Quote:
Originally Posted by Eff One
Shame. It would have been interesting.
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Going from my memory of the time when it was proposed, the the dream of a New Jersey race was driven by Bernie Ecclestone who visualised a GP almost in New York, which he believed would be a fantastic cash cow.
Again going from memory, it was beset with problems from the off, with huge difficulties about the actual proposed track route, with the local authorities demanding that it's proposed site would require an extra bridge to be constructed. And there were perceived problems about the proposed pit garages which were going to be created from the ground floor of a building that was going to be built as part of the development of the area. But the developers didn't want to be unable to sell that space for normal commercial purposes.
Basically, it seems as there was no local appetite for the GP proposals, which would have the effect of closing a commercial area for up to a fortnight a year just so racing cars could go around in circles for 2 or 3 days a year. And this, in reality, is why the perennially proposed London GP has never been anything more than a pipe dream.
And at the time that the "talks" about the New Jersey circuit was going on, the developers were just getting on with creating what they had planned for the area, with the result that the original track plan was no longer feasible and so the idea was dropped.