mlittle wrote:I know I'm new to this forum but to quote Wind Tunnel's host, Dave Despain, here is "my take" on this question...
1-When most Americans think of auto racing, they think of places where stock cars race at(Daytona, Talledega, etc.) and the series that races there, NASCAR, especially here in the American South where stock car racing can approach the fervor of a religious gathering; woe be to the lone person(like myself) who grew up watching the greats like Mears, Johncock, Rutherford, Sullivan, the Andretti's, Mario and Michael, and so on race at tracks like Indy, Mid-Ohio, Laguna Seca, etc.
2-To most Americans, Formula One seems like a distant, foreign sport where the technology overshadows the drivers, unlike in America where the fans can identify more easily w/drivers and with the cars as well(just look at that one point stevestuff made in his posting).
3-With the rare exception of the F1 races back in the 70's at Long Beach on the street circuit that ChampCar uses, most of the F1 venues in the U.S.(Detroit, Dallas, Las Vegas, and Phoenix) were on street courses that, while they gathered the fans, didn't seem to garner the media attention needed to sustain events of that magnitude, and finally,
4-By the time Formula One decided to return to the States, it had to be at a venue ready-made for racing. While they could've gone to Watkins Glen, Infineon, Road America or Laguna Seca, about the only place they seriously considered was the Brickyard(Indy). Granted, it took having to remake the speedway, and design a layout 'backwards' from the traditional direction used, it seems to have worked so far. Maybe it will bring the American F1 fans back, and create new ones; frankly, it seems to have worked since 2000.
It did not help when a bloke from a country most Non- Viet Nam vets had never heard of won the WDC at an American circuit, which cause a fair degree of traffic problems in ayear, when no" Damned Yankee" was driving
The Mountain is a savage Mistress.
