Sean O'Gorman
07-10-03, 08:31 PM
http://www.cleveland.com/sports/fanlines/
"The Cleveland Grand Prix seems to be a hit with night racing. Do you think holding the event under the lights provides more excitement? Is there anything else that should be done to improve the race?"
They have been running this question since Monday, so I don't know how soon that it'll be before they publish the letters, but perhaps there is still time to get some thoughts in. Here is what I sent:
"I think that IMG and CART did an excellent job promoting and putting on the Grand Prix. Look at it this way: Last year, I was by myself on Friday and Saturday, and only my brother bothered to come along on race day. Yet, this year, I was able to get about ten other people to come to the track with me.
The biggest problem that the Grand Prix (or CART, more specifically) faces is maintaining fan interest. The people at the race love the event, but they don't watch these races on TV. They don't think the racing is the most exciting, and in most cases, they don't have a driver to follow either. CART needs to work on increasing the grids from the 18-20 they prefer, to 25-30 so that there is more on-track action. I think if the cars were more similar to those in the CART Toyota Atlantic series, the racing would be awesome, and the fans would be hooked.
Another thing CART needs to do is work towards getting sponsors who are interested in recruiting American drivers. Now I don't think they should just add more Americans for the sake of having Americans, but there are many competitive drivers from our country would would be perfect for CART. Experienced drivers like Alex Barron and Memo Gidley, as well as up and coming drivers like A.J. Allmendinger would be much more popular with the fans than Rodolfo Lavin and Tiago Montiero, and are much faster anyway. Unfortunately, rides for these drivers are hard to come by without the driver already having sufficent funding, which is why many talented drivers are left on the sidelines.
Failure to address these issues will only result in the continued questioning over the future of both the Cleveland GP, and CART itself."
"The Cleveland Grand Prix seems to be a hit with night racing. Do you think holding the event under the lights provides more excitement? Is there anything else that should be done to improve the race?"
They have been running this question since Monday, so I don't know how soon that it'll be before they publish the letters, but perhaps there is still time to get some thoughts in. Here is what I sent:
"I think that IMG and CART did an excellent job promoting and putting on the Grand Prix. Look at it this way: Last year, I was by myself on Friday and Saturday, and only my brother bothered to come along on race day. Yet, this year, I was able to get about ten other people to come to the track with me.
The biggest problem that the Grand Prix (or CART, more specifically) faces is maintaining fan interest. The people at the race love the event, but they don't watch these races on TV. They don't think the racing is the most exciting, and in most cases, they don't have a driver to follow either. CART needs to work on increasing the grids from the 18-20 they prefer, to 25-30 so that there is more on-track action. I think if the cars were more similar to those in the CART Toyota Atlantic series, the racing would be awesome, and the fans would be hooked.
Another thing CART needs to do is work towards getting sponsors who are interested in recruiting American drivers. Now I don't think they should just add more Americans for the sake of having Americans, but there are many competitive drivers from our country would would be perfect for CART. Experienced drivers like Alex Barron and Memo Gidley, as well as up and coming drivers like A.J. Allmendinger would be much more popular with the fans than Rodolfo Lavin and Tiago Montiero, and are much faster anyway. Unfortunately, rides for these drivers are hard to come by without the driver already having sufficent funding, which is why many talented drivers are left on the sidelines.
Failure to address these issues will only result in the continued questioning over the future of both the Cleveland GP, and CART itself."