"ISC has been a good partner," George says. "It has really liked some of the programs we developed for the 2001 season, particularly the integrated marketing and media plan we have developed for all of our tracks. We are trying to get one and one to equal three. ISC seems to like the Indy Racing Experience show-car program and how effective that was in raising awareness in markets. It also identified the infomercial as something it liked. ISC thought it was a good awareness piece and helped sell tickets.
"We really established a good foundation this year for building our relationship going forward."
Part of the problem with the IRL throughout its early history was, despite its strong-rooted philosophy in returning grass roots racing to big-time open-wheel racing on oval tracks, it didn't have a real plan. George wanted to create a series where the American open-wheel, oval-track, Saturday-night racer could aspire to one day compete in the Indianapolis 500, just as it had been for much of its history. George wanted to lower the cost of Indy-car racing, while creating a more competitive formula that wasn't as dependent on technology as the rival CART series.
An Uphill Climb The IRL struggled through those early years and has been able to survive, but its growth was slow. After creating what appeared to be a strong relationship with Bruton Smith and the Speedway Motorsports Inc. tracks at Texas, Charlotte, Atlanta and Las Vegas, that arrangement soured. The IRL will compete at just one SMI track in 2002-two races at Texas Motor Speedway.
"In fairness to Bruton, when that series started you had this kind of negative publicity going back and forth, that one was better than the other," Jim France says, referring to the rivalry between CART and the IRL. "I think it was a bad environment from the standpoint of trying to build a positive feeling toward open-wheel racing. It didn't matter if it was on the CART side or the IRL side. It was a big war going on.
"The IRL series did not have a lot of events. I don't think there were enough events to get a synergy going to where you could promote the series and have an awareness of the teams to build a following. As the schedule grows, that will help solve some of that. The more events you have, the more awareness the series will have.
"From a motorsports side or an ISC side or a Dover or a Kentucky, we need good open-wheel racing for our tracks to utilize and get the potential out of them. There are a lot of days where nothing is going on and you have all the people and the infrastructure. We need events, whether it is car shows or whatever. With open-wheel racing being one of the mainstays of American motorsports, we need to keep that alive and keep it growing."
Consider this: How can a combination of the powers that run Indianapolis Motor Speedway and NASCAR fail? That is why the IRL has suddenly broken away from its early struggles and appears to be on a path to success.
"Bill France Jr. and I had talked about having a strong open-wheel series to support the investment individuals and public companies have made in racing facilities," George recalls. "He knew, wearing his NASCAR hat, that NASCAR would never be able to give every track operator Winston Cup races who wanted them. As a result, he stayed focused on building NASCAR but was equally emphatic for the need of a strong, open-wheel counterpart.
"Certainly, with our commitment to an oval series and an oval championship, it bodes well to ISC's interest in owning primarily oval venues and trying to fill their dance card every year with profitable events. I think as the Indy Racing League grows both ISC and the league will benefit from the relationship."
In for the Long Haul Most importantly, ISC appears to be involved with the IRL for the long haul, forging a beneficial relationship for both sides.