A-gyain I say......"Upgrade it.......they will come." :cool:
Yes, those are currently the compliant tracks. What would be interesting/fun/doable is Daytona using the same infield section they do for the Rolex 24 hours. I'm actually surprised I haven't seen this idea floating out there yet. Daytona (like Indy) has all the infrastructure and mystique. I'd also love to see them at Sebring, but that has the same issues as Road America, Laguna Seca.
Upgrade what? Road America? Even if you do that, you still have a track in the middle of nowhere. Hard to get to and zero infrastructure for 100k fans.
Been to Road America, yes on elevation. If you have a problem on last corner leading to start finish, you won't coast to your pit!!
'Don't get the fascination with ovals; 'specially big, high banked ones. 'Drove in the Rolex twice (long ago, before the bus stop even....) and couldn't wait for turn one to do some race driving rather than boooorrrring highway driving.
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I hear quite often that criticism about tracks nowadays. But Silverstone, Magny Cours and Paul Ricard are also in the middle of nowhere, so is the Nurburgring, and Hockenheim, probably a few other circuits. That never stopped them from hosting GPs and provide good racing. What is the priority when attending a GP? The racing or the accomodation with the nightlife?
Ovals are great test for engine reliability, since they run at high revs much longer than on road tracks.
Silverstone is in the middle of nowhere and the fans pay for that being stuck in traffic. Just as they are in Paul Ricard. Magny Cours was never popular with the fans for the same reason. That was a political boondoggle project (by Mitterand IIRC?) who wanted to get the economy in that part of France going but that never went anywhere. Nurburgring and Hockenheim are right on the German Autobahn and thus can connect to towns with hotels etc. Laguna Seca and Road America have regular country roads leading to them. A crowd of 100k would be impossible to get to and from. As for your last question: If I have to dish out several hundreds of $ for tickets and accomodation, I would like the trip to/from the track not to be a nightmare. I don't care too much about nightlife but I do not want to get stuck in traffic. Some places strike the perfect balance with a great track and fast access: Monza, Barcelona, Budapest, Monaco. Montreal isn't a great track but the transportation and the city embrace are unbeatable (short of Monaco and Nice).
I get it. True when I was attending GPs, I put up with a lot of traffic jams at different tracks. I used to leave Silverstone late in the evening to go home after a GP, having spent 4 or 5 hours listening to the radio in my car to avoid the rush. For Paul Ricard, at the begining I camped or slept in my car. That was for me an acceptable price to pay for watching racing. Later I had a camper van, so I was more self sufficient: I could eat and rest as I wanted. I never flew to a race, always drove there. The only exception was the Indy500 in 1984. What I hated was attending a race when it rained !!!