Gerard, I am not trying to throw all open wheel fans into one heap but I have encountered my share of the "F1/CART/Open Wheel-only" crowd who like to denigrate NASCAR and closed wheel racing. This post is for them. I have done quite a bit of thinking lately about open wheel racing and what the point of it is as you can tell.
Redneck, Ok then motorcycles can stay open wheel and open cockpit.
But really, we are entering the year 2000. Taking into the consideration the popularity of F1 and CART today, how and why should these series be so popular with late 1800's design concepts? Any amount of high technology put into these cars doesn't diminish the fact they are still dressing up late 1800's technology that probably should have faded by now. The major manufacturers involved in F1 would like you to believe that their presence in the series allows them to extract
useful technology for their production models but in all reality unless you are buying a sportier model of their particular make, F1 doesn't offer much more than NASCAR does as far as technology that can be used for regular production models. F1 and CART is a big phony stage for them to bullsh*t you into thinking that their cars are the best so that they can sell more cars to Joe Consumer and pay more for them at the same time.
Any amount of the so called technology attributed to Formula One more than likely was in the works beforehand and was tested before it made its way on an actual F1 car. Formula One is too much of a high stakes motorsports platform for it to be otherwise.
The technology gained from Formula One might be useful in the motorsports world to a series like CART but a smarter Joe Consumer says big deal.
As far as the risks involved in motorsport, I think they should be much less than what they are today. We can put men on the moon safely and when we don't we learn from it but it seems to me that F1 and CART leadership is still plodding along and tip-toeing around the major safety concerns. Adding chicanes here and there to keep the speeds down (road racing fans complain that they don't drive in circles so why should there be oval circuits but how many chicanes do you encounter in every day driving?) But when it gets right down to it, the leadership of F1 and CART, to put it blunty, are clinging onto late 1800's technology that should have faded altogether by now or to lower motorsports formulae (ie Sprint Cars) where it belongs. Why? Is it the bravado of open wheel, open cockpit cars which in turn creates ratings?
Some important questions every open wheel race fan should answer. Are you one who crains his neck to see the aftermath of a bad accident on the highway? Do you get thrills out of seeing drivers mangled in horrifying wrecks? If not, then why do you still blindly and faithfully support such open wheel series that have open cockpits?
If you are a huge fan of high technology then why do you still enthusiastically support motorsports series that fundamentally use a late 1800's design?
I have tremendous respect for CART and Formula One and their drivers but I cannot see why these series should be as popular as they are today and why a closed wheel series hasn't overtaken Formula One in popularity around the world like NASCAR has in the United States.
[This message has been edited by Joe Fan (edited 29 December 1999).]