It’s Time For IndyCar to Reboot

by Motor Sports Unplugged | October 13, 2011 at 06:16 pm

31 views | 0 Recommendations | 0 comments

The first race held years ago by the then newly formed IRL was nothing short of an eye opener for me. Vern Schuppan and I attended the race and what stood out most of all wasn’t the low roar of the big block V8 engines, but rather the age of the officials. While Vern loved the sound, given his Formula 5000 and Can-Am days, I found it out of place, but not nearly as much as the officials who had been with USAC and around the Hulman family for years.

It struck me as analogous to the Supreme Court. You’re appointed to the position and it’s for life. You can’t begrudge age as a hindrance due to the experience they might bring, but when I refer to older, I mean a great deal older than you would expect. There is a point when age and experience part company on the ability graph. IndyCar is at that point again, though not due to the official’s ages.

Complaints that the long in the tooth Dallara, which will see its last race this weekend, aren’t without merit. The race in Japan is but one reference as to how slow the cars looked and, at this level of racing, proved them unacceptable.

Jump over this weekend and we see the new 2012 car is being introduced, new engine deals are flying around with everyone wondering who’ll get Chevrolet’s or Honda power-plants or if the mysterious Lotus-Judd will ever appear and finally, the new schedule is out with only four races being on ovals. Everything seems exciting until you look under the hood. The same faces still sit in the same seats calling the races and outshining the drivers or the series in controversy.

What good is changing the format, the cars or the engines if the cause of the general malaise still sits in place? When you make these types of sweeping technical changes it’s high time to consider making the human changes that have contributed to the consumer complacency.

Randy Bernard truly seems to have the best interest of IndyCar’s future at heart. I don’t know him, but I know what I see. He’s very loyal and no one can fault him for that. On the other hand any business that has a definable deficit in human capital has to make changes. You either grow or you die in business, to remain steady state is to fall behind.

IndyCar now has a unique opportunity to capitalize on the excitement generated by the newness on the 2012 horizon. Brian Barnhart needs to leave, keeping in mind that whomever takes his place has to be strong enough to replace anyone else under him that doesn’t fit his operational plan.

NASCAR has the most competitive racing its seen in over a decade, but being a spec series that’s so tightly controlled it still sits in lockstep with a weak, anemic economy. The stands aren’t full and it’s television ratings are barely a shadow of what they once were. IndyCar needs to take this lesson into account.

Who should take Barnhart’s place? Beaux Barfield. Barfield is a known quantity that has proven himself in all areas of motorsport. He’s an accomplished former driver of open wheel cars, a former driving instructor, proven official from FF 2000, Champ Car and the ALMS series. The ALMS Competition Director’s position is probably the most telling on how a person is going to conduct themselves as an official in another series. ALMS is a series with multiple classes, multiple manufacturers, multiple venues and personalities that rival IndyCar or NASCAR. If you’re the CEO of a large competitive company then you have to surround yourself with individuals who share the same goal. Excellence. Barfield has done that with a sense of dedication and professionalism in an arena that will spit out those who don’t perform.

It’s true that Beaux Barfield is a friend of mine, however, that doesn’t cloud my desire to see IndyCar rise to a level that gives it legitimacy and respect on a global scale. It’s exactly the right time for Randy Bernard to take the step of replacing his officiating team in order to tackle the next steps of securing proper television viewership. Despite being locked into Versus, the sale to Comcast may give it the boost it needs through the rebranding to the NBC Sports Network.

The bottom line is that rebranding of the network and the resources it can bring to bear for IndyCar do it no good if the product remains weak and unentertaining.

The old adage referring to computers is appropriate here: When all else fails, reboot.

http://motorsportsunplugged.com/f1/?p=925