FUMES

April 4, 2012

The downside of "bringing the racing to the people."

By Peter M. De Lorenzo

(Posted 4/2, 8:30 a.m.) Detroit. That the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama was going to be a decidedly better race than IndyCar's opener in St. Petersburg was a given. I don't care how you cut it, street races just can't compete with a natural-terrain road course for rhythm and flow and for generating real racing.

Sure there are exceptions. Monaco gets a pass because, well, it's Monaco and it counts as one of racing's four singular events (along with the Indianapolis 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Daytona 500). And the Albert Park circuit for the Australian Grand Prix is stunning simply because it's so wide-open fast. Hand raisers will bring up the Long Beach circuit but that's more of a happening than anything else, and it doesn't constitute a "great" racing circuit. The rest? They all suffer from the dreaded CSS syndrome (can't see shit) and they're not conducive to anything but "bringing the racing to the people" as promoters like to say, even though the subsequent race has anything to do with what can be defined as compelling road racing.

It can be stated that the Barber Motorsports Park - as beautiful and manicured as it is - isn't that great of a test for Indy cars, but still there were great duels all around the track and the action was non-stop. Did it give hope that this season will have more than its share of scintillating moments and cut and thrust racing action for a change? Sure, at least for oh, five minutes or so. Why? Because the remaining natural-terrain circuits IndyCar will run on this season are few and far between, as in two, Mid-Ohio and Sears Point (Infineon Raceway).

The other road racing venues? Long Beach, Sao Paolo, Belle Isle, Toronto, Edmonton, Qingdao and Baltimore. Street or temporary circuits all. Does this mean that there won't be good racing at these stops on the IndyCar schedule? No, of course not. But the dearth of natural-terrain circuits on the IndyCar schedule is a real issue. Racing fans have been promised a return to Road America by IndyCar for years, and allegedly that will happen in 2013. (I will believe it when I see it.) But at the same time, yet another street race has been added to the IndyCar schedule for next year, in Houston, which is another point-and-shoot circuit.

I get the fact that the "bringing the racing to the people" imperative is completely financially driven. Randy Bernard and the promoters of IndyCar really have no choice. If the street shows pay the fare, then that's where they have to go. But that doesn't mean that the reality of that doesn't completely suck, because it well and truly does. I don't think there's anything more frustrating for a road racing enthusiast than to have an IndyCar race come to a street circuit close by, only to discover that the experience leaves a lot to be desired. Inevitably they leave the weekend feeling overcharged and underserved. And that's a giant bowl of Not Good.

It would be nice to see real road racing take over the meat of the non-oval IndyCar schedule, but that's not going to happen anytime soon. So in lieu of that road-racing enthusiasts will have to mark their calendars and plan to attend IndyCar races at the few natural-terrain venues the series runs on.

And the best thing I can say about it at this point is that it's better than no real road racing at all.

Publisher's Note: As part of our continuing series celebrating the "Glory Days" of racing, we're proud to present another noteworthy image from the Ford Racing Archives. - PMD

(Dave Friedman, Courtesy of the Ford Racing Archives)
Riverside, California, November 26, 1967. Rex Mays 300, Riverside, CA, 1967. Dan Gurney drives his No. 48 All American Racers Olsonite Eagle-Weslake Ford to victory in the Rex Mays 300 Indy car race at the famed southern California circuit. Gurney started on the pole and averaged 107.17 mph over the 300-mile race distance. The star-studded field included A.J. Foyt (No. 14 Sheraton/Thompson Coyote Ford), Mario Andretti (No. 1 Dean Van Lines Brawner-Ford), Jim Clark (No. 21 Sperex Vollstedt-Ford), John Surtees (No. 24 Mecom Racing Bowes Seal Fast Lola-Ford), Bobby Unser (No. 2 Bob WIlke Rislone Eagle-Ford), Al Unser (No. 5 Retzloff Chemical Lola-Ford), George Follmer (No. 17 Vollstedt Bryant Heating & Cooling Vollstedt-Ford), Johnny Rutherford (No. 45 Weinberger Homes Eagle-Ford), Jerry Titus (No. 11 Autoteria Car Wash Horton-Ford), Lloyd Ruby (No. 25 Gene White American Red Ball Mongoose-Ford) and many more. Gurney, the acknowledged Master of Riverside, was followed home by Bobby Unser and Mario Andretti. Clark suffered an engine failure. A.J. Foyt would win the USAC Champ Car Series that year followed by Andretti and Bobby Unser. See the first part of the original ABC WIde World of Sports coverage of the event here.

Publisher's Note: Like these Ford racing photos? Check out www.fordimages.com. Be forewarned, however, because you won't be able to go there and not order something. - PMD

See another live episode of "Autoline After Hours" with hosts John McElroy, from Autoline Detroit, and Peter De Lorenzo, The Autoextremist, and guests this Thursday evening, at 7:00PM EDT at www.autolinedetroit.tv.

By the way, if you'd like to subscribe to the Autoline After Hours podcasts, click on the following links:

Subscribe via iTunes:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=311421319

Subscribe via RSS:

http://www.autolinedetroit.tv/podcasts/feeds/afterhours-audio.xml