D-E-B-A-C-L-E. Can't wait to hear the positive spin on this embarrassment of a race. If the track has any integrity, they'd refund all of the fans' ticket money. BHW
The series? At this pace the whole series will be over pretty soon. I hope race fans get a refund. I am sitting on my couch and I want a refund! Can't imagine putting up with canceled qualifying and then this crap of a race. I used to go to PIR, and Long Beach. But I'm done with it. WAY too many yellow flags, and too many laps under caution. They brought today's crash fest on their own. Gaby Chavez got pushed by some random fat guy, but they kept going under caution for 4-5 more laps. And then, well, we did not get any more laps under green. And the worst thing, is that at the end the fastest guys do not win. The top 4 did NOTHING, but get lucky with their pit stop sequence. This is very sad.
You want race fans to get a refund because Indy drivers can't cope with puddles ???? I wish F1 had similar issues. Today's race in China was a yawn from start to finish. If we had magically transferred events, I'm certain F1 fans would be on the edge of their seats with the results from Mississippi.
I'll take a fiasco in F1 any day of the week over a grid to finish finish. Odds on the Chinese GP finishing the way it did compared to NOLA would be infinitesimal, although I'll easily admit, neither race was satisfying or involving.
And the complements just keep on coming!!! At this rate they will be out of business before Indy! Can I interest anyone in a NASA Prototype?? At 60k for a new car, you too can look like Indy Car!!!
here's a pic of the crowd... for a first time event with a terrible forecast, I gotta say I'm impressed. did they give free drinks with each ticket? I just hope these guys see through the cluster that was this weekend and give it another shot, assuming there's another race here. Image Unavailable, Please Login
on the flip side, here's a friend's rental car....in the competitor's parking lot! I'd hate to see where the fans had to park! Image Unavailable, Please Login
I only caught the last part of the race, and wow, was dramatic sport! "Under yellow, look at the puddles, ready to start, GREEN GREEN....YELLOW YELLOW".... repeat about 4-5 times as cars go off course almost as soon as every yellow goes green. Yes, that one photo shows a couple thousand fans on the start finish line I assume...but, uh, well, I guess it's been a long time since Indy racing brought out big crowds. Would love to see it back to it's now long ago popularity, but dang, I don't see it happening. In between China F1 and Indy NOLA today I also saw some of the motorcycles at COTA, and while I have never followed it before, that was fun to watch!
Hi Chas, The grandstands are very small on the front straight only and very little access to view from the last turn building. It was cool to watch this race because I raced that track for the 1st time ever being on it last month. I'm off to my 1st time at VIR next week then to Daytona. I wish I had access to and could stomach those simulators.
who did you race NOLA with? The PCA guys all rave about it. it's a nice facility for club racing but not up to IndyCar status IMO. agree on the grandstands, not a huge amount of seating but nice to see them mostly full.
SCCA Majors weekend. It was a fun track very technical with some good high speed. My car was lacking on the back straight chicane. I just could not keep all the power down. The rest of the track is pretty simple. There is lots of good safe runoff that if taken costs you time but you don't wreck. The end of the front straight inside line is very bumpy. You late brake guys there trying to overtake and go into the bumps and hold on hoping it will stick. Lots of places to set up clean passes. I like well designed safe tracks. The facilities are very nice but sort of like CoTA management in that a big group comes like SCCA and they lock up all the buildings like we are going to graffiti them or something. They need more vantage points for viewing. Some of the best parts of the track you can't see. The grandstands were still under construction last month so I could not see if the elevation helped seeing the track. But I don't think so. All in all a great venue...racing airport, and Bourbon street 20 miles apart. Great Food!
First time races have problems. The very first Miami Grand Prix was plagued by heavy rain but went on to be a very successful event for many years. The '91 IMSA race in downtown New Orleans was in June and was red flagged and ended during a thunderstorm. If the rain had been steady, no one would have gone to slicks and they probably would have had less cautions. You have to realize the location of the track and there is no natural drainage. They drew a good size crowd in a region that is really not known for any racing other than dirt ovals and dragstrips. The weather is really unpredictable in south Louisiana and they got some bad luck with that. The track was not built to hold professional races but I remember Barber wasn't either and they put on a good race in Birmingham. They certainly should learn from this first one and hope they make corrections and improve.
I saw an announcement this morning that the start time had been moved up to try and beat the weather. Unfortunately, that didn't work. One positive about this place is that the grandstand patrons can see the whole course, rare for a road circuit. Reminds me of the Cleveland airport layout, one which I wish the series would return to.
The NOLA Raceway reminded me of two other tracks, both carved out of swamp land as well, Palm Beach International Raceway and the other track near New Orleans, No Problem Raceway. When this event was announced, it struck me as curious as they've already got a good situation at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama. So, now they've got two venues virtually in the heart of NASCAR country within 300 miles of each other. So, now the Indy Car teams have to go from NOLA to Long Beach and then back to Birmingham again. That's a lot of crisscrossing of the country within a very short period of time. Dunno, there just don't seem to be any easy answers when it comes to Indy Car these days. A lot of excellent venues that they're overlooking while compressing their sixteen race schedule into a seven month period. BHW
I wouldn't call New Orleans the "heart of NASCAR country". I think of it as unclaimed territory for racing, might as well go to Indycar. agree on the logistics of the calendar. add in the mad dash for testing the aero kits right before St Pete and there's going to be some tired crews after Barber... forgot about No Problem Raceway. looking at their schedule it doesn't look like much goes on there anymore but local drag nights.
What a joke this race was and the management of the series has become! After watching the race with my son, I mentioned to him that thankfully we taped this waste of time and only lost around 60 minutes of my weekend to it.
It won't get any better...time to put it to rest and resurrect without the clowns currently involved (notably Hulman / George family).
8k people. imagine if F1 or NASCAR only had 8k people show up...hell, WEC had 40k at Silverstone yesterday...
