Turn 10 and CARTs "Direction"

[Gurneyflap]

It struck me AGAIN in the aftermath of the St. Pete race, and was reinforced after viewing a fan photo on another site, that despite how successful the race may have been, the fan's view of the track STINKS! Look, I was at Denver last year and I knew enough to get tickets opposit a Jumbo Tron, because even though I chose turn 5 to watch from, what I could actually see was minimal. I do not plan to return. Out of deference to the fan who posted the picture of turn 10 at St.Pete I decided to post on THIS site, and say, his view STUNK! Gee, a pretty palm tree, oceans of bright silver chain-link, useless, empty bleachers in the background...I don't like it. I make no judgement on the relative success of the race itself, and the track there appeared to be way better than Denver or Miami, but do we want all our tracks to be like this? NOBODY can cast doubt on my credentials as a CART fan, a RACE fan. I have NO axe to grind, and would even like to see a Chicago lakefront venue (if we were to lose Road America) but here we are debating the loss of ovals in another thread. What about losing REAL road courses? I am heartened by the addition of Brands (Next year it'd BETTER be on the long course!) and Portugal, but I can hardly drive to those!

[tantra]

What is this all about?
I was at St. Pete for all three days. I walked the entire area and viewed the races from all vantage points. My resevered seat was at pit in, and there were three jumbo trons along the front straight.
The various other stands had a limited, but good viewing of an interesting portion of the course. I thought the views were great, with seating very close to the racing surface.

I've been to RA. Being a natural road course things are quite spread out and all viewing is from farther away than St. Pete.

Each venue has its good and bad features for spectators. In fact, oval racing provides the best viewing of auto racing.

So, what do you prefer to spend your money and time on? CART offers a variety in racing, that's what it's all about.

[Gurneyflap]

Good. Maybe this is what I wanted to hear. The track looked nice on TV, but don't we want races where ticket-buying fans can enjoy the view, too? I was "close" at Denver, also, but looking angle-wise through chain-link (and I was HIGH UP in turn 5) just doesn't cut it. I'm glad you had a good seat, but it seems at these tracks they're reserved for the people with $350 for a ticket. I just haven't heard enough posts like yours talking about what they could SEE as opposed to how good the race was.

[Railbird]

My experience at street courses, Long Beach and Belle Isle, tells me that you are always going to face a trade off between close proximity and panoramic view.

I enjoy the street races for what they are just as I enjoy the ovals for what they are. One can't expect the best points of either to be available at both.

[Gurneyflap]

Dammit, 'bird, there you go being logical and rational again. What are you, a psychotherapist? Can't you see I'm trying to inject some life into this stodgy ol' board? Crikey, pretty soon we're going to be posting about helmet designs and car paint schemes. I'll be brief..."Just Say NO to a City Racing League!" Geez, if we all agree on everything where's the FUN!?

[WickerBill]

Originally posted by Gurneyflap
Can't you see I'm trying to inject some life into this stodgy ol' board?

Thpppbt!

Rome wasn't built in a day.


I think the bigger tradeoff for street courses is large turnout in exchange for sometimes unwatchable "races".

[nrc]

CART has enough street races. We don't need anymore. Just say no to a new Houston street race.

That said, I enjoyed stand 8 in Denver where you could see the action in the "Mile Wide Turn" and a watch a jumbotron for the rest of the action. Is it practical to expect more than a one or two turn view at a street course?

The "event" at Denver was great. The racing sucked. Whether that will be the case this year after the prima donna purge and a little development, we'll see.

The risk CART takes by focusing on "events" is that the racing will continue to suffer. Without good racing the event-goers simply aren't going to tune in once you leave town. Pook seems at least concious enough of this to take steps to fix the racing and at least verbally support diverse venues. But is he motivated enough to turn down or fix bad street courses?

[Warlock!]

Originally posted by WickerBill
Rome wasn't built in a day.
Probably because of the damn drywallers... they can put any job behind schedule! :shakehead :mad: :rolleyes:

Winter Warlock!

[tantra]

If you want to see a race where you can see the race, come to Cleveland. It's been going on since 1982, and there's a good reason for that success.

[Gurneyflap]

Direction becoming VERY clear! Comment later!

[Dr. Corkski]

Event fans are rather useless when it comes to securing season long sponsors. They are good for one off sponsors which is why all the street races have sponsors but you don't see it leading to fully sponsored rides, because very few sponsors would want to pay for a whole season unless they have a market at all the street races and they don't care about lack of TV ratings. In other words, these street races haven't translated into TV ratings, probably because they don't show the beer tents on TV. A good road race on network TV would attract way more new fans than a crap street party.

But that's just my opinion.