Milwaukee Gone, For Good

[Andy Traxel]

I've lived in the Milwaukee area for 50 of my 54 years. I saw my first open wheel race at the Mile in '69 and proabably saw 50 or so since then.

I'm also about 75 mile from Road America and have probably been there for motorsports events more than 50 times.

I also know someone on the RA board and know a little bit about race promotion from them.

My opinion is that the Indy Car race at Mile failed because of the nature of the racetrack business these days. It hasn't help that onership and management of the track are fragmented.

In the late '60's & '70's there were 6 major USAC races at the Mile. 2 open wheel races and 4 stock car races. USAC stock car fields had names like Foyt, Jones, Bobby Unser and McCluskey in them back then and drew well. The open wheel races were sell-outs or damn near it.

With the demise of the USAC stock car series and open wheel races cut back to one a year, there hasn't been enough big time racing to keep the track busy. That's made life tough on whoever has been the promoter. I think its an earlier example of what loosing their Sprint race did to the Nashville track. Oval tracks need to be owned by the sanctioning bodies these days.

The open wheel split was a big injury as well. It split the crowd and still hasn't healed. This year they tried a race again but gave the promoter Father's Day instead of the tradional wekend after the 500. As if lots of people don't have tradional family event or other plans on Father's Day. And SCCA June Sprints at RA were that weekend this year. To expect much success with this schedule in one year was foolish.

BTW, RA has plenty going on. Not all for public attendance though.Road America is privately owned and still out in the country. They're busy renting the track out for testing during the week and club events on weekends. The national Porsche Club has rented Labor Day weekend forever for example. Lots of things you can't do as readily at a track in the middle of a metropolitan city.

[bratfry]

I talked to an individual that said he saw three indy cars on the track of Road America the weekend of Sept 11. He said they were different from the current design, maybe the new type. Does anyone want to read anything into that?

[chuck34]

I talked to an individual that said he saw three indy cars on the track of Road America the weekend of Sept 11. He said they were different from the current design, maybe the new type. Does anyone want to read anything into that?

Only one new IndyCar exists. The SCCA run-offs are comming up this week. Last week was a practice week starting Monday the 12th. So I'm guessing that the weekend of the 11th was rented by someone with Formula Atlantics, Continentals, or Fords, and your friend wasn't sure what he saw. I could be wrong though.

[Dr. Krogshöj]

Rumor has it, Loudon will also bite the dust and we'll have new street races at Detroit, Porto Alegre, maybe Houston and Qingdao. I bet Randy's promose to keep the balance between ovals and road/street courses will go to the dumpster just like the original $5 million Las Vegas gimmick. It will be closer to 1/3 vs 2/3.

[Chris R]

wow, if this is true we are by-passing recreating CART and going straight to Champcar...... yikes!!

although, a bad oval is, imho worse than a bad street race (both as a fan watching a race and as an observer seeing empty stands) - but you cannot change the fact that a bad race is a bad race......

[SarahFan]

1/3 oval
1/3 street
1/3 RC
Balance

[chuck34]

1/3 large oval (>2 mile)
1/3 small oval (<2 mile)
1/3 street/road

That's balance to me. But I suppose I'm in the minority.

[NickFalzone]

Randy is a businessman, and first and foremost, his new oval (NH) completely tanked this year, and his new street circuit (MD) was a big success. I am supremely bored by the road courses, and about half the time like any given street or oval race. So my preference would be to get out of places like Mid-Oh or Barber. But dropping NH in favor of, say, Houston would not necessarily make me go cry in a corner. The fact of the matter is that no one shows up at IndyCar oval races, except for Indy and I guess Iowa. If keeping the series alive means going to tracks that people will show up at, then that's just business imo. As primarily a tv viewer, I can always change the channel.

[Dr. Krogshöj]

I guess you have to follow the money. US open wheel fans seems to prefer road/street courses and avoid ovals and who I am to criticize their choises. It is only for my own selfish reasons I don't like the direction the series is going. Here in Europe, I can follow any number of road racing series. US open-wheel racing gave me the change to see something different. Well, actually they didn't, they took away the live feed this year, but I downloaded the races anyway. At the beginning of the season, anyway. Then only the ovals. I feel the Vegas finale will be the last one I download.

BTW, here is the link for the NHMS rumor. http://www.newhampshire.com/article/...newhampshire03

[bugeyedgomer]

I guess you have to follow the money. US open wheel fans seems to prefer road/street courses and avoid ovals and who I am to criticize their choises. It is only for my own selfish reasons I don't like the direction the series is going. Here in Europe, I can follow any number of road racing series. US open-wheel racing gave me the change to see something different. Well, actually they didn't, they took away the live feed this year, but I downloaded the races anyway. At the beginning of the season, anyway. Then only the ovals. I feel the Vegas finale will be the last one I download.

BTW, here is the link for the NHMS rumor. Allen Lessels Motor Sports: IndyCar series unlikely to return to NHMS | New Hampshire SPORTS

one problem with your thinking. As Wilke, Howard, and Schaffer have told you over the past 20 years, road and street race attendees aren't real open wheel fans; they, like the people who go to indy every year, are just event fans