A call for peace in the open-wheel war

The headlines in the auto racing press the past week have screamed out "Open-Wheel War Over" or something to that effect.

Yeah, I'll believe it when I see Graham Rahal and Paul Tracy competing in an IRL race this year.

Before you start buying your Indy 500 tickets believing that Tracy will be back this year to avenge his "loss" to Helio Castroneves in 2002, hold on a minute.

Those of us who still remember those golden years of open-wheel racing in the United States, just 15 years ago, have jumped at every one of these stories that have surfaced in an effort to relive those heady days when the field consisted of Emerson Fittipaldi, Rick Mears, Mario and Michael Andretti and A.J. Foyt.

When the story of an IRL-Champ Car merger surfaced about a week ago, it at first appeared to confirm rumors I heard coming from Indianapolis for the past six months.

Those rumors had IRL founder and President Tony George extending an olive branch to the teams of the rival Champ Car World Series, in the form of free Dallara race cars and Honda engines used in the IRL (which are different than those in Champ Car) along with the $1.2 million dollars in incentives it already pays its teams in the IRL. This was being done in an effort to encourage those teams to come race in the Indy Car Series.

On the surface, it sounded like a pretty good deal. After all, cars and engines make up a good deal of a team's budget.

However, the offer was coming after nearly all of the Champ Car teams had spent a good deal of their budget to buy and lease the Panoz-built cars and purpose-built engines being used in Champ Car.

That left the Champ Car team owners in a dilemma. What were they to do with their current inventory, which would become obsolete and basically worthless should they take George's offer?

Also, there was an expanded and definitive schedule to deal with.

Champ Car's 2008 schedule currently shows 14 races, with only five in the United States. (However, in light of the series' recent history of canceling races while the season is under way, you could count on at least 3 or 4 of them being not being run.)

Indy Car's schedule is a confirmed 16 races, with none of them in danger of being canceled. George's original offer to the Champ Car organization would have meant that the IRL would also absorb three of Champ Car's best performing dates – Long Beach, Edmonton and Surfer's Paradise in Australia in 2008, making a total of 19 races for 2008.

With most Champ Car teams currently struggling to stay afloat with little or no sponsorship dollars, a definitive schedule of 19 events would mean teams would have little or no time to find the additional funding needed to complete a full season.

So, within days of the merger story coming to light, Champ Car co-owner Kevin Kalkhoven (who owns the series along with Gerry Forsythe) released a statement stating that any potential deal was now off, blaming the leak of the potential merger and how it had affected any ongoing negotiations.

Hmmmm.

That explanation doesn't pass the smell test. Blame it on the media? Come on.

Meanwhile, Champ Car's owners have remained silent.

Perhaps they have asked Kalkhoven to negotiate (ie: hold out) for more money from George in order to help defray additional costs, to the tune of maybe an additional $1 million per team.

That kind of money is basically pocket change for George, Kalkhoven and Forsythe, all of whom are multi-millionaires.

Believe me, if this deal doesn't happen, it cannot be blamed on the cost.

So why isn't this happening?

Indy Car, which has lost the last two Indy 500 winners and its last two champions (Sam Hornish Jr. and Dario Franchitti) to NASCAR this season, has as a result, become a faceless series, with only Danica Patrick left as a name that most Americans know.

Champ Car, which also lost its most recent champion, Sebastien Bourdais to Formula One, is comprised of no-name drivers from Europe and South America, many who have paid their way into their seats, along with one or two veterans of the series who have long since lost their name value.

George, who in the past has taken much of the heat for the open wheel split, is now putting his money where his mouth is in an attempt to salvage what is left of open wheel racing in North America. Meanwhile, both Kalkhoven and Forsythe seem to be playing the role of Nero and watching as Rome burns – apparently more concerned about saving face than saving the future of the sport.

Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of open wheel racing and make this merger happen.

Maybe, as this is being written, these men are talking to each other – in secret – and a final deal, one that will point open wheel racing in the right direction and stop it from spinning hopelessly in circles, will be completed.

Meanwhile, NASCAR and Dale Earnhardt Jr. continue to define auto racing in North America.