Cold War ends, but Indy Car only heats up by getting on schedule

Step 1 is complete, and the long overdue open-wheel unification is over.

Tony George and Kevin Kalkhoven should be commended for finally ending the madness that nearly killed American Indy Car racing.

George's reunification work is only beginning. (US Presswire)

"It was last fall on the anniversary of my grandfather's death that I was thinking to myself it really had been 30 years ago since the sport of open-wheel racing had been truly unified," George recalled. "Last month when the calendar turned over to 2008, I was wondering if it was possible this could ever happen.

"Lo and behold, I got a phone call that just made me feel really warm. I felt like this was going perhaps going to be the best year of my 48 to have a chance to do something that's very important to me and very close to me, and that is to help bring about the unification of open-wheel racing."

The phone call came from Kalkhoven, and despite several failed attempts to mend fences, this time it actually worked out.

But as both sides admitted in Wednesday's news conference to officially announce the creation of a single open-wheel series, the heavy lifting is about to begin.

"I've said many times that unification itself isn't some sort of magic bullet to be able to get us forward," Kalkhoven said. "It's going to take an awful lot of hard work, and that has already begun."

Let's hope so.

This season will be a hodgepodge to say the least, with three former Champ Car events -- Long Beach, Edmonton and Australia -- wedged into the existing IRL schedule.

The Champ Car teams planning to make the switch, which could be as many as nine operations and up to 12 drivers, will have to change engine and chassis packages pretty much on the fly. And the league, which promised free Dallara chassis and Honda engines to those teams, will need to scramble to find available and competitive equipment.

"The interest level is clearly high at this point in time," said Brian Barnhart, the IRL director of race operations. "You could see anywhere from eight to 12 cars on the grid beginning with the Homestead event. That's absolutely the best-case scenario we could be looking for."

To make that transition as smooth as possible, the IRL has assigned several of its teams to incoming Champ Car operations.

"Newman-Haas will be assigned to Rahal Letterman," said George, a match that will pair up N-H driver Graham Rahal with his father Bobby's IRL team. "They have some common interests there and we wanted to align those team teams.

"The KV guys will be aligned with Target/Chip Ganassi, so it will be a smooth transition from that point."

But the decision that will ultimately decide the fate of the new unified series will be the schedule, which, according to George and Kalkhoven, will be developed from a clean sheet of paper in 2009.

Anchored by the Indianapolis 500 with several historic and popular tent poles throughout like Long Beach, Australia and Mexico City, the new series has a chance to create an exciting and eclectic schedule that could re-capture the interest of open-wheel fans.

"The Indianapolis 500, with all of its stature, and Long Beach will be two anchor points of what will be an incredibly interesting series," Kalkhoven said.

While Champ Car's direction was toward more road courses and street circuits, the IRL charted a course that was oval-track-heavy, an emphasis George is hoping to continue in the next evolution of the series.

"It's important to me to have a variety of ovals on the schedule," George said. "But international opportunities are out there. We need to look at building a schedule that makes sense from every perspective."

Speculation is a 20- to 22-race schedule will be the end result in 2009, and if George and Kalkhoven are smart, the high-speed oval racing that became the IRL's trademark will comprise a majority of the slate.

The incredible high-speed side-by-side racing at superspeedway ovals like Chicagoland Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, Kentucky Speedway and Richmond International Raceway made the IRL one of the most exciting series in all of motorsports.

Building on that excitement and the oval-track tradition of Indy Car racing should be the foundation of the next era of the series. Only after a core of oval races are in place should the most popular road course and street circuit events be added, which would create one of the premier circuits in motorsports.

The first step has been taken and open-wheel teams can all come out of the storm clouds and race under one umbrella. Now it's up to George, Kalkhoven and Co. to not just keep Indy Car racing alive, but make it thrive.

"Having one series is for the best, not only for the drivers and the teams, but for the fans," said Helio Castroneves, who now has a chance to once again be known for his driving talent rather than his dancing skills. "It's about time."