Champ Car Grinds up Robin Miller's Hard Card

Note to the feeble. Champ Car did yank Robin's hard card, but there are probably still more than six people covering the series.

Champ Car World Series officials' decision to yank veteran racing reporter Robin Miller's credentials recently has reduced the number of reporters who remotely care about Champ Car to an estimated six.

According to a non-fiction article by veteran racing journalist Gordon Kirby, Miller had his "hard card" yanked by the Champ Car World Series recently. "Hard card" in racing lingo is a permanent credential issued by the league or series, often to journalists who cover motorsports full time. A hard card gives the holder  broad access to the tracks, teams and drivers and is much prized in the world of racing media.

Hard cards (so called because they are made of hard plastic and feature the owner's photo, much like a driver's license) are issued by the league or series and can, therefore, be revoked if you piss off said league or series.

Miller, who has become rather expert at pissing off various groups and individuals, did, in fact, piss off Champ Car, according to Kirby. From Kirby's column:

Then of course, there's the matter of Champ Car's complete lack of credibility with the American media. I've reported a number of times about the tiny and dwindling press corps covering Champ Car and sadly, this little group is only getting smaller. At Elkhart last weekend quite a few fans asked me if it was true that Robin Miller's hard card had been revoked by Champ Car.

I told them it was true and added that the result of Champ Car's heavy-handed move is that Speed TV's coverage of Champ Car will be token at best. This was the inevitable result of the contempt Champ Car showed for Miller and the fact that Champ Car didn't understand what they were doing shows they are an amateur organization that is doomed to life at the margins of the media. (Read Gordon's column here.)

In fact, research now shows that the number of reporters who know that "Champ Car World Series" is not a baseball game has dropped to six with the departure of Miller. "We think it can go lower," said one member of the series hierarchy who declined to be identified. "We're pretty sure we can get it down to a couple of guys from New Jersey, some obscure blogger and Sebastien Bourdais' wife. That's the goal, anyway."

Earlier in the year Miller got axed from writing for www.champcar.ws after going off on the series management online. In a related note, an online survey found champcar.ws to be the least navigable site online, maybe ever.

 

Comments

[My Name Is IRL]

You sure it's not Champ CARD World Series? I know this poker stuff is pretty popular these days.

[David R. Smith]

The Champ Car Web site has been a joke for over 2 years.

The prodding it took to get the web master to correct mistakes at CCWS was like kicking a dead horse.

The thanks I got for telling the CCWS web master the links don't work, was to have my access to CCWS web page blocked by the web master. The CCWS web page is now a big orange blob when I open the window to log on. I feel like I have had my hard card ground up, and I am setting in the cheap seats!

[mmack]

Perhaps CART\OWRS\CCWS\Hey, look at us, over here, no really, over here, we've got racecars! is recycling Mr. Miller's hardcard to give to Pressdog! I am sure that more people visit this site than the "league" site.

One hint to the Three Stooges at CART\OWRS\CCWS\Honestly, we'll have a driver line up in 2008 BEFORE the first race!: You'll get better press if you PAY people to write articles for your website. And another little tip, boys: When Gordon Kirby, the most "Rah Rah, this is the GREATEST RACING SERIES IN THE WORLD can I have some more Kool Aid Mr. Kalkhoven?" turns against you, stick a fork in it, it's over.

Pressdog, if Kevin does offer you a hardcard, ask for cash up front.

[gary patrick]

When "The Split" happened I was an ardent CART supporter for years. But the series has really come to suck. Too many craptacular street circuits, a rediculous schedule with holes a mile wide and international venues of no significance, silly techinical follies (power-to-pass, a mandtory "option" tire that's both slower and quicker-wearing than the prime tire), and a cast of drivers who are unknown or unlikeable. Despite my general indifference to the idea of oval racing I now find myself much more interested in the IRL. At least they have a bit of "star power" and some honest-to-god on-track passing. Adding Mid-Ohio to the schedule was a clincher; I'm now a fan.

If Champ Car has lost me, they've lost the war. They might as well change their name to "Chump Car"

[Steve Barnes]

I represent a couple of folks who are (were) considering starting a team in the ChampCar Atlantic series ... here's what I have discovered so far ...

* Try finding the Atlantic Series web pages from the CCWS home page ... impossible ... and when you look at the Atlantic series TV schedule page it is MONTHS out of date.

* I have sent repeated emails to ChampCar asking for information about Atlantic ... I've been trying for over a week ... so far ... ZERO response.

I've been going to CART/CCWS races since the 1980's (Laguna Seca - Long Beach - Vancouver - Phoenix) and was a strong supporter of CART/CCWS ... I'm about to put a fork in them too. This is RIDICULOUS that emails asking about bringing a new team to the Atlantic series are TOTALLY ignored.