Oilpressure

More times than not, it seems like every time I take some time away from here, a major story breaks regarding the NTT IndyCar Series. I took off Good Friday and the Monday following Easter, and sure enough – a story broke last Thursday, meaning that it is now old news.

For a while there, it looked like there was a good chance that the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach was in danger of becoming a NASCAR event.

In an effort to preserve Long Beach as an IndyCar event, CART car-owners and businessmen Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerald Forsythe went in together and purchased the Grand Prix of Long Beach in 2003.

Kalkhoven passed away in January of 2022. I suppose it has taken this long to settle the estate, but word got out that NASCAR was aggressively trying to buy Kalkhoven’s 50% interest in the event.

Anyone who thought this was going to end up as a shared arrangement between IndyCar and NASCAR was dreaming. NASCAR wanted the Grand Prix of Long Beach as their own. Unlike their foray into street circuits last summer in Chicago, this was a well-established event with almost half a century of history and tradition behind it. If IndyCar could pull 180,000 fans to the shoreline street course, surely NASCAR could easily double that, as I’m sure they thought.

Lots of people who understand these things a lot better than I do, were expressing deep concern over IndyCar’s premier event outside of Indianapolis , going away for good.

Had that happened, that would’ve been the blackest of several black-eyes that IndyCar has suffered for the past six or seven months. There is no way anyone could put enough spin on losing Long Beach to NASCAR, to make it sound palatable. It would not have been a good look.

But out of nowhere came a very unlikely hero – Gerald Forsythe.

In the days of The Split, I’m not sure there was anyone on the CART/Champ Car side that hated the IRL more than Forsythe. When unification finally came in February of 2008, it was Forsythe that wanted absolutely nothing to do with the unified series. While most of the other teams crossed over and bought Dallaras with Honda engines and paired up with existing teams for the first few months to help sort out the new equipment; Forsythe closed up his shop and went home.

Not only did he shut down his team, he had Paul Tracy under contract and would not even allow him to pursue another ride in the newly combined series. Tracy and Forsythe won the 2003 CART championship together, but Tracy was not allowed to race. Being under contract, he had no say in the matter. It was not until the fourteenth race of the season in Edmonton, did Forsythe relent and let Tracy drove for Vision Racing, where he finished fourth.

Forsythe won very few fans by blocking Tracy from racing. Paul Tracy was never my favorite driver. I liked him a lot better as a broadcaster, than I ever did as a driver. But I felt like he got a raw deal from Forsythe, as he was entering the twilight of his career.

It’s not like Gerald Forsythe was some fly-by-night owner. He had been around since the early 80’s. He gave Danny Sullivan and Al Unser, Jr. their first IndyCar rides in 1982. Then in 1983, he entered little known driver Teo Fabi as a full-time driver in CART. Fabi won the pole for the Indianapolis 500 as a rookie and he and Forsythe finished second in the CART championship.

The following year saw Fabi move to Formula One halfway through the season, and it was patchwork for Forsythe for the remainder of that season. Forsythe left CART after the 1985 season, but returned in 1994 teamed up with Barry Green to form Forsythe/Green Racing. They had Players sponsorship and rookie Jacques Villeneuve as their driver.

Forsythe and Green parted ways for 1995. I can’t remember the details, but the Players sponsorship went to the newly branded Team Green for one season, with Villeneuve as the driver. They went on to win the Indianapolis 500 that season, as well as the CART championship. Forsythe reunited with Teo Fabi in a day-glo car with ABB and Indeck (his company) sponsorship.

In 1996, the Players sponsorship reverted to Forsythe, while Team Green carried one of the ugliest liveries I can remember – Brahma Beer. The Brazilian Beer was pretty tasty, but that did not carry over to their paint scheme. Meanwhile, Forsythe employed Canadian drivers Patrick Carpentier, Alex Tagliani, Greg Moor and Paul Tracy to drive the beautiful liveried Players cars, representing the Canadian cigarette brand.

Forsythe Championship Racing was not on the level of Penske or Ganassi, but he ran a very competitive program over the years – that is until the reunification of 2008.

Quite honestly, I had not thought much about Gerald Forsythe, since those days when he held Paul Tracy hostage. He is in his early 80s now, and seemed to drop out of sight after that. I had even forgotten that he owned a 50% stake in the Grand Prix of Long Beach. But the man who fought the IRL/IndyCar Series for years, became the unlikeliest of heroes, when he announced last Thursday that he was buying the other 50% stake from the estate of Kalkhoven,

Marshall Pruett, of Racer.com, quoted Forsythe as saying “If [any series] has its sights on Long Beach please tell them to look elsewhere. This [is] an IndyCar event, and it will be into the future.” He went on to say he wants to ensure IndyCar has a stable home as the event heads towards its 50th anniversary in 2025 and beyond.

I saw on social media where some fans don’t trust Forsythe and question his real intentions. They say he will end up screwing IndyCar in the long run. I don’t think so. Maybe he has mellowed over time, or perhaps its because Tony George is no longer involved with the series. Maybe he just wants to protect his investment. Whatever the case, I am not buying into some of the conspiracy theorists that suggest Forsythe has some devious plot in mind. I’m taking this at face-value.

So for the foreseeable future, Long Beach will be staying on the IndyCar schedule. It’s a good thing. Can you imagine stock cars trying to maneuver that hairpin? Talk about unwatchable…

George Phillips

This entry was posted on April 3, 2024 at 4:02 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.