[music playing] [car engine] leo parente: guys, i need yourhelp to come up with the content for a new show. here's how i envisionthis next show. ian whelan: ok. leo parente: with all thepolitics going on in racing, all the personal agendas,i want to start the next "shakedown" with this subject.
drive "shakedown" is goingto design the ideal north american racing, the collectionof races and race cars that will grow racing,reduce the clutter, motivate the influx of money,media, and fans. so i need your guys' helpto figure out how we fill that up. what racing-- was is theideal that we want? max seeger: yeah. ian whelan: yeah.
leo parente: you've been through"shakedown." thank you for joining the team. max seeger: oh, my pleasure. leo parente: but we'vedone stuff-- the michael johnson thing. max seeger: yes. leo parente: raceof champions. max seeger: that's right. ian whelan: right.
leo parente: and you seem tohave this passion for racing outside of f1. ian whelan: well, i'm mostlyan f1 fan, but i can appreciate other racing. and i think that there arecertain things that i like about f1 that maybe we couldapply to other racing or maybe things from that past of f1 thatwe could apply to other racing, because i don'tnecessarily think f1's at its peak right now.
leo parente: so i want topretend this is like hot tub time machine," whereit's all new. it's all fresh. we can start over. and i know there are some rulesof reality, but we're going to wipe it clean. max seeger: ok. leo parente: and i want to focuson north america only. let's not try to chomp offthe world right now.
leo parente: and without gettingtoo much into the criteria, i think we should talka little bit about what we think racing needs toaccomplish to be more popular, and then cut through theelements of the action or the cars or the venues or themedia or whatever. leo parente: let me startwith just that. what do you want racingto be to be better? ian whelan: well, i think racingneeds to be a little bit less opaque.
right now, i see cars runningaround tracks that i can't tell how they relate to anyreal cars on the road. and i'm saying thatas an f1 fan. i actually love the crazytechnology of f1. but i think aside from thatracing, there needs to be-- the lower tiers or the sportscar racing, i need to be able to relate those cars tothings on the road. leo parente: why? ian whelan: why?
because i think if you're a fanof porsches or you're a fan of fords-- you're a fan of something,you want to root for that kind of thing. you want to havean allegiance. leo parente: ok. and i think racing is in thatinteresting spot where no one cares, really, about the soccerball, or who made the baseball bat, or howit's constructed.
they watch the sport. but because the tool is sointegral to racing, i guess it does matter. max, you're looking at me. i know you've got something. max seeger: yeah, yeah. well, no, because the thing is,for me, i understand that there are a lot of subtle thingshappening on the track. and i appreciate it, totally.
but-- leo parente: don'tpander to me. max seeger: ok, no, no. but i don't know if it'senough for me. so there are a lot of thingsthat i'm into where you have an appreciation of it. you get really into it. so i don't see-- unless someonegets really into or understands how important itis to get the tires up to
temp, because there's no suchthing as doing a lap at speed if the tires aren'tup to temp. leo parente: fuckadrian newey. so for me, i think that gettingan appreciation for that sort of stuff, maybethere's a shortcut, maybe there's not. leo parente: so this cameup once before. for you-- and there is no wronganswer here.
for you, watching a race cargo fast, it's not enough. i could watch an r18, e-tron--whatever the hell they call it-- around sebring, and i couldcatch the nuances and be entertained. but at the end of the day, maybeyou're just watching highway traffic. max seeger: right. leo parente: so thereneeds to be more?
i don't want to put it down. i'm not putting itdown in that-- leo parente: there areno disclaimers here. well, and also, just goingfast isn't really enough, because when i was in bangkokfor race of champions-- leo parente: hangingwith vettel. leo parente: yeah,i heard that. max seeger: that's where wemet each other, hung out. i actually didn't talk to himat all, so i want to clear
that up right away. leo parente: you blewin his ear. leo parente: webber'sa wanker. leo parente: yeah, ok. max seeger: that name doesn'treally mean anything to me. [laughter] max seeger: so a guy goesout, gets some air on that first lift. leo parente: oh, itwas that race?
leo parente: the race ofchampions, the bridge, the whole thing. they're setting up. and i'm rolling. i get it, because i'ma professional, ok? but then they put achicane in there. leo parente: yeah, because itwas dangerous, i guess. and then it sort of gotless exciting for me. not that i wantedsomeone to get
hurt, but air is important. leo parente: wait a minute. let me write that down. so they took away the thingthat was interesting you. and then it was timeto go home. well, then i had to stay thereup until midnight-- ian whelan: keep shooting. max seeger: yeah, and keepshooting against my will. so actually, i'm going to usethat as a little bit of a
segue then. so let's start definingthe action. jordan taylor went on aboutto him, racing is passing. and i just negated watchinga car go fast. at some point in time,is it enough? leo parente: and you weretalking about jumps. leo parente: god knowswhat video game he's got in his mind. so let's define action.
what do you want to seeas action in racing? max seeger: i think thati just want to see pushing the envelope. and maybe to me, that lookslike one wheel's off the ground or something like that,because i don't know if i can really gauge how fastsomething's going. ian whelan: yeah, or howon the edge they are. ian whelan: if they look likethey're not really on the edge from the outside.
maybe it's as simple as facialexpressions of a camera right at their face, because we'reused to seeing straight out. but maybe we need to seesome gnarly faces. ian whelan: that's agood idea, yeah. leo parente: well, you know,the old guys used to talk about how, f1, you could watchnuvolari and whoever actually steer the car. leo parente: and you couldsee their movement. you could see themworking the car.
i like motogp because you cansee the rider working. leo parente: now, tony kanaan'sa little tired because his head is tiltedto the left. and david hobbes goes friggin'ballistic when the car goes one degree off angle, becausethat's an f1 slide-- kimi excepted. are you on that page? we need to see more of it? i watch f1 all the time, but ican't even pick out some of
things they're talkingabout when they're-- leo parente: they'rejust making [bleep] up. ian whelan: theymight be, yeah. sometimes, it's like they'retalking about things that are going on there with--like you said, they're off a few degrees. i can't even tell on tv. but to them, it's a big deal.
so i feel like we need alittle bit of a closer connection to what's reallygoing on in these cars. leo parente: so that makes methink of something else that we should probably coverup front as a little bit of a criteria. so you guys think i'm deepinto the bubble. you're a fan, knowledgeable. max seeger: i'm around it. leo parente: i'm going to bepolite, but you're around it.
you're more of an outsiderlooking in. leo parente: the nuanceswork for the die hard. but who should webe looking at? are we looking at abigger audience? or are we looking to make ageneralist more of a disciple? you know what i'mtrying to say? ian whelan: i think we need tohave a little bit of both. racing needs to expand, probablyfor business reasons. and there's a lot of people whoare casual fans that maybe
if they could learn a little bitabout the sport or find a way to become more engaged,they could become a higher-level fan somehow. leo parente: whatdo you think? max seeger: maybe i'll tellthis quick story of-- i overheard-- so i skateboard. leo parente: wow. really?
come see if we're-- leo parente: and that's inaddition to the band you have. what's the band? the price of bandages? max seeger: no. the what? leo parente: i don't know. max seeger: the mayorof bad news. leo parente: i was close.
go ahead. max seeger: so this kid'sskateboarding. there is a game called skate. it's like horse forbasketball. so one person does a trick. the other person doesa trick to match it. leo parente: by the way,i'm old, not dead. keep going. all right, fair enough.
so there's your, i guess,dominant stance. maybe it's right foot forward. but you can also do things withthe other way, and that's called switch. it's like rediscoveringskateboarding. so the one kid goes to the otherkid, hey, you don't do any switch tricks. and then that kid goes,switch tricks don't impress my parents.
because to them, it lookslike the same thing. so i feel like maybe that'swhy i want to see more air stuff. leo parente: so have you watchedglobal rally cross? max seeger: accidentally. leo parente: do youlike that stuff? max seeger: i guess so. i do like those-- the gymkhana videoin san francisco.
that feels like you're on theedge a little bit, right? that feels-- ian whelan: what if there was arace on that course that ken block drove throughsan francisco? wouldn't that be cool? that would almost-- maybe race tracksare too sterile. leo parente: funny. and i missed it.
that's my disclaimer. but at this last x game,they had a new event called gymkhana. and they basically did whatyou just described. and i guess it was like driftingis, plus i guess there was a combination of speedor racing measurement as well as gymnastic type judging,did they do the trick or whatever. so again, if it is exciting andinteresting, am i drifting
toward it for the kids? max seeger: well, that's-- see, i don't want toruin racing for-- leo parente: yeah, butthis is the point. there's no definition of ruiningracing, because i feel like the traditionalistsare clinging to traditional things. indy car, for example, thinksit's an epiphany that instead of having practice, qualifying,and the race on
sunday, they're going to havetwo races saturday and sunday. leo parente:la-dee-freaking-dah, ok? that's not a big epiphany. but if that works to attractmore people because they actually watch racing versuscars going round, so be it. so you're not ruining racing. we're kind of argument thatracing is a little bit broke and maybe getting more broke asno new people come to the sport because they'vegot options.
ian whelan: and we're alsotalking about different-- we're talking about a wholesanctioning body with different types ofracing under it. so maybe certaintypes of racing appeal to younger people. and then it feeds themup along the way as they get older. maybe they kind of graduate tothe more technical stuff that is not maybe as wild looking,but there are other nuances
that they'll pickup as they grow. leo parente: well, that'swhere i was getting to. and i'm going in my notes. so under some of the objectivesi scribble out, in no particular order, one,the cars are the stars. i think what the cars areattract people to watch this and are probably going to beleading why we need more than one just racing seriesin this collection. ian whelan: and that goes backto what i was saying at the
beginning about relatingto the cars. i always know there's a placefor the spaceship cars. i love them. but i feel like even when wehave cars that look like real cars, you still can't connectto them as well. leo parente: yeah. and the corollary to that issomewhere along the line, the drivers have to matter. action is key.
we already talked about that. i think we've got to addresstechnology, because somewhere between dumbing it down and speccars and all this stuff-- nascar-- versus people loving thetechnology and making it relevant, at the end of theday, we're having the discussion about what the fanswant, the venues, where this is, how it's set up. everyone loves traditional roadcourses, but something
new and different may bea better way to go. like we were talking about,a street course on some crazy-looking terrainin san francisco. that looks so cool in a lot ofdifferent types of racing. i know it's difficultto do, but-- leo parente: well, and that'sthe part where we're not getting way too aheadof our ourselves. is it real or is it virtual? there will never be anew york grand prix.
but virtually, i can get on thesim and i can run around columbus circle in a race car. leo parente: and then somewherealong the line, media has to factor in. leo parente: i love banging onthe tv guys, but-- or even doing internet, but maybe. ian whelan: well, the mediathing connects with the drivers as stars aspect. to me, those two things arerelated because i think that,
especially in this country, themedia coverage of these people who are driving thesecars is kind of lacking. i've watch some of the skysports coverage in the bbc, and they do a much better jobof letting you get to know these guys. and then you feel more ofa connection to them. and i think that's important. when you watch football-- i'm not even a football fan,but i know that people have
their favorite players, andyou're rooting for these guys. leo parente: so i would arguethat the roadmap is out there. you can take an entity that maybe complex and nuanced but make it play at a coupleof levels. leo parente: you can make thepersonalities matter. you can break down what'sreally going on. and you can do things. as much as everyone hates pksand all that stuff in soccer, you can break it down and makeexcitement, i guess, if you
have to, as long as you manageit so it respects the game. leo parente: and actually, thatleads to who's going to run this thing. and the simplest way that i'dthrow it out is that you've got to follow the money. the tools are there. the manufacturers have the mostmoney, the most vested interest, probably sponsorsand probably media. so there should bethis little mafia
collective of these people. they throw their money in, putthe kitty in the game. that's the money to fund thetype of media that needs to be done, the type of commitmentthat needs to be made, whether it's a kids' program or a juniorprogram to bring young sperm into racing ratherthan rich dad 101. and then, they're the ones-- frankly, as a benevolentdictatorship, they're the ones that start to make decisions.
but we're playing that role. that's the role i wantto play right now. leo parente: so if that sounded too serious, i apologize. but now, it kind of cutsto, so what racing series should we have? ian whelan: well, for sportscars, i want to see something like can-am again-- leo parente: the old--
max seeger: what is-- leo parente: which part? no rules? i like the-- max seeger: what is that? ian whelan: can-amwas a series-- what is it-- up through the '80s. i know it started '60s.
the good stuff was '70s. ian whelan: and it was basicallylike an unrestricted racing series. these guys had-- they could do anything theywanted, basically. were there reallyany big rules? leo parente: there wereminimal rules. it was an open formulawith them. ian whelan: and it waspopular in america.
a lot of european guys came overto race, and they built these cars that werejust wild. they were just completelywild. leo parente: chaparral putwings on it for the first time, aerodynamically. mclaren, to catch up withporsche, for example, were running 8-liter,9-liter motors. leo parente: anything went. leo parente: if you couldbuild it within the box,
freaking let it go. ian whelan: i think you couldhave something like that now. but maybe you just restrict theamount of engines they can use per season. let them run 21,000 rpms. i don't care. let them put turbos. let them run 12 cylinderson the car. anything goes.
i want to see a mix of differentthings from the manufacturers whocan profile-- show off their own technologyin their different ways and say i know how to dothis better than you guys over there. leo parente: so to that point,do you think wec with the p1 cars are close to that, or f1? ian whelan: well, the p1 carsare cool to me, but there's still not enough of them.
we need a whole fieldof those cars. leo parente: so the problem'sgoing to be, not to be neg, is safety and budget. leo parente: butthat's where-- ian whelan: what's safety? leo parente: well, to your pointmuch earlier, i don't think you can negate danger. you've got to make thisfeel special. if anyone thinks they can justjump in a car and act like
they can drive with a sim,then you've lost a bigger part of this. slam any sports guy you want,including mr. ped. we know we can't do thosethings, so we watch because they're gods. max seeger: sure. leo parente: and from a racecar standpoint, if it's too easy to friggin' drive, besidesthe fact that it's probably not appealing, thedrivers will tell you, it's
too easy to frigging drive. and there's no allure there. max seeger: they'llsay that now? leo parente: oh, yeah. the wec cars-- i think they're really cool,but they look like they're easy to drive. and i don't know ifthey are, but-- i'd have to ask mich.
ian whelan: i don't know. from the outside, though-- it goes back to what we weretalking about before. if you look at these spaceshipsgoing down the road at ridiculous speeds, it justseems completely undramatic. whereas something like can-am,everything looked like anything could happenat any moment. leo parente: so his definitionof can-am, do you like that idea of having somethingunlimited?
max seeger: yeah, that soundslike-- because i think-- more than like seeingsomebody get air or something like that. leo parente: go ahead. max seeger: because imean maybe that's a little low com denom. leo parente: wrc-- rally-- those cars fly.
max seeger: but i am that,because it spoke to me when that guy got air atrace of champions. but i think creativity, to seepeople express themselves within racing wouldbe something that would appeal to me. ian whelan: well, that actuallybrings up something. like the old days of f1, whenyou had these constructors who were building their own cars,that was amazing. and there were so many differentthings these guys
were doing. the things i saidabout can-am-- i want to see similar rules inf1, like the old days where you had four cylinder cars goingup against v8s or v6s or whatever, or v12s. i know that probably with f1, ifyou had that first season, you'd probably see the nextseason, everyone would just figure out what happened, whatwas the best way and they'd all go that way.
leo parente: but thathappens anyway. leo parente: so actually, thecreativity, like you were talking about the f1, what mymind thought of was "time attack." leo parente: all these kids love"time attack," because they can be creative. they can build their own car. all the racing that i see,even the amateur stuff, especially the pro, there's somany rules and regulations and
limitations. and to your point, once someonecomes up with a good idea, they all need to followthat good idea, so everything looks alike. leo parente: here's whati was thinking. north american racing only, weprobably should have a number of premier racing series tosatisfy all these various needs of action and whatever andtechnology and tradition. and i'm going to throw this out,and then we can kind of
beat it to death. everything below that is eitherto learn the craft or is a feeder series and reallyshouldn't distract from the specialness of this. so honestly, not allthis [bleep] should be on tv, because there'stoo much clutter. so here's my short list. i think there needs to be apremier open-wheel series in north america, indycar evolved.
i would it would be very hightech, open spec, and be technologically relatedto f1 so there can be some crossover. i'd even go so far as to suggestthe indy 500 should be part of the f1 season. ian whelan: it's likethe old days. leo parente: likethe old days. ian whelan: and the old indycars actually were all different and high techfor the time.
they looked cool. leo parente: theyhad turbines. they had all kindsof crazy stuff. and you had the f1 driverscoming over and driving cars on a one-off basis. or, like you said, it waspart of the whole world championship. leo parente: i'm not going toget caught in the details. somewhere along the line,there should be
a connect the dots. but indy car should be thefastest cars in north america. right now, i'm not interestedat all, because they're spec cars. leo parente: the next one is,for me, there should be a premier production carracing series. and that's got to be nascar. and i'm not sure it's all thatbroke, having nascar. max seeger: i don't really havean opinion about nascar.
max seeger: it's sortof just there. max seeger: right? ian whelan: i think they focustoo much on the wrong things in that series, but that'sa whole other discussion. max seeger: but maybei could-- i didn't like broccoliat a certain point. that's kids and all that. leo parente: got it. i'm with you.
i got it. ian whelan: all right. i don't know if there's anythingthat would really get me too excited about nascar. but i think at the very least,if the cars were production-based like theyused to be in nascar-- and if you don't have arear-wheel drive v8 car in your lineup, then you don'tget to race in nascar. you're going to fail.
and if you want to homologatecars like they used to do, that would be cool, at least. leo parente: well, and then itmakes cool, special edition cars for sale to the public. ian whelan: i love-- exactly. and that could go acrossall the boards, except maybe f1 cars. but i love the old days withhomologation specials and all
this stuff with racing, becauseit gives people a real connection with the race car. leo parente: so mythree were-- max seeger: just before you dothat, what is homologation? leo parente: oh, ok. sorry. ian whelan: it's all right. homologation is when there's arequirement of, ok, you want to race this car,this extra-fast,
bigger-displacement monster? well, then you have to build 500or 5,000, whatever, street cars that the public canactually buy to say, all right, this is a real carthat you make and you want to race it. leo parente: so the quick storyis back in '70, '69, the rules for le mansracing changed. and the big engines were thrownout the door, and they were going to have little3-liter f1 engines.
but you could raise a 5-literproduction car if you built-- i think the number was 250. so porsche literally built 200,250 porsche 917's, lined them all up, had thesanctioning body come and see the cars. so ferrari-- holy [bleep], porschehas got a real race car at five liters. so ferrari invitedeveryone over.
and the story is they built 100of the cars, showed them the 100 cars, set the other100 over here-- let's go to lunch-- moved the 100 cars to anotherwarehouse, and after lunch showed them the 100. and the guy said, oh, yeah. 200-- you got it. ok, that's good. max seeger: wow.
leo parente: homologation. anyway, i digress. so more road racing for nascar,i mean, honestly, if australian v8 supercars haveshown us anything-- that's a perfect example ofhow nascar could succeed-- and wtcc, another example. leo parente: and i bet youwhen i babble that in the show, there'll be a ton ofcommentators saying, yeah, yeah, yeah.
in my less redneck southerndrawl, i mean, stop making it this little-- ian whelan: goodold boys thing. leo parente: in the walmartparking lot. ian whelan: the whole heritageconnection with the moonshiners and stuff,come on. it's been a really long time. there is real technology andthere is real advanced stuff going on in these things.
let's-- leo parente: bingo. ian whelan: --bring itup to modern day. third series, i need sportscar road race. i think we need a gt classthat can be as open tech as it is. everyone talks aboutthe corvettes we see at these races. if they took the restrictorsoff, how freaking
fast would it be? ian whelan: oh, i'm fine withthat as long as it's actually based on a real chassis. and i can think if they wanttech in it, they can have tech in it. i think there should bea prototype class, no offense to the f! cars. i know i'm talkingtoo much, but--
max seeger: no, no. ian whelan: no, i think it'sfine if there's prototypes, can-am style, that they'realmost like f1 cars with body work on them. leo parente: now, i'm goingto drag you into this. leo parente: so all these roadracing cars, what would make road racing appealing to you? max seeger: i guess the thingthat would make it more relatable for me, if it wasin a place, like you said
earlier, like san francisco orsomething like that, or just something that's tight, kindof like a tighter race. leo parente: so what ifthey had eliminations? what if it was literally everyweekend was a playoff, and it took all of the entrantsand cut it down to the two finalists? leo parente: would thatchange your thinking? max seeger: i don't know. ian whelan: i don't think themanufacturers are going to
like that too much. leo parente: it's ouretch-a-sketch. i don't know. but then, by the end of theyear, you have what we have now with wec, which istwo manufacturers-- leo parente: no, no. i mean on the weekend. ian whelan: oh, ok. leo parente: 15 cars showup in the field.
leo parente: instead ofqualifying, there are a certain number of eliminationraces. and at the end of the day, maybethat sunday, you still have an elimination racewith everyone in it. but at the end of the day, wetake the two finalists and they go head to head,somehow, some way. leo parente: and i knoweveryone's going to-- max seeger: so this is twoand this is one on one? at the end of it, that's howyou'd stay interested, that
you watch this bad versionof "american idol" happen on a racetrack. max seeger: well, i guess whatwould be interesting, maybe, would be a back story ofthe racers with a shot. each one gets their leadup to this race. ian whelan: that's a-- you mentioned "american idol."that's what they do for all these contestants. ian whelan: they have a backstory so you feel like you
have a connection with thesepeople even though you've seen only a three-minute littlevideo about them. leo parente: and nascar actuallytried to get there with this whole take the glovesoff the drivers and let them fight with each other andhave that type of conflict in personality. ian whelan: that seems contrivedto me, though. leo parente: thank you. ok.
because that's the other part--somewhere in here, authenticity. leo parente: we're goingtoo long, and i apologize for this meeting. but the other thingin sports car-- i want a gt class that's justthe traditional, low-tech grunty cars without all thedriver controls and abs and traction controls so that peoplecan get back to the roots and enjoy just a realrough house-type race car.
and what kind of trackis that on? ian whelan: on a road course. leo parente: road course. but to your point, we need tohave something that's rally, dirt, sliding, jumping. i feel like i'm coming acrosslike this adrenaline junkie. but you're not alone. ian whelan: but you like whatyou like, and that's why you're here.
leo parente: let me tellyou something. there is hundreds of millionsof dollars-- a billion dollars-- thrown at it, and indy carwill run a race on the weekend, and they'll get what? maybe a million peoplein the us, of 330 million people, watching. leo parente: so don't thinkyou're the exception. you're the friggin' norm withthe other 229,999 million.
and in europe, rally racingis very popular. it's up there. it's up there with f1. i don't know the numbers, butit's big compared to here. it's not so popular. leo parente: so i knowthere are rally events here in america. and i know the global rallycrosshas done a pretty good job of gettingmanufacturers engaged thanks
to espn and x game. but somewhere along the line,with this dictatorship of all the oems running racing, theyjust need to commit to have a bigger racing rally presence. and this goes backto the media. whether it's digital or tv, itjust needs to be out there so that people know these are thespecial classes of racing that define racing. the last one-- somethingfor bikes.
ian whelan: i'vewatched motogp. and the funny thing about thatis even though i love f1 and i like motogp, i think it'sactually more interesting when the bikes are more like worldsuperbike, where they're a little bit-- leo parente: production based? ian whelan: --moreproduction based. because motorcycles, even theregular road-based ones that you can buy at the dealership,are so wild with the tech and
stuff, you're already upthere in technology. so just to be able to actuallyhave a real connection seems even more importantin that case. leo parente: so we wereon the same page with production based. i was going to throw somethingout there, and i don't understand why this is. why can't i have a racingweekend where there's car racing, and if the track allowsit-- and a lot of
tracks do, like lagunaseca's-- why don't they havethe weekend with bike being one event? ian whelan: yeah, why not? leo parente: and by the way,have the cars go to a bike event and be a supportrace to them. are the fans all that differentthat they don't-- ian whelan: no. i think there are, obviously,support races already at
different types ofrace events. but if you had more top-levelracing at one event on one weekend, that could be prettyinteresting rather than the gentlemen drivers runningaround in their ferrari scuderias and then the f1 carscome out or whatever. leo parente: does racinginclude video games? does this whole redesigninvolved video games more than just having licensing? ian whelan: i think it has to.
i'm not a big video game fan,but i think that it's important for the aspectto bring new people into the sport. leo parente: should i evenmention it in the show? ian whelan: i thinkyou might have to. max seeger: would this affectvideo game sales? or what are you saying? leo parente: no. would i integrate video racinginto this redesign of what
racing should be innorth america? max seeger: as a competition? ian whelan: or just to allowthe fans to play a sim of these different kindsof racing so they can feel more involved. leo parente: and by the way, idon't know how far it should go, because in europe, and iguess in a little bit of america, nissan has their wholegt academy looking for young guys and girls to becomeprofessional racers.
leo parente: ordonez-- if i'm pronouncing it right--he's raced at le mans. he raced at spa. ford has their little onlineversion of octane academy, trying to find talent. i don't know what they're goingto do with them, but they've connectedthe dots between virtual and real racing. leo parente: and rather thanjust sell more, how could
racing use that to getmore fans into this? and perish the thought that youhave a competition where i get to race vettel or dale, jr.on the sim as part of some other version of "americanidol" that keeps ringing in my head. max seeger: holdon, one second. would it be possible-- max seeger: you have your guysout there on the track. and then you have some kid ina virtual car racing them at
the same time. leo parente: i don'tsee why not. someone tried to dothat years ago. and they were way aheadof the technology. max seeger: how wouldthat work? yeah. ian whelan: you're using thevideo feed from the race or some sort of telemetry toshow where the cars are. but you're in the race aswell-- the real race.
that would be cool. leo parente: it would neverinterfere with the real race, and just have the sim respectthat if you bumped into one of the real cars, you bumpedinto the car. ian whelan: that wouldbe really cool. leo parente: would you want-- screw watching. would you do that? max seeger: no, idon't think so.
ian whelan: but it sounds likea good idea for people. why did jf put you on the"shakedown" team? i'm kidding. the only one i haven't figuredout is drag racing. but guess what? the news is ford cutprofessional drag racing. they're dumping john force. they're going to justdo grassroots. but i don't know what to doabout drag racing, and i
can't ignore it. ian whelan: well, i don'tknow enough about drag racing, but-- leo parente: nordo i, i guess. ian whelan: i think, again,people have more connection to the cars that they can relateto when they see a really-- i'm thinking back to themuscle car days. when they can see a car goingdown the strip and then buy a car just like that, that'spretty cool.
so that's all i cansay about it. i know i'm repeating myself. max seeger: all right. how attended are drag races? ian whelan: professional ones? leo parente: i haven't been ina long time, but i know the races on the west coast,they get a big crowd-- 100,000. max seeger: they do?
wow. ian whelan: wow. that's a lot. max seeger: so it doesn't seemlike there's a problem. to that point, i don't thinkthere is a problem. they would argue differentlyin terms of sponsorship and what's going on. but at the same point in time,what i don't want to do is allow clutter to seepback into this
pushing racing forward. leo parente: but i'm the badguy who said, oh, yeah. drag racing, forgotabout that. and i'm just throwing itout there for them. i want to throw it out therefor the crowd when they talk about it. max seeger: right now, as it is,are there any events where they have this thing that youwere saying, where it's more like an olympics kind ofthing, where if you're
watching from home, you watchthe guy in the rings, and then it goes to-- leo parente: i think the closestare race of champions and the x games. max seeger: ok max seeger: do you like that? do you think you'd stick aroundfor the whatever you don't like event? ian whelan: well, thisreminds me--
not to cut you off. no. someone should. ian whelan: with all thesedifferent racing types within the sanctioning body, if wecould encourage the drivers to cross over more often, thatwould be helpful, i think, because if you start followinga driver and you only like that one style of racing, youmight open your mind once he goes over to this other one.
leo parente: i think that'snecessarily brilliant. that has to happen. ian whelan: i feel like thatused to happen more often, not under one sanctioningbody, but-- leo parente: well, and to thatpoint, this is where i'm going to put too much pressureon the manufacturers. but since they are being allowedto run this thing, look at pat long. leo parente: they shopped patlong around to various teams.
what we're saying is go back tothe old andretti days, and this weekend, you'rein the rally car. leo parente: next weekend,you're in our open-wheel car. leo parente: whatever. i think that wouldinterest you. and it would build thepersonality of these guys-- and girls. i keep saying that. ian whelan: and it would showhow well rounded they are and
their strengths and allthat, weaknesses. leo parente: and this week, i'mwatching rally, next week i'm watching indy, becausei'm following my guy. max seeger: so are we done? another five-minutemeeting with leo. thanks. yeah, i think we're done. and i think you gave mestuff to work on. max seeger: cool.
leo parente: so let me gowrite this damn thing. leo parente: today, on"shakedown," let's redo racing and create the ideal northamerican racing set, the collection of racing series,and race cars to get more fans, to keep the hard-coreenthusiasts happy, and to bring in new followers withoutdumbing the racing down or sensationalizing it intosome version of-- i don't know-- ricky bobby's death race 3000.
so why this show? well, frankly, i've had it withthe auto racing politics, personal agendas, andnearsighted compromises in racing that never seem to getus the best solutions or the best racing. and why a north americanracing redo versus taking on the globe? well, i've got tostart somewhere. this first, then we'll take onf1 bernie and/or the fia.
so today, let's design a seriesof north american series with the cars, theaction, drivers, technology, the traditions, the tracks, theformat of the racing, and the media that would make racingbe what you want and what more people wouldwant to follow. and like every "shakedown,"we'll be doing our racing redesign with yourideas and input. we're tipping the northamerican auto racing etch-a-sketch and turning theknob "shakedown" way, all with
your input. so come back, and let's see ifwe can out think the indy car people, outsmart the scca, andoutfox the frances of nascar and the united sportscar racing. [car engines revving]