Jalopnik : U.S. Grand Prix Formula 1 Track, Financier Revealed [Motorsports]

[gizzmo]

Originally Posted by mtownneon

Forget the racing aspect, how is any GP here in the states expected to make any money? What killed F-1 here was that Bat-shit Bernie wants a small fortune in sanctioning fees, a big piece of the gate, controls the TV, marketing, consessions, souveniers, etc. There's almost nothing left for the track owner. The realityof F-1 here in the States is that it's a loser for whoever hosts it. Indy made some the first 2 years but as the novelty wore off, they couldn't get 100,000 butts in the place and Bernie wanted more money to renew the contract. All the best to Red but I think if this goes through, he'll just wind up spending a shit-load of money and never re-coup it.

I would love to see the road course at IMS used more. I went to the Grand Am test and it looked like there was plenty of fan interest, as much as there was for the US GP motorcycle test but the powers at IMS didn't see it that way. Real shame, a 12 or 24 hour endurance race would be killer there. Imagine cars racing down the front stretch at night with nothing but headlights lighting the way? I'd pay to see that! I've also been thinking that having the SCCA Valvoline Runoffs there during the week as the lead up to a race like that would add even more prestige to the event as the best in Amatuer and Professional Road Racing would fight for championships and the right to say they won at Indy.