|
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
5 May 2014, 09:07 (Ref:3402402) | #26 | |
Veteran
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 2,103
|
Regarding the AUS-GP: Hasn't the FIA always helped Bernie out whenever such a threat has happened? I'd rather expect things to go like they went down in Canada a few years back: one season without an F1 race and then a new contract at a slightly discounted rate. No IndyCar.
IndyCar's Australian hometown is Surfers Paradise anyway. I agree with the criticism of the layout of NOLA Motorsports Park: there is just one obvious overtaking spot at the end of the main straight. It's good to see, though, that IndyCar is indeed taking its events to new places. Time will tell if this is a good venue. Too bad they had to retire too many venues that had recently proven to be quite good ones: Baltimore, the Sambadrome circuit in Sao Paulo, Kentucky Speedway. A month or so back, there was talk of the new management of Gateway (the oval outside of St. Louis) being interested in bringing IndyCar back. However, there wasn't anything official yet. And what's the status on the Elkhart Lake / Road America round of IndyCar? Is that still in the works? I also feel should the F1 race in New Jersey happen, IndyCar should be one of the support races, like Saturday after F1 qualifying, because there is no track closer to New York City. The Verizon IndyCar Series should go there even if they are not the main headliners and might not even get their full sanctioning fee, just so they can pull in some F1 fans who are already there. |
|
|
5 May 2014, 13:29 (Ref:3402476) | #27 | |||
Race Official
Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 16,474
|
Quote:
http://www.nola.com/sports/index.ssf...incart_m-rpt-2 The track was built to be a club racing/karting venue and I will be interested to see what improvements they make to accommodate spectators and the series infrastructure. |
|||
|
5 May 2014, 20:01 (Ref:3402569) | #28 | |||
Race Official
20KPINAL
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 23,733
|
Quote:
http://www.indycar.com/News/2014/05/...s-race-at-NOLA |
|||
__________________
"If you're not winning you're not trying." Colin Chapman. |
5 May 2014, 20:04 (Ref:3402570) | #29 | ||
14th
1% Club
Join Date: Jul 2001
Posts: 43,950
|
|||
__________________
Brum brum |
5 May 2014, 21:22 (Ref:3402619) | #30 | |||
Veteran
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 2,336
|
Quote:
Nice circuit, a bit of a club course right now so they'll need to have it up to at least the level of Barber before going there. Any chance they'll try and finish the full, 4+ mile circuit before IndyCar comes or is that dead in the water? Nevertheless, cool news. |
|||
|
5 May 2014, 22:12 (Ref:3402629) | #31 | |||
Race Official
Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 16,474
|
Quote:
|
|||
|
6 May 2014, 14:01 (Ref:3402851) | #32 | ||||
Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 10,617
|
Quote:
Quote:
|
||||
__________________
Nitropteron - Fly fast or get crushed! by NaBUrean Prodooktionz naburu38.itch.io |
6 May 2014, 14:25 (Ref:3402862) | #33 | ||
Race Official
Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 16,474
|
More info regarding the New Orleans date was in the paper this morning. It is a 3 year deal (2015-2017) and if things go well they are hoping to make it a permanent feature on the schedule. 3 possible dates have been selected for 2015, but that info is not being released at this time. They claim it will bring 80,000 fans and over $100 million to the area annually.
NOLA Motorsports Park is literally in a swamp. I haven't driven the track but it is flatter than flat. Some of the things that probably need to happen before the race are some general track improvements, for instance they need to make a pit lane. they will need to add facilities for the fans (concessions, bathrooms, bleachers, viewing areas). Also, at the moment fans will probably not be able to drive to the track. There is enough parking for the team transporters - depending on what the support series are but not much else. This means there will have to be off site parking and a shuttle, but again, since this is in a swamp, the offsite parking is going to have to be pretty far away. In other words, not very convenient for the fans. Not trying to be a downer, but it is going to take a lot of wok to get this thing going by 2015. |
||
|
7 May 2014, 00:59 (Ref:3403148) | #34 | ||
Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 10,617
|
|||
__________________
Nitropteron - Fly fast or get crushed! by NaBUrean Prodooktionz naburu38.itch.io |
7 May 2014, 02:14 (Ref:3403158) | #35 | |||
Race Official
Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 16,474
|
Quote:
|
|||
|
7 May 2014, 02:21 (Ref:3403160) | #36 | ||
Race Official
Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 16,474
|
Well you don't have to take my semi informed word for it, the track designer has a piece on Racer
http://racer.com/indycar/item/103331...l=&limitstart= |
||
|
7 May 2014, 13:00 (Ref:3403340) | #37 | ||
Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 10,617
|
Oh, no! New Orleans is flat!
Like Sebring, Silverstone, Hockenheim, Thruxton... Yes, I prefer hilly circuits, but whatever, I'm sure the race will be as exciting as any other. |
||
__________________
Nitropteron - Fly fast or get crushed! by NaBUrean Prodooktionz naburu38.itch.io |
8 May 2014, 08:21 (Ref:3403677) | #38 | ||
Veteran
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 2,103
|
Quote:
And while we're at discussing road courses in untapped markets for IndyCar, let's look at a place with history in American Open Wheel Racing where they used to go in the late 60s and which is indeed located in an untapped market: Brainerd, Minnesota http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-PmaFiLc2c The runoff areas don't look too shabby, do they? (It's just that they would have to introduce a chicane before the bridge). |
||
|
8 May 2014, 18:40 (Ref:3403863) | #39 | ||
Racer
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 122
|
As much as I would love for IndyCar to go there, it will never happen. For starters it's about 2 hours from anything resembling a big city so it may be tough getting people to show up. It would also need quite a bit of work as there is no pit road and some of the run off has no fence so a car could go right into the trees.
|
||
__________________
I believe you have my stapler... |
9 May 2014, 00:08 (Ref:3403952) | #40 | ||
Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 10,617
|
The New Orleans metro area has over a million people. It's not Chicago, but it's hardly nowhere.
|
||
__________________
Nitropteron - Fly fast or get crushed! by NaBUrean Prodooktionz naburu38.itch.io |
9 May 2014, 00:23 (Ref:3403954) | #41 | ||
Racer
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 122
|
|||
__________________
I believe you have my stapler... |
9 May 2014, 15:05 (Ref:3404176) | #42 | ||
Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 10,617
|
Oh, I got confused, sorry.
|
||
__________________
Nitropteron - Fly fast or get crushed! by NaBUrean Prodooktionz naburu38.itch.io |
10 May 2014, 03:01 (Ref:3404370) | #43 | ||
Veteran
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 6,885
|
Quote:
For a club circuit they spent a lot of money, over $70 mil and it has nice enough facilities for club folks. For racing series trying to draw a crowd, not so much. Plenty of room for parking but they'll need more than what they have if people actually turn up. The big problem with this place is that it's out in the middle of nowhere. If you did not know where to drive to, you'd never find it. It is a swamp and when it rains, which it will, there is nowhere for the water to go. It's also hot as hades there, so unless it's run sometime from October to March, have fun cooking in your own sweat. |
||
__________________
Wolverines! |
10 May 2014, 03:13 (Ref:3404372) | #44 | |||
Race Official
20KPINAL
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 23,733
|
Quote:
|
|||
__________________
"If you're not winning you're not trying." Colin Chapman. |
10 May 2014, 13:58 (Ref:3404527) | #45 | ||
Veteran
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 6,885
|
Quote:
This is no different than any of the other situations the irl finds itself in. The PR folks will declare the usual pap about expanding markets and new races. The track will declare their excitement and sky high projections of attendance numbers and corporate sponsors. The local and state governments will get shaken down for millions of dollars to fund "track improvements" and the race itself. Joe Bobs construction company and Jimmy Bob's contracting company will get the contract for track improvements. The first year the race will attract a modicum of interest yet lose millions of dollars. More government shakedown will occur but by the 3rd year the race will be canceled. The indy racing league gets their meager sanctioning fee and gets to present the illusion it is moving forward into the future. The track gets a bunch of infrastructure improvements for free. All the right people get their pockets lined. The racing league is then onto the next big thing and the process repeats. |
||
__________________
Wolverines! |
12 May 2014, 13:59 (Ref:3405402) | #46 | ||
Veteran
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 875
|
Toronto?
I am still wondering what will happen in Toronto in 2015, given that the Pan Am Games are going to be on the same site at the same time. Haven't heard anything from any of the people I know here who would likely know. AFAIK the current contract is up at the end of 2014.
|
||
|
12 May 2014, 14:15 (Ref:3405415) | #47 | ||
Veteran
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 1,311
|
I'm guessing there are talks going on to move it to a post-Caribana date. They can't afford to take another year off, it almost killed the race last time
|
||
__________________
It's time to switch to Whiskey, we've been drinking Beer all night - Corb Lund |
27 May 2014, 13:20 (Ref:3411306) | #48 | ||
Race Official
Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 16,474
|
Back to the New Orleans talk, I saw a headline today in the news that says the latest state budget has $4.5 million in it for track improvements and similar costs to get the race to happen next year. The article points out that they got this money by reducing funding to handicap services... Ouch.
|
||
|
27 May 2014, 13:35 (Ref:3411315) | #49 | |||
Race Official
20KPINAL
Join Date: Jul 2008
Posts: 23,733
|
Quote:
|
|||
__________________
"If you're not winning you're not trying." Colin Chapman. |
27 May 2014, 13:36 (Ref:3411316) | #50 | ||
Race Official
Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 16,474
|
Last edited by bjohnsonsmith; 27 May 2014 at 14:00. Reason: Sorry, I hit the edit button by mistake. |
||
|
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
2014 IndyCar schedule | NaBUru38 | Indycar Series | 246 | 26 Oct 2013 14:42 |
2013 IndyCar schedule | NaBUru38 | Indycar Series | 242 | 17 Jan 2013 22:00 |
2012 IndyCar schedule | NaBUru38 | Indycar Series | 449 | 2 Aug 2012 11:33 |
2010 IndyCar Schedule | DanicaFan | Indycar Series | 165 | 27 Jan 2010 03:18 |
2009 IndyCar Schedule | lnin0 | Indycar Series | 60 | 25 Sep 2008 05:34 |