That quote comes to mind as one looks at what was an abhorrently bad week for ChampCar.......The world's best swordsman doesn't fear the world's second-best swordsman.....he fears the worst because he can't predict what the idiot will do.
Three things took place this past week which underscores the prescience of the above quote.......
(1)ChampCar releases its' 2008 TV schedule, and it has all the appearances of a bullet-riddled corpse; only a third of the schedule is live(and most of those are for races outside the USA) while, for some reason, they've decided to show all four European races not as 2-hour broadcasts(either live or tape-delay) but as 1-hour highlight shows..... ........with that kind of thinking, why couldn't they have just stayed on ESPN Classic?
(2)The resignation of Tony Cotman from ChampCar's top ranks........with all the bad business decisions and bad news that the series has taken over the past 18+ months, its' a wonder Cotman stayed that long.....but toi make things even worse.............
(3)The decision by reigning Atlantic Championship winner Rapahel Matos to not only forego the $2 million prize but decides to go to the IRL and race for Andretti-Green Racing in the Indy Pro Series in 2008................
With all this bad news, is it any wonder one can faintly begin to hear the proverbial fat lady cueing up for a performance? The last two of the three items above are more nails in ChampCar's coffin...........As long as I've followed the sport, I've never seen anyone in the ChampCar paddock run it with as firm, honest and fair hand that Tony Cotman. Did he have to play the bad guy every so often? Yes; that goes with the territory. But in the end even he couldn't overcome the knawing realization that the series is being run by a bunch of rich hobbyists who can't seem to figure out that their business model(the 3-day "Festivals of Speed") are money-sinkings losers of the first order. (No wonder other AOWR bloggers refer to Kevin Kalkhoven, Gerry Forsythe and Paul Gentilozzi as the "3 Amigos".) The last straw IMHO was when Cotman tried to get them to keep an open period during the month of May so that any ChampCar team that wanted to could run the Indy 500, since it is still the ONLY open-wheel race that draws sponsors AND fans in large numbers. What'd he get? A race at Laguna Seca in mid-May........in other words, they *****-slapped Cotman and did so publicly.
The Matos news, however, was just as bad, if not worse......Raphael Matos, like many ex-pat Brazilians in AOWR, comes here and works his way up the ladder, winning in Barber Dodge and Star Mazda before entering ChampCar's Atlantic Championship in 2007 and winning 6 of 12 races enroute to the series championship. As a result he gets the $2 million dollar prize which should've gone to help him secure a ChampCar ride in 2008. Unfortunately, it appears ChampCar's "3 Amigos" wanted him to race with Rocketsports(a/k/a Paulie G-String's team or the Black Hole Team, as in 'the place a driver's career goes to disappear'). Unfortunately for ChampCar, Matos actually had the idea that he should be paid to drive and no one(other that Derrick Walker and Team Australia) was willing to pay him to drive in 2008. So he and his business agent begin looking at the other series and makes a deal with Andretti-Green Racing for a 2008 ride in IPS with a potential Indy 500 start to boot. In other words, Matos now has a secure ride, a steady salary, expenses paid and a multi-year deal.........which, from what I hear, is a h--- of a lot better than 2006 Atlantic champion Simon Pagenaud, who, rumor has it, still isn't certain of a ride in ChampCar for 2008.
My take.........with all the missteps ChampCar has taken, not even Honor Harrington could save that bunch of dolts.....my advice to the Three Amigos: Take whatever assets of value there are in ChampCar and SELL THEM to Tony George and then get the **** out of the sport!!! Tony George may be a dolt, a moron and an idiot, but he sure as **** knows how to run a series a **** of a lot better than you three do!!!!
(apologies for the above language...... )