionals" who desperately need to read my July CompetitionPlus.com column. As I've noted before, this is about NHRA, but applies throughout the automotive and motorsports industries. Here's that link:
http://www.competitionplus.com/drag-racing/editorials/21813-michael-knight-nhra-should-still-reach-out-and-touch-someone
[ more next Monday . . . ]
Sometimes their fee is deserved. Sometimes not.
But, the point is, the capability is there -- so why so often don't auto racers get that? Just as IndyCar completely mismanaged its situation after Dan Wheldon's fatal accident -- the series' "Run Silent, Run Deep" approach left a huge void which was filled with tons of negative media stories -- AJ Allmendinger has made his own situation much worse in the aftermath of his NASCAR suspension for a positive substance-abuse test.
The information AJA allowed to go out on his behalf wasn't consistent or well-considered. AJA finally decided to grant a series of one-on-one interviews last week. Big Mistake. With the media as-a-whole already unhappy and growing more suspicious by the day, it sure wasn't the time to play favorites. The ONLY way to go was one big group news conference and for the driver to sit there and answer every question. (That could have been followed with a couple of very carefully chosen one-on-ones.) And, I can tell you from personal experience, in this situation it's an absolute MUST to know in advance exactly how all likely questions will be answered. If you want to consider that rehearsing, so be it. (Yes, I admit, I've done it with drivers, team owners and sponsor reps.) I saw AJA's TV sit-downs and he sure didn't come across to me as someone who had thought it all out first.
I certainly don't always agree with Kyle Petty, but what KP said last week was 1,000 percent accurate:
"I hope that every PR rep in the country who has anything to do with a major athlete looks at how this situation was handled by AJ’s camp and does exactly the opposite the next time this happens.”
IF -- and that is a huge IF -- Allmendinger is to have any hope to resume his career at a high level, he must do so with a completely different management team. In other words, people who actually know what they are doing.
Given her massive conflict-of-interest, why does ESPN production management allow Nicole Briscoe to comment on anything regarding Roger Penske? As she did Sunday at Watkins Glen. Her husband, Ryan, is trying to hang on to his Penske IndyCar ride. I don't think he'll be back with Penske next season, based on too many unforced errors, inconsistent performances, and especially not agreeing to take downforce out of his car on his last pit stop during the Indy 500 last May when he obviously needed to gain speed to try to win the most important race of the year to Penske.
Dodge announced its withdrawal from NASCAR last week but there was some good Business of Racing news for the stock car sanction. Sprint Nextel's stock has been on a huge roll lately and CEO Dan Hesse is getting rave reviews by analysts. This reflects well on NASCAR, at least indirectly, and is the kind of B of R knowledge you need to have to be an in-the-know racing fan.
NASCAR returns to Michigan this Sunday and then on to the used-to-be-must-watch Saturday night race in Bristol. With the All-TV-Ratings-Conquering Summer Olympics over, we'll find out if the somewhat surprising Sprint Cup ratings uptick earlier this season was fact or fiction. And it will provide more evidence on the effect of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s success. If that bump is real, it better show up now, because the NFL and college football seasons are about to start.
I was delighted to learn of STP's title sponsorship of the World of Outlaws starting next year. If the much-needed activation of the sponsorship comes together the way indicated, including with TV commercial support, it should give this under-appreciated series a meaningful boost. As long as this is not another Full Throttle, which has done precious little to out-reach its NHRA series entitlement, making me wonder why the Coca-Cola brand even bothers. (Or maybe it won't going forward.) But the Outlaws are having a classic season with the likes of Steve Kinser and Sammy Swindell in title contention. I consider myself an Outlaws' fan and am a voter for the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame.
Some amazing stats from Saturday night's Knoxville Nationals, the season's biggest race. Kinser and Swindell failed to advance to the feature. It was the first time since 1975 that neither driver made the Big Show. For Kinser, it ended a streak of 34 consecutive years in the Nationals field. Donny Schatz won for the sixth time in the last seven years.
Interest in the Olympics -- due, in massive part, to the success of U.S. athletes as well as the American-friendly London venue and Yanks' fascination with the Royals -- was so huge it even gave a tremendous boost to the headed-downward Today show. In the world of the fierce morning TV news competition, the dirty little secret is ABC and CBS and CNN and Fox knew viewers who wanted Olympic news were going to tune to NBC. Producers were looking for alternative stories to tell. NHRA blew it again by not getting Courtney Force and Erica Enders booked after their historic double-female wins at Seattle. No, I'm not surprised.
The other week I received an E from Jaclyn Raineri, ID'd as "Community Manager, Social Media Marketing & Product Planning Volvo Cars of North America." This is someone I have never met or spoken with. It was about a Twitter chat with a Volvo product manager. First, if Jaclyn had bothered to do any homework, she'd have known I don't Twitter. Second, and what I consider to be outright rude, the message did not begin with "Hello" or "Hi" or use my name. This is how the E began:
"Hey,". (Bold, color and italic emphasis added by me.)
I immediately deleted it. Do the responsible management people at Volvo know this is how they are being represented? If not, WHY NOT? Add her to the long list of so-called "professionals" who desperately need to read my July CompetitionPlus.com column. As I've noted before, this is about NHRA, but applies throughout the automotive and motorsports industries. Here's that link:
http://www.competitionplus.com/drag-racing/editorials/21813-michael-knight-nhra-should-still-reach-out-and-touch-someone
[ more next Monday . . . ]
Sunday, August 05, 2012
OFF THIS WEEK
Other priorities in other areas of my life means no time to blog this week. My apologies. I plan to be back in this space next Monday.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
ALLMENDINGER's NEXT MOVE
FIRST UP: A lot has been said (and written) about AJ Allmendinger's substance abuse suspension from NASCAR. There's been more than a little comment on how Allmendinger (and NASCAR) have handled the situation from a media/PR standpoint. With Allmendinger now enrolled in NASCAR's Road to Recovery program, there's one more useful and meaningful communication left: Hearing from AJA himself. Any further statements from his business manager aren't satisfactory. For Allmendinger to successfully move forward, he needs to agree to a full-scale news conference and answer all legitimate questions -- YES, THAT INCLUDES DISCLOSURE OF THE SPECIFIC BANNED SUBSTANCE found in his sample. That matters -- a LOT. THAT's WHAT MATTERS NOW IN THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION. And, if NASCAR doesn't agree with that or any of his other answers, the sanction must promptly have its own Q&A. For Allmendinger, that is the PR Road to Recovering his career -- I don't care what his lawyers say. Oh, and whatever Allmendinger's final fate is with Penske Racing, that word must come directly from Roger Penske himself.
The American Media, Tuesday, July 24, 2012: During a media conference call with ESPNers in advance of Indy, no one asked ESPN VP motorsports production Rich Feinberg why Tim Brewer and the Tech Garage were dropped and what, if any, production element was being added to compensate for that lost information. An obvious question. Thank goodness, though, there were several questions about Danica.
I've expressed my concern here before about Twitter "journalism." I've watched many times as, during NASCAR-required driver news conferences each weekend, media people Twitter-out "news" even as the driver is in mid-sentence. I've wondered if the person pushing the buttons realizes his/her concentration is disrupted and more important (or real) "news" is being made while he/she is distracted. The late AutoWeek publisher and editor Leon Mandel used to remind his staff on a regular basis about the vital importance of CONTEXT within a story. There is NO context in Twittering-out 140 characters in the midst of an on-going news conference. I was reminded of this last week when the White House press office barred reporters from Twitter posts until Vice President Joe Biden's Q&A session was over. Their argument: Context. Now, understand, I'm not in favor of press censorship, and the Twitter horse has left the barn and will never return, but the loss of context is a very legitimate issue and one that should be most carefully pondered within the media industry and worried about by readers.
FAST LINES (Olympics edition): The London Games' opening ceremony was at least 60 minutes too long and, at times, borderline stupid. Which means it will probably win an ESPY . . . General Electric's business prospects in England must not be as promising as in China because Matt Lauer -- in deep over his head years ago as a mouth on Robin Leach's old Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous -- didn't geyser-gush like he did four years ago over the spectacle in Beijing . . . Ryan Seacrest is the perfect posterboy for the Twitter communications age -- Capacity maxed-out at 140 characters . . . Where were Jackie Stewart, Nigel Mansell and/or Dario Franchitti as part of the opening show, as torch or flag bearers? I thought racing was huge in the U.K. sports psyche. On the showbiz side, ditto Andrew Lloyd Webber and Elton John.
So, the NBA is going to allow small sponsor ID on team game uniforms, apparently starting season after next. Differences in the target demographic aside, all involved in motorsports best understand this represents a new OPTION for companies when allocating advertising/marketing dollars. I would say the NHL will be next among the four major leagues to go this way, probably after it resolves its upcoming collective bargaining negotiations with the players' association.
I should have included here last week a link to the International Automotive Media Awards site for more information and a complete listing of the winners. Again, I was honored to be named "Best of Internet" and receive the gold medal for Internet commentary for this blog and "Untenable":
http://iamc-isvp.org/
[ more next Monday . . . ]
The American Media, Tuesday, July 24, 2012: During a media conference call with ESPNers in advance of Indy, no one asked ESPN VP motorsports production Rich Feinberg why Tim Brewer and the Tech Garage were dropped and what, if any, production element was being added to compensate for that lost information. An obvious question. Thank goodness, though, there were several questions about Danica.
I've expressed my concern here before about Twitter "journalism." I've watched many times as, during NASCAR-required driver news conferences each weekend, media people Twitter-out "news" even as the driver is in mid-sentence. I've wondered if the person pushing the buttons realizes his/her concentration is disrupted and more important (or real) "news" is being made while he/she is distracted. The late AutoWeek publisher and editor Leon Mandel used to remind his staff on a regular basis about the vital importance of CONTEXT within a story. There is NO context in Twittering-out 140 characters in the midst of an on-going news conference. I was reminded of this last week when the White House press office barred reporters from Twitter posts until Vice President Joe Biden's Q&A session was over. Their argument: Context. Now, understand, I'm not in favor of press censorship, and the Twitter horse has left the barn and will never return, but the loss of context is a very legitimate issue and one that should be most carefully pondered within the media industry and worried about by readers.
FAST LINES (Olympics edition): The London Games' opening ceremony was at least 60 minutes too long and, at times, borderline stupid. Which means it will probably win an ESPY . . . General Electric's business prospects in England must not be as promising as in China because Matt Lauer -- in deep over his head years ago as a mouth on Robin Leach's old Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous -- didn't geyser-gush like he did four years ago over the spectacle in Beijing . . . Ryan Seacrest is the perfect posterboy for the Twitter communications age -- Capacity maxed-out at 140 characters . . . Where were Jackie Stewart, Nigel Mansell and/or Dario Franchitti as part of the opening show, as torch or flag bearers? I thought racing was huge in the U.K. sports psyche. On the showbiz side, ditto Andrew Lloyd Webber and Elton John.
So, the NBA is going to allow small sponsor ID on team game uniforms, apparently starting season after next. Differences in the target demographic aside, all involved in motorsports best understand this represents a new OPTION for companies when allocating advertising/marketing dollars. I would say the NHL will be next among the four major leagues to go this way, probably after it resolves its upcoming collective bargaining negotiations with the players' association.
I should have included here last week a link to the International Automotive Media Awards site for more information and a complete listing of the winners. Again, I was honored to be named "Best of Internet" and receive the gold medal for Internet commentary for this blog and "Untenable":
http://iamc-isvp.org/
[ more next Monday . . . ]
Sunday, July 22, 2012
'BEST of INTERNET'
The SpinDoctor500blog earned a special honor as "Best of Internet" in the 2011 International Automotive Media Awards, 21st annual results announced last week. For the second consecutive year, this blog won a gold medal in the category of Internet commentary. (Last year's winner was "How to Fix the IRL on Versus".) Specifically cited this time was the controversial "Untenable" posting from last October. IAMA judges take all the winners from all the Internet categories and, using a standard, select one as the overall "Best of Internet." That's a first-time honor for me and I'm most grateful.
As I've said before, "Untenable" produced more reader reaction than anything I've ever written in any media outlet. I was even asked about it by a bunch of people at last December's NASCAR Sprint Cup awards in Las Vegas. Here's a link:
http://spindoctor500blog.blogspot.com/2011/10/untenable.html
Also, the Q&A I did with Kyle Busch for the Arizona Republic last year earned a bronze medal in the newspaper interview category. That's the fourth time one of my Q&A specials has received an IAMA award.
I again thank all who make time each week to read what I post here.
Congratulations to journalist Pete Lyons, the most deserving winner of IAMA's Media Award for Lifetime Achievement. Pete's remarkable career includes covering almost all of the world's great motorsports events, for publications like AutoWeek and Autosport, and a stint as a full-time Formula One correspondent. He's the author of nine books, including three on the Can-Am, my own personal all-time favorite series. Learn more about him at http://petelyons.com/ . The nominating and voting committees for this award change annually, and I was honored to serve on the voting panel this year. This award has been given each year since 1998, with Leon Mandel, Brock Yates, Jerry Flint, Chris Economaki and David E. Davis Jr. among the past honorees.
No IndyCar at Phoenix International Raceway in 2013 but Randy Bernard says a 2014 race there is a "must." Read my Friday Arizona Republic story -- and you might be surprised at some of the financial numbers. As I've often said, you can't be a good fan these days without knowing something about the Business of Racing. This might give you a better idea why the IndyCar financial model is so difficult for so many tracks:
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/articles/2012/07/19/20120719indycar-race-phoenix-international-raceway-doubtful-2013.html
My July CompetitionPlus.com column is specific to NHRA but the point applies to everyone in the racing industry. As I write in this column, my central point boils down to common sense and good manners. Here's the link:
http://www.competitionplus.com/drag-racing/editorials/21813-michael-knight-nhra-should-still-reach-out-and-touch-someone
A FEW FOLLOW-UPS TO LAST WEEK'S POSTING: Friend Larry Henry offers that the hot/humid weather in many parts of the country helped TNT's NASCAR ratings because people stayed indoors. With the Olympics going on and ESPN coming to the plate, we'll learn more, especially if Junior remains competitive or goes into a pre-Chase swoon . . . On the made-in-China Ralph Lauren U.S. Olympic team uniforms, I should have added -- Why not American cowboy hats or baseball caps instead of French berets? . . . Speaking of clothing, since Wind Tunnel co-hosts apparently now are required to wear a sport coat, the producers better make sure they have an adequate range of sizes on the studio rack. People were laughing Out Loud during the recent show at one guy's way-Way-WAY too-big jacket. It reminded me of the time I went to lunch with a famous racer who was wearing a golf shirt and restaurant rules required a jacket. Management provided one but it was as large as a tent and the racer told me he was embarrassed and wondered what other diners thought of him given his ill-fitted attire . . . What a joke: An ESPN press release last week referred to Katie Couric as an "ABC News journalist." As explained in last week's Unconventional Wisdom, Couric's total FAILURE as anchor of the CBS Evening News and her reaction to a legitimate media question when at Indy to interview (Guess who? Not Ryan Hunter-Reay!) Danica (!) proved AGAIN KC may be a TV star, but it's an insult to REAL journalists to call her one. Oh, in this taped piece, Katie will ask Danica about sexism in racing. Cue the Drama Queen theme music.
[ more next Monday . . . ]
As I've said before, "Untenable" produced more reader reaction than anything I've ever written in any media outlet. I was even asked about it by a bunch of people at last December's NASCAR Sprint Cup awards in Las Vegas. Here's a link:
http://spindoctor500blog.blogspot.com/2011/10/untenable.html
Also, the Q&A I did with Kyle Busch for the Arizona Republic last year earned a bronze medal in the newspaper interview category. That's the fourth time one of my Q&A specials has received an IAMA award.
I again thank all who make time each week to read what I post here.
Congratulations to journalist Pete Lyons, the most deserving winner of IAMA's Media Award for Lifetime Achievement. Pete's remarkable career includes covering almost all of the world's great motorsports events, for publications like AutoWeek and Autosport, and a stint as a full-time Formula One correspondent. He's the author of nine books, including three on the Can-Am, my own personal all-time favorite series. Learn more about him at http://petelyons.com/ . The nominating and voting committees for this award change annually, and I was honored to serve on the voting panel this year. This award has been given each year since 1998, with Leon Mandel, Brock Yates, Jerry Flint, Chris Economaki and David E. Davis Jr. among the past honorees.
No IndyCar at Phoenix International Raceway in 2013 but Randy Bernard says a 2014 race there is a "must." Read my Friday Arizona Republic story -- and you might be surprised at some of the financial numbers. As I've often said, you can't be a good fan these days without knowing something about the Business of Racing. This might give you a better idea why the IndyCar financial model is so difficult for so many tracks:
http://www.azcentral.com/sports/articles/2012/07/19/20120719indycar-race-phoenix-international-raceway-doubtful-2013.html
My July CompetitionPlus.com column is specific to NHRA but the point applies to everyone in the racing industry. As I write in this column, my central point boils down to common sense and good manners. Here's the link:
http://www.competitionplus.com/drag-racing/editorials/21813-michael-knight-nhra-should-still-reach-out-and-touch-someone
A FEW FOLLOW-UPS TO LAST WEEK'S POSTING: Friend Larry Henry offers that the hot/humid weather in many parts of the country helped TNT's NASCAR ratings because people stayed indoors. With the Olympics going on and ESPN coming to the plate, we'll learn more, especially if Junior remains competitive or goes into a pre-Chase swoon . . . On the made-in-China Ralph Lauren U.S. Olympic team uniforms, I should have added -- Why not American cowboy hats or baseball caps instead of French berets? . . . Speaking of clothing, since Wind Tunnel co-hosts apparently now are required to wear a sport coat, the producers better make sure they have an adequate range of sizes on the studio rack. People were laughing Out Loud during the recent show at one guy's way-Way-WAY too-big jacket. It reminded me of the time I went to lunch with a famous racer who was wearing a golf shirt and restaurant rules required a jacket. Management provided one but it was as large as a tent and the racer told me he was embarrassed and wondered what other diners thought of him given his ill-fitted attire . . . What a joke: An ESPN press release last week referred to Katie Couric as an "ABC News journalist." As explained in last week's Unconventional Wisdom, Couric's total FAILURE as anchor of the CBS Evening News and her reaction to a legitimate media question when at Indy to interview (Guess who? Not Ryan Hunter-Reay!) Danica (!) proved AGAIN KC may be a TV star, but it's an insult to REAL journalists to call her one. Oh, in this taped piece, Katie will ask Danica about sexism in racing. Cue the Drama Queen theme music.
[ more next Monday . . . ]
Sunday, July 15, 2012
THIS and THAT . . .
Regular readers here weren't surprised by last week's official announcement that the U.S. Army is ending its NASCAR team sponsorship. As I've written here more than once in the last year, it was a matter of WHEN, not IF. In a time of great national financial concern, and planned significant cuts to the military budget, political support in Washington, D.C. for taxpaper-funded racing promotion eroded. Remember this come November: Elections matter. The current administration has revealed plans to reduce the Army's troop strength levels, so of course, recruiting funds are going to go down. In a way not totally dissimilar from how the tobacco companies got out of racing because of political pressure, the Army deal is going away. (Signals are Don Schumacher Racing's NHRA sponsorship will continue, at least for now, a rare "win" for NHRA over NASCAR. The cost is lower and the demo apparently more suitable.) One question to ponder: What sponsor category will be next to feel the heat from the politically correct crowd? Fast food? Soda? Cookies? Candy? Don't laugh! I bet if McDonald's tried to promote Happy Meals on its stock car, the criticism would follow fast. And the move to get sodas out of schools -- plus what the mayor of New York City wants as far as restricting serving sizes -- well, nothing is beyond possible given the current political environment. Take note, NASCAR lobbyists and team owners.
I understand the issue of privacy and the legal implications of protecting it. But -- NASCAR needs to find a way to amend its drug testing policy to go public with the banned substance when the test comes back positive. In the court of public opinion, it makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD if the positive was caused by an illegal substance or improper use of a legal medication or product. How about giving the person involved the option of signing a legal release authorizing NASCAR to reveal the specific substance?
How to explain those surprising (at least to me) up TNT NASCAR ratings? I can only think of one thing: JUNIOR! If anyone has a better explanation, please let me know.
So, how do you fans like the new Wind Tunnel format? What's been billed as a "viewer participation" show all these years has been recast more in the mold of Fox News Channel's surprise hit The Five. Dave Despain has one (or more) co-hosts (often fellow Speed Channel talking heads), and except for a few online comments or questions, that pesky "viewer participation" stuff has been shoved over to the half-hour post-show Internet extra.
Managing expectations is a little-discussed yet absolutely essential part of the job for the leader of any organization. IndyCar sure has had a lot of problems with this in the past, putting out word of "a major announcement coming" many times, only for nothing to happen or the "news" be more sparkler than skyrocket. With way-too-much talk in recent weeks (too much in terms of the reality of the situation) about a return to Michigan International Speedway and/or Road America, Randy Bernard told the press gaggle pre-Toronto those two venues were off the table for the immediate future. In my view those fan expectations should have been better managed -- actually, never allowed to get elevated in the first place. And for all the talk Randy "hopes" for 19 or more races going forward, well, I "hope" to be the first human to walk on Mars, too. See next two items.
If those who keep asking why IndyCar doesn't return to one-time CART stronghold Portland would do a little homework, they'd realize the answer. Local business/community leader (and all-around good guy) Bill Hildick, who was chairman of the Portland Rose Festival's auto racing committee (and later a candidate for CART CEO but lost out to Andrew Craig), retired many years ago. The local political environment has drastically changed (ultra-liberal "green" mentality), race co-sponsor G.I. Joe's went bankrupt and was liquidated, and a friend of mine who resides in the area and knows the local scene and facility says he doubts one gallon of paint has been put on the track since the last Champ Car event there in 2007!
How are ticket sales going for the 500-mile IndyCar season finale Sept. 15 at Fontana's Auto Club Speedway? Just wondering . . .
I understand the enthusiasm of legitimate IndyCar fans, but all the cries for more races and aero kits reminds me of Daryl Hannah's line in the movie Wall Street: Playing the role of Darien Taylor, an interior decorator, she called herself a "great spender of other people's money." It's easy to tell team owners what they should buy and how many races they should run and what tracks should host the series and what companies should be sponsors when you don't have to pay the bill!
Common sense. Attention to detail. Supervisory oversight. As I've pointed out here numerous times, those basics are all-too-often missing with sponsor managers (who, among other things, are accepting of so-called PR people who don't even come to the media center to talk to reporters.) I was reminded of this last week when the story hit that the U.S. Olympic team uniforms, provided by Ralph Lauren, were made in China. While the politicians are looking to score cheap points by blaming the company, I blame those at the U.S. Olympic Committee whose responsibilities include uniforms. Let's name the names: Who wasn't paying attention? Who signed a contract that didn't specify the uniforms be Made in America? Just like in NASCAR and other series, there was a shocking lack of common sense, attention to detail, and oversight.
Last weekend was nostalgic for me as the Philadelphia Daily News (my old paper) and Philadelphia Inquirer moved from their longtime building at 400 N. Broad St. to the old historic downtown Strawbridge's building. And, in a $ign of the Time$, the Daily News and Inquirer staffs now work in the same newsroom. When I worked at the Daily News, Philly was the most competitive newspaper city in the country, with four dailies.
[ more next Monday . . . ]
I understand the issue of privacy and the legal implications of protecting it. But -- NASCAR needs to find a way to amend its drug testing policy to go public with the banned substance when the test comes back positive. In the court of public opinion, it makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD if the positive was caused by an illegal substance or improper use of a legal medication or product. How about giving the person involved the option of signing a legal release authorizing NASCAR to reveal the specific substance?
How to explain those surprising (at least to me) up TNT NASCAR ratings? I can only think of one thing: JUNIOR! If anyone has a better explanation, please let me know.
So, how do you fans like the new Wind Tunnel format? What's been billed as a "viewer participation" show all these years has been recast more in the mold of Fox News Channel's surprise hit The Five. Dave Despain has one (or more) co-hosts (often fellow Speed Channel talking heads), and except for a few online comments or questions, that pesky "viewer participation" stuff has been shoved over to the half-hour post-show Internet extra.
Managing expectations is a little-discussed yet absolutely essential part of the job for the leader of any organization. IndyCar sure has had a lot of problems with this in the past, putting out word of "a major announcement coming" many times, only for nothing to happen or the "news" be more sparkler than skyrocket. With way-too-much talk in recent weeks (too much in terms of the reality of the situation) about a return to Michigan International Speedway and/or Road America, Randy Bernard told the press gaggle pre-Toronto those two venues were off the table for the immediate future. In my view those fan expectations should have been better managed -- actually, never allowed to get elevated in the first place. And for all the talk Randy "hopes" for 19 or more races going forward, well, I "hope" to be the first human to walk on Mars, too. See next two items.
If those who keep asking why IndyCar doesn't return to one-time CART stronghold Portland would do a little homework, they'd realize the answer. Local business/community leader (and all-around good guy) Bill Hildick, who was chairman of the Portland Rose Festival's auto racing committee (and later a candidate for CART CEO but lost out to Andrew Craig), retired many years ago. The local political environment has drastically changed (ultra-liberal "green" mentality), race co-sponsor G.I. Joe's went bankrupt and was liquidated, and a friend of mine who resides in the area and knows the local scene and facility says he doubts one gallon of paint has been put on the track since the last Champ Car event there in 2007!
How are ticket sales going for the 500-mile IndyCar season finale Sept. 15 at Fontana's Auto Club Speedway? Just wondering . . .
I understand the enthusiasm of legitimate IndyCar fans, but all the cries for more races and aero kits reminds me of Daryl Hannah's line in the movie Wall Street: Playing the role of Darien Taylor, an interior decorator, she called herself a "great spender of other people's money." It's easy to tell team owners what they should buy and how many races they should run and what tracks should host the series and what companies should be sponsors when you don't have to pay the bill!
Common sense. Attention to detail. Supervisory oversight. As I've pointed out here numerous times, those basics are all-too-often missing with sponsor managers (who, among other things, are accepting of so-called PR people who don't even come to the media center to talk to reporters.) I was reminded of this last week when the story hit that the U.S. Olympic team uniforms, provided by Ralph Lauren, were made in China. While the politicians are looking to score cheap points by blaming the company, I blame those at the U.S. Olympic Committee whose responsibilities include uniforms. Let's name the names: Who wasn't paying attention? Who signed a contract that didn't specify the uniforms be Made in America? Just like in NASCAR and other series, there was a shocking lack of common sense, attention to detail, and oversight.
Last weekend was nostalgic for me as the Philadelphia Daily News (my old paper) and Philadelphia Inquirer moved from their longtime building at 400 N. Broad St. to the old historic downtown Strawbridge's building. And, in a $ign of the Time$, the Daily News and Inquirer staffs now work in the same newsroom. When I worked at the Daily News, Philly was the most competitive newspaper city in the country, with four dailies.
[ more next Monday . . . ]
Sunday, July 08, 2012
6th ANNIVERSARY BLOG: LEADERS NEEDED
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE? NASCAR Chairman Brian France, seen speaking to media last Friday at Daytona, faces the daunting challenge of living up to the standards of his grandfather, Bill France Sr., and his father, Bill France Jr. Can he do it? (Photo courtesy of NASCAR.)This is the sixth anniversary of this blog. As I first wrote back on July 10, 2006: "I'm one of those people who believe it's essential to keep learning and my wish is this blog will be a vehicle to stimulate thought for all of us in, or with an interest in, the industry."
I wrote then that my goal was for this to be a "Great Adventure," which is how Paul Newman described Nigel Mansell's shift from Formula One to CART in 1993. I truly believe it's impossible in this day and age to be a good race fan without knowing something about the Business (and politics) of Racing. Those are the areas we often explore here. Our readership is primarily those involved in the B of R but, certainly, all willing to learn -- and help the rest (including me) to learn -- are welcome. Those who post anonymously and make personal attacks are not.
I do continue to thank those of you who make time each week to read the words posted in this spec of cyberspace. Thank you most sincerely.
***************************************************************************
A few weeks ago I recounted, mostly from first-hand experience, the comings and goings of the various CART/Champ Car/IndyCar leaders over the years. Not surprisingly, that drew a lot of response. A reader, Will, E'd me with some questions including this very valid one: At least in IndyCar, was Tony Hulman the "last great leader?"
My answer: YES!
And that's what I feel an urgent need to call for in this sixth anniversary blog: LEADERSHIP.
As the years go by, I feel more and more blessed that I knew Mr. Hulman, the Bill Frances Sr. and Jr., Wally Parks and I'll add Bernie Ecclestone and John Bishop -- racing's last Great Leaders.
I've explained here in the past how I got to know Mr. Hulman (top left in graphic, then clockwise -- wife Mary Hulman, grandson Tony George, daughter Mari George) and how he did me an enormous favor of getting A.J. Foyt to do a one-on-one interview with me before an Indianapolis 500. That was at a time when A.J. was mad at the media and not doing interviews and I was with the Philadelphia Daily News and in fierce competition with other Philadelphia-area writers. I was at the Speedway in 1977 when Foyt became the first four-time winner and had Mr. H ride with him in the pace car for a victory lap. Hulman, of course, will forever have an honored place in history as the man who saved the Speedway from ruin in 1946 and built the 500 into an American sporting institution. When AAA withdrew its auto racing sanction, it was Tony who played a vital role in the formation of USAC as the new governing organization. His accomplishments as a leader in so many other situations simply are too numerous to recount now.I believe the argument can legitimately be made that Hulman's death in October 1977 was as consequential to Indy-type racing as most of the things he accomplished during his 76 years. CART was formed the next year and split away from USAC. Another generation of Hulman-George family took charge of the Speedway. Tony George's high point was bringing NASCAR to the Brickyard in 1994 and those profits fueled his low point, creation of the IRL two years later. Split series led to a devastating devaluing of the Indy 500 on the U.S. sporting scene and it has yet to recover -- and won't, at least in my lifetime. Randy Bernard, brought in by the H-G family sisters when they ousted Tony for draining the bank accounts on Formula One and the IRL, provided fresh enthusiasm and new ideas but now is inching closer and closer to the ejection seat.
I only knew France Sr. slightly, but well remember the wide-spread skepticism when he put Bill Jr. in charge in 1972. All the skeptics were flat-out wrong. I will always remember Bill Jr. for what he told me during a one-on-one interview in his Daytona office a few days before the 1978 Daytona 500. After saying NASCAR would one day achieve status on a level with the major stick-and-ball sports, I asked him why he was so confident of NASCAR's future success. "Because we work at it day-after-day, week-after-week, year-after-year," was his answer-for-the-ages.
Brian France came along and created the Chase, a concept soon copied by the PGA Tour and some other sports. His style is much different from that of his grandfather and father. The ultimate success or disappointment of his tenure is not yet known. But the pressure of high expectations surely are more than virtually any executive in American sports because of his family legacy. Sister Lesa France Kennedy faces the same thing as leader of International Speedway Corp.
The Charlotte Observer got into one of the many challenges confronting the Frances: declining ticket sales. Click this link to learn more: http://www.thatsracin.com/2012/07/07/91025/nascar-ticket-revenue-in-sharp.html
Parks founded NHRA and created the playing field for the most American of all American motorsports series. Who among us hasn't felt the rush of pressing down hard on the throttle when the stoplight turns green? No, I'm not talking about illegal street racing, I mean just in the course of everyday driving. Drag racing continues to enjoy, as it has for decades, the most interesting collection of personalities in any pit area. One of the failings of current-day NHRA management has been the inability or lack of a plan to get the mainstream news media dialed in to just how much fun it is to talk to drag racers. NHRA is still the most undercovered of the U.S. racing series and, while I blame media people who look down on drag racers as too blue-collar for their tastes, I also put the majority of the responsibility on NHRA itself.
I've only met Ecclestone a few times. Say what you will about his methods and attitude, but he took Formula One's commercial rights and turned a disjointed series into a global marketing powerhouse and made himself and others far more wealthy than they likely could ever have imagined. How Bernie's current potential legal problems will sort themselves out is the most important question in all of international motorsports. What happens if/when something happens to Ecclestone, who is north of 80 years old?
Bishop founded IMSA and it zoomed past the SCCA as the top of U.S. road racing. I knew him a little and liked him. But Bishop never seemed to have the resources, or the collection of staff people, to get IMSA to where I thought it might reasonably go -- especially when Camel was the series sponsor. Sadly, U.S. sports car racing has gone the way of CART-USAC/Champ Car-IRL with two competing series that are going nowhere in terms of national attention.
When you ponder the achievements of the above leaders, and then worry about all the issues in our country and our world today, it makes you reasonably wonder if the same level of leadership even exists right now. All I can say is, whether you enjoy racing as a fan or work in industry, there had better be such leaders. And the same applies in the corporate sponsorship sector, the media, the standards-lowered public relations business and elsewhere. We must have the next T. Wayne Robertson, Shav Glick and Jim Chapman.
Put the big flashing neon signs up for all to see: LEADERS WANTED.
And needed. Now, more than ever.
Congratulations to the International Motorsports Hall of Fame's Class of 2013, announced last week: Rick Hendrick, Don Schumacher, Rusty Wallace and Dale Inman. I'm a member of the voting panel for the hall, located next to Talladega Superspeedway.
[ more next Monday . . . ]
Sunday, July 01, 2012
U.S. F1's NEW FORMULA for SUCCESS?
Problems in the Eurozone just might be good for America. At least -- strangely enough -- when it comes to Formula One.
Maybe.
The FIA said the other week it would (again) examine ways to reduce the cost of competing for the world championship. A media statement let out the word that the governing organization is engaged in "active discussions with teams regarding cost control."
You don't have to be a Financial Times subscriber to figure out that Formula One is extremely vulnerable to what some smart people think is an impending collapse of the European economy.
Bernie Ecclestone has grown very comfortable over the last couple of decades in having local, state and national governments spend taxpayer dollars to subsidize his series. Such funding both helped make mandated facility improvements and pay the rights fee to stage a Grand Prix. Given F1's worldwide TV audience and impressive roster of blue-chip corporate sponsors, politicos would justify the spending based on prestige and money brought into the local economy.
Well, these days, Greece is the word and governmental leaders are having an extremely difficult time making that case. Our Boy Bernie sensed the political earth shifting under his feet a few years ago and moved a couple of his previous dates from Europe to the Middle East, where oil money was his to be had. Of course, with that came the risk of political instability, as shown with last year's cancellation and this season's questionable running in Bahrain. I have a copy of what in the U.S. we call the prospectus for the floatation of shares in the Williams team last year. Political instability in host countries was prominetly cited as a risk to investors.
The French GP (where this form of racing began in 1906) hasn't been staged since 2008. Troubled Spain has had two in recent seasons but that's likely to change. It's difficult to imagine F1 racing without Spa but, according to some reports, that could be the case in Belgium. The recent French elections and arrival of a new president seems to have derailed a plan for France and Belgium to host in alternate years starting in 2013. Even the popular and successful Australian round has a ? attached to its future, due to cost. I remember every year I went Down Under for the CART race in Surfers Paradise, the local papers had stories questioning the subsidy provided by the state of Queensland.
And when Ferrari -- the biggest of the big spenders -- sounds the alarm, you know it's serious. The Spanish banks are troubled and Santander (I think it's the Eurozone's largest) reportedly has a contract with the Prancing Horse through 2017 and a big sponsorship with national hero driver Fernando Alonso. Plus McLaren and event signage. It's reasonable to ask just how solid the future of those deals might be. Germany, with its strong economy, is under constant pressure to lead a Eurozone rescue (what we call a "bailout") and financial reform that certainly would come with it could lead to significant cutbacks in F1 sponsorships. German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- who agreed to help Spain and Italy last week -- could indirectly become as important to F1's biz health as Ecclestone himself.
As they know even over in NASCAR (especially in the Nationwide and Camping World Truck series), America has its economic issues -- that could get better or worse depending on the outcome of November's presidential and congressional elections. In comparison with non-Germany Europe, though, these shores look more like a safe haven -- even after the recent bank downgrades and stock market plunge. I bet Ecclestone must have had this thought: "Any port in a storm."
Which brings us to Circuit of the Americas, in Austin, Tex., and the temporary course announced in New Jersey (with New York City as the backdrop.) The U.S. GP has been anything but a stabilizing anchor (Sebring, Watkins Glen, Long Beach, Detroit, Phoenix, Dallas, Indianapolis) throughout its history. But maybe, just maybe, we're looking better to Bernie. Although he continues to (and always will) play the "game" as seen with his unwillingness to remove doubt that New York/New Jersey will actually make the 2013 schedule. Ecclestone always has his foot full-down on the "pressure" peddle and those who dare to do business with him had best accept that as a fact.
But, a few words of caution: Let's be sure to remember all the internal CotA issues that have made headlines and that rightfully will cause skepticism going forward despite a string of recent positive announcements. And if Dale Earnhardt Jr. is in Sprint Cup title contention that same race day in the NASCAR finale at Homestead, well, Austin will be nothing more than a local event on these shores. As for NY/NJ, I can only assume the organizers believe they have concessions from Ecclestone on things such as TV rights, title sponsorship, signage and/or hospitality (revenue Bernie typically claims for himself) because that's the only possible way I can see this enterprise making business sense since all involved swear no taxpayer money is involved.
Meanwhile, check out this link to see just how profitable the world championship can be:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/privateequity/9352699/CVC-accelerates-to-bumper-return-on-F1-investment.html
My friend Bob Jenkins announced in May he'll retire from TV after this IndyCar season and that, no surprise, has stirred-up speculation on who will replace him. Since I laid-out a plan here on Sept. 6, 2010 ("How to Fix the IRL on Versus") -- link here -- http://spindoctor500blog.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-fix-irl-on-versus.html that some general elements came to be, I'll come back with more.
The proper role of an anchor is to professionally call the action and direct "traffic" among the other announcers. He has to be willing to keep his own ego in check and allow others to have a higher profile. He has to have a sense of what the news is, the stories are, be fair, and absolutely MUST HAVE UNQUESTIONED CREDIBILITY. The name I keep hearing as the front-runner to become the New Man Upstairs would be a huge mistake because he doesn't have the above qualities. My recommendation is another friend of mine, Rick Benjamin. He can do it because Rick's pretty much done it all in race broadcasting -- he's a PROVEN pro.
I'd also spice-up the booth by pairing Paul Tracy with Tommy Kendall on a permanent basis. This just might well be the most entertaining duo since the days when Paul Page had to referee Bobby Unser and Sam Posey. Jon Beekhuis could continue with tech features and play a sort of Larry McReynolds "strategist" role outside the booth.
They did it again. Network TV is one of the few places where executives can make a $10 million mistake -- paid for ultimately by shareholders -- and get away without consequence. It took years for CBS News' executive management to be held accountable for the $15 mil-a-year-for-five-years Katie Couric disaster. Now, NBC has done it, paying off Ann Curry to that reported number as she got the boot after one bad year co-hosting the ratings-threatened Today show. (And what a self-absorbed on-air farewell she made.) Her selection as "next in line" was a mistake from Day One and is an object lesson in the arrogance of television execs. With Today the No. 1-rated morning show for decades -- and a huge moneymaker -- and the successful transition from Couric to Meredith Vierra, the bosses seemingly just figured they could put whoever in that spot and merrily roll along. The audience didn't agree. Of course, the politically correct TV columnists tripped over themselves to defend the miscast Curry, one even calling her a "scapegoat." The New York Times outdid itself, referring to her "journalistic curiosities." The correct description would have been: activist liberal agenda. And picking journalistic lightweight Savannah Guthrie as Curry's replacement looks to be yet another misjudgment.
John Roberts, the chief justice of the U.S., must have a sense of PR. I'm not an attorney (I did take some pre-law in college) but a review of his written decision in last week's Obama health care law case leads me to believe Roberts mixed in a little PR thinking with his legal opinion. To me, it had all the look of a result looking for a justification, and Roberts I think thinks one of his jobs is to maintain the High Court's supposed reputation as even-handed. I think he thought another 5-4 "conservative" decision would damage the court's standing in the court of public opinion. So Roberts, in part, made a PR decision.
And, once and for all, let's take the "spin" out of what is officially the "Affordable Health Care Act." Emphasis on "affordable." Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona released this statement after the Supreme Court's decision:
"Since the introduction of the reform bill, we have expressed our concern that many of its provisions will increase the cost of healthcare. While the law goes a long way to extend access to more people, it falls short on affordability. The next challenge for policymakers will be to address the staggering cost of healthcare."
I hope people still have enough money to buy race tickets after their premiums get jacked-up higher than Jimmie Johnson's No. 48 during a pit stop.
[ a special commentary on the sixth anniversary of this blog next Monday . . .
Maybe.
The FIA said the other week it would (again) examine ways to reduce the cost of competing for the world championship. A media statement let out the word that the governing organization is engaged in "active discussions with teams regarding cost control."
You don't have to be a Financial Times subscriber to figure out that Formula One is extremely vulnerable to what some smart people think is an impending collapse of the European economy.
Bernie Ecclestone has grown very comfortable over the last couple of decades in having local, state and national governments spend taxpayer dollars to subsidize his series. Such funding both helped make mandated facility improvements and pay the rights fee to stage a Grand Prix. Given F1's worldwide TV audience and impressive roster of blue-chip corporate sponsors, politicos would justify the spending based on prestige and money brought into the local economy.
Well, these days, Greece is the word and governmental leaders are having an extremely difficult time making that case. Our Boy Bernie sensed the political earth shifting under his feet a few years ago and moved a couple of his previous dates from Europe to the Middle East, where oil money was his to be had. Of course, with that came the risk of political instability, as shown with last year's cancellation and this season's questionable running in Bahrain. I have a copy of what in the U.S. we call the prospectus for the floatation of shares in the Williams team last year. Political instability in host countries was prominetly cited as a risk to investors.
The French GP (where this form of racing began in 1906) hasn't been staged since 2008. Troubled Spain has had two in recent seasons but that's likely to change. It's difficult to imagine F1 racing without Spa but, according to some reports, that could be the case in Belgium. The recent French elections and arrival of a new president seems to have derailed a plan for France and Belgium to host in alternate years starting in 2013. Even the popular and successful Australian round has a ? attached to its future, due to cost. I remember every year I went Down Under for the CART race in Surfers Paradise, the local papers had stories questioning the subsidy provided by the state of Queensland.
And when Ferrari -- the biggest of the big spenders -- sounds the alarm, you know it's serious. The Spanish banks are troubled and Santander (I think it's the Eurozone's largest) reportedly has a contract with the Prancing Horse through 2017 and a big sponsorship with national hero driver Fernando Alonso. Plus McLaren and event signage. It's reasonable to ask just how solid the future of those deals might be. Germany, with its strong economy, is under constant pressure to lead a Eurozone rescue (what we call a "bailout") and financial reform that certainly would come with it could lead to significant cutbacks in F1 sponsorships. German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- who agreed to help Spain and Italy last week -- could indirectly become as important to F1's biz health as Ecclestone himself.
As they know even over in NASCAR (especially in the Nationwide and Camping World Truck series), America has its economic issues -- that could get better or worse depending on the outcome of November's presidential and congressional elections. In comparison with non-Germany Europe, though, these shores look more like a safe haven -- even after the recent bank downgrades and stock market plunge. I bet Ecclestone must have had this thought: "Any port in a storm."
Which brings us to Circuit of the Americas, in Austin, Tex., and the temporary course announced in New Jersey (with New York City as the backdrop.) The U.S. GP has been anything but a stabilizing anchor (Sebring, Watkins Glen, Long Beach, Detroit, Phoenix, Dallas, Indianapolis) throughout its history. But maybe, just maybe, we're looking better to Bernie. Although he continues to (and always will) play the "game" as seen with his unwillingness to remove doubt that New York/New Jersey will actually make the 2013 schedule. Ecclestone always has his foot full-down on the "pressure" peddle and those who dare to do business with him had best accept that as a fact.
But, a few words of caution: Let's be sure to remember all the internal CotA issues that have made headlines and that rightfully will cause skepticism going forward despite a string of recent positive announcements. And if Dale Earnhardt Jr. is in Sprint Cup title contention that same race day in the NASCAR finale at Homestead, well, Austin will be nothing more than a local event on these shores. As for NY/NJ, I can only assume the organizers believe they have concessions from Ecclestone on things such as TV rights, title sponsorship, signage and/or hospitality (revenue Bernie typically claims for himself) because that's the only possible way I can see this enterprise making business sense since all involved swear no taxpayer money is involved.
Meanwhile, check out this link to see just how profitable the world championship can be:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/privateequity/9352699/CVC-accelerates-to-bumper-return-on-F1-investment.html
My friend Bob Jenkins announced in May he'll retire from TV after this IndyCar season and that, no surprise, has stirred-up speculation on who will replace him. Since I laid-out a plan here on Sept. 6, 2010 ("How to Fix the IRL on Versus") -- link here -- http://spindoctor500blog.blogspot.com/2010/09/how-to-fix-irl-on-versus.html that some general elements came to be, I'll come back with more.
The proper role of an anchor is to professionally call the action and direct "traffic" among the other announcers. He has to be willing to keep his own ego in check and allow others to have a higher profile. He has to have a sense of what the news is, the stories are, be fair, and absolutely MUST HAVE UNQUESTIONED CREDIBILITY. The name I keep hearing as the front-runner to become the New Man Upstairs would be a huge mistake because he doesn't have the above qualities. My recommendation is another friend of mine, Rick Benjamin. He can do it because Rick's pretty much done it all in race broadcasting -- he's a PROVEN pro.
I'd also spice-up the booth by pairing Paul Tracy with Tommy Kendall on a permanent basis. This just might well be the most entertaining duo since the days when Paul Page had to referee Bobby Unser and Sam Posey. Jon Beekhuis could continue with tech features and play a sort of Larry McReynolds "strategist" role outside the booth.
They did it again. Network TV is one of the few places where executives can make a $10 million mistake -- paid for ultimately by shareholders -- and get away without consequence. It took years for CBS News' executive management to be held accountable for the $15 mil-a-year-for-five-years Katie Couric disaster. Now, NBC has done it, paying off Ann Curry to that reported number as she got the boot after one bad year co-hosting the ratings-threatened Today show. (And what a self-absorbed on-air farewell she made.) Her selection as "next in line" was a mistake from Day One and is an object lesson in the arrogance of television execs. With Today the No. 1-rated morning show for decades -- and a huge moneymaker -- and the successful transition from Couric to Meredith Vierra, the bosses seemingly just figured they could put whoever in that spot and merrily roll along. The audience didn't agree. Of course, the politically correct TV columnists tripped over themselves to defend the miscast Curry, one even calling her a "scapegoat." The New York Times outdid itself, referring to her "journalistic curiosities." The correct description would have been: activist liberal agenda. And picking journalistic lightweight Savannah Guthrie as Curry's replacement looks to be yet another misjudgment.
John Roberts, the chief justice of the U.S., must have a sense of PR. I'm not an attorney (I did take some pre-law in college) but a review of his written decision in last week's Obama health care law case leads me to believe Roberts mixed in a little PR thinking with his legal opinion. To me, it had all the look of a result looking for a justification, and Roberts I think thinks one of his jobs is to maintain the High Court's supposed reputation as even-handed. I think he thought another 5-4 "conservative" decision would damage the court's standing in the court of public opinion. So Roberts, in part, made a PR decision.
And, once and for all, let's take the "spin" out of what is officially the "Affordable Health Care Act." Emphasis on "affordable." Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona released this statement after the Supreme Court's decision:
"Since the introduction of the reform bill, we have expressed our concern that many of its provisions will increase the cost of healthcare. While the law goes a long way to extend access to more people, it falls short on affordability. The next challenge for policymakers will be to address the staggering cost of healthcare."
I hope people still have enough money to buy race tickets after their premiums get jacked-up higher than Jimmie Johnson's No. 48 during a pit stop.
[ a special commentary on the sixth anniversary of this blog next Monday . . .
Sunday, June 24, 2012
ALMS 2, INDY 0
RACING ART: I had the pleasure of meeting famed sports artist LeRoy Neiman a few times. He attended the 1990 CART Denver Grand Prix, staged on downtown streets, and did this painting of the Newman/Haas team. Mario and Michael Andretti are depicted sitting on the pit wall at the far right. Neiman shows himself third from left behind the car. To his right are Paul Newman (yellow) and Carl Haas (red), who has the original in his office. I have a print in mine. Neiman died last week at age 91.And now I can tell you the story . . .
I've known for over a year that Pat Patrick and Jim McGee were working on a racing engine powered by natural gas. That was made official last week when IMSA, the American Le Mans Series' sanctioning body, announced a deal with Patrick Racing to research and develop NG as an alternative fuel for its Prototype Challenge class cars.
I didn't write anything because I promised my source not to -- until a formal news release was issued. At last year's Indianapolis 500 Hall of Fame awards dinner (McGee was inducted), however, I privately mentioned this to my friend Arie Luyendyk? Why tell him? Because what Patrick and McGee wanted to do was take this innovation to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. If not in the Indy 500, then in a special demonstration run, an attempt to unofficially break Luyendyk's existing one-lap track record of 236.986 mph, set in 1996. I asked Arie if he'd like to drive it but he said no.
Given their winning history in the I500, it's certainly no surprise Patrick and McGee, his longtime team manager, wished to showcase this technology at IMS. I was told by someone directly involved, though, that the IMS Corp.'s negotiating position wasn't favorable. Oil and nat gas exploration mogul Patrick wanted exclusive rights to -- at least for a few years -- certain elements such as the fuel system and refueling equipment.
"They seemed to not have a lot of interest in it," according to my source. Reminds me of the DeltaWing.
From a Business of Racing standpoint, it's logical to assume the IndyCar series' multi-million dollar ethanol deal with APEX-Brazil had more than a little something to do with this.
Here are details you haven't read elsewhere: Patrick Racing has been working on this project for over two years. A natural gas-powered, turbocharged, four-cylinder engine was built and tested at Jack Roush's shop. That engine was two liters and turned 8,500 rpm with 20 pounds of boost and put out 655 horsepower.
I'm told virtually any engine could be converted to nat gas and it's better with a turbo because of the compression factor. The ALMS PC class uses 430-horsepower Chevrolet LS3 engines.
“Natural gas is destined to become a major player in the transportation industry for everyday passenger vehicles, and not just fleet operations,” Patrick said in the official release. “It is abundant, domestic, affordable and ecologically responsible. For more than a century, racing has been at the tip of the spear in developing new technology for the transportation industry. This is in line with and in the spirit of that history.”
The Speedway is the place where the innovation that was the rear-view mirror became famous. It was the stage for the Novi, turbine, and I even remember a design for a steam-powered car (didn't happen because it was too heavy.)
For those keeping score, it's now: ALMS 2, Indy 0.
I updated the Phoenix International Raceway IndyCar and NASCAR news in last Friday's Arizona Republic. No, despite what you may have read elsewhere, PIR is not and has never been a candidate to replace China on IC's 2012 schedule. But the chance for 2013 is still there. Here's the link:
http://www.usatoday.com/USCP/PNI/Sports/2012-06-22-PNI0622spt-AutonbPNIBrd_ST_U.htm
FAST LINES: There is every reason to believe this World of Outlaws season will be remembered as a true classic. The hottest driver in the series is Kraig Kinser, who won Saturday night over legendary father Steve, at Dodge City Raceway Park. It was Kinser the son's third victory in the last seven Outlaws' features. Steve won Friday night and is leading the championship standings. Fans and the news media are missing out by not paying attention . . . A college football national championship playoff system looks close to happening in 2014 and the TV rights fees will be historically enormous. What sport(s) will see their $s drop as those funds go to this new package? I'm sure that's something NASCAR is pondering . . . File this under Ridiculous & Arrogant: The MotoGP rights holder has a media credential request system more difficult than the Super Bowl or World Series . . . Geez, what will they talk about on PTI now that the basketball season is over? (Of course the hosts will take weeks off while a big percentage of their audience wishes they could have one weekend off.) God forbid they should have John Force, Courtney Force, Tony Schumacher or another good NHRA racer/talker on to showcase one of the many interesting personalities whose competition is shown on their network.
[ more next Monday . . . ]
Sunday, June 17, 2012
JUNIOR WINS! (and other things)
Normally I hate it when the TV director stays with a single-car shot for any period of time. (Which we see way too much of in IndyCar.) But TNT did exactly the right thing by keeping with Dale Earnhardt Jr. almost constantly throughout the closing laps Sunday at Michigan. And, in this case, it also was right to cut away from the wide shot of the others taking the checkered flag to see the reaction of Junior's crew and Junior Nation as represented in the grandstands. IT WAS THE RIGHT THING TO DO BECAUSE THAT WAS THE NEWS -- AND THAT'S WHAT PEOPLE WANTED TO SEE. The end of Junior's four-year, 143-race winless streak is far more than good news for him, his No. 88 Diet Drew crew, and Hendrick Motorsports. It's good for the NASCAR industry. Ask any promoter today -- it's good for business. And don't think it's not a positive for the struggling media world, either, including the TV networks, USA Today, Sports Illustrated, Charlotte Observer, etc. Since we're all about the Business of Racing here, I'm comfortable in saying: Thanks, Junior.
The TV images from a blimp or helicopter tell the REAL story: There were A LOT of empty grandstand seats at Pocono and Dover. (I don't care what it said in the official NASCAR boxscore.) Should NASCAR be concerned? Absolutely! Should something be done. Yes! Both tracks are independently owned, meaning, not owned by International Speedway Corp. or Speedway Motorsports Inc. and the respective managements have regularly said they are not for sale. (I keep wondering about Dover, though, which was built with harness racing as the attraction -- "Dover Downs" was the original name -- and the company used to own other properties like Long Beach, Gateway and Memphis. No more. Dover itself way-overbuilt stands during the boom times.) Both have two Cup dates and it's time to rethink that. It's no secret SMI's Bruton Smith wants a second date for Las Vegas -- and I think that would be in the series' and the industry's best interests. Since no one I know of is interested in adding another date to the 36-race schedule, how about Pocono or Dover leasing one of its dates to Smith for Vegas? Why not try it for a year and see if that works for the bottom line for both companies?
Given all the supposed interest in the DeltaWing, I couldn't help but notice Speed didn't show or mention the car in its pre-Le Mans promos. STRANGE -- and makes me wonder who, if anyone, was paying attention to the details. Not surprisingly, the DW had annoying technical issues in the race and was retired just after six hours when unaware Toyota prototype driver Kazuki Nakajima knocked it off the road. I don't think DW ran long enough to draw any meaningful conclusions. The question, as I posed it last week, remains: What's next?
Speaking of Attention to Detail: How did Justin Wilson's Texas winning Dale Coyne Racing car get through pre-race tech inspection with a sidepod top deck banned from use at that track? Even if it somehow did, why didn't the pit road official assigned to that car notice? As I've written before, and did so from personal experience, the series needed to change people not just in race control. The Indy media cheerleaders should have insisted on a credible explanation from Beaux Barfield. It's a week later and I haven't seen one from Barfield, although Randy Bernard did admit to the mistake. Barfield had another embarrassment at Milwaukee with a wrong penalty to Scott Dixon, which Barfield attributed to a "technology error." That's three straight bad races for Bernard's new race boss.
Those hailing the on-track success of the reduced-downforce IndyCar configuration at Texas -- calling it a "game-changer" -- ignore the Business of Racing reality of the FINANCIAL viability of such events. It certainly wasn't a record crowd at Texas. Would the game-changers please show me even one bit of solid evidence that this rules package is going to sell enough tickets to make for a successful race -- at the box office? P.S. Owners are complaining about costs yet some cars no doubt will be junked in the desperation move of qualifying heat races at Iowa. We tried a qualifying race at Michigan when I worked for CART -- the bill for wrecked cars ended that concept. But, as I've said here for years, the IndyCar organization has never bothered itself to learn the lessons of history.
So, I'm watching Michael Andretti on Wind Tunnel talking-up his self-promoted IndyCar race at the Milwaukee Mile when Dave Despain and Andretti say the weather forecast -- for an event SIX DAYS LATER -- is good. Of course, the race was delayed by rain. I don't pay attention to a forecast for two days after today -- six days later, well, let's get serious. Hard to accept that valuable time on a national network TV show would be wasted on this when there were so many other substantive issues to discuss. They might as well have chatted about what they were going to have for dinner six days hence, too.
IndyCar team owners being upset about public announcement of penalties/fines isn't anything new. After the 1983 CART race in Milwaukee, Roger Penske was fined $1,000 for "improper conduct in the post-race technical inspection area." Tom Sneva's winning car had been DQ'd and Penske's Al Unser moved up to first place. I was CART's communications director at the time and issued a news release on the penalty -- it was clearly stated in the CART rulebook as series' policy. I well remember Penske telling me we shouldn't do this type of press release because sponsors didn't like it.
Whatever "it" is in terms of driving talent, two-time world champion Sebastian Vettel has it. He has an engaging smile, too. But his appearance last week on David Letterman's show was horribly unprofessional. If Red Bull (which Vettel never mentioned) wants to market to punks, Vettel's interview was a success. With his multi-colored checkered (and untucked) shirt and worn-out jeans (with those trendy holes in them), Vettel (whose obscenity was bleeped) looked like a bum, not a world-class athlete. I know the energy drink companies have a different philosophy on marketing and image, but . . . this was on the reverse side of professional. It also didn't speak well for the supposed "PR pros" working with him. No way I would have allowed it and you can ask Michael Andretti, Paul Tracy and Jimmy Vasser about the times I had them change to appropriate clothes before media appearances. (When Vasser did Letterman in 1996, I took him to Barney's that morning to buy a nice outfit, which was tailored while we had a media luncheon at Tavern on the Green, and then I went back and got it.) Letterman, meanwhile, came across as skeptical about the Austin and New Jersery F1 races and advocated for the Indy 500 to be part of the world championship schedule. Of course, it once was.
The latest example of why I find the NHRA Funny Car class endlessly fascinating: All four John Force Racing cars lost in the FIRST ROUND at Bristol! That was a first for JFR. Meanwhile, Tony Schumacher ended a baffling 0-for-32 winless streak in Top Fuel in his father's U.S. Army-sponsored car on Father's Day.
Having been a member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association back in my Philadelphia Daily News days, I say the Los Angeles Kings' Stanley Cup championship is the biggest major sports title surprise since, well, Tony Stewart's Sprint Cup last year. The Kings barely made the playoffs as the eighth seed but went on an amazing 16-4 run to earn the franchise's first Cup. As you'll recall, Stewart didn't make the Chase by much last year, then won five of the 10 races.
Pathetic this even needs to be said: I receive post-race PR reports from several NHRA, NASCAR Nationwide and Truck teams on Monday or even Tuesday about events that occurred the previous Friday night or Saturday afternoon. NEWS IS IMMEDIATE! That delayed timing makes these E-mails completely useless and thus they are quickly deleted. Why aren't those paying the fee or salary aware of this?
I know crowd control and the plague of professional autograph seekers have contributed to the need to manage signing sessions, but . . . This is what the Arizona Cardinals NFL team advertised as the rules for a 25 minute (Big Deal!) session at its recent Fan Fest: "Autograph Session for Children 12 and Under Only. Restrictions apply. One item to be autographed per child. No posed photos. Availability and access to certain players may be limited." Sad. And I'm tempted to ask, "Why bother?"
[ more next Monday . . . ]
The TV images from a blimp or helicopter tell the REAL story: There were A LOT of empty grandstand seats at Pocono and Dover. (I don't care what it said in the official NASCAR boxscore.) Should NASCAR be concerned? Absolutely! Should something be done. Yes! Both tracks are independently owned, meaning, not owned by International Speedway Corp. or Speedway Motorsports Inc. and the respective managements have regularly said they are not for sale. (I keep wondering about Dover, though, which was built with harness racing as the attraction -- "Dover Downs" was the original name -- and the company used to own other properties like Long Beach, Gateway and Memphis. No more. Dover itself way-overbuilt stands during the boom times.) Both have two Cup dates and it's time to rethink that. It's no secret SMI's Bruton Smith wants a second date for Las Vegas -- and I think that would be in the series' and the industry's best interests. Since no one I know of is interested in adding another date to the 36-race schedule, how about Pocono or Dover leasing one of its dates to Smith for Vegas? Why not try it for a year and see if that works for the bottom line for both companies?
Given all the supposed interest in the DeltaWing, I couldn't help but notice Speed didn't show or mention the car in its pre-Le Mans promos. STRANGE -- and makes me wonder who, if anyone, was paying attention to the details. Not surprisingly, the DW had annoying technical issues in the race and was retired just after six hours when unaware Toyota prototype driver Kazuki Nakajima knocked it off the road. I don't think DW ran long enough to draw any meaningful conclusions. The question, as I posed it last week, remains: What's next?
Speaking of Attention to Detail: How did Justin Wilson's Texas winning Dale Coyne Racing car get through pre-race tech inspection with a sidepod top deck banned from use at that track? Even if it somehow did, why didn't the pit road official assigned to that car notice? As I've written before, and did so from personal experience, the series needed to change people not just in race control. The Indy media cheerleaders should have insisted on a credible explanation from Beaux Barfield. It's a week later and I haven't seen one from Barfield, although Randy Bernard did admit to the mistake. Barfield had another embarrassment at Milwaukee with a wrong penalty to Scott Dixon, which Barfield attributed to a "technology error." That's three straight bad races for Bernard's new race boss.
Those hailing the on-track success of the reduced-downforce IndyCar configuration at Texas -- calling it a "game-changer" -- ignore the Business of Racing reality of the FINANCIAL viability of such events. It certainly wasn't a record crowd at Texas. Would the game-changers please show me even one bit of solid evidence that this rules package is going to sell enough tickets to make for a successful race -- at the box office? P.S. Owners are complaining about costs yet some cars no doubt will be junked in the desperation move of qualifying heat races at Iowa. We tried a qualifying race at Michigan when I worked for CART -- the bill for wrecked cars ended that concept. But, as I've said here for years, the IndyCar organization has never bothered itself to learn the lessons of history.
So, I'm watching Michael Andretti on Wind Tunnel talking-up his self-promoted IndyCar race at the Milwaukee Mile when Dave Despain and Andretti say the weather forecast -- for an event SIX DAYS LATER -- is good. Of course, the race was delayed by rain. I don't pay attention to a forecast for two days after today -- six days later, well, let's get serious. Hard to accept that valuable time on a national network TV show would be wasted on this when there were so many other substantive issues to discuss. They might as well have chatted about what they were going to have for dinner six days hence, too.
IndyCar team owners being upset about public announcement of penalties/fines isn't anything new. After the 1983 CART race in Milwaukee, Roger Penske was fined $1,000 for "improper conduct in the post-race technical inspection area." Tom Sneva's winning car had been DQ'd and Penske's Al Unser moved up to first place. I was CART's communications director at the time and issued a news release on the penalty -- it was clearly stated in the CART rulebook as series' policy. I well remember Penske telling me we shouldn't do this type of press release because sponsors didn't like it.
Whatever "it" is in terms of driving talent, two-time world champion Sebastian Vettel has it. He has an engaging smile, too. But his appearance last week on David Letterman's show was horribly unprofessional. If Red Bull (which Vettel never mentioned) wants to market to punks, Vettel's interview was a success. With his multi-colored checkered (and untucked) shirt and worn-out jeans (with those trendy holes in them), Vettel (whose obscenity was bleeped) looked like a bum, not a world-class athlete. I know the energy drink companies have a different philosophy on marketing and image, but . . . this was on the reverse side of professional. It also didn't speak well for the supposed "PR pros" working with him. No way I would have allowed it and you can ask Michael Andretti, Paul Tracy and Jimmy Vasser about the times I had them change to appropriate clothes before media appearances. (When Vasser did Letterman in 1996, I took him to Barney's that morning to buy a nice outfit, which was tailored while we had a media luncheon at Tavern on the Green, and then I went back and got it.) Letterman, meanwhile, came across as skeptical about the Austin and New Jersery F1 races and advocated for the Indy 500 to be part of the world championship schedule. Of course, it once was.
The latest example of why I find the NHRA Funny Car class endlessly fascinating: All four John Force Racing cars lost in the FIRST ROUND at Bristol! That was a first for JFR. Meanwhile, Tony Schumacher ended a baffling 0-for-32 winless streak in Top Fuel in his father's U.S. Army-sponsored car on Father's Day.
Having been a member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association back in my Philadelphia Daily News days, I say the Los Angeles Kings' Stanley Cup championship is the biggest major sports title surprise since, well, Tony Stewart's Sprint Cup last year. The Kings barely made the playoffs as the eighth seed but went on an amazing 16-4 run to earn the franchise's first Cup. As you'll recall, Stewart didn't make the Chase by much last year, then won five of the 10 races.
Pathetic this even needs to be said: I receive post-race PR reports from several NHRA, NASCAR Nationwide and Truck teams on Monday or even Tuesday about events that occurred the previous Friday night or Saturday afternoon. NEWS IS IMMEDIATE! That delayed timing makes these E-mails completely useless and thus they are quickly deleted. Why aren't those paying the fee or salary aware of this?
I know crowd control and the plague of professional autograph seekers have contributed to the need to manage signing sessions, but . . . This is what the Arizona Cardinals NFL team advertised as the rules for a 25 minute (Big Deal!) session at its recent Fan Fest: "Autograph Session for Children 12 and Under Only. Restrictions apply. One item to be autographed per child. No posed photos. Availability and access to certain players may be limited." Sad. And I'm tempted to ask, "Why bother?"
[ more next Monday . . . ]
Sunday, June 10, 2012
DELTAWING WILL PROVE ???
WONDERFUL OR WORRISOME?: IndyCar didn't want the DeltaWing as an IndyCar, so it will run at Le Mans as an experimental sports car.The spirits of legendary automotive creative geniuses Colin Chapman and Carroll Shelby will be stirred this weekend as the DeltaWing makes its competition debut in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The argument can be made this is the boldest technological leap in all of motorsports since Andy Granatelli's turbine, Ken Tyrrell's six-wheel Formula One car, Jim Hall's series of innovative Chaparrals and Chapman's ground-effects Lotus that took Mario Andretti to the world championship. I'll even go back to Don Nichols' downsized UOP Shadow Can-Am car, which I wrote about decades ago. I got to know and liked the Nichols family and driver Jackie Oliver.
DeltaWing's saga has been well-chronicled elsewhere so I'll skip a detailed recounting of that history. Of course, the concept was born with the Indianapolis 500 in mind, but it never really had a chance. As I've explained before, to have had that happen, its backers needed to lay the groundwork via a carefully conceived and executed PR plan, designed to ignite the passions of year-round fans and once-a-year fans alike that would have resulted in an impossible-to-ignore "This is what we want!" communications thrust at the Hulman-George family. That wasn't done -- as best I can tell, it was never even thought of -- and so it was inevitable a less bold course was followed in coming up with the Dallara which debuted this season.
People have given the American Le Mans Series great credit for being more accepting. That's fine, but let's be honest -- what did ALMS have to lose? With not much more than a pencil-point impression on the general U.S. sporting public, lack of big automaker investment in its "Green" formula, and a virtually extinct headliner prototype class, ALMS had an easy call to go for it.
They helped convince Le Mans organizers Automobile Club de l'Ouest to grant DeltaWing the “Garage 56” entry reserved for cars that bring new and innovative technology to the endurance sports car classic.
Designer Ben Bowlby's car is built around the concept of a vehicle that has half the weight, half the horsepower and half the aerodynamic drag of a traditional prototype while also significantly reducing tire wear and fuel consumption. Technical partner Michelin has produced front tires that are only four inches wide and the front-track measurement is listed at just 23.6 inches. Nissan, which officially signed on several months ago, provided a 300-horsepower 1.6 liter turbo. The entire car weighs only 1,047 pounds.
I applaud the out-of-the-box thinking and congratulate Bowlby, builder Dan Gurney, ALMS founder Don Panoz and Highcroft team owner Duncan Dayton for making it happen.
That said, I do have concerns.
The first is safety. Le Mans' history is sadly filled with terrible crashes triggered by the dramatic speed differences between cars of various classes. And, let's be honest about it, drivers of varying skill. First-rate racers Allan McNish and Mike Rockenfeller, in two of the three factory Audis, were eliminated in huge wrecks just a year ago. DeltaWing will be completely different from everything else on the track and I can only hope all the other drivers will be super heads-up when racing around it -- especially at night.
The attention DeltaWing gets will be because it is SO unique and the main goal no doubt is to try to finish. The problem with such an out-and-out sheer engineering exercise is all the focus is on the machine. I've yet to met the first car that I can interview. As NASCAR has proven, tickets are sold, TV ratings are generated, and headlines are made by drivers as interesting personalities. When the Ford GT won Le Mans in 1967 -- an historic triumph over Ferrari -- what made the story complete was Gurney and A.J. Foyt were its drivers. Gurney and Foyt didn't subtract from Ford's glory. They added to it.
DW's drivers are Marino Franchitti, Michael Krumm and Satoshi Motoyama. No household names there. Franchitti's sports car experience and time with Dayton made him an obvious pick and I have no problem with that. But Motoyama hasn't competed at Le Mans since 1999 and Krumm not since 2005. Obviously, sponsorship and political considerations came into play. That's a reality of the modern Business of Racing environment, but I'm still disappointed.
Here's a radical notion -- but so what, the whole project is radical! -- I wish they'd have added a very available Paul Tracy to the lineup. It probably would have taken some effort to get PT to buy into the program, and it no doubt would have required some effort by team management to get PT to understand was what expected of him from a driving philosophy standpoint. But it would have put a popular name and face and voice to DeltaWing and raised its overall profile in the U.S. and Canada. Which would have been most useful, considering ALMS says it wants to establish DW as a regular entry in its series.
Which brings me to this: After Le Mans, what's next? Panoz said he'll take over from Gurney as constructor and hopes to sell more DWs to customers. ALMS and IMSA will be expected to figure out how to fit what probably would be another class into its overall field. Would that be a game-changer for ALMS on the American sporting scene? I don't see it. And I also don't see DW ever getting onto the Indy 500 grid, even though I've heard some say that might happen if the vehicle's viability is proven at Le Mans. Really? Given the usual narrow Indy mindset and all the other problems the series has these days?
I think we should just enjoy DeltaWing for this weekend and for what it is -- a welcome break from the awful, economy-induced, era of spec car racing. After that, whatever will be, will be.
What to Buy, Sell or Hold in drag racing? My June "Drags, Dollars & Sense" column on CompetitionPlus.com takes "stock" of NHRA:
http://www.competitionplus.com/drag-racing/editorials/21400-knightmichael-knight-todays-drag-racing-stock-report
FAST LINES: Did ANYONE, ANYWHERE in the IndyCar organization even THINK of trying to get Kurt Busch into a car at Texas? (He once did a few laps in a Champ Car on a road course.) At a minimum, Busch's interest should have been measured and the feasibility studied. He's qualified (this was not a Las Vegas "challenge" type situation) -- remember, they let long-retired Jean Alesi run the Indy 500. Desperate times call for desperate measures -- and if you don't think these are near-desperate times for IndyCar, you are drinking the Indianapolis media cheerleaders' Kool-Aid . . . That sound you heard last week was Busch flushing-away his chances of a more competitive Sprint Cup ride in 2013. Owners and sponsors will do a lot to get/keep a winning driver, but the former Cup champion is near -- if not past -- the point where that isn't enough to balance the downside of his temper. Kurt has always been cooperative with me in, what I concede, have been our limited dealings. I hope he can rid himself of his demons but time is running out -- if it hasn't already . . . I talked about this last Thursday on Sirius XM with Rick Benjamin and Chocolate Myers and said this has gone far beyond a PR problem, it's an urgent issue for Kurt's management team. He needs not a PR rep, but a "body man" around him almost all the time, and his management had best start thinking about options in IndyCar or NHRA if NASCAR is no longer available . . . By the way, NASCAR did what it needed to do in suspending Busch, to protect the integrity of its probation system. For years plenty of people have been asking if probation really means anything -- in this case, it did . . . Count me among those concerned about the racing at Michigan International Speedway this weekend. Speeds during testing were at 200 mph . . . In announcing the start of its public ticket sale, Circuit of the Americas included a chart showing the average lowest three-day grandstand ticket prices in Formula One. Of the 13 venues on the list, Monaco (no surprise) is tops at $520. CotA is fifth at $269 . . . CotA announced last weekend that Mario Andretti will be its official ambassador for November's return of the U.S. Grand Prix. Hmmm. See what I suggested here on April 22
http://spindoctor500blog.blogspot.com/2012/04/f1-needs-ambassador-andretti-and-gurney.html .
[ more next Monday . . . ]
Sunday, June 03, 2012
A HISTORY of INDYCAR INFIGHTING
Sorry, I can't help but laugh.
The IndyCar series gathered on Belle Isle last weekend for Roger Penske's relaunched Detroit Grand Prix, ending a week where the latest round of political wrangling -- calls for the ouster of Randy Bernard -- up-ended what should have been a wheelbarrow of good tidings after an entertaining Indianapolis 500. Bernard foolishly elevated the story from rumor to headline by confirming it on Twitter.
But, hey, who's surprised? It's more of the same . . . deja vu all over again for a sport where internal political turmoil is as traditional as the checkered flag, Yard of Bricks and ESPN slobbering over Danica Patrick.
Those of us with an institutional memory recall it was at Belle Isle in 2000 that the CART Board of Directors finally woke up and threw Andrew Craig out on his all-arrogant ass. Having been deeply involved in the series at that time, I can faithfully report that was long in the making. In fact, at Phoenix in 1994 -- only Craig's second race as CART boss -- his attitude already had some people expressing concern to car owner Board members. I'll never forget when I first introduced myself to AC and his response was a dripping: "Oh, you're one of those." Meaning, a former CART employee (original communications director, 1980-1983), one of those Craig decided was beneath him and had helped create the mess His Highness was there to clean up.
Craig ruled with the mentality that it was his way or no way and he undoubtedly would have been fired years earlier if not for Tony George's creation of the Indy Racing League. The terrible atmosphere George and his key lieutenants fostered in May 1995 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway -- none other than Paul Newman was less than 24 hours away from going on Good Morning America and other national media outlets to let his feelings be known -- and the infamous "25/8" rule rock-hardened CART owners against George and solidified Craig's position. There's nothing more unifying than a common enemy. Carl Haas once admitted to me his concerns about Craig but said a change in command "would make us look weak to Tony. We can't do that right now."
I well remember visiting with Jim Chapman in his Birmingham, Mich., apartment in the summer of 1996. Jim was in the final months of his Great American Life. Although retired, he still was a consultant for PPG's CART series sponsorship. The phone rang and it was E. Kears Pollock, the PPG VP whose budget funded the CART deal. It was contract time and Craig -- who hadn't bothered to reach out to Chapman even though they were only miles apart in Michigan and there probably wouldn't have been a CART without what Jim had done for the series during his 1980-1994 tenure as PPG's racing director -- was trying to jam-down PPG's throat some key new items. Chapman listened, took a few notes, then calmly went through each point and explained to Pollock why CART wasn't in a position of business-strength to make those demands. "I'd offer to renew for one year at the same terms," was Chapman's final advice to Pollock. And that's pretty much what happened. If Craig's ego would have allowed him to see Chapman's importance, and had shown him proper respect, it might have been different.
Craig more than loved self-publicity -- he thought it was his God-given right. As one very well-known television personality observed: "There's no more dangerous place at a racetrack than betweeen Andrew Craig and a TV camera."
It was inevitable Craig's time to walk the plank would come. Craig crony and financial officer, the deeply disliked Randy Dzierzawski, also hit the highway. As one of their aggrieved paddock area citizens, I couldn't have been more delighted.
Before Craig there was Bill Stokkan, the former Playboy marketing executive, with whom I had a pretty good professional relationship. The Indy Car Public Relations Task Force was active at that time -- I was the original vice chairman and later chairman -- and Stokkan embraced our efforts as a positive for the series and met with me, individually, and the Task Force regularly. Stokkan established a New York City marketing office, a move I definitely agreed with, although its operation and staffing (and COST) became a topic of legitimate discussion.
But Stokkan got himself sideways with the Board on a number of fronts. I wound up playing a minor role in this drama. At dinner before the 1993 Michigan 500, some complaints from a prominent team owner alerted me to what was up (my antenna had first been raised at Portland earlier in the season.) The next day I was asked to come behind closed doors in a team's motorhome. The message basically was that the directors were going to need to meet confidentially (Top Secret!) during the upcoming week's races but didn't want to be seen. Since all of them knew me and it wasn't at all unusual for me to be seen talking to any of them and thus wouldn't raise suspicion I became the contact person, the messenger, going from one to the other, setting up meeting times and motorcoach locations. On one memorable occasion, at New Hampshire, I had to interrupt another meeting Jim Hall was having in his coach to remind him the others were waiting and transported him post-haste via golf cart. (I thought Jim, one of my original racing heroes, would be upset by the intrusion but, not at all, he thanked me for coming to get him.)
I always tried to repay favors I felt I owed journalists. Walking to the parking lot after the Michigan 500, I very casually floated the notion to one of CART's regular journalists that Stokkan might be in trouble. He didn't pick up on my "message" and I dropped the subject. I remember there was a lot of unhappiness with the way CART's man handled victory lane at Michigan that year (I was Newman/Haas Racing's PR director and we finished 1-2 with Nigel Mansell and Mario Andretti -- Arie Luyendyk was third) and so this was a big topic when PR representatives had a meeting two weeks later at Elkhart Lake. Someone suggested a letter of concern be sent to Stokkan. I was asked my opinion. "For those of you not aware, the winds of change are getting ready to blow through Bloomfield Hills (Mich., CART's office) once again," I said, adding it might be best to wait. Sure enough, Stokkan was called to a surprise meeting with the Board after the race the next day and a nonsense PR statement was issued afterwards (I didn't write it) that Stokkan wouldn't be seeking a contract extension.
John Frasco was CART's chairman when the organization seriously reformed itself as a sanctioning body after its shaky 1980 truce/alliance with USAC was blown up by USAC itself. USAC was under political threat from then Indianapolis Motor Speedway President John Cooper (a story I foreshadowed in an interview with Cooper at Pocono a few weeks earlier when I was with the Philadelphia Daily News); he said he might consider replacing USAC as the Indy 500's sanctioning body. I worked for Frasco at CART. His tenure came to an unhappy end as the 1989 season wound down. (The now-defunct newspaper The National later published a jaw-dropping expose of Frasco's sweetheart financial agreements, which CART took years to pay off.) The '89 championship celebration was in a large tent on the grounds of Pebble Beach Golf Club. When John Caponigro (who was a lawyer in Frasco's firm and then held various CART posts) opened the ceremony by asking for applause for "our chairman," the response was as tepid as Michael Moore being introduced at a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention.
Caponigro took over and got himself in deep hot water at his very first Board meeting, held soon thereafter in Chicago. I was there, entertaining media (including Chris Economaki) in an adjacent hotel suite. Caponigro told owners he was going to play "hardball" with PPG, which, in his view, should take the money spent on pace cars and hospitality and put it into more prize money. A concerned citizen promptly told Chapman, who wrote a lengthy letter to owners, rebutting Caponigro point-by-point in explaining how those things formed the very reason for the series sponsorship. It was brilliant -- and devastating.
It quickly went downhill from there. John C was on extremely thin ice when owners met in Indianapolis in the year's closing weeks. A few owners, including Haas, were worried about more change and hung themselves out to somehow convince the others to offer Caponigro a one-year contract. When called into the meeting and offered that deal, Caponigro, who clearly did not grasp the gravity of the situation or the deep concerns about his leadership, said: "I'll have to think about it." That was so inappropriate for the moment he might as well have worn seersucker to the NASCAR Sprint Cup banquet. Virtually every owner in the room took it as unbelievably tin-eared so the end was at hand. Over lunch, the owners started talking about who to get to run the group. John Capels had announced his team was closing its doors due to lack of sponsorship. So Barbara Trueman suggested Capels as their new leader, and that's exactly how Capels got to CART's executive office.
And, of course, there was the inept Joe Heitzler (whose call to race the weekend after Sept. 11, 2001 remains the worst decision in modern motorsports history and effectively ended whatever remaining goodwill CART had with the public), the puzzling/surprising failure of Chris Pook, out-of-his-depth Steve Johnson, and the Hulman-George family's internal conflict -- see ya, Tony; hello, Randy.
As for Bernard, I have no particular axe to grind with him. For those sufficiently interested, I refer you to last October's "Untenable" blog (which recently took second place in the annual AARWBA journalism contest.) http://spindoctor500blog.blogspot.com/2011/10/untenable.html
I stand by what I wrote. Since then, I think it's very fair to say Bernard didn't do his due diligence before accepting Lotus as an engine supplier, didn't deliver the promised price on the new Dallara and parts, and has hired/promoted and thus is responsible for one of the five worst PR departments in all of professional sports (proven again during May. That situation is dire and requires immediate change.) I would also remind you that most of what you have been reading about this issue elsewhere has come from the Indianapolis media cheerleading community. One thing Bernard has done very well, and given my PR background I'll give him a lot of credit for it, is to co-opt the series' longtime media critics. Just understand that is the filter through which these stories are being presented to you -- and who the primary (if unnamed) source is.
Finally, there's another thing that hasn't changed. I duly note the chatroomers are offering petitions in support of Bernard and threatening boycotts against the series and the sponsors of team owners who want him gone. The lessons of history are clear: Such boycotts were routinely touted on message boards as one CART/Champ Car sponsor after another left the series ("I'll never buy that car, tire, oil again," etc., etc., etc.) It doesn't work for the simple reason there are not enough actual CUSTOMERS there to matter. I don't question the honest passion of some of these people, but as for this sort of thing making any real difference, sorry, NO. For example: Last I checked FedEx seems to be doing just fine, and enjoying a successful NASCAR sponsorship, despite all those boycott posts of the past. Apologies for lack of Business of Racing knowledge remain in order.
So, Randy Bernard's on IndyCar's political hot seat? History teaches us no one should be one bit surprised.
And so it goes . . .
FAST LINES: I agree with Jim Utter -- Danica Patrick should drop the talk about trying the Danica Double until she shows much better situational awareness than she did in the Coca-Cola 600 . . . Good job Courtney Force, who visited ESPN's "campus" in Bristol, Conn., before last weekend's NHRA Nationals in Englishtown, N.J. Courtney survived the "car wash" of interviews on ESPN's multiple media platforms. NHRA needs all of this sort of effort it can get . . . "We are no longer a newspaper company," Chicago Sun-Times Media Holdings Editor-in-Chief Jim Kirk wrote to his staff last week, in announcing a newsroom reorganization shifting emphasis to digital news distribution . . . "Green" is the politically-correct rage these days within NASCAR and ISC, proven again with last week's announcement that Grand-Am (owned by NASCAR's holding company) will add a third class, called GX. It will "feature cars and technologies not currently involved in the Rolex Series. Rules are being developed to allow for the exploration of a wide variety of alternative technologies and alternative fuels. This could include turbocharged engines; fuels other than gasoline, such as clean diesels; and hybrid powertrains." Just what sports car racing absolutely does not need -- ANOTHER class . . . Meanwhile, in sports car racing's never-ending -- I'm sick of it -- ALMS vs. Grand-Am one-upmanship, ALMS said it will race at Circuit of the Americas in 2013. A curse on both their houses -- and I say that as someone who became a sports car fan (Cobra, later Ford GT and Chaparral) back in 1963.
[ more next Monday . . . ]
The IndyCar series gathered on Belle Isle last weekend for Roger Penske's relaunched Detroit Grand Prix, ending a week where the latest round of political wrangling -- calls for the ouster of Randy Bernard -- up-ended what should have been a wheelbarrow of good tidings after an entertaining Indianapolis 500. Bernard foolishly elevated the story from rumor to headline by confirming it on Twitter.
But, hey, who's surprised? It's more of the same . . . deja vu all over again for a sport where internal political turmoil is as traditional as the checkered flag, Yard of Bricks and ESPN slobbering over Danica Patrick.
Those of us with an institutional memory recall it was at Belle Isle in 2000 that the CART Board of Directors finally woke up and threw Andrew Craig out on his all-arrogant ass. Having been deeply involved in the series at that time, I can faithfully report that was long in the making. In fact, at Phoenix in 1994 -- only Craig's second race as CART boss -- his attitude already had some people expressing concern to car owner Board members. I'll never forget when I first introduced myself to AC and his response was a dripping: "Oh, you're one of those." Meaning, a former CART employee (original communications director, 1980-1983), one of those Craig decided was beneath him and had helped create the mess His Highness was there to clean up.
Craig ruled with the mentality that it was his way or no way and he undoubtedly would have been fired years earlier if not for Tony George's creation of the Indy Racing League. The terrible atmosphere George and his key lieutenants fostered in May 1995 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway -- none other than Paul Newman was less than 24 hours away from going on Good Morning America and other national media outlets to let his feelings be known -- and the infamous "25/8" rule rock-hardened CART owners against George and solidified Craig's position. There's nothing more unifying than a common enemy. Carl Haas once admitted to me his concerns about Craig but said a change in command "would make us look weak to Tony. We can't do that right now."
I well remember visiting with Jim Chapman in his Birmingham, Mich., apartment in the summer of 1996. Jim was in the final months of his Great American Life. Although retired, he still was a consultant for PPG's CART series sponsorship. The phone rang and it was E. Kears Pollock, the PPG VP whose budget funded the CART deal. It was contract time and Craig -- who hadn't bothered to reach out to Chapman even though they were only miles apart in Michigan and there probably wouldn't have been a CART without what Jim had done for the series during his 1980-1994 tenure as PPG's racing director -- was trying to jam-down PPG's throat some key new items. Chapman listened, took a few notes, then calmly went through each point and explained to Pollock why CART wasn't in a position of business-strength to make those demands. "I'd offer to renew for one year at the same terms," was Chapman's final advice to Pollock. And that's pretty much what happened. If Craig's ego would have allowed him to see Chapman's importance, and had shown him proper respect, it might have been different.
Craig more than loved self-publicity -- he thought it was his God-given right. As one very well-known television personality observed: "There's no more dangerous place at a racetrack than betweeen Andrew Craig and a TV camera."
It was inevitable Craig's time to walk the plank would come. Craig crony and financial officer, the deeply disliked Randy Dzierzawski, also hit the highway. As one of their aggrieved paddock area citizens, I couldn't have been more delighted.
Before Craig there was Bill Stokkan, the former Playboy marketing executive, with whom I had a pretty good professional relationship. The Indy Car Public Relations Task Force was active at that time -- I was the original vice chairman and later chairman -- and Stokkan embraced our efforts as a positive for the series and met with me, individually, and the Task Force regularly. Stokkan established a New York City marketing office, a move I definitely agreed with, although its operation and staffing (and COST) became a topic of legitimate discussion.
But Stokkan got himself sideways with the Board on a number of fronts. I wound up playing a minor role in this drama. At dinner before the 1993 Michigan 500, some complaints from a prominent team owner alerted me to what was up (my antenna had first been raised at Portland earlier in the season.) The next day I was asked to come behind closed doors in a team's motorhome. The message basically was that the directors were going to need to meet confidentially (Top Secret!) during the upcoming week's races but didn't want to be seen. Since all of them knew me and it wasn't at all unusual for me to be seen talking to any of them and thus wouldn't raise suspicion I became the contact person, the messenger, going from one to the other, setting up meeting times and motorcoach locations. On one memorable occasion, at New Hampshire, I had to interrupt another meeting Jim Hall was having in his coach to remind him the others were waiting and transported him post-haste via golf cart. (I thought Jim, one of my original racing heroes, would be upset by the intrusion but, not at all, he thanked me for coming to get him.)
I always tried to repay favors I felt I owed journalists. Walking to the parking lot after the Michigan 500, I very casually floated the notion to one of CART's regular journalists that Stokkan might be in trouble. He didn't pick up on my "message" and I dropped the subject. I remember there was a lot of unhappiness with the way CART's man handled victory lane at Michigan that year (I was Newman/Haas Racing's PR director and we finished 1-2 with Nigel Mansell and Mario Andretti -- Arie Luyendyk was third) and so this was a big topic when PR representatives had a meeting two weeks later at Elkhart Lake. Someone suggested a letter of concern be sent to Stokkan. I was asked my opinion. "For those of you not aware, the winds of change are getting ready to blow through Bloomfield Hills (Mich., CART's office) once again," I said, adding it might be best to wait. Sure enough, Stokkan was called to a surprise meeting with the Board after the race the next day and a nonsense PR statement was issued afterwards (I didn't write it) that Stokkan wouldn't be seeking a contract extension.
John Frasco was CART's chairman when the organization seriously reformed itself as a sanctioning body after its shaky 1980 truce/alliance with USAC was blown up by USAC itself. USAC was under political threat from then Indianapolis Motor Speedway President John Cooper (a story I foreshadowed in an interview with Cooper at Pocono a few weeks earlier when I was with the Philadelphia Daily News); he said he might consider replacing USAC as the Indy 500's sanctioning body. I worked for Frasco at CART. His tenure came to an unhappy end as the 1989 season wound down. (The now-defunct newspaper The National later published a jaw-dropping expose of Frasco's sweetheart financial agreements, which CART took years to pay off.) The '89 championship celebration was in a large tent on the grounds of Pebble Beach Golf Club. When John Caponigro (who was a lawyer in Frasco's firm and then held various CART posts) opened the ceremony by asking for applause for "our chairman," the response was as tepid as Michael Moore being introduced at a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention.
Caponigro took over and got himself in deep hot water at his very first Board meeting, held soon thereafter in Chicago. I was there, entertaining media (including Chris Economaki) in an adjacent hotel suite. Caponigro told owners he was going to play "hardball" with PPG, which, in his view, should take the money spent on pace cars and hospitality and put it into more prize money. A concerned citizen promptly told Chapman, who wrote a lengthy letter to owners, rebutting Caponigro point-by-point in explaining how those things formed the very reason for the series sponsorship. It was brilliant -- and devastating.
It quickly went downhill from there. John C was on extremely thin ice when owners met in Indianapolis in the year's closing weeks. A few owners, including Haas, were worried about more change and hung themselves out to somehow convince the others to offer Caponigro a one-year contract. When called into the meeting and offered that deal, Caponigro, who clearly did not grasp the gravity of the situation or the deep concerns about his leadership, said: "I'll have to think about it." That was so inappropriate for the moment he might as well have worn seersucker to the NASCAR Sprint Cup banquet. Virtually every owner in the room took it as unbelievably tin-eared so the end was at hand. Over lunch, the owners started talking about who to get to run the group. John Capels had announced his team was closing its doors due to lack of sponsorship. So Barbara Trueman suggested Capels as their new leader, and that's exactly how Capels got to CART's executive office.
And, of course, there was the inept Joe Heitzler (whose call to race the weekend after Sept. 11, 2001 remains the worst decision in modern motorsports history and effectively ended whatever remaining goodwill CART had with the public), the puzzling/surprising failure of Chris Pook, out-of-his-depth Steve Johnson, and the Hulman-George family's internal conflict -- see ya, Tony; hello, Randy.
As for Bernard, I have no particular axe to grind with him. For those sufficiently interested, I refer you to last October's "Untenable" blog (which recently took second place in the annual AARWBA journalism contest.) http://spindoctor500blog.blogspot.com/2011/10/untenable.html
I stand by what I wrote. Since then, I think it's very fair to say Bernard didn't do his due diligence before accepting Lotus as an engine supplier, didn't deliver the promised price on the new Dallara and parts, and has hired/promoted and thus is responsible for one of the five worst PR departments in all of professional sports (proven again during May. That situation is dire and requires immediate change.) I would also remind you that most of what you have been reading about this issue elsewhere has come from the Indianapolis media cheerleading community. One thing Bernard has done very well, and given my PR background I'll give him a lot of credit for it, is to co-opt the series' longtime media critics. Just understand that is the filter through which these stories are being presented to you -- and who the primary (if unnamed) source is.
Finally, there's another thing that hasn't changed. I duly note the chatroomers are offering petitions in support of Bernard and threatening boycotts against the series and the sponsors of team owners who want him gone. The lessons of history are clear: Such boycotts were routinely touted on message boards as one CART/Champ Car sponsor after another left the series ("I'll never buy that car, tire, oil again," etc., etc., etc.) It doesn't work for the simple reason there are not enough actual CUSTOMERS there to matter. I don't question the honest passion of some of these people, but as for this sort of thing making any real difference, sorry, NO. For example: Last I checked FedEx seems to be doing just fine, and enjoying a successful NASCAR sponsorship, despite all those boycott posts of the past. Apologies for lack of Business of Racing knowledge remain in order.
So, Randy Bernard's on IndyCar's political hot seat? History teaches us no one should be one bit surprised.
And so it goes . . .
FAST LINES: I agree with Jim Utter -- Danica Patrick should drop the talk about trying the Danica Double until she shows much better situational awareness than she did in the Coca-Cola 600 . . . Good job Courtney Force, who visited ESPN's "campus" in Bristol, Conn., before last weekend's NHRA Nationals in Englishtown, N.J. Courtney survived the "car wash" of interviews on ESPN's multiple media platforms. NHRA needs all of this sort of effort it can get . . . "We are no longer a newspaper company," Chicago Sun-Times Media Holdings Editor-in-Chief Jim Kirk wrote to his staff last week, in announcing a newsroom reorganization shifting emphasis to digital news distribution . . . "Green" is the politically-correct rage these days within NASCAR and ISC, proven again with last week's announcement that Grand-Am (owned by NASCAR's holding company) will add a third class, called GX. It will "feature cars and technologies not currently involved in the Rolex Series. Rules are being developed to allow for the exploration of a wide variety of alternative technologies and alternative fuels. This could include turbocharged engines; fuels other than gasoline, such as clean diesels; and hybrid powertrains." Just what sports car racing absolutely does not need -- ANOTHER class . . . Meanwhile, in sports car racing's never-ending -- I'm sick of it -- ALMS vs. Grand-Am one-upmanship, ALMS said it will race at Circuit of the Americas in 2013. A curse on both their houses -- and I say that as someone who became a sports car fan (Cobra, later Ford GT and Chaparral) back in 1963.
[ more next Monday . . . ]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)