Indycar (back) to belle isle in 2011?

[Bob Riebe]

You can have both, look at Circuit Giles Villeneuve, the race track hosts a number of runs, competitive cycling events, concerts and other events, and there's no reason why Bell Isle can't be upgraded in a similar way.

It wouldn't take much to expand and straighten The Strand to eliminate turns 8-12 and make the Casino turns into one big hairpin with permanent seats for a concert area. It wouldn't take much

Part of Belle Isle is still-- a park -- you know with trees etc.
Do what is listed above and that is gone.
It become another glorified parking lot with a few trees here and there.

[EagleEye]

Belle Isle was always intended to be a corporate event for the automotive industry. In addition to the car makers, you have all the tier 1 and 2 suppliers supporting the race.

While Cleveland is a no brainer from the fan stanpoint, a race in Detroit would have strong corporate support. The poor economy, expecially within the automotive industry is the main reason it went away.

While you can not see a thing while you are there, there have been some good races that made for good TV.

[nigelred5]

Part of Belle Isle is still-- a park -- you know with trees etc.
Do what is listed above and that is gone.
It become another glorified parking lot with a few trees here and there.

Monza is a park.................. with far more trees.


We're not talking about making it a Tilkedrome with a 100 foot wide racing surface..I'm hardly advocating destroying a park. Both can co-exist and both can improve upon one another. It's pointless as neither are going to happen in this decade or likely the next.

[mileman]

Can we please get Cleveland instead????

I've only seen one race at Burke Lakefront in person and it was great stuff.

"They're going 7 wide into turn one." Ha!

Bring it back! Please!

[Mark in Oshawa]

Go back To Cleveland and forget Belle Isle. All this talk of making it a better racing track presupposes two things: ONE, someone will pony up the money to make all these changes, pave new track, put up a pit complex and the like. If the money was there, the money would be in supporting teams. The money would be in the economy and maybe teams would have sponsors. No one is going to pay to remediate Belle Isle into having a better racing track when Detroit is broke, corrupt and needing the be swept clean of the vermin who inhabit it's city government. TWO, putting the race back on Belle Isle is also presupposing the obvious issue that you assume it was a good race to watch on TV or in person in the past. It was neither.

AS much as I don't mind road courses, I do think the ovals have to be in balance for entertainment value. Go back to MIS if you are so desparate to race in Michigan...

[Bob Riebe]

Monza is a park.................. with far more trees.


We're not talking about making it a Tilkedrome with a 100 foot wide racing surface..I'm hardly advocating destroying a park. Both can co-exist and both can improve upon one another. It's pointless as neither are going to happen in this decade or likely the next.

When was the race track at Monza built?
Why does it have chicanes that destroyed the nature of the track?

Road America was butchered for Indy cars, what they would do to that park because the trees would make it either a walled joke, or they would cut the trees down so the cars would not fly into them.
The faster they go, the greater a joke a track becomes now for "safeties" sake.
Too many Chicken-Littles set the standards nowadays.

Bring up a satellite picture and look to see how many trees would be cut-down for ANY widening or paved-over additions.

[jwhite9185]

i seem to remember there being a good finish in 1997 - although that had nothing to do with the track!

when the race came back a few years ago was the paddock area still grass and spectators had to park in the city and catch a bus in?

[nigelred5]

When was the race track at Monza built?
Why does it have chicanes that destroyed the nature of the track?

Road America was butchered for Indy cars, what they would do to that park because the trees would make it either a walled joke, or they would cut the trees down so the cars would not fly into them.
The faster they go, the greater a joke a track becomes now for "safeties" sake.
Too many Chicken-Littles set the standards nowadays.

Bring up a satellite picture and look to see how many trees would be cut-down for ANY widening or paved-over additions.

You mean The Monza that is still the fastest track in F1? It has chicanes because Italian law allows prosecution if a driver is injured and a certain accident in 94 scared the bjeezus out of the sport. Why does IMS have safer barriers?


Already have looked at satellite pics. Many times actually. Considering I can count individual trees in many of the areas of the track on Google, Bing and Yahoo, Not nearly as many as you would make it sound. The track doesn't take up even a 1/4 of the island and much of the area already is developed, and the paddock area was already paved which doesn't show in the images. Trees can be moved as well. We moved 25 40+ foot tall trees recently when we built a new multi purpose facility with seperate soccer, football and baseball fields.

Again, we don't have to worry aout it because Detroit isn't recovering enough to support any race anytime soon, and there isn't a loader big enough to dig all the corruption out of Detroit's government. Belle Isle will continue to decay just like the city it's a part of.

[MDS]

Bring up a satellite picture and look to see how many trees would be cut-down for ANY widening or paved-over additions.

Heaven forbid we ever cut down a tree....

Seriously, whatever trees would have to be taken could be moved and planted elsewhere. Many parks have large amounts of hardscape, the example that comes to mind for me is Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, lots of concrete and very few trees.

[Bob Riebe]

Heaven forbid we ever cut down a tree....

Seriously, whatever trees would have to be taken could be moved and planted elsewhere. Many parks have large amounts of hardscape, the example that comes to mind for me is Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, lots of concrete and very few trees.

That is an obtuse statement.

Lets see, how long does it take to grow a sixty-foot tree, oh yeah, a year or two so just plant some more.

Have you been there, I have, racing there, much less spending millions, to ruin an existing park, for a half-assed racing series is asinine.