HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Tony George could hardly wait to get to Florida.
Almost exactly one month after IRL founder George announced the long-awaited unification of America’s two open-wheel series, he is here, seeing the first results of that agreement on track at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
On Friday, nine cars fielded by former Champ Car World Series teams were on track at Homestead-Miami Speedway for the first official practices of the 2008 IRL IndyCar season.
Despite the short time to take delivery and put together their new Dallara race cars, all of the newcomers were ready for Saturday night’s season-opening Gainsco Indy 300.
“It’s been about 30 days since we were here to officially announce unification,” George said Friday. “Since that time, it’s been going pretty well, I think. I don’t know what more we could possibly do.
“I know everyone in the league has worked very hard to try and help manage the traffic and the logistics in trying to get the equipment to the Champ Car teams coming on board. I know the Champ Car teams have had a really big challenge in trying to organize themselves to be here this weekend.”
George said he was stuck in Indianapolis, taking care of business, while other IRL officials ran the new series teams through their paces in testing in Florida the past two weeks.
“I was kind of envious of these guys,” George said. “They’ve been down here watching them test. In the last month, especially the last two weeks, it seems like it’s been two months, you know, waiting for the start of the season.
“I couldn’t get down here soon enough. I wanted to watch these teams come out and test. Haven’t been around to really see any of them yet. I’ve said hello to a few people but, perhaps tomorrow morning, I’ll get a chance to visit a little bit.”
Asked how he thinks people will view this weekend in comparison to other significant open-wheel events, George said, “I really have no idea. It’s certainly significant four our time. But that’s really the only frame of reference I can put it in, I guess. It’s our current reality.
“I know it will be more popular and a happier time in many people’s memories than 1994 or 1996 (when the formation of the IRL was announced and then began competition, respectively). But, beyond those two reference points, I don’t know.”
WEIGHTY ISSUE: For the first time, the smallest and biggest drivers in the IndyCar Series have a weight adjustment on their cars.
IRL officials said Friday that the drivers all stepped on scales during their preseason physicals and have been placed into one of five weight categories. The lightest three categories will have weight added to their cars, the fourth category will remain unchanged and the heaviest drivers will have the ballast weight in their cars reduced.
All of the cars have had lead ballast behind the driver’s seat and that will be where it will be removed from or added, with the overall weight difference in the cars set at about 35 pounds.
“I think it’s a very touchy situation,” said Brian Barnhart, vice president of competition for the IRL. “So that addresses why I didn’t go all the way with it.
“All I really tried to do is reduce the difference between the lightest and heaviest and try and get it to a point where it is virtually an insignificant difference. Where we’re sitting right now, the whole field, driver in car, is within one percent.”
None of the current IndyCar drivers is big by the standards of most other sports.
Danica Patrick is the smallest IndyCar driver, listed in the media guide as 5-feet tall and 100 pounds, while former Champ Car star Justin Wilson, is the biggest at 6-3½ and 193 pounds.
ROOKIE FIELD: The 2008 IndyCar Series schedule will have nine rookies among the 26 drivers expected to be full-time racers.
Besides Jay Howard and Hideki Mutoh, both moving up from the developmental Indy Pro Series, IRL officials decided to make seven of the nine former Champ Car drivers eligible for rookie of the year honors.
That includes Wilson, Will Power, Franck Perera, Enrique Bernoldi, Ernesto Viso, Mario Moraes and Graham Rahal. Rahal, the son of former driving star Bobby Rahal, will miss the first race because his team was unable to repair his car, damaged in a crash during Tuesday’s testing, in time for Friday’s practice and qualifying.
Among the drivers moving to the IRL from Champ Car, only Oriol Servia and Bruno Junqueira are considered veterans.
“We’re still very much an oval-based racing series that centers around the Indianapolis 500, explained Barnhart. “We looked at the backgrounds of the drivers that are joining us. With the exception of Bruno Junqueira and Oriol Servia, who have started somewhere between 20 and 27 oval track races themselves, none of the other seven had started more than five.”
He added, “So, based on sheer numbers of oval experience, we decided it makes sense, based on what our series is, that we would classify them as rookies.”
Ten of the 16 races on the current IRL schedule for 2008 are ovals.
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