I know in the "we need more ovals" debates these get brought up (Nashville more than Atlanta) but it appears the contract we sign with Barber/Zoom motorsports does not permit a race at these 2 ovals.
http://sports.yahoo.com/irl/news;_yl...abama-notebook.
I checked on Google Maps and it appears both just under 200 miles from Birmingham.
I'd rather have 10% of the world interested in the ICS than 50% of US that NASCAR currently has
Contracts expire...
Sorry I should have also noted this thenOriginally Posted by railroad
Contracts expire...
http://www.indycar.com/en/News/2012/...ion-in-the-bag
Color me stunned that an event in the deep south (NASCAR country) has done so well and it appears everyone is happy
At first glance you say, 'wow they're giving Barber a real exclusive' but I saw Ed Clark just celebrated an anniversary of being in charge of Atlanta Motor Speedway and going back he has seen CART and IRL sanction races there with low attendance. It's not likely that INDYCAR would find him willing to try again. Nashville, some people contended would be on the schedule as long as Firestone wanted it, apparently Firestone didn't want it badly enough. I don't think the drivers much cared for a high banked, one groove, concrete track anyway. They filled their reduced seating capacity, probably thanks to Firestone, so if the series ever gained more fans they wouldn't have expanded the seating so INDYCAR would outgrow the track. They might have Talladega in the contract too but so what..
That's kind of where you are with Barber. You'd like to see the series grow so that they outgrew it, and Birmingham but that doesn't look like it will happen any time soon. Barber does have the benefit of Honda having a plant nearby and considering the race sponsorship a good deal. You wonder how happy Barber would be if they had to go and seek out a title sponsor like a list of tracks NOT on the schedule.
"You can't arrest those guys, they're folk heroes"
"They're criminals"
"Well most folk heroes started out as criminals"
St Petersburg, Florida is not in the "Deep South"?It’s the only IndyCar event in the Deep South—NASCAR country—every year. ZOOM’s contract keeps nearby venues in Atlanta and Nashville from holding races as long as Barber has a race.
new sig pending
The farther south in Florida you go, the farther north you are.
It's a Hoosier thing, you wouldn't understand...
I have family in Jacksonville and they say the south ends there. At least on the coast. Inland south goes father south.
until you cross the Miami-Dade County Line... then you are more into the Caribbean and Latin America
I was astonished at how quickly Florida becomes country again once you get off I-95 and head West on almost any exit
Faster than a bullet from a gun
He is faster than everyone
Quicker than the blinking of an eye
Like a flash you could miss him going by
No one knows quite how he does it but it's true they say
He's the master of going faster. -George Harrison
I fully expect a race day crowd of 100,000 in five years. Mark it down. Their Derby reference is spot on - you have to create an image for your event and develop the bond with the community. I watched the race on TV and wondered if it was growing from year one. I guess so. Next step is to get the college crowd into it. Its a tradition like no other. The place to be when in Birmingham.
“Jealousy is the tribute mediocrity pays to genius.” -- Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
I sincerely hope that was a joke
"It takes a special level of incompetance to make a schedule this terrible. America is possibly the greatest country in the world overall for tracks. To make a bad schedule in America takes effort. A special kind of effort. A kind of effort that only IndyCar could come up with."
Felt like I was in the Deep south when I saw a race at East Bay
Not by a longshot. Maybe on a map, but culturally it's an equal combination of midwesterners, northeasterners, and latinos.
And I miss living there everyday
Considering there doesn't seem to be much on tap for Nashville and AMS wasn't ever in the conversation for a return, I don't see this as a big deal. Maybe as a precedent it isn't the best but whatever is happening at Barber is working. I'd go with it.
No man can cause more grief than that one clinging blindly to the vices of his ancestors. - William Faulker
I do not see the big deal for Atlanta. Road Atlanta has never been on the radar.
I think Road Atlanta is off the table because of safety issues. Open wheel cars would be too fast without enough runoff. Interesting that even in the 80s, Road Atlanta was never raced by Indycars.
Macon...errr...Atlanta Motor Speedway is highly doubtful for an Indycar return. The terrible crash they had there in 2001 was almost as bad as Vegas, except no one was killed. I went to visit AMS last year, and I never realized how remote the place is. It is a very good and nice facility, they've done a lot of work in the past 10 years or so bringing it up to modern standards....all that work to be used only one weekend out of the year.
AMS could be on the table if there wasn't a fear of the 1.5 milers like there is now. AMS only has one Cup race. But attendance will always be an issue there.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks