Most liked posts in thread: IndyCar 2015 season (R)

I, too, wasn’t a big fan of his… at first.
Met A.J. following a IMSA Firehawk race at Sebring in the late ’80’s or early ’90’s. Team for which I was crewing had just beaten A.J.’s son’s team. He walked down pit road, stepped over the wall into our area, stuck out his hand, gave a big smile and shook hands with each one of us congratulating us on the win.
For a small-ish individual, he filled up the pit area and he had a presence about him.

 

Yeah, but it was tongue in cheek, he'd been passed by a girl too in his career. He was/is a big supporter of Fisher.

He also more dramatically went out on a limb for Janet Guthrie when virtually everyone else was taking nasty shots at her. The guy has a sense of fair play and did the admirable thing that no one else was willing to do when it would have been much easier not to.

 

Are you kidding? Have you ever gotten hit in the shin by a flying RC car? :biggrin5:

 

The RACER Channel's Robin Miller unloads on an empty house at Auto Club Speedway and the scheduling decisions presided over by IndyCar boss Mark Miles.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lM8LFynpu0"]RACER: Robin Miller's Message to Mark Miles - YouTube[/ame]

 

I've always liked Bobby Rahal too. He's not as quiet as you think, just ask his son....

 

Racing is dangerous, but just like anything, you can reduce the risk and keep it entertaining. No one wants to go back to the F1 years of 20% mortality. We should be moving forward with safety and great racing, and I think most of us are past the point of sacrificing drivers in the name of great racing. At least I am.

When people like Tony Kanaan and Will Power say there's a problem, there's a problem.

 

I like AJ, he is my favorite dinosaur.

 

Two reasons I love AJ Foyt: my grandpa built a car he raced on the dirt tracks in Springfield, Illinois(Foyt had totalled his car, my grandpa's team was a team built for fun more than anything else, their driver was mediocre on a good day, so they loaned their car to the up and coming Foyt--he finished third), and he helped/encouraged Sarah Fisher first as a driver then as an owner when everyone else was beating her down. Not what you'd expect from him, but at the end of the day he cares about racing as much as anyone. I still have tremendous respect for him as an owner, but when it comes to driving, the drivers opinions matter more to me, with regard to what's happening on the track in 2015. He also was the last of the breed that could fix a car as well as drive it.

Dude won Indy multiple times, multiple driving championships, was a legend in Midgets, won Daytona, both the 24 hour and 500, and 24hrs of Le Mans. Many consider him the best American driver of all time, including Andretti, even by those who consider him an American driver.

 

He's known for that--if he gets beat fair and square, he's always the first to congratulate the winner. When Penske's team obliterated Indy in 1994 essentially by taking advantage of a loophole, Foyt was one of the few that congratulated him and went one step further, telling everyone to stop whining because they weren't on top of it enough to figure it out themselves...He can be abrasive, but he doesn't make excuses. We could use more of that.

 

There was a English lady driver named Desire Wilson who ran a few CART races. Foyt made the comment; Man that girl has balls. It was in reference to watching her aggressive driving.

 

It was a fascinating race, Bourdais could simply pass and run away from the entire field at will. He came out of the pits in 10th, and 15 laps later he was in first and had a 15 second gap back to 2nd!

That was the Seb I remember from his CART days!

I think he's starting to get his groove back.....

 

The racing is getting better, people will come around. They were lucky something serious didn't happen, very lucky. An incident with multiple fatalities, like the 1964 Indy 500, and the IRL is done. Indy Car Racing isn't in great shape, although it's improving, it wouldn't take much to push it over the brink.

As for "a few of the drivers complaining"....Look who those drivers are. If you don't take their opinions seriously, you're doing a great disservice to the league. They've payed their dues, they know what they're talking about, and they don't routinely complain. People should get the message and act on it, the stakes are just too high.

 

Not all the drivers and owners were complaining and Indy Car did more than just survive in the years following that terrible day that so many were killed... Most the race yesterday was great and very clean, it wasn't until the closing laps and the drivers started going 4 wide and taking too many chances that the wrecks started happening. Totally agree there needs to be some TWEAKING of the packages, but a return to single file follow the leader racing will not fill the stands or increase TV ratings...

 

^^ This. As much as I live AJ Foyt, the current drivers perspective means more to me.

Who won that 1964 Indy with two fatalities? That would be AJ. His perspective is a little different....

 

Really? Back in the day he could drive and win in almost anything... I rate him in the top ten all time drivers. His personality wasn't always lovey dovey...lol

 

I don't know, he spends his own money for the most part and I used to love seeing him come in the pits and jump out of the car and start working on it himself...lol

AJ is and was definitely an acquired taste....

 

AJ Foyt was as tough as nails as a driver and brutally honest when speaking to the press. Today his personality would be a tough sell if he was a driver but now that I think about he was really a very interesting character in in very interesting time in motor sports.

 

Mario is my favorite.

I don't watch the ovals. But Indy Car racing this year is great. The racing is much better than F1. Rahal has been doing great this year. He can't let his girl friend, Courtney Force, outshine him in racing.

 

Great race!