"As members of his family, we are sorry to see Tony leave," said Mrs. Mari Hulman George, Board Chair at Hulman-George and IMS, in a statement on the Indy Racing League’s official website.
"We are grateful for his service to our company as a board member and of course for formerly serving as CEO and president of our companies. I speak for our whole family in wishing him well.
"All of us had hoped that Tony would continue to serve on the board, and we made that clear to him. We are disappointed with his decision to step down despite our wishes."
George stepped down—many say was forced to step down—as CEO and president of Hulman-George & Co., reportedly because he spent too much of the firms’ funds supporting the Indy Racing League. He quit as the head of the IRL at that time. Reports at that time said that George was upset by his ouster, prompting him to seek to sever all ties to the family business.
“There are a lot of hurt feelings on both sides,” said current IMS President and CEO Jeff Belskus, on SPEED-TV.com. Belskus assumed Tony George’s duties after George left in June.
George Oversaw Major IMS Changes
Tony George has a long and controversial history with Indianapolis Motor Speedway and with IndyCar racing.
George was also instrumental in installing SAFER barriers and other safety upgrades to the track, moves which have been adopted by almost every major race track around the world. George wanted IMS to be the safest, most modern high-speed raceway in the world, and he largely succeeded.
IndyCar Conflicts
In 1996, Tony George, dissatisfied with the management of CART, the existing IndyCar governing body, created the Indy Racing League. IRL was intended to promote American drivers in American cars with American engines racing exclusively on ovals, while CART had international drivers and equipment and raced on oval and road courses.
IRL controlled the Indianapolis 500 due to George’s involvement with Indianapolis Motor Speedway. George took money from the very profitable IMS operations to prop up IRL as it competed with CART for national prominence, airtime, and sponsor dollars.
By 2002, financial troubles at CART prompted many of the wealthiest and most influential teams to leave for the IRL. This bankrupted CART, which reformed and operated for five years as the Champ Car World Series.
The ongoing struggle to be the biggest IndyCar series bankrupted CCWS and severely hurt IRL. In 2008, George, realizing both series were in bad shape, proposed a merger and spent $20-30 million providing the CCWS teams with IRL-specification cars. The merger was marginally successful. Car counts were low, many teams couldn’t afford to run full seasons, and TV viewership hit an all-time low. Only the infusion of IMS cash kept IRL from going the way of the other series.
The cost of the battles severely drained the Hulman-George coffers, and the Hulman sisters, who controll the Board of Directors with their three votes, were no longer interested in spending IMS profits to support IRL. They felt the series should be able to support itself, as USAC and CART had done.
The Hulman sisters voted Tony George out of IMS in 2009, but left him a seat on the various boards. The latest development just completes the process.
