IndyCar 2018 by Derek Daly

By racerdigitaladmin | February 19, 2015 5:53 PM ET

The most important aspect of rebuilding is to concentrate on the problems and not the symptoms. For years people have complained about low television numbers being IndyCar’s biggest problem. The reality is that the TV numbers should be as low as they are, because not enough people are sufficiently engaged in the sport to bother to watch. To get that to change we have to implement a significant strategic plan aimed at engaging fans at a much higher level.

The first step is to stop the brand confusion. We need to look further than the next starting grid and tackle some of the bigger longterm problems. We might have to ruffle some feathers within management by dumping the tactical thinkers and beg some strategic thinkers to provide time blocks.

Although this is couched as IndyCar 2018, consider it to be IndyCar 2025. IndyCar has a 10-year problem, not a three-year issue. There are no quick fixes and more than one single issue. If we agree that there are problems and symptoms, this outline addresses the problems. The TV ‘problem’ (not enough viewers) is actually a symptom; the problem is not enough people care. Make them care and the television ‘problem’ will take care of itself.

For 25 years, I’ve heard the same question asked in television production meetings, (ESPN, SPEED, CBS Sports, FOX Sports, NBC Sports and Network 10 Australia): What are the ‘hook’ storylines for the telecast? In other words, how will we engage the audience? The more we engage the audience the more they will come back and bring others with them. This is the basic foundation of every successful sports franchise.

The number one way to grow a sport is to engage fans. The number one way to do that is to create compelling personalities. Compelling personalities means winners. Consistent winners of significant events over a number of years become heroes, both local and national. National heroes are the very foundation of EVERY successful American sport; think Manning, Montana, Andretti, Foyt, Gordon, Earnhardt, Nicklaus, Woods, LeBron, Kobe, etc. Just think of your favorite team or sport and you will immediately be reminded of their great personality heroes. Most of the nation spends great swathes of time discussing past and present sports heroes and what they did yesterday and yesteryear. Without American heroes in IndyCar, there is just passive interest. With heroes, there is passionate interest. Lack of passionate interest is the single biggest problem; cure that, and most of the symptoms it creates (low TV numbers, for example) automatically go away. We will also develop a first class online product whereby fans can access never-before-seen footage of behind the scenes action.

When American heroes win, local newspapers report it. When they continue to win, national newspapers take notice. When they report it enough, TV takes an interest, and when that grows, sponsors and manufacturers take notice and get involved. From there the wheel turns and the snowball effect starts. It NEVER works successfully the other way around. So with that strategic path decided upon, how do we tactically make it happen?

The Mazda Road to Indy junior development series is the start of the brand confusion. Firstly, we get rid of all the confusing names; USF2000, Pro Mazda and Indy Lights. These names mean nothing to a non-educated fan base. We have ‘USF’ meaning ‘USFormula’, ‘Pro’ meaning I presume ‘Professional’ (does that mean that USF2000 is not professional?) and Lights which is neither professional nor Formula? Lights sounds like the weak sister to Formula to the worlds motorsports fans. IndyCar appears to be disconnected from its bloodline so we will rebrand the whole ladder system. Indy Lights becomes IndyCar Junior1 (J1), Pro Mazda becomes IndyCar Junior2 (J2), and USF2000 becomes IndyCar Junior3 (J3). Now we have stable branding that we can build value around. Confusion is now gone and all drivers, teams and sponsors are branded as IndyCar junior members and proudly represent the future of the sport.

Next problem is that the lower levels of the junior series (USF2000 & Pro Mazda – err…sorry! IndyCar Junior2 and IndyCar Junior3) sounds louder and faster than their big brothers! Before the 21st century sophistication of engines, the bigger faster cars sounded like the bigger faster cars [like Rick Mears’ Penske PC10 Cosworth, BELOW], and the fans waited in anticipation of the bigger louder faster cars to appear on the track. We will work out a way for the bigger cars to not sound like the weak stepsisters of the overall series as it confuses and disengages the younger fans.

With some of the finest scholarship funding available in the world of racing, we will blatantly copy the success paths of other countries who develop their national heroes to help them grow their countries motorsports industry.

When France had ELF fuels providing driver development funding to their young French drivers, they had seven French Formula 1 drivers. When ELF pulled the plug on the program, French driver development stopped. Within 10 years, there were no French drivers in F1 and the significant French motorsports industry virtually dried up.

Britain provides support for only British drivers because their national pride drives their motorsports industry at home. (The British GP gets 25,000 additional spectators through their gates because of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. If each person spends just $200, that’s $5m additional income in just one weekend. (Over a 10-year F1 career, that’s a whopping $50m additional income because of national pride investment).

So we will create a selfish self-sustaining American scholarship program to develop American heroes of the future. For years we have had an uneven playing field for the Americans because they are not even on the field; they have no financial support to be able to take on the well-financed foreigners. IndyCar MUST stop the bleeding away of their stars of the future to NASCAR or sportscars.

As part of the development of American heroes for the future, there will be a new rule that stipulates no driver can qualify for an IndyCar license without first doing a season of Indy Lights. We will therefore have top-class experienced drivers competing against the best young Americans (and therefore developing them at a higher level). As part of the building of a self-sustaining development system, each American scholarship winner becomes contracted to the ‘scholarship’ and will some day begin to pay back the ‘scholarship’ from future earnings.

IndyCar teams will also be rewarded for running American drivers. Prize money will be awarded on a sliding scale dependent on whether a team runs an American driver or not. The percentage of prize money that they lose by not running an American will be funneled back to the development ‘scholarship’ to continue to build the self-sustaining hero production development program. This is a significant part of the long term strategic plan.

All IndyCars will have driver’s names big and bold for easy recognition. All numbers will also be big and bold. This is part of the fan engagement program. No crew members will have sponsor branding on their fireproof suits. We can’t have mechanics looking as cool as the star drivers and the fan base confused.

Drivers will be required to register their ‘branded’ helmet color scheme and sponsors will not be allowed to demand a color change to match a sponsor color scheme. That way the signature of the driver (his helmet colors) will become familiar to the fan base, and every driver can build a sustainable personal brand.

To further stop any brand confusion, no IndyCar races would be called a Grand Prix. Grand Prix is a recognized Formula 1 term and we want to have clear definition between the products. IndyCar needs to stand tall on its own merits. We would bring back the fun of events such as IndyCarnival in Australia or the Molson Indy in Toronto.

Additionally, the Indy 500 would become exclusive again. The most famous victory podium in the world would only be used for the winner of the Indy 500. That podium would again become hallowed ground. Only the Indy 500 winner would be allowed the privilege of kissing the yard of bricks. Every other winner at the speedway would play second fiddle to the greatness of IndyCar and the Indy 500.

All engines will be required to have 850hp and produce a certain noise decibel level. Big cars should sound big and fast. There is a visceral connection to building a passionate sports following and motorsports has proven that big fast cars attract attention. Racecar noise that is muted tells the fans that they are looking at a muted car. That disengages them.

Spec cars are a no-no. NASCAR proved this for us with the Car of Tomorrow (CoT). Fans lost interest and rebelled. Teams will have areas of development where engineers can be trained to think outside the box. Parity of race teams will not be a focus. Pushing teams to improve will be. Teams that complain that they are not able to keep up with the bigger teams will be encouraged to work and think harder. Parity does not work when heroes are being built; look at the NFL dynasties.

Every road race will have standing starts (more engaging). More cranes will be positioned at corners to winch cars away as quickly as possible thereby cutting down the full course yellows (more engaging).

All victory podium ceremonies will look like significant events. The winning driver’s national anthem will be played and a professional trophy presentation will create photo ops. IndyCar will blatantly copy Formula 1 and look like an uber professional series.

More attention will be paid to engaging the fans during the races. All pit road action will be in front of VIP grandstands. Pit layouts like St. Pete, Long Beach (ABOVE) and Toronto will be reversed with teams and cars fully visible so all the pit stop action can clearly be seen from the grandstands, thereby raising fan engagement. All team trucks will be parked end to end and not side by side and fans will be encouraged to view the building of the cars up close.

All tracks will be given specs on the PA system requirements. Fans have to be able to hear the announcers and the music. All road courses will have big screen TVs (ABOVE) so fans are not disconnected from the race as soon as the action leaves their location. All practice sessions and stats will also be available live on smart phones. Everyone under 12 years of age gets in free. Each evening there will be a Q&A session on stage in the paddock with the winner of the last race.

We need to start today. Anyone willing to roll their sleeves up, ping me @derekdaly500 .

Derek Daly, Verizon IndyCar Series, IndyCar, Latest Stories