IRL to Race at Barber Motorsports Park

[cosworth151]

Put it on either coast and you'll lose the other half of the country. Put it someplace like Vegas or a Disney park and you'll a.)Anger all of the vacationers you'll be unconvincing and b.) Making the race fans fight crowds to whom the race is just an annoyance. Add to that the fact that, to the average American, there are three tracks: Indy, Daytona and Never-Heard-Of-It.

[Jericoke]

Put it on either coast and you'll lose the other half of the country. Put it someplace like Vegas or a Disney park and you'll a.)Anger all of the vacationers you'll be unconvincing and b.) Making the race fans fight crowds to whom the race is just an annoyance. Add to that the fact that, to the average American, there are three tracks: Indy, Daytona and Never-Heard-Of-It.

So ideally the USGP would be at Indy or Daytona?  Otherwise, back to US East/West races?  I know that Bernie would love a race in New York City (Toyota America is based in NYC).  California has a great car culture to tap into.

[Dare]

Sadly, no that he's gone, the chances of a USGP have probably gone with him. I'm afraid the best we could hope for would be another parking lot race in Vegas.  

Where would an ideal USGP be?

Let's assume a ficticious developer has an open budget to build a brand new facility, or upgrade an existing one.

Where would a race be to attract the most attention?  A 'real' track at Las Vegas?  Disney World in Florida?  Disney Land in California? (I guess greater Los Angeles area)
 New York City?

Somewhere right dab in the middle of Lancaster,Ohio and
Louisville,Kentucky

[lkjohnson1950]

Sent a question to Robin Miller at Speed TV and actually got a personal reply, much to my surprise. He is a little blunt and I apologise to Cossie, who I agree with most of the time. Please remember these are his words not mine.

On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 3:29 PM, <lon4john6@aol.com> wrote:

Dear Robin; A couple of us have been having a lively discussion on an F1 Forum called GP Wizard about CART vs IRL. Another guy on the board insists CART was in "freefall" with plummeting attendance and ratings before Tony came along and saved Indycar racing by forming the IRL. I say Tony dug in his heels trying to gain control rather than work with CART. The split begun by Tony killed Indycar. Who would you side with. Am I misremembering my history?
 
Lonny Johnson
Tucson, Az.

lonny:
 
anybody who says CART was in decline before TG "saved the day" is an uneducated moron who obviously knows nothing about the early '90s in open wheel. in 1995, CART had 28 funded cars with 11 american drivers who only had to bring their helmet. mansell had helped push TV numbers up across the planet and CART had just as much sponsorship as NASCAR. F1 was very concerned about CART's worldwide appeal, and France hated the fact NASCAR had such a challenge. the crowds were never larger than they were in 1993-1999. TG not only killed the month of May, he killed open wheel and it's never coming back.
 
 
robin


Lonny

[Dare]

I have a hunch Robin Miller will be off
someone we all know Xmas list

[Dare]

Maybe I'm wrong but to me Indy started going downhill the first
year of the split when Buddy Lazier went from a middle to back of the
packer to  win the race.It just seemed like what made Indy special
was lost.

Maybe some of us are getting older and have lost those certain
feeling we had and try to recover.

[lkjohnson1950]

I used to laugh and shake my head at my Dad when he talked rather longingly about the past. Now I know just what he meant. Today's 500 doesn't compare to the '60s, '70s etc, when so many different cars ran. Drivers had to drive the cars, not just search for a set-up that would let you run flat. Qualifying saw guys like Mears run inches from the wall, not a foot or so like they do now.

Lonny

[SennaMan]

Doesn't matter who or why, but the split killed IndyCar.
[/quote]

it sure did but I am so happy it's now coming back

[cosworth151]

I guess that proves my point. If you hear something on Faux Noise (Speed's owner) you can bet that it's wrong. I'm glad to see that the same outfit that claims that President Obama isn't a citizen and that heath care reform is a smoke screen for "death panels" thought CART was a good thing.

[Scott]

That's too easy Cos.  Lonny went to some trouble to help prove his point.  You are simply saying you are right, and that's all there is to that.  Although Mr. Miller could have chosen his words more carefully, he may have more information at his disposal than you or I do.  He may not, but can you find a better authority to get a response from?  Your link for TV ratings and history of the Indy 500s gave a very narrow view, and didn't represent the CART series at all, just Indy.  I am still not convinced from any of your arguments that CART was in trouble before TG intervened and caused the split (I still don't really look at it as a split, but rather a rival series that stole teams and sponsors from CART).  In my view Indycar racing, has become boring and not worth watching, and not at all what it was in the 80's and 90's, and that is the fault of TG.   

[Jericoke]

I am still not convinced from any of your arguments that CART was in trouble before TG intervened and caused the split (I still don't really look at it as a split, but rather a rival series that stole teams and sponsors from CART).  In my view Indycar racing, has become boring and not worth watching, and not at all what it was in the 80's and 90's, and that is the fault of TG.   

While I still feel that the split was wrong, and that TG was the most guilty party... I don't know that CART would have survived on the trajectory it was on.  It was trying to rival F1... I don't know that it could have won that fight.

Imagine the damage that could be done if CART was warring with F1 instead of IndyCar