? for road/street fans

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Permalink Reply by Wilsonfan on August 24, 2009 at 9:36pm

Totally agree with you--I'll be 62 years old August 29 (at Chicagoland) and for 37 years I've said road racing is terrific for the driver--horsey for the fans in the stands. Sonoma sets in the heart of wine country--we open wheel indy car fans have been dubbed "the wine and cheese" type for years--NASCAR types are the beer drinkers--all generalizations of course. Well, apparently all those California wine drinkers aren't interested in my favorite form of racing--so I pray that Road America can muster the funds to sanction an indy car race and let California go climb a tree. If, Iowa, with a population just barely over 3,000,000 can put 42,000 plus in the stands, and if California can't--then take it to Wisconsin where thousands will show up. AndI am not trying to pick a fight--I'm just curious as to how a larger fan base can ever happen when there are so few really good road/street races for potential converts to enjoy. Comment?

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Permalink Reply by xorpheous on August 25, 2009 at 8:52am

What he said ^^^

Mid-Ohio was jam packed, and was a fantastic event.

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Permalink Reply by Joe on August 25, 2009 at 10:11pm

TBA nice video's but why are you going back to 1993? You're living in the past. Lets deal with what we have today. That being said, I go back to my question. If some of you think road/street racing is so great, why were the stands empty this past weekend. Wilsonfan was the only one who gave me an answer that was worth reading. The drivers may like those courses, but for a fan watching on TV... BORING. Give me ovals all day long.

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Permalink Reply by xorpheous on August 26, 2009 at 10:13am

TBA is right. If you want to know why the stands were so vacant, ask SMI and the SF residents. Mid-Ohio was packed, as were most of the other street and road courses. Sonoma this year, which typically is a snoozer, was pretty decent this year. St. Pete and Toronto were outstanding, as was Watkins Glen. The first half of Mid-Ohio was really good, admittedly people were kinda settled in at the end.

I think what we as fans look sight of is that the type of racing and finishes we saw at Kentucky aren't usual. I remember MANY exciting 500s where the leader would win by a half a mile or more. Its all a matter of how you approach the event, and what you look for when watching. I enjoy watching the battles between two drivers. Maybe they pass each other, maybe they don't, but the fencing match for position - feint, parry, thrust, defend, attack - is very entertaining for me. Sonoma offered that in spades this year, as did Mid-Ohio, as did Toronto.

Its a lot like any other sport. Become familiar with all the subtle nuances of strategy, and the game is more exciting to watch. Football, for example, is far more entertaining as you learn the purpose of the different formations. You notice more things, you see plays develop, and you can admire the subtle things that separate a successful drive from a three-n-out. Road and oval racing are like that too. To someone who is only a fan of road racing and hasn't watched much if any oval racing will think it boring to watch cars "simply go around in circles", but those of us how are into it notice the subtle positioning of a challenger's or defender's car and see passes, troubles, and brilliant moves coming before they happen. That makes it more fun to watch. Road racing is no different. There's just a different set of cool things to watch.

Having said all this, I will freely admit that most television coverage of a road race is junk as they tend to focus on the leaders to the exclusion of the other positions. Very often, the most exciting racing isn't for P1, but for P5-8. Versus offered extremely poor coverage of Sonoma. It was disappointing given how well they've covered other races.

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Permalink Reply by CC8820 on August 29, 2009 at 7:42am

Ovals all day ? that is not the new Indycar Series. you must not hae liked CCWS. we need a good mix of all types of races to make this work the fans have spoken and now we have a 50-50 split. they do need to drop some races to bring back some others but they are making progress.

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