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[EwanM]

From Autosport.com:

George steps down as Indy boss

By Matt Beer Tuesday, June 30th 2009, 21:16 GMT

Tony George has resigned from his position as head of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar Series following a meeting of the board of directors of the Hulman-George company that owns the legendary racetrack and the championship.

His role as president and CEO of Hulman & George Company will be taken by W Curtis Brighton, currently the group's executive vice president and chief legal counsel, while executive vice president and chief financial officer Jeffrey G Belskus will become president and CEO of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation.

George will remain on the board of directors, and will continue to run his Vision Racing team in the IndyCar Series.

Earlier this month Indianapolis released a statement refuting American media reports that George had been ousted, but acknowledging that he had been asked to devise a plan for the management of the family companies "that would allow him to focus on the business which requires the greatest attention".

Chairman of the board Mari Hulman George said the Indy Racing League founder had ultimately decided to stand down from his position instead.

"Our board had asked Tony to structure our executive staff to create efficiencies in our business structure and to concentrate his leadership efforts in the Indy Racing League," she said.

"He has decided that with the recent unification of open-wheel racing and the experienced management team IMS has cultivated over the years, now would be the time for him to concentrate on his team ownership of Vision Racing with his family and other personal business interests he and his family share.

"Tony will remain on the Board of Directors of all of our companies, and he will continue to work with the entire board to advance the interests of all of companies."

Hulman George is confident that Brighton and Belskus will be able to take the companies forward.

"Jeff and Curt have both been with the company for many years in positions of top leadership," she said. "Tony, as well as the entire Board of Directors, has the utmost confidence in their capabilities.

"Both of these men have years of experience and leadership within our companies. In addition, each of our companies has effective presidential leadership, and that will remain in place."

After reports that George's position was in doubt first broke, the IndyCar team owners issued a statement expressing their full support for him, amid speculation that changes to the board could jeopardise the championship and suggestions that George's family were unhappy with the amount of money he had spent on the series.

But Hulman George insisted that the Indianapolis management remained committed to the IndyCar Series.

"These changes underscore our family's commitment going forward to all of our companies, especially our commitment to the growth of the Indy Racing League and the sport of open-wheel racing," she said.

"We believe the Hulman-George family's long stewardship of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, beginning in 1945, and our significant investment in the Speedway and in the IRL demonstrates that we have full confidence in all of our companies and that we intend to grow them in the future."

George took over the leadership of the Indianapolis companies in 1990. He controversially founded the breakaway Indy Racing League in 1996, but was later instrumental in the 2008 reunification with the rival Champ Car World Series.

Establishing and sustaining the IndyCar Series required substantial and prolonged investment by the Hulman George companies, which also provided significant financial assistance to smoothe the merger last season.

During George's leadership Indianapolis also added a NASCAR event to its schedule for the first time, and brought Formula 1 back to America on an infield road course, which is now used for MotoGP after the track failed to agree a new F1 deal with Bernie Ecclestone.

Hulman George paid tribute to George's achievements over the past 18 years.

"Our family and the entire racing community are grateful to Tony for the leadership and direction he has provided since 1990," she said.

"We are pleased that he will continue to be an important part of the Indy Racing League as a team owner and as a member of our Board of Directors, and we wish him every success."

His successors Belskus and Brighton have been with the IMS companies since 1987 and 1994 respectively and have long held executive positions.

George's Vision Racing operation, which is now set to become his primary focus, was founded in early 2005 but has yet to win a race. It recently scaled back to a single car for Ed Carpenter due to a lack of funding, with Carpenter's former team-mate Ryan Hunter-Reay moving to AJ Foyt's team.

Penske confident in new Indy regime

By Matt Beer Wednesday, July 1st 2009, 10:36 GMT

Leading IndyCar team boss Roger Penske says he has no concerns about the appointment of Curtis Brighton and Jeffrey Belskus to run the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and IndyCar Series after Tony George's departure.

Indianapolis announced yesterday that George, who had run the Hulman-George companies since 1990 and was behind the formation of the Indy Racing League in 1996, had decided to stand down from his position, although he will remain a board member and will still run the Vision Racing team.

The move followed a month of speculation after reports in the America press that George was to be ousted. Although the Speedway issued statements denying this at the time, it did reveal that he had been asked to submit plans for potential restructuring of the running of the company. This process ended with George relinquishing his position at yesterday's board meeting.

Although the IndyCar team owners issued a statement stressing their full backing for George when reports of his potential departure first broke a month ago, Penske said he did not expect Brighton and Belskus' promotion to have any adverse effect on the IndyCar Series as both had long held executive positions within the company.

"Those are good people and capable people, and they represent the family's interest," Penske told the Indianapolis Star.

"They've been involved in the discussions before, so it's not like we've got a brand-new cast of characters that we don't know."

There had been fears that any change to George's position could have an adverse effect on the championship that was his brainchild, but when announcing the new management structure chairman Mari Hulman George insisted that the IndyCar Series had a secure future and that the changes were intended to make it stronger.

Brilliant. Hopefully this could lead to the rebirth of open wheel racing in the States. I'm very happy, even after the reunification, George had to go.

[Jamie]

I wonder what will change?

BBC get full converge

But please do not change the cars!!! i love them the way they are

[EwanM]

I wonder what will change?

BBC get full converge

But please do not change the cars!!! i love them the way they are

Na they need to be developed change, they kinda getting outdated. Hopefully find another engine supplier too and a serious shift back to road courses!

[7UpJordan]

They should use the Panoz DP01 chassis introduced in ChampCar's last season in 2007, and bring back Cosworth and the power boost.

[Jamie]

They should use the Panoz DP01 chassis introduced in ChampCar's last season in 2007, and bring back Cosworth and the power boost.

yeah them cars were pretty sweet
But i think Honda are the only engine supplier, the Indy series invited the top engine supplier and all declined the offer. Honda were the only ones who wanted to be involved

[Rivelution]

Best news to come out of indianapolis since 1995!!!!!! F*** Tony, but it pisses me off that they just now realized how incredibly stupid he is. Down with the IRL and rename it CART!!!!

[Jamie]

Best news to come out of indianapolis since 1995!!!!!! F*** Tony, but it pisses me off that they just now realized how incredibly stupid he is. Down with the IRL and rename it CART!!!!

BOOM***
I hope we get a better coverage, i want it on normal TV. Can't be arsed to pay for Sky Sports

[EwanM]

Best news to come out of indianapolis since 1995!!!!!! F*** Tony, but it pisses me off that they just now realized how incredibly stupid he is. Down with the IRL and rename it CART!!!!

BOOM***
I hope we get a better coverage, i want it on normal TV. Can't be arsed to pay for Sky Sports

Sadly Sky have the stupid contract :@

[Jamie]

Best news to come out of indianapolis since 1995!!!!!! F*** Tony, but it pisses me off that they just now realized how incredibly stupid he is. Down with the IRL and rename it CART!!!!

BOOM***
I hope we get a better coverage, i want it on normal TV. Can't be arsed to pay for Sky Sports

Sadly Sky have the stupid contract :@

Grrrr. Really? There does need to be a change, i would only watch Indy on it. Maybe a little WWE

[texasmr2]

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/ ... ny-george/

[Rivelution]

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/article/miller-whats-next-for-tony-george/

Yeah what an arsehole. He created the IRL because he didn't like the fact that there were too many foreign drivers, and road courses (but mostly because he wanted full control of CART). Look at what the IRL is now. Half the schedule is road courses, and the series is being dominated by foreign drivers, but you know whats funny? It turns out that Tony didn't actually like being in control. So basically he ruins AOWR just find out that he doesn't like being in control of the series. What a f***ing arsehole, I hope he falls off a cliff since he's on a skiing trip in Austria right now.




Here's a good article I got from another forum.

George's legacy not a favorable one
By John Oreovicz
ESPN.com
Archive

No matter how true the statement actually is, Tony George will go down in history as the man who effectively destroyed Indy-car racing.

Since George inherited leadership of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1989 at the age of 29, Indy-car racing went from being a successful sport on the rise to a struggling, directionless entity, dwarfed in this country by stock car racing and virtually invisible in the overall sports spectrum.

Even the Indianapolis 500, the powerful trump card that George used in an attempt to gain overall control of Indy-style racing, is a shadow of its former self, a poor second cousin to NASCAR's Daytona 500 in terms of impact and prestige.

Fueled by an enticing combination of veteran American drivers with names like Andretti, Unser and Mears and an incoming wave of international Formula One stars including Emerson Fittipaldi and Nigel Mansell, Indy car combined the best elements of traditional American oval racing and F1 and reached its peak from 1990 to 1995. By every measurable statistic -- little things like sponsorship, attendance and television ratings -- it was a match domestically for NASCAR and starting to worry F1 on the world stage.

Which means that George's decision in 1994 to create the Indy Racing League as a competing alternative to the existing CART IndyCar World Series could not have come at a worse time.

The formation of the IRL, which began staging races in 1996, sparked a 13-year battle for control of Indy-car racing and ultimately led to a mass exodus by fans, sponsors and manufacturers. NASCAR's impressive growth in that period almost exactly coincided with Indy car's decline.

With all of the key components in the sport except the Indy 500, CART should have put the IRL out of business by the late '90s. When it failed and most of the CART teams switched allegiance to the IRL between 2002 and 2004, George and his series should have landed a knockout punch.

Instead, lingering resentment toward George and the IRL galvanized what remained of CART to band together and continue as the Champ Car World Series, which limped along until the end of 2007. When Champ Car finally threw in the towel and agreed to be absorbed by the IRL, it was a war no longer worth winning. And the desperate state of the American economy nullified any positive momentum that should have resulted from the so-called unification of Indy-car racing.

All of which makes the events of the past eight months all the more astounding. Despite being perceived as the man who brought open-wheel racing back together, George was forced out as the CEO of the Speedway and the Hulman family's other business interests in June 2009. At the same time, he chose to not continue as the leader of the IRL, the series he formed to win the war he created.

This week, George resigned his positions as a board member of IMS and Hulman & Co., bringing his traumatic 20-year tenure as the leader of the Speedway to a whimpering, anticlimactic end. We may never know why he made the decision to abandon these responsibilities; George has not publicly commented about his forced departure as IMS CEO and voluntary decision to relinquish leadership of the IRL, other than a couple of posts several months ago on his Vision Racing team's Web site in which he claimed to be "perplexed" by his family's collective decision to vote him out.

George did many positive things during his two decades at the helm of IMS, including thoroughly modernizing the historic track while never asking for or accepting a penny of taxpayer money. Those improvements included the construction of an infield road course that attracted Formula One back to America after a 10-year absence and ultimately carried the Speedway back to its motorcycle racing roots in the form of a Moto GP event.

George also was responsible for the decision that brought NASCAR to Indianapolis, a prime example of a double-edged sword if there ever was one. The successful Brickyard 400 certainly lined the IMS coffers, but it also detracted from the uniqueness of the Indy 500 and contributed to turning Indianapolis into just another NASCAR town.

While the Brickyard has been a big money-maker for the Speedway, the other key changes during the Tony George era required huge expenditures -- especially the formation and running of the IRL. It was that massive drain on the Hulman family trust -- estimated at upward of half a billion dollars -- that ultimately led his mother and three sisters (who make up two-thirds of the Hulman & Co. board) to orchestrate his ouster.

History will record that for every positive thing George did for the Speedway or the overall sport of auto racing -- such as funding the development of the SAFER barrier system now successfully utilized at almost every major oval track in the world -- there was a far more significant negative action. And at the top of that list is the creation of the IRL.

Ultimately, George's legacy will be defined by the IRL. And it's not a happy one. Don't believe me? Then check out a few of the reader comments posted in response to the news story reporting George's decision to vacate the IMS and Hulman & Co. boards. The vast majority of Indy-car racing's remaining loyal fans blame George and his creation of the IRL for the downfall of the sport they love. George -- with Bill France Jr. prodding him on one side and Bernie Ecclestone on the other -- was the man solely responsible for choosing to go into competition with CART, which since 1979 had led the growth and development of Indy-car racing, including the Indy 500.

So what are we left with? An IRL IndyCar Series that in many key respects is a virtual clone of CART in the '80s and '90s. Same teams, same mix of road racing and ovals, but now managed -- some would say mismanaged -- by IMS. But with a significantly diminished fan and sponsor base and no longer featuring George in the mix, other than as the owner of a midfield team created as a vehicle to put his stepson Ed Carpenter into Indy cars.
I'll close by repeating a thought I expressed in a column I wrote in January 2006, when George and the IRL retained KISS bassist Gene Simmons and his marketing company to represent the IndyCar Series. It's richly ironic that the anthem Simmons penned to promote Indy-car racing was titled "I Am Indy." Because Tony George seems to have thought HE was Indy, and clearly he wasn't.
I strongly believe that Indy-car racing's former fans -- and there are millions of them -- aren't going to embrace the IRL until the man who created it accepts some responsibility for the detrimental actions he forced upon the sport they love.

Sports fans in the 21st century demand accountability -- just ask Mark McGwire or Tiger Woods. And all of Izod's millions of dollars of marketing clout won't achieve anything until George breaks his silence to apologize for his role in putting Indy-car racing in the downtrodden position it occupies.

The Tony George era may be gone. But it certainly won't be forgotten by anyone who cares about Indy-car racing.

[texasmr2]

Tony should have just sat back and enjoyed his money but no and I find it difficult to believe that he was allowed the priviledges he was given. This outcome is just another example of someone with power who disrupted the Chi flow of a once great entity. It is about daym time his mom stepped in and biatch slapped her trust fund baby back into reality.

[Rivelution]

It is about daym time his mom stepped in and biatch slapped her trust fund baby back into reality.

Well he was wasting her money. The IRL hasn't made a profit every year since its inception.

[texasmr2]

It is about daym time his mom stepped in and biatch slapped her trust fund baby back into reality.

Well he was wasting her money. The IRL hasn't made a profit every year since its inception.

Yes and I do applaude Tonys vision it is just such a shame that so much was lost and his family did not step in sooner. Hopefully things will get alot better in the future but it will take some time.