Besides restoring the annual Prize Fund for it’s Champion
to Pre-2022 levels and more importantly Higher! Along with reinstating the
three IndyCar rides including the Indianapolis 500!
Like others in Ye blogosphere, and feeling fairly
uninspired to scribble ‘bout anything since the Racing Season’s pretty much
Done ‘N Dusted! I turned to the Racer Mailbag to “see” if something caught my
Attenzione, or tripped Thy No. 4 wire?
Not surprisingly, there were two questions in
the October 26th Mailbag about the “Health” of Indy Lights, or more pointedly,
the lack of Help by it’s parent Penske Entertainment Corporation to Help it’s
Series Drivers to reach the top level of Indy Cars. Specifically this year’s
Lights Champion Linus Lindqvist who appears to be not moving up to IndyCar next
year.
Initially, I Didn’t know the exact details that
caused Racer’s Marshall Pruett, or just MP in the Mailbag’s outburst. But
Pruett effectively Slammed Penske Entertainment by writing that the Lights
Prize is a Joke!
Subsequently learning after initially scribblin’
this prose, appropriately on Halloween, Uhm Trick or Treat? Like talk bout
Bobbing for apples…
That Penske Entertainment at El Capitano’, nee
roger Penske’s direction had trimmed it from it’s previous $1.2 million by more
than 50%, Yikes!
Now am I saying it’s roger’s responsibility to fully
Fund and ensure that each year’s Lights Champion gets a Full season Ride in
Indy Cars? Absolutely Not! And I’m also not trying to insinuate how Roger
should spend His money. Especially since Thars a very good reason that Roger’s
a Billionaire and your Humble No Fenders Scribe Tomaso is a Basement Dwelling
lowly Blogger! Hey Mom, turn on the lights, Chirp chirp, Bueller?
Yet I’m not sure why I could remember this? But
I was positive that 2006 Champ Car Atlantic Champion Simon Pagenaud’s prize was
far larger than today’s Lights champion’s winner’s Cheque. For which indeed, the
22yr Old Frenchman won a $2.0 million prize award for winning the title ahead
of Graham Rahal. For which in today’s dollars would be wort $2,944,523.81, or more
than twice what Indy Lights pays out today! Roughly equivalent to 2.5 times the
Lights Champions award, when using Marshall’s previous number…
Yet Marshall seemed to agree with the Mailbag
writer who pointed out How Indy Lights doesn’t seem to have a Marketing Department
to Help foster Business to Business (B2B) Deals between potential Sponsors and Aspiring
Drivers/Teams.
For which another Hot topic seems to be the continued
Bashing on about lack of Quality Key Personnel in Indy Cars, i.e.; Engineers, Mechanics,
etc. For which I’d surmise that Lights is also a prime training ground for such
Personnel. But who knows what’s NXT, Eh?
While is the switch this year to Firestone
rubber just one more Cost cutting measure? By spreading the costs between IndyCar
and Lights to use the same company’s tyres?
As Roger’s already chiseled in Stone that Indy
Lights will not run the Freedom 100 anymore! Which was the Series marquee
event, albeit eight Lights cars running around Mother Speedway at “reduced” speeds
isn’t exactly saying much about the Health of your Series!
While I’d Arse-sume you could say basically
ending Double Header weekends is another cost Cutting move, Eh? Although in
fairness to Penske and Company, Pruett correctly points out how Roger just so happened
to Buy IndyCar, Indianapolis Motor speedway and IMS Production just before
COVID-19 Shut Down Motor Racing around the Globe! And that Roger’s fiscal
Conservatism is simply a biproduct of trying to Stabilize things…
As Hopefully we won’t have to Hear Penske Entertainment’s
No. 1 Puffed Shirt Mark Miles crowing about how much Lights has improved for
2023 because of it’s increased Car count. Which after all, is largely inflated
by the massive Nine Car Armada that HMD Motorsports will run next year! And
what Happens if/when HMD pulls it’s Lights plug a la Sam Schmidt did a decade
ago?
Yet it wasn’t until reading For the Love of
Indy’s Musings from the Weekend Halloween post that I learned about the massive
Lights Advancement Prize fund being Slashed! While Raymond Hando further notes
How it appears that Penske Entertainment is possibly Dismantling it’s Hugely
popular Road to Indy ladder system! And whether or not there will be a Huge Chasm
or Disconnect between Lights and Anderson Promotions UF F2000 ladder series?
https://fortheloveofindy.blogspot.com/2022/10/musings-from-weekend-protecting-ladder.html
While Racer’s Marshall Pruett noted in September
How Asinine (My Words) it was that the series final Indy Pro 2000 Champion Louis
Foster received a Prize of $614,000 to Advance to Indy Lights vs. Lights
Champion Linus Lundqvist’s paltry $500k prize!
Whilst Pruett notes that Indy Lights is now
paying a monetary Prize Fund Award of $735,000 to the Top four Finishers over
the series 14 races. Yet surely either All or the Bulk of this money is going
to the Teams, and Not the Drivers! And How Penske Entertainment has Robbed
Lundqvist to Pay the Lights Teams His extra $720k the previous Lights Advancement
Prize Fund Paid!
As Seriously Roger Penske and Penske
Entertainment, Y’all can not come up with a measly $1.0 million to correctly
Bump the Lights Champion’s Advancement Prize to a respectful $1.5 million? Not
to mention reinstating the three race Dealio’ including the Indianapolis 500!
As Penske Entertainment should be massively Embarrassed that that it’s only paying Lundqvist One Sixth of what Simon Pagenaud’s 2006 champ Car Atlantic Prize was Worth!
