F1
Maurice Hamilton 6y

Ten years on: An opportunity lost for F1 at Indianapolis

Formula 1

Despite being staged for eight years, the U.S. Grand Prix never felt totally at home in Indiana. And yet the running of the final race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2007 was disappointing, if only because it marked the end of yet another attempt to bring Formula One before an audience noted for its ambivalence just as much as its potential.

The IMS is to motor racing what Augusta is to golf in the U.S. In the eyes of one or two stalwarts, however, the staging of a grand prix for those fussy F1 cars on this hallowed asphalt was akin to digging up the 18th green to accommodate a Crazy Golf course.

Right enough, the F1 cars were running the main straightaway in the wrong direction for the first time in 91 years. They were occasionally turning right instead of constantly going left while hacking through tradition on a road course that had cost $40 million to construct in order to tempt F1 back to the US for the first time since 1991.

The U.S. Grand Prix had been to six homes in the previous 20 years. The important difference this time was that America had presented a permanent facility with a solid organisational infrastructure. The IMS was poles apart from shambling temporary street circuits such as the previous venue at Phoenix that had done little for either the image of F1 or the promoter's bank balance.

The IMS F1 circuit used part of the banking that contributed to Indycars heading not far south of 250 mp/h. With speed rather than lap time being the performance yardstick, it was difficult for the locals to get their heads around F1 cars averaging a modest 130 mp/h through the 13 corners, the final two on the infield being ridiculously tight, even by F1 standards.

Visual compensation came courtesy of F1 cars braking from 210 mp/h at the end of the straight, a wholly unfamiliar sight that brought gasps of amazement from spectators, more than 175,000 of whom had turned out for the inaugural race in 2000.

If the purpose of F1 racing in the US was to educate, then the grand prix world fell down badly when its insularity and high paddock fences struck a discordant note with a sports nation brought up on openness and contact with the players. Even more meaningful highlights -- both good and bad -- were to follow.

In 2001, it so happened that the grand prix was the first major public gathering in the US since 9/11. Despite the Schumacher brothers counselling pathetically against going, F1 did itself proud by providing the platform for an emotional and moving ceremony before the start.

The local community and the wider North American fan base thought much less of F1 four years later when a problem with Michelin tyres became political. With no apparent thought for the paying public, all Michelin runners were withdrawn at the end of the parade lap, leaving just six cars to compete. It was a total disgrace and, in 2007, the legal disputes were on going.

This being F1, financial discussions had never been far from the surface right from the start. The feeling in 2000 was that Tony George, the owner of IMS, was wealthy enough to absorb the fiscal difficulties that seemed to accompany long-term deals with Bernie Ecclestone. If grand prix racing in the US did not succeed at the IMS then, the reasoning went, it never would. In the end, George had endured enough and failed to agree terms for an extension to the contract.

Despite the usual rumours of races in New York, Las Vegas and San Francisco, the mood was pessimistic when F1 left the IMS for the last time on 17 June 2007. The subsequent and well-deserved success of COTA has exacerbated the feeling that Indianapolis was an opportunity lost -- for all sides. 

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