Marty will be dead last in 10 laps, he is afraid of traffic. By the first lap he will drop at least 5 spots maybe more.
Marty Roth(The Sloth), worst Indycar driver all time.

If he had a talented driver in the car, it may have been on the pole.

Really surprised that no poster has pointed out how simple it is to qualify on an oval. All alone out there without being bothered for four laps of pure aero and weight advantages winning out.

To race on an oval is another matter all together. When the speed is there and the turbulance from those around you starts to upset your car, I can understand why many drivers manage to fall back into the 'quiet' zones where they can drive alone and space themselves out so as not to interfere with the 'real' racers, and rely on the odd caution and a fuel strategy to remain on the lead lap.

Open Wheel cars can be very dangerous on ovals where the difference of finishing or rubbing the wall is so slight. When the CART cars refused to race at Texas years ago (ask Michael Andretti and Paul Tracy), the writing was on the wall: they were too fast for the circuit. The result since has been to dumb-down the cars to make them safe for the driver, and to allow the tracks to continue in business giving the illusion of danger when in actual fact they are nothing more than parades causing the 'closest' finishes in racing history. (It only took Helio 5 laps and a push from his partner to pass Dixon at the line - exciting, as I was on the edge of my seat in eager anticipation catching the final assault lap.) And then the embarrassment of the after race celebration and interviews only added to my excitement. Sorry, one of the reasons I find some circuits so boring.

Under these conditions, Marty Roth can survive, and good for him. But, Marty give it a rest. Your early motorcycle racing and road racing days have passed you by. Hopefully, you'll become strictly a team owner with a stable of young upcoming prospects. That move takes courage and management skills but would benefit OWR more in the long run.

Just for clarification, Roth was sent to the back of the grid after the start for pitting during the warm-up laps.

indy88 - 07 September 2008 06:22 AM

Marty will be dead last in 10 laps, he is afraid of traffic. By the first lap he will drop at least 5 spots maybe more.
Marty Roth(The Sloth), worst Indycar driver all time.

You called it pretty much perfect. He dropped to the back in no time.

indy88 - 07 September 2008 06:22 AM

Marty will be dead last in 10 laps, he is afraid of traffic. By the first lap he will drop at least 5 spots maybe more.
Marty Roth(The Sloth), worst Indycar driver all time.

that is the difference in Marty Roth and Milka. There are lots of single car teams out there........ Look at Manning and RHR and Vitor (before he broke and hit the wall).

The difference is that Marty doesn't feel comfortable in traffic and if you don't feel comfortable in traffic than you shouldn't be racing at this level. He has good equipment and competent people working for him.......

smuff76 - 08 September 2008 04:06 AM

indy88 - 07 September 2008 06:22 AM

Marty will be dead last in 10 laps, he is afraid of traffic. By the first lap he will drop at least 5 spots maybe more.
Marty Roth(The Sloth), worst Indycar driver all time.

that is the difference in Marty Roth and Milka. There are lots of single car teams out there........ Look at Manning and RHR and Vitor (before he broke and hit the wall).

The difference is that Marty doesn't feel comfortable in traffic and if you don't feel comfortable in traffic than you shouldn't be racing at this level. He has good equipment and competent people working for him.......

I agree. Marty has been able to get good cars for his team on the ovals all year, and in qualifying to be honest it is more about the car on the flat-out ovals than the driver. Marty put his foot to the floor and did not crash in quali and he got ninth. In the race, where a drivers skill really comes into play, he was swamped by the more talented drivers in no time. It would be sad to see Roth racing go because I think that he has the smarts to put together a good team, his handicap is that he is just does not have the skill as a driver to get the results.

I will be honest I don't mind Marty, in fact I find myself cheering for him. It is not because he is a great driver, I know that he isn't, but more because he is doing what I can only dream of. Maybe his money is earned, maybe it is from an inheritance or maybe some combination of the two. I don't really care. I just know that he is a guy who has the means to race. For the most part he stays out of the way and doesn't impact the races on the ovals. On the road races, it is pretty clear that he needs a lot of improvement/a replacement driver. With all of that said, I was at the race on Sunday and at different times I was listening to him on the scanner. Right as the engines were fired up, they did a radio check and he could not hear his spotter. You could tell he was nervous because no spotter on that kind of track is a formula for big trouble. At the start his crew instructed him to drop to the back, and from what I can tell the IRL officials were the ones who encouraged that move. I know it is likely that he would have made his way back there regardless but he did this time on purpose for safety reasons. Anyway under yellow about half way through the race the team changed his nose cone/atenna twice and changed his helmet once. That cost him the three laps that he was behind at the end. Once he had a spotter he still couldn't run that well in traffic but he made a few passes and stayed out of the way of faster cars. In this race he was no worse than a bunch of other drivers such as Tagliani, Duno, Perrera, Camara and Junquira as examples.

For the record I also heard Buddy Rice throw a fit on the radio because someone had the mic keyed and he couldn't hear his spotter. Based on that I would say that having a spotter is a big issue and that Marty might need a little slack, at least for this race.

Just for the record on Perera. He would of finished 12th on the lead lap but the fueler messed up on his splash and go at the end and he ran out of fuel on lap 198.

The league may have asked him to "retire"
http://www.crash.net/motorsport/indycar/news/168756-0/future_uncertain_for_roth_-_but_hes_not_alone.html