Tony George vs. Carl Hungness Publishing?
James David Reyome
I should like to hear some of the details behind the exclusion of Carl
Hungness, publisher of the Indy 500 Yearbook, from the 500 the past few
years. I had heard that there was some indignance on the part of IMS that
CH had the temerity to produce a Brickyard 400 yearbook sans proper IMS
approval (this in a race day article in the Star by Robin Miller in 1995 I
think) and Hungness and his people were refused press passes. Anyone have
any inside info?
Now this is sad. Hungness had been producing yearbooks since 1973 and
generally puts out a high quality product, one I've certainly enjoyed for
years and plan to pass on to my son (I have 15 years worth right now and
am working on collecting the rest). Their book has certainly fostered my
love for auto racing and in the 500 in particular and for Hungness to be
treated so is in the least unfair and probably unwise. Anyone agree?
--
"I find your lack of faith disturbing!" Darth Vader
Len Ashburn
The 1996 Indianapolis 500 Yearbook is out and available from Carl
Hungness Publishing, P. O. Box 24308, Speedway, IN 46224, Phone317/244-
4792, Fax 317/244-3202.
Carl will be happy to fill you in on all the bitter details between he
and IMS.
It probably should be recognized that Carl had been around a long time
before IMS VP Bill Donaldson was hired by the speedway. What happened I
don't know. Robin Miller mentioned it in the Star and few others did.
But that would fit nicely into Robin's anti-IMS campaign currently
ongoing. The IMS does put out a book of its own now and Carls would be
competing with it.
The speedway has been mum on the situation but Carl and Robin have been
quite vocal. Carl even did a book on the US 500. The Indy 500 Yearbook
is OK for '96 but it is rife with acrimony and does not paint the rosy
picture in the Floyd Clymer style that has characterized it in the past.
Len in Indy
Earl Ma
In article <3cavers-1301...@ppp16.dickson.net>, 3ca...@dickson.net says...
I'll tell you his legend in a nutshell, in which lies the roots of his
dispute with IMS:
While attending the University of Colorado (which he sweet-talked his way
into, having no high school diploma or money for tuition), he came across a
Denver-based racing newspaper called Speed Wheels and started writing for
it, eventually taking over its publication. Noting the lack of a similar
publication for USAC in the late '60's, he promoted the idea within USAC
(even though J.C. Agajanian told him there was no way the people at Indy
would cotton to such a new idea from an outsider, regardless of its merit),
and he did manage to get Competition Director Henry Banks to give him a
shot. He did USAC News for 13 months until they suddenly fired him without
explanation.
He then approached IMS VP Al Bloemker (author of 500 Miles To Go) about
putting out a 500 yearbook for 1970, since Floyd Clymer had died the year
before, meaning no yearbook for 1969. Bloemker told him "you've just been
fired by USAC. I'd say you're sort of persona non grata right now, Carl.
There is no way we are ever going to let you publish the Indianapolis 500
Yearbook."
Carl kept asking year after year until Bloemker finally relented in 1973
(that edition now sells for $100+, and I paid $60 for mine). But by the
next year, Al told him to cease and desist, since Sid Collins and Donald
Davidson had been granted permission to start one. That title lasted a
grand total of two years. Meanwhile, Carl had to sign an agreement that
the Speedway reserved the right to authorize any other publishers to put
out similar books.
In 1976 came the first written threat of legal action, contending violation
of trademark regarding the title "Indianapolis 500 Yearbook," though at no
time was the book ever deemed an "official" IMS publication.
Since then, it's been basically a lot of hot air on IMS' part until the
inaugural BY 400, when UMI Publications was granted the rights to put out
the official yearbook (whereas Carl's is called "Indianapolis Stock Cars"). They demanded that he not publish such a book (since he did not submit a written business proposal for an IMS license), but he stubbornly went ahead anyway. They then threatened him with denial of credentials for the '95 500 (not that he needed credentials for the Brickyard) UNLESS he collect and destroy all existing copies of the BY 400 yearbook...which needless to say he immediately refused to do, nor would he sign over the trademark and copyrights for the 500 yearbook (keep in mind IMS has been doing "Indy Review" since 1991 - basically a glorified version of the program with graphics, layout, and writing to match).
Thanks to Robin Miller, Carl eventually got credentials for the 1995
race, but only after IMS stalled for 10 days. That edition was relatively
shoddy: there were few on-track race day photos, and some of the IMS
traditional post-qualifying photos were decidedly below caliber (i.e.,
Ribeiro's was ridiculously blurry - obviously one of Ron McQueeney's
cast-offs from the photo shop, which did little to help). The 1995 BY
400 yearbook qualifying and race reports hardly go into any detail at all.
The good thing is that the Indiana state Attorney General is on Carl's side.
The bad thing is that no matter how legit his claims that IMS is breaking
the law through restraint of trade (not just trying directly to thwart him,
but telling freelance writers and photographers they'd BETTER not go work
for him if they wanted to keep their credentials), he doesn't have the
financial resources to haul TG into court.
The 1996 yearbook, which was initially advertised as a US 500 book only,
evolved (when the necessary additional funds appeared) into a combination
US/Indy hardbound volume and seperate softcover volumes, albeit these are
168 pages instead of the usual 208-224).
What follows below is a letter I got on Nov. 16th:
> Hello:
>
> Enclosed you shall find a refund check for your 1996 Indianapolis Stock
> Cars Yearbook.
>
> As many of you know, our 1995 edition was extremely late due to the non-
> performance of our main contributor Bruce Martin. Martin's copy did not
> arrive in out office at all and we waited over four months for him.
>
> We lost over 90% of our sales to our distributor Classic Motorbooks, and
> we have simply not recovered financially from last year's work.
>
> The possibility exists we may resume publication one day of this fine
> annual, but for now we must live with the embarassment.
>
> We will have to admit to not having an immediate replacement for the tardy
> Bruce Martin. Never before in the 28 year history of our firm have we
> allowed one writer to hold such power over us and we are ashamed of not
> only his actions, but our own for not having a backup.
>
> Sincerely,
> Carl Hungness
I was REALLY disappointed by this because 1) now I was forced to buy the
UMI book, which I KNEW sight unseen will be inferior, and 2) I know how
hard he had to fight for the existence of the title to begin with.
You don't suppose TG is behind this, do you? ;)
And surprise, guess who was one of the co-writers for the UMI book? Bruce
Martin!
Also, Carl botched my order. I'd ordered two hardcover copies of the US
500 yearbook and one softcover BY400 yearbook, and he returned the amount
for the US 500 yearbooks instead, which left me with the two softcover
US/Indy yearbooks, despite telling me to document the error in writing so
that it could be corrected.
This year's yearbooks are still quite good compared to other titles, but
vastly inferior from a technical/photographic point of view; i.e., the
bio page photo of our old pal Racin Gardner's car was actually the Pagan
backup Billy Boat failed to qualify (there are NO similarities between
the two!); in Lawson's qualifying photo, you can clearly see a "C11"
layout mark superimposed on it; the seperate tribute to Krosnoff is, except
for one sentence referring to his death, verbatim to what was included
in the bio!
That said, as someone who has ordered the 500 yearbook directly from Carl
since 1985, and as someone who owns all his yearbook titles, including the
rare inaugural 1973 issue, I'll continue to gleefully give him my hard-
earned money while witholding it from TG.
Earl
Jay A. Carina
>
>And surprise, guess who was one of the co-writers for the UMI book? Bruce
>Martin!
>
Interesting! Martin also does the UPI reports found on clari.sports.motor.
I wonder what the whole story is on him shafting Hungness like that. Just
doesn't make sense for a journalist to do that without notice whatsoever.
But I guess when you're bought, you're bought.
Earl, thanks for the history lesson.
Jay
--
Jay A. Carina (car...@wiliki.eng.hawaii.edu)
The Racer Archive
<http://student-www.eng.hawaii.edu/carina/ra.home.page.html>
N. Richard Caldwell
In article <5bi5n0$6...@mochi.lava.net>, Earl Ma <uni...@lava.net> wrote:
>
>And surprise, guess who was one of the co-writers for the UMI book? Bruce
>Martin!
Thanks for your informative post. It's nice to know who's pulling Bruce
Martin's chain.
--
N. Richard Caldwell
Lucent Technologies
n...@lucent.com
Russell Jaslow
Earl Ma (uni...@lava.net) wrote:
: I'll tell you his legend in a nutshell, in which lies the roots of his
: dispute with IMS:
: The good thing is that the Indiana state Attorney General is on Carl's side.
: The bad thing is that no matter how legit his claims that IMS is breaking
: the law through restraint of trade (not just trying directly to thwart him,
: but telling freelance writers and photographers they'd BETTER not go work
: for him if they wanted to keep their credentials), he doesn't have the
: financial resources to haul TG into court.
To think, these are the same sort of people we are supposed to entrust the
future and well being of open wheel racing to. No wonder why most CART fans
don't trust Tony George and his fiefdom.
Rus'L
--
Russell Jaslow | "A racecar is like a mistress: expensive, |My employer
Rochester, NY | demanding, and regarded with great |has nothing
Spec Racer #33 | suspicion by the wife." |to do with
Finger Lakes Reg.| The NY Rangers won the Stanley Cup -- FINALLY! |my drivel.
Alfred DiVenuti
: That said, as someone who has ordered the 500 yearbook directly from Carl
: since 1985, and as someone who owns all his yearbook titles, including the
: rare inaugural 1973 issue, I'll continue to gleefully give him my hard-
: earned money while witholding it from TG.
Well, I don't intend to give any money to *either* TG or CH. I think CH
is playing everyone for suckers right now in passing off two obviously
substandard products. Even before the CART/IRL beef the caliber of his
yearbooks had been dropping steadily since about 1990. Both '96 volumes
are filled with inaccuracies (as I'm sure you've noted) about driver
records, car/driver combos. etc.
The truth is, I simply do not feel inclined to forgive CH for his shoddy
work simply because he makes a rather convincing case (at least initially)
for attributing his own inadequacy as an independent buisnessman to his
alleged integrity. Those are the breaks...CH...time you grew up.
-Al
: Earl
JR0073
If anyone has read the 1997 Indy 500 Yearbook put out by Carl Hungness
Publishing, they would know that it reads like it was written by Robin
Miller.
It is a $17.95 temper tantrum and is not worthy of being called the Indy
500 Yearbook. I was not impressed at all. Most articles are written from
the point of view that the Indy 500 sucks and the U.S. 500 is God's
greatest creation.
Please, Tony, shut Carl down! Please!
Jay A. Carina
In article <19970202013...@ladder01.news.aol.com>, jr0...@aol.com
(JR0073) wrote:
Sadly, that's exactly what he's doing to Carl Hungness thanks to people
the likes of Bruce Martin. I guess the idea of freedom of speech (free
press) doesn't jibe with you. My sympathies.
Chr...@vn.com
>If anyone has read the 1997 Indy 500 Yearbook put out by Carl Hungness
>Publishing, they would know that it reads like it was written by Robin
>Miller.
>It is a $17.95 temper tantrum and is not worthy of being called the Indy
>500 Yearbook. I was not impressed at all. Most articles are written from
>the point of view that the Indy 500 sucks and the U.S. 500 is God's
>greatest creation.
>Please, Tony, shut Carl down! Please!
I haven't been following this thread, so forgive me if I'm saying
something redundant...
...but for the last year or so the Hungness ads appearing in RACER
have definitely had a "sour grapes" ring to them. The latest ad for
the 2 books (one for Indy, one for Michigan) in the 2/97 isuue go a
step further and are quite appalling...this guy is seriously
DISGRUNTLED! The ad copy takes shots at TG and has
some standard cheesy IRL vs CART stuff.
He definitely acts like he is OWED something...Very unprofessional.
...and I'm mostly pro-CART!
Earl Ma
In article <32f5ad78...@netnews.voicenet.com>, Chr...@vn.com says...
>I haven't been following this thread, so forgive me if I'm saying
>something redundant...
>
>...but for the last year or so the Hungness ads appearing in RACER
>have definitely had a "sour grapes" ring to them. The latest ad for
>the 2 books (one for Indy, one for Michigan) in the 2/97 isuue go a
>step further and are quite appalling...this guy is seriously
>DISGRUNTLED! The ad copy takes shots at TG and has
>some standard cheesy IRL vs CART stuff.
>He definitely acts like he is OWED something...Very unprofessional.
If you knew more about his background and the two decades of interaction
with IMS that has led Carl up to this point, you'd probably agree that
it's not an act (I haven't seen the Racer ad yet, though, but knowing how
Carl can get on his high horse, I can imagine what it says!).
What IS unprofessional is how he always says race cars should have zero
sponsorship and only the number and names of driver/owner/crew chief/
mechanic on it, even more so now that CART "needs" something to distinguish
itself not just from IRL, but F1 and other open wheel series. That's
ridiculous dark ages thinking to me. Sponsorship is one reason F1 from
the late '60's on holds my interest far more than F1 from before the late
'60's, just to cite one example...
Earl
R Dean
JR0073 wrote:
>
> If anyone has read the 1997 Indy 500 Yearbook put out by Carl Hungness
> Publishing, they would know that it reads like it was written by Robin
> Miller.
> It is a $17.95 temper tantrum and is not worthy of being called the Indy
> 500 Yearbook. I was not impressed at all. Most articles are written from
> the point of view that the Indy 500 sucks and the U.S. 500 is God's
> greatest creation.
> Please, Tony, shut Carl down! Please!
Really? I can't believe it. Why was he writing about the U.S. 500 in the yearbook?
This is a pretty bad situation as Hungness did bring back the yearbooks and kept the
fires burning for quite a few years. They were never as good as the Clymer yearbooks
but he did a pretty respectable job. It's really too bad that the yearbook had to come
down to a a negative view of Indy. It sounds like it might be a real collectors item in
the future so I better order one.
Rex
richard welty
In article <32f5ad78...@netnews.voicenet.com>, <Chr...@vn.com> wrote:
>>Please, Tony, shut Carl down! Please!
>...but for the last year or so the Hungness ads appearing in RACER
>have definitely had a "sour grapes" ring to them. The latest ad for
>the 2 books (one for Indy, one for Michigan) in the 2/97 isuue go a
>step further and are quite appalling...this guy is seriously
>DISGRUNTLED! The ad copy takes shots at TG and has
>some standard cheesy IRL vs CART stuff.
ummm, keep in mind that TG and IMS have pretty much treated Carl Hungness
like crap. Carl only became disgruntled and hostile because he got
massively, seriously dumped on.
nobody deserved to be treated the way Carl Hungness got treated.
sigh,
richard
--
work: we...@balltown.cma.com home: rwe...@wizvax.net
North American Motorsports Pages: http://www.wizvax.net/rwelty/MSports/