Why?
I know I've already stated my feelings about how crappy the state of NASCAR in SoCal is. But when the track president is endorsing the idea of making the track a restrictor plate track, you know things aren't well.
We all know that the drivers hate plate racing. The fans love it. I love it. But I also know that plate racing isn't real racing. 1/9th of the schedule is already made up of plate racing, and that seems sufficient. Adding another plate race, or G-d forbid, a second one, isn't going to make many friends in the garage.
However, Gillian Zucker knows that California Speedway needs fannies in the seats, and nothing plays better amongst the NASCAR crowd than plate racing. Sure, there's the whole issue of moving the California race dates--which needs to happen anyway--and the millions of dollars to redo the track. But hey, the track looks like it's going to have to be redone anyway because of the weepers, so they might as well go for it all.
My idea: Turn California into a Daytona road course prototype. Keep the frontstretch, turns one and two, and part of the backstretch. Eliminate turn three and most of turn four, and add in six turns between the backstretch and where turn four currently sits. None of the grandstand seating would have to be moved, and it could lure the IRL back to the speedway, and host some sports car events. And, if they're really ambitious, track officials could try to lure Formula 1 back to the states. You think Bernie Ecclestone would want to race near LA and Vegas?
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2 comments:
Yes! We need more road course racing in NASCAR.
I love the idea of F1 in SoCal. We're going to miss the Indy race this year, and that's not right. I say turn on the lights in California and race F1 at night.
an F1 race at night would be absolutely awesome.
If timed perfectly on a Saturday night (7 PT or later) it would be a perfect wakeup for F1 fans in Europe. A tad early, but would be spectacular.
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