Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Indy 500 Fiasco Threatens To Ruin A Sporting Treasure

Jim Litke Associated Press

Sometimes the rich are like you and me. Sometimes, though, they’re even dumber.

Keep that in mind this weekend as the lap times and celebrity cameos pop up in reports of the qualifying runs at the Memorial Day weekend’s 500-mile races. That’s right. Thanks to another bunch of millionaires who couldn’t get along, there are now two races. Which is one more than most of us are going to care about.

Only incurable optimists and the TV people behind the extra programming will argue there are enough casual fans to go around. Or that the competition between the Indianapolis and U.S. 500s will bring out the best in both. Because so far, all the rivalry has done is double the chances of screwing up one of the great franchises in sport.

That would be the Indy 500, which will take place where it always does when it always does, except that washed-up veterans and New York City cabbies will replace the regular drivers. (Almost true.)

The best open-wheel drivers in the world will be in the U.S. 500 that same day, only the backdrop will be … Brooklyn, Mich. (Absolutely true.)

(And if any of this comes as a surprise, wait until you find out which is the evil twin.)

“The 500,” David Letterman said, “was a fact of life, woven into the fabric of life in the Midwest.”

The talk-show host was talking about the Indy 500, of course, even though he and partner-driver Bobby Rahal will be in Michigan.

What the people in charge at both tracks haven’t figured out is that people whose interest is rooted more in tradition than anything else won’t anguish over the choice. It’s either watch one, watch a few minutes of the other, watch both, or - very likely this year - go outside and watch the lawn fill in.

For Letterman, like the sponsors forced to choose sides, it isn’t that easy. He grew up in Indiana wanting to be a part of the greatest spectacle in racing. Now he is - only not the way he imagined.

“This is just too damn bad,” he said.

Actually, it’s worse.

Several weeks ago, a compromise flickered that would have guaranteed the evil-twins plot wasn’t renewed next season. A proposal passed between Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George and the owner-operators of the Championship Auto Racing Teams circuit that would have brought the real drivers back to Indy next year. Too quickly, the compromise flamed out. Anyone who followed the negotiations had no trouble understanding why.

For several years, George insisted all he wanted was to hold down the cost of competing at Indy and open up opportunities for American drivers. But what he really wanted was more control over the racing circuit that took its name - IndyCar - from his track. Because he knew, as a rich guy, that with more power comes more money.

Of course, the CART people knew this, too. So they first tried to placate George by making him a nonvoting member of the board. Unhappy with that arrangement, he left and within months started up a rival circuit called the Indianapolis Racing League.

Then, last December, George played his trump card. He said 25 of the 33 starting positions for the Indy 500 would go to IRL members. Only then did CART offer larger pieces of the action.

Naturally, George wanted even more. With no options short of surrender left, CART retaliated by starting up its own race. Frankly, it’s hard to envision a scenario whereby the CART teams win. They could have the greatest race in the circuit’s history, but it would be like shooting 62 on the final day at Doral instead of the Masters. The site matters.

George knows that. He also knows he could end up presiding this year over the greatest race in Indy history. A few spectacular, but ultimately safe crashes early, wheel-to-wheel battles over the last few laps, a victory by an up-and-coming American racer like rookie Tony Stewart and he could emerge from this fight like President Reagan when he took on the air-traffic controllers some 15 years ago. Bigger than ever.

Of course, just the opposite could happen, too: a dull race, or one so dangerous that all but the most committed gearheads shut the sets off.

No one knows which it will be. But only a really rich guy, or a really dumb one, would risk a sure thing to find out.