Quote:
Originally Posted by Purist
Lola T70, except for paving more of the paddock, how old are the facilities at Mosport? Most North American road courses don't have enough garages to handle a full ALMS field, if they have garages at all; by international terms, most of them are considered rather out of the way as well. F1 chose Phoenix in 1989 partially because they thought Laguna Seca had the same problems you just listed for Autopolis.
A 4-6 hour train ride to Autopolis doesn't sound so bad, especially when the nearest ALMS race (Road America) is more than twice that in drive time.
From some information I picked up a couple nights ago, it sounds like things will go south with Chinese real-estate in as little as 12-18 months. So, that's what, one or two races the ACO MIGHT get pulled off before things sour?
One of the tricky things is that China doesn't look at economic growth from a methods-first approach, but from the notion that, "I have to do whatever is necessary to hit my growth quota for the year." Right now, that "quota" seems to be roughly 9%. That sort of approach definitely opens the door to some risky "capitalist" practices.
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Autopolis is on an island, the south island of Japan, and so it requires an internal flight from Tokyo or Nagoya to Kumamoto and then when you get there are no trains, it is a car journey to the middle of nowhere. Facilities are probably the same as Mosport, which will never have an ILMC race either I would say.
I will bow to your knowledge on the future of China but not sure the ACO will as car manufacturers are all having increased sales in that region.