He’s No Fan of the IRL

“If the Indy Racing League didn’t have the Indianapolis 500, do you think it would have lasted more than six months? No chance,” says Mario Andretti.

Andretti has been honored as the greatest open-wheel race car driver in U.S. history, and he still has a passion for his sport.

Andretti’s pet beef is the IRL and the way Tony George separated it from CART in 1996 and created a schism in American open-wheel racing that continues today.

“It makes great conversation to discuss what’s wrong with open-wheel racing today,” he said from his home in Nazareth, Pa. “The IRL’s what’s wrong. Six years the IRL has been trying to promote itself and it hasn’t made a dent.

“They’ve tried everything to make it exciting, bringing in Roger Penske’s team, getting Al Unser Jr., but it makes no difference. They just don’t have a product to sell. Look at the attendance this year. They haven’t had more than 20,000 anywhere and [last Sunday] at Fontana they had no more than 12,000 paid.

“I think it should have been embarrassing to Roger to be there. It goes to show, either you have a product or you don’t have a product. And the IRL doesn’t have one.”

Andretti, winner of 52 races and $17.7 million in his U.S. Auto Club and CART Indy car career, acknowledges that CART has its problems too.

“Obviously, politics finally caught up with CART and no doubt it’s at the crossroads right now, but I think with Chris Pook in charge, it will get straightened out. That is, if the owners give him the authority to run it the way he sees fit. For years, it has been run as a democracy with two foreign guys [Bill Stokkan of Finland and Andrew Craig of Britain] running the show, and it didn’t work. Too many people had their own agenda and the two guys in charge didn’t have a clue.

“The only thing that has saved CART is its product. The series, with its combination of street races and road races along with ovals, is still incredibly viable. It is a very attractive series and that is why so many foreign drivers come from all over the world to race with CART.”

Foreign drivers won 19 of 20 races last year, the exception being Mario’s son, Michael, who won his 41st race at Toronto and ranks third on the all-time list behind his father and leader A.J. Foyt, who won 67 times.

“I don’t listen to all that talk about not enough American drivers in CART,” Mario said. “We’re just like golf. Foreign players is what makes golf so popular now. The day of parochialism in sports is over. The world is too small for what people like to call the good old days. Fans want the best, wherever they come from.”

Even the IRL, which stated as one of its objectives the providing of opportunities for young U.S. drivers, had 10 foreign-born drivers among its 27 starters last Sunday.

Despite his feelings toward the IRL and the sad state of open-wheel racing, Andretti is optimistic.

“I think, to look at the future, it’s more positive than it was two or three years ago, but they’re [CART and the IRL] going to have to come together, one way or the other. Maybe with a single championship or an all-star race, or all-star series. Somehow, we have to get a common formula. It will be easier next year because the engines will be similar, but CART will still have the upper hand because of its diversity.

“As long as there is NASCAR, no all-oval open-wheel series can be successful. The only way would be to line up 50 cars on the track and if you did that, you might as well have all the local funeral homes on standby. It’s just not feasible.”

Another pet peeve is what has happened to the Indy 500, a race Andretti won in 1969.

“It’s a pity how much the IRL has degraded Indy, the premier event in racing. It’s no longer what it used to be. I remember when 200,000, the real fans of Indy, would turn out for qualifying. I went last year, the first time I’d been back since Tony forced CART out, and there weren’t 20,000 there. I couldn’t believe it. It was like being in Milwaukee. How can Tony George and the speedway people not see that?

“Things have improved at Indy, like letting CART and other drivers in the last couple of years. I am still 100% supportive of that race and am glad Michael finally got back there. He’ll be there again this year.”

Andretti will be back in Long Beach, where he became the only American Formula One driver to win a U.S. Grand Prix, and where he later won three CART races, in two weeks. Besides watching Michael’s performance in the April 14 race, he will do a book signing April 11 at 7 p.m. at Borders in the Los Altos Market Center in Long Beach.

The book, “Mario Andretti: A Driving Passion,” written by Gordon Kirby, details intimate moments in Andretti’s life, from living in World War II Italy, coming to America and racing with twin brother Aldo, through his USAC and Formula One careers, to the bitter relationship between him and his 1993 teammate, Nigel Mansell, and how that influenced Mario’s decision to retire.

“I don’t know if it means anything or not, but at my book signing in London, my line was longer than Muhammad Ali’s,” he said.

“I’m looking forward to getting back to California. I have some solid roots there. I have offices in Redwood City and Michael and I own the biggest gas station in San Francisco. And, of course, we have the vineyards in Napa Valley. One of our wines got a gold medal in the L.A. County Fair.”

Fontana Fans

Now we know where all those people were who weren’t at California Speedway for last Sunday’s Yamaha Indy 400. They were home checking it out on Indy Racing Online. According to the Indy Racing League, the race generated the third-highest amount of traffic on the league’s Web site, www.indyracing.com.

The site registered 6.7 million hits and 17.2 million page views. Only last year’s Indianapolis 500 and the 2002 season opener at Homestead, Fla., scored better.

Irwindale Speedway

The Los Angeles Kart Club will open its season in new surroundings Sunday when the first of nine races will be run on a track inside Irwindale’s half-mile oval. For the last 15 seasons, the LAKC ran at Saugus Speedway, but Saugus authorities shut down the track this year.

Karts will find a welcoming face at Irwindale. Bob DeFazio, vice president and chief operating officer at Irwindale Speedway, is the father of Nick DeFazio, a former karting champion now driving super late model stock cars.

Irwindale’s Saturday night program will feature NASCAR late models, Ultra Wheel super trucks, legend cars and modified 4s.

Next weekend’s program will be an unusual two-day event featuring American Speed Assn. stock cars. Qualifying is set for Saturday afternoon, followed by the regular weekly show. On Sunday, the ASA will run a 300-lap main event, which will be televised nationally at 1 p.m. on TNN.

Last Laps

The 2002 Motocross des Nations, the Olympics of motocross, has been awarded to Competition Park in San Jacinto. Three riders from each country entered will compete there Sept. 29.

The NHRA Motorsports Museum will resume its Twilight Cruises next Wednesday in the museum parking lot at Pomona Fairplex. The meetings will continue on the first Wednesday of every month through December.... USAC Western States sprint cars and the new Ford Focus midget car series will be at Cajon Speedway in El Cajon on Saturday night.... Perris Auto Speedway is taking the night off for Easter.

Richard Petty will be inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame, the first NASCAR driver to be so honored, it was revealed at the New York International Auto Show.... Cory Witherill, the Santa Monica driver who became the first Native American to drive in the Indianapolis 500 last year, has joined Ron Hemelgarn’s team to compete in the Indy Racing Infiniti Pro Series, a development series that will debut July 7 at Kansas Speedway.

Passings

Gray Baskerville, former senior editor of Hot Rod magazine and a historian of drag races, speed trials and hot rod builders, died Feb. 1 of prostate cancer. He was 66.