11 replies to this topic

[J]

And if not, how about U.S. gp west to Long Beach? Now that CART is going down to drain..


-J

[Witt]

Yes i think he still is. Now that bernie and tony have formed a F1/IRL alliance in an effort to defeat CART, there is no hope in the world that F1 will ever return to long beach.

[J]

Thank you for the info. I guess, now we just have to wait for CART to implode..

-J

[917k]

I believe he gave that up to be CART CEO.

[RiverRunner]

Pook sold/traded his interest in the LBGP to Dover Downs,the promoters of the Dover Downs NASCAR race,the St Louis irl race and the LBGP.I believe that Dover Downs is also the future promoter of the Miami Grand Prix which to this day the France family mafia in the guise of ISC is trying to kill with every legal means available in order to protect "their" market of Homestead raceway and home of an irl race.
I think the only thing Pook gave up to be involved with running CART was his directorship on the Dover Downs board,it is possible for conflict of interest reasons that he had to divest his shares in DD,but I doubt it.
LB would suck in it's current design for F-1,and besides,Max would never let the Shoreline Straight remain as is without tossing in a gratuitous chicane.

[Toyoter]

I loved watching the races at Detroit and Long Beach as a kid, but I seriously doubt that the FIA would sanction another street race these days (besides Monaco, of course, but it wouldn't surprise me if BE got rid of that as well). Once the USGP is gone from Indy after 2004, I'm afraid that's it for F1 in the US. There are rumors that Bernie is talking to Pook about transforming CART into some sort of F1 feeder series for 2005, so that's probably what us Yanks will have to resort to if we want to see legitimate F1-style road racing in the flesh.

[TMinxLvr]

I think Pook still has some tenuous relationship to Dover Downs but I do not believe he has any official involvement at all with Long Beach. Having said that, I seem to recall that his long time second in command is in charge of the event so he might have some unofficial influence.

As for the life span of the USGP, I would not sign it's death warrant to quickly. I don't think that the manufacturers (mercedes, ford/jag, bmw, honda, toyota and ferrari) would say good by this market that easily. there is alot that can/could happen in the next couple of years.

If an american driver were to make it onto a team, interest and attendence in the US would increase dramatically. And frankly, although attendance was lower than previous years, it has been down everywhere this year and there were still a massive amount of people at the track sunday.

aloha.

[Buford]

I would suspect the F1 race will be renewed at Indy. Tony really needs another 5 years to ammortize the costs of the construction. He only makes the ticket money and analysis I saw showed the event would break even if they got 200,000 per year at current ticket prices.

They aren't getting that so while it is making money on a yearly basis now that the construction is paid for, it is not recouping the original construction costs. If it runs another 5 years though after 2004, even at 100,000 a year attendance, it should be enough to pay for the capital "improvements".

If Bernie doesn't substantially up the cost, it will be renewed I am pretty sure. The event is not a failure. It is just not making enough to pay back the original costs. If it runs longer, that will be taken care of.

[Toyoter]

Originally posted by TMinxLvr
As for the life span of the USGP, I would not sign it's death warrant to quickly. I don't think that the manufacturers (mercedes, ford/jag, bmw, honda, toyota and ferrari) would say good by this market that easily. there is alot that can/could happen in the next couple of years.

I think we may be overestimating the amount of interest the manufacturers have in keeping F1 in the US market. All of the companies you mentioned already do very well in this market and don't have any problems with brand awareness. F1 is obviously not very popular here, so I doubt they really see it as a necessary part of their marketing strategy in the States. Hell, Toyota, for example, didn't even have ANY sort of merchandise for sale anywhere at IMS. They didn't do ANY sort of promotional work in the week leading up to the race. They obviously don't give a damn if Americans are interested in their F1 team or not (much to my chagrin, of course).

I don't doubt that TG would want to keep the USGP going past 2004, but something tells me BE has other plans. I think he would rather sell the penultimate slot on the F1 calendar to some tiny island in the Pacific who will give him first choice of their most beautiful virgins each spring. He will then get his $$$ from the US market by striking up a deal with Chris Pook to turn CART into some sort of F1 feeder series starting in 2005.

[TMinxLvr]

who knows.

we will all have to wait and see. if they cancel the usgp, i will just have to drag my wife to montreal or europe. expensive but there are worse things in life. at least i have the resources, i feel sorry for those that do not.

no matter the sport, the fans are always the one to get the shaft.

aloha.

[Toyoter]

Originally posted by TMinxLvr
no matter the sport, the fans are always the one to get the shaft.

This is the one thing you can always count on .

[Buford]

Yeah - agreed.