Formula One in Texas

LAS VEGAS GRAND PRIX: Robert Doornbos drives his #14 Minnardi Team USA Panoz DP01 Cosworth during the Champ Car World Series Vegas Grand Prix on April 8, 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Image Credit: daylife

F-1 in Texas
(Editorial)

I remember the Dallas Grand Prix (Trans-Am Race), the F-1 Races held in Vegas and Phoenix blunders.

The race will happen in Texas because the money will be there, but it will be a joke like the last race at Indy was. Clearly someone in Texas is writing a large check to have the race there. I just hope it's some Private money and not the tax payers.

Having a Formula One Race (or any open wheel race) on a temporary Street Course is always a bad idea, and should be limited to Long Beach and Monaco period. So I hope they find a way to use a track already near where they want to hold the race or build one.

The teething problems with a first time race that has promoters and driver's egos the size of the Grand Canyon will only make what has to be a bad idea in the first place much worse. The lone exception I think was the very first IRL race at Disney World in Orlando. Plenty of hotels, great parking, efficient and friendly crowd control, and a staff that said, "Thank You for Coming".

When I heard it, I stopped, went back and said excuse me, what did you say? In over 50 years of attending Motor races all over the World, that was the first time ever, I had heard anyone say "Thank You for Coming". So the secret for sure must be have a staff that handles tens of thousands of people every day, to staff your Race Track.

Long Beach and the fine people who put on the Long Beach GP for all these years know what they are doing, NOW. But it took a few years to get the program correct.

Look at all the ill fated attempts to put on races in the streets and parking lots of cities like Denver, San Jose, Houston, Phoenix, and Las Vegas. One hit wonders never to be seen again. The race needs to be at Watkins Glen, Laguna Seca (sorry Gill & Dean), Road America, Infineon, Road Atlanta or some other fine Road Course. However, the Texas F-1 promoters (who have connections with NASCAR, and) could book a Sprint Cup, Nationwide, or Truck Race on the same weekend in Texas so maybe they would sell more than a few hundred tickets this time.

I look forward to having Formula One back in the US, and I will be there with bells on. But lets get the FIA and F-1 to come back to the US and make a permanent home at a track with trees, hills, shade, and history.

Dicken Wear