Why did they stop racing at Fontana?

[xtlm]

Same reasons as Michigan? or what?

[OWFan19]

Same reasons as Michigan? or what?


Yes, you can thank NASCAR and the ISC.

[mark123]

it had more to do with the lack of interest from the paying public then Nascar. if everyone that now complains about the cancellation of these events had actually turned up to watch the races - they would never have pulled the plug on them in the first place!!!

[OWFan19]

it had more to do with the lack of interest from the paying public then Nascar. if everyone that now complains about the cancellation of these events had actually turned up to watch the races - they would never have pulled the plug on them in the first place!!!

Not what was told to me by Mr. Toyota, I forget his real name but thats what everyone was calling him, he was the head guy for Toyota's Indy Car program. He said that NASCAR was causing schedualing conflicts, suprise suprise.

[ZzZzZz]

When they added the 2nd NASCAR race, the IC race became less valuable. The excuse was that ISC didn't want the IC date too close to the others, so the dates IC was interested in weren't acceptable.

IC was definately in the weak bargaining position. Was it a mistake losing the event? Or would it have been too costly to keep? Did losing Toyota's home race help pave the way for their exodus? Would the ISC have found another excuse if IC had been more flexible?

[Civic]

I wish Fontana gets another open wheel event...I don't care if it's Champ Car or IndyCar or both. I've attended every open-wheel event at Fontana since 1997. I also go a few times a year to watch amateur racing (NASA and SCCA) at the Fontana infield road course.

Long Beach is the only open-wheel event that I can drive to. I did drive up to Sonoma last year but it was too tiring to drive 8-9 hours one way. I would've driven to Las Vegas (I went to the previous CC events at LVMS) this year but I had to work.

[Mark in Oshawa]

Why they stop racing at Fontana? Money. NASCAR money and ISC's catering to the making of it killed this event. Just like it does at Michigan, and how the IRL was allowed to never succeed at Phoenix. The IRL was played for a patsy by NASCAR to supplment their NASCAR dates until they were not required any more.....but that is ok, the IRL fan means little in the grand scheme of things, and NASCAR is quite happy to keep screwing you IRL fans. Us CCWS fans...well, we saw NASCAR as the enemy for a while, too bad Tony George hasn't....

[OWFan19]

Why they stop racing at Fontana? Money. NASCAR money and ISC's catering to the making of it killed this event. Just like it does at Michigan, and how the IRL was allowed to never succeed at Phoenix. The IRL was played for a patsy by NASCAR to supplment their NASCAR dates until they were not required any more.....but that is ok, the IRL fan means little in the grand scheme of things, and NASCAR is quite happy to keep screwing you IRL fans. Us CCWS fans...well, we saw NASCAR as the enemy for a while, too bad Tony George hasn't....
:up:

[xtlm]

I thanks for the responses

I guess I do not understand the cost of running an event...

It is a facility that is only used a hand full of times a year, how would it hurt to put another event there

[nigelred5]

You have to spend money to promote it, pay the race purse and or sanction fee, cover the operating expenses, payroll for the part timers, ticket printing etc. It's not like a saturday night run what ya brung at the local drag strip where people just show up and pay a few bucks for a 50/50 gate ticket and a good time watching other guys blow up their daily driver.

Any given markets' fan and support base can theoretically only support so many major racing events within a given period of time. NASCAR has the money to drive competetion away from their events and of course they own Fontana, so if they don't want a competing series on their track or the additional series takes away potential sponsorship or attendance from their own event, it doesn't happen, end of story. Look at the ISC list of tracks, it only works if NASCAR/the France Family and the ISC allows it to.

[Old3Fan]

There wasn't enough fans to require that 1 bathroom be maintained, that's why.

[Lee Roy]

That's right guys, blame everyone else for the failure of the ICS and CART/CC to put a product on the track that would attract fans.

The bringing up of the loss of Phoenix is the biggest joke. "Indy Cars" (no matter what combination of alphabet soup was in charge) dated back to 1964 at that track. The current IRL finally killed 40 years of tradition. It looks like a form of racing with that kind of history at a track would attract more fans than attended Marlo Klain's wedding.

[ZzZzZz]

CART brought fans to Fontana. I do think it's possible, under the right circumstances, to have a successful OW race there again.

[nigelred5]

Fact is ISC has done virtually nothing to prmote either CART or the IRL at ANY of their tracks if the crowd is even close to an issue for the NASCAR event. CART drew well at Fontana, Phoenix and Michigan when Penske owned the tracks and the races were promoted. ISC doesn't promote anything the France family doesn't own.

[Lee Roy]

Fact is ISC has done virtually nothing to prmote either CART or the IRL at ANY of their tracks if the crowd is even close to an issue for the NASCAR event. CART drew well at Fontana, Phoenix and Michigan when Penske owned the tracks and the races were promoted. ISC doesn't promote anything the France family doesn't own.

I hope you have your tin-foil hat on straight.

[Mark in Oshawa]

LeeRoy, the product may be sucking more than it did, but you are the guy wearing a tinfoil hat if you think for one second that ISC hasn't been too enthusiastic about helping the IRL or Champ Car at its venues. The ovals that the IRL is doing well on now are not the ISC ones, but rather are the ones that the ISC doesn't control : Texas, Indy, Richmond, Iowa. Decent to great crowds at all of them. Michigan...well they about killed that one, but I am not going to nail them with the whole blame, but I will note that in driving around Michigan the last year or so, I have seen lots of MIS ads on billboards and they all promote the NASCAR races. I think there is some truth in advertising n'est pas?