Comments on: Do We Really Want To Get Rid Of Tony?

By: Vic

Vic — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:28:27 +0000

George,

It seems to me, and granted, I’ve never met TG, but the man honestly seems to mostly be excited to run a race team. I do not doubt his sincere desire to turn “Vision Racing” into a legit racing contender. Problem is…..HE’S THE MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Note to Tony…………if you’d rather run a race team, ala Chip, Roger, Michael, John Barnes, that’s just fine. However……you really need to sit down with your “powers to be” and conduct some restructuring! Perhaps………as suggested by a guy who has a habit of running premature stories…..hand the reigns to Tony Cotman, releive yourself of your CEO responsibilities, and just run your team!

If nothing else……..please make the oval racing more fun. That’s all I ask. To date……St. Pete has been the most fun race to watch this season. Keep in mind..I’m an oval fan! Anyone feel my pain?

By: John McLallen

John McLallen — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:42:33 +0000

I have been going back and forth these past 20 hours or so as well, however, I feel that I am now on one side and that is that Tony George should run IMS and get someone else to run IndyCar. I know that Eddie Gossage has been approached in the past, but if the IRL can’t get him then they need to find someone like him.

By: H. B. Donnelly

H. B. Donnelly — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:50:57 +0000

I think Tony should sit on IMS and keep that facility up and running for the forseeable future. After all, he’s the one who brought NASCAR, which has been very profitable in the past, F1, which at least brought international attention back to the Speedway, and MotoGP, which is turning a mad profit from all accounts and is really fun to watch. If Tony weren’t running the track, I don’t know that we would have the vast improvements along the front stretch — media and race control would still be sitting scared, watching the Master Control Tower rust and fall apart around them.

As far as the IRL, they need a competition committee headed by Tony Cotman and Terry Angstadt. Cotman could say what needs to happen on the track and Angstadt could make sure it would work financially. All decisions can then be yea or nea’d by the IMS board.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:44:51 +0000

I agree, where there is smoke there is fire. The family has told Tony to pick one business and stick with it, and bring in a professional to run the other. I think Tony has done good things for IMS. The place looks better than it ever has, and is a crown jewel. He has proven himself a good steward of the place.

The IRL on the other hand is staggering along. After the long costly war with CART, it has a lot of ground to make up. Bringing in fresh blood to run the show would be a wise move. I think a promoter like Wheeler would be an interesting edition to the IRL. I think what kills most of us Open Wheel fans is that we see such potential in the product, but are frustrated, and maddened by the careless, and inept management of the IRL-IndyCar-CART-ChampCar series.

By: Brian McKay

Brian McKay — Thu, 28 May 2009 11:38:01 +0000

I’d rather Tony hire a genius racing czar to run the Indy Car Series and Indy Pro Series while he helms the Speedway, which he and his family love so much, and his pet race team. If his sisters are upset that he has poured 250 million dollars into his two race series, they should STRONGLY urge him to find a successor to run the series.
Yes, the ICS & IPS chief should be an iron-fist-in-velvet glove benevolent dictator as in other series, unlike the employee CEOs of CART. The czar must be a business expert who can monetize the two series, get much better TV exposure and title sponsors so that the Hulmans don’t have to prop-up the series.
He would supervise a more-than-competent competition director (ahem).