Track Tac

F1 and the United States total lack of participation.

paulkish said:
I don't think road racing is much fun to watch and that's why there's not more of it. Nobody's going to put "big" money into something, very few in the country care about.
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Actually, road racing is more predominant world wide than oval racing. Media here in the US only chooses to cover what is popular here in the US. Watch the Australian Supercars sometime. It's basically NASCAR stockers on steroids. Anyone who cannot find THAT entertaining doesn't appreciate real racing.

I have totally lost interest in F1. Obviously not because of being road courses but the politics involved within it's organization. They've evolved into something that barely resembles a race car anymore and basically parade around a race track, computers taking much of the one time driver input away from them, and rarely getting wheel to wheel to battle for position as used to.

Sure, roadracing may not be as much fun to watch to some, but if you lose your race dates at most road courses, you lose them for good as there is someone in line to fill it. So interest is there. Basically roadracing is if more interest to a participant than a spectator so it depends on which you choose to be.
 
Motorcycles is where its at. Watch MotoGP. Those guys are incredible athletes and have some good close races. The 125 & 250 classes are incredible also. They're so equal and smaller power plants keeps them bunched. Awesome racing.
 
PCGP said:
I think there is a simple answer here.

Why is football so popular as a spectator sport? Because it's available to everyone with a football, some friends, and a field. They can play it, and then they can watch the pros and learn from the best. They play as kids in middle school, high school, college, etc.

Why is racing not so popular as a spectator sport in the United States? Because it's not as readily available. Kids do not play it in middle school and high school. They grew up with a different hobby, why would they suddenly switch? What reason is there for that?

SO, how do we fix this? It's simple: MAKE IT AVAILABLE TO PEOPLE AS KIDS. Once the kids take interest, they will get hooked. They will grow up racing. They will watch the pros so they can learn from the best. They will have kids, and they will teach their kids to race.

How do we make it available? OPEN MORE TRACKS! Make it affordable for people to get into and stick with! Once there is a demand for racing in the US, it WILL grow! People will sell you whatever you want as long as they can profit!

I'm a racing fan like everyone else on this forum. I don't personally own any karts. I grew up on bikes, so that's why I have bikes now. I'm trying desperately to open an indoor kart track in Pulaski, Virginia. March is a CRUCIAL month as we are holding a track credit pre sale. The outcome of the pre sale determines whether or not we can open our doors.

Please, if you have ANY interest check us out.

Link for the pre-sale: https://peakcreekgp.tilt.com/peak-creek-grand-prix

Link to our Facebook page with a bunch of information for you to chew on: https://www.facebook.com/PeakCreekGP
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While I cant disagree that we need to get kids interested it's tough for them TO get interested.

The gear-head in me loves any race car, F1, NASCAR, Sprint Cars, Rolex Sports Cars, hell even MotoGP and AMA Super/Motocross.

The problem is kids younger than me (I'm 26) do not have an interest in mechanics. They don't want to work with their hands and don't want to work on a vehicle. That's half the battle. How many of you love cars or love working on cars? Now look at how old you are. You're a dying breed.

If you can get kids interested in cars, you'll get people interested in racing since they go hand in hand.
 
The-Hawk7 said:
If you can get kids interested in cars, you'll get people interested in racing since they go hand in hand.
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and then you have guys like me, who would just have to look inside his Christmas gift windup cars to see what made them work. Getting them back together was always a problem The very first Christmas gift I can remember was a small plastic midget racer. Just what I wanted. We're talking poor people during the big war.
 
I'm kinda' shocked that we've retained some F1 races (tracks), let alone developing a team, via Haas.
It will be interesting to see if Haas chooses any naturalized American drivers or if foreign money paves the way for foreign drivers. I can see it going either way. I bet at least one of the drivers will be experienced, and capable of offering tuning insight.....just so long as it's not Jacques Villeneuve (who I used to like, before he turned fat and lazy. He used to be able to drive, now he relies on bumpers.)
 
I've watched F1 closely for nearly 20 years. The first lap is always exciting. If qualifying is a good representation of race pace then you shouldn't expect a lot of passing in the race. It's the moments, such as pulling off an improbable pass on a world champion, or coming through the field from last to first after a spin or a problem, that make it exciting. But if you're interested in the engineering aspect then even the no-passing parade is interesting because 10+ teams all built their own car from the ground up and have different solutions to the same challenges. It's not the most exciting racing product in the world, but it ranks highly among the most interesting, largely because of the cars and also the diversity of teams and drivers. I wouldn't expect everyone to enjoy it.
 
PCGP said:
How do we make it available? OPEN MORE TRACKS! Make it affordable for people to get into and stick with! Once there is a demand for racing in the US, it WILL grow! People will sell you whatever you want as long as they can profit!
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I gotta be honest, I don't think it's nearly nearly that simple. We can open as many tracks as we like, that doesn't address the comparative cost of karting vs other hobbies for parents. Of course the more tracks we open, the more diluted the market becomes which affects profitability.
That said, I support your effort and I'd like to get it infront of more people. Send me a PM, or email me at james at kartpulse d0t com
 
Watched a program last night about F-1, it was titled, "1", and it just served to remind me as to why I refer it to, "Farce-1", many drivers were sacrificed to their "Money god".
 
Haas F1 driver speculation: If he heals, Jules Bianchi would be a shoe-in for a seat with his Ferrari connection. Alex Rossi would make a great test/reserve driver and possibly take a race seat. Kevin Magnussen might be keen for a race seat if he is not in line to succeed Jenson Button at McLaren.
 
Alex Rossi signed up for another year in Gp2, he could potentially take a HAAS seat, but that will not change anything, especially since HAAS has a steep learning curve.
 
Honestly if you want an american GP driver, my money would be on graham rahal. He's terrible on ovals but very very good on the road courses. I think F1 would suit graham better than an indy car.
 
Graham Rahal doesn't have the money or political pull he needs, I think. And while he may be good, he's not VERY VERY good. Even Conor Daly isn't VERY VERY good, and he's better than average and at least has European race experience. It will be interesting to see where the rumor pool takes things...
 
...and Scott Speed is too old now and has been away too long. Gary Carlton would be an interesting choice.
 
71 chevy said:
13 minutes of exciting finishes across all forms of racing. shockingly, nothing from formula 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G759VKYWbYA
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lots of senior sportsman action. Keep the speed down and everybody can make it work. Put it on the edge and you find out who's the best.

All race action is copyrighted, and you need permission from the owners of the copyrights to show it. We don't know if the F1 allows people to put their race action in this kind of a video. Bernie keeps a tight reign on it.
 
The biggest difference is in F1 a driver has a very short time frame in which to prove he can get the job done...if not they will find someone else who can. This is very different too what happens here in the USA. Another major factor that can extend your F1 career as a driver is the ability to assist in the development of the chassis.

I thoroughly enjoy every aspect of F1. From a logistical aspect...no other racing series compares, from a technical aspect...no other racing series compares....from a drivers skill level...no other racing series compares.

As for excitement....crashes....shoving....pushing...controlled competition....doesn't qualify as excitement! If you here any driver say he would rather run in a pack all day and win a race in a photo finish as opposed to getting out front and driving away....he's lying...
 
I feel the best road course driver we've had here in the States has been Scott Pruitt. I guess he's getting up in years now too.
 
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