IMS Seating Guide

A few weeks ago on TrackForum, Indy 500 and IZOD Indycar Series fan Art Vandele announced that he was unable to continue his IMS Seating Guide website. Fortunately Art was willing to hand over the keys to all of the information that took him years to accumulate.

After combining his stuff with addition information and stats that I've accumulated, the new site is ready to launch (link to the right). On the IMS Seating Guide pages you'll find: seating maps, views from the seats, Stand/Vista stats and much more.

What I need from you, are photos. If you have photos from your IMS seats I would love to be able to add them to the site. You can send them through E-mail (16thAndGeorgetown@live.com) and if you have the Stand/Vista, Section, and Row information, it would be greatly appreciated.

Brooks Associates Racing Jumps To FIL

The 2008 Atlantic Championship winning team, Brooks Associates Racing, has announced their intent to field a Firestone Indy Lights car in 2010. Although a driver has not been chosen, the team recently purchased a FIL Dallara from Guthrie Meyer Racing.

BAR has fielded entries for:

• Markus Niemela ('08 Atlantic Champ)
• Al Unser III
• Andreas Werth
• Memo Rojas

"After winning the 2008 Atlantic Championship, we have taken the last year to review all of our opportunities in North American racing series. We wanted to examine the various series to see where we could best continue our history of preparing young drivers for successful futures in professional motorsports. The Firestone Indy Lights series is such a clear steppingstone to America's premier open wheel series (The IZOD IndyCar Series), that it meets our objectives and our drivers' objectives as well." -John Brooks, Brooks Associates Racing Owner.

We are delighted to welcome another quality team to our grid for the 2010 championship. Brooks Associates Racing has shown the ability to be a championship contending operation in other forms of motorsport and we fully expect them to continue that success in the Firestone Indy Lights." -Roger Bailey, Executive Director of Firestone Indy Lights

IZOD Indycar Series Gear Now Available

Although the vintage IZOD Indy 500 shirts from the last post won't be available until 2010, the IZOD Indycar Series is beginning to roll out their newly branded clothing.

2010 "Don't Blink" IZOD Indycar Series 2-sided Tee

2010 "Don't Blink" IZOD Indycar Series One Fit Cap

(Same one that was given out at Announcement Press Conference)

New IZOD Indy Clothing Line

UPDATE: The line will be available in stores in March of 2010

Last season IZOD and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway/IZOD Indycar Series teamed up to produce an unprecedented clothing line. Now with the Title sponsorship announcement, IZOD is getting ready to role out the new Spring 2010 line. Here's a sneak peak:

1961 Bowes Seal Fast Car (A.J. Foyt)

1961 Bowes Seal Fast Car (A.J. Foyt)

1911 Marmon "Wasp" (Ray Harroun)

1972 Sunoco Car (Mark Donohue)

1948 Novi (Duke Nalon)

1953 & 54 Fuel Injection (Bill Vukovich)

1939 & '40 Boyle (Wilbur Shaw)

1968 Ristone (Bobby Unser)

Womans Indy Polo

Womans Indy Tee

It's Officially Official

It's finally official. After months of waiting, the Indycar Series will now be known as the IZOD Indycar Series. With the tagline of "The Fastest Race on Earth", IZOD has signed a 6-year multi-million dollar contract to become the new Title sponsor, with an option for a 7th & 8th year.

In what was truly a superb event, with a great turnout, both IZOD Indycar Series and IZOD officials really seemed to be happy with the announcement. As Brian Barnhart put it "This is the first legitimate Title sponsor we've ever had"

One of the biggest bits of news to come out of the event was that the 2-seater would start each race (including the Indy 500) with the pacecar for 2 parade laps. It will be driven by a 2-seater regular (D. Hamilton, A. Luyendyk jr...) and will carry a person of IZOD's choice.

Part of the multi-million dollar agreement, IZOD will participate in the TEAM program. The TEAM program which was introduced in 2008 gives guaranteed money to IZOD Indycar Series teams.

With the Title sponsorship, the Indycar Series and Indianapolis Motor Speedway are giving IZOD access to current and former drivers as well as "100 year's worth of motorsports assets and graphics from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame museum, including current and vintage cars, for both on and off track events, both in and out of race markets".

IZOD said that they were in talks with ABC and Comcast to get tv spots on the fallowing channels: VERSUS (obviously), Golf network, E!, G4, Style, ESPN and ABC.

The event began with a 4-5 minute video, showing clips from ICS races and IZOD events. It was fallowed by a short runway show, where the models showed off IZOD Indycar Series merchandise. They then unveiled a red and black Dallara all painted up with the IZOD colors, then came the announcements.

"This is what we've [Drivers] have all been waiting for....The Sky's the limit right now" - Ryan Hunter-Reay

"This is great news for the Indycar Series" - Dale Conye, Owner Dale Coyne Racing

"It's fantastic that a company like IZOD, which became involved int the Series, has recognized the value and benefits of the product and has decided to expand their involvement into a major sponsorship" -Keith Wiggins, HVM Owner

"The announcement that IZOD will become the series sponsor just adds to the momentum for the Indy Racing League" - Eddie Gossage, Texas Motor Speedway President