I was thinking, which is usually a bad thing...

[stroker]

I was noodling about something before Roger Penske bought out the George family, so this is probably moot now, but maybe there's some value in it.

Now that online shopping has effectively gutted retail brick and mortar shopping malls it seems to me there might be an opportunity. One of the knocks of street circuits is that they close down public avenues and are inconvenient to the public at large. What if someone were to take advantage of all those acres of available mall parking lots and incorporate them into one of the Indycar ladder series, using those venues as "street circuits"?. The problem is to safely fit the size of the space available. What Formula do you think might be the best starting point for that? FV? F1st? FMazda?

Or has AOW fallen so far in the eyes of the public it would be a waste of time?

[devilmaster]

Well, in race chat today we were looking at formula E going to vancouver next year.

It seems like Formula E is the one willing to use whatever 'track' they can make up with what they got.

They are basically using the same track that the Molson Indy Vancouver did. (and a good chunk of it was parking lot)

It'll be interesting to see this race again, just to see if they would go back to Indycar (and would it be worth it) after a couple years of FE.

[pfc_m_drake]

I think it would be good for USF2000 series and below. It's a great idea, in fact. Problem (I think) is that you and I and our 3 closest friends would be hanging out taking turns making runs to The Beer Store down the street (because they probably wouldn't bother with conscessions at the track...

You guys still have The Beer Store in Canada???

Anyhow, I think how it could work is as a joint-venture with local karting organizations, and if you could get some SCCA participation...make it as full a card fo a weekend event as you could, then I think you've got something.

[devilmaster]

You guys still have The Beer Store in Canada???


Its an Ontario thing. and yes they do still have it. Its owned in part by the major breweries(labatt, molson, etc) so they always try to ensure that the province doesn't open it up to stores everywhere.

[pfc_m_drake]

Its an Ontario thing. and yes they do still have it. Its owned in part by the major breweries(labatt, molson, etc) so they always try to ensure that the province doesn't open it up to stores everywhere.Got it. Monopolization...the American Way :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Nice seeing you again. Don't work too hard :):D:cool:

[nrc]

I think the challenge you have is that such projects still require a lot of time and money to pull off and without much spectator/sponsorship interest of a big event it's tough to recoup that.

Back in '97 Indy Lights ran a standalone event in Savannah at a road course built in an old industrial park. It was really nice but they couldn't cover the costs so it went bankrupt. Much later (once all the lawyers were paid) they started using it for a vintage race associated with the Savannah Concours d'Elegance. Not sure if that has continued since plague times.

https://www.racingcircuits.info/north-america/usa/savannah.html

[stroker]

I wish we were in the position to sit down with paper, pencils, beer and sufficient time to sketch something like this out. You'd need a very quick and agile car with not a whole lot of top speed and a relatively low cornering speed. That would require either skinny or very hard tires, light weight, modest hp and a strong driver cell.

I'm thinking carbon fiber chassis, about 250 hp, no undertray or aero and maybe DOT tires...?