F1: Is Bernie That Spiteful of North America?...

Ever since F1 dropped the Canadian Grand Prix earlier this month, that's been the multi million dollar question. Since the fiasco at the 2005 United States Grand Prix, F1 in North America has slowly dropped off in popularity and stature, eventually leading to its removal in 2007 from the Formula 1 World Championship. The Canadian GP is a bit of a different story, as bad promoting and unpaid claims between promoters and F1 Supremo Bernie Ecclestone, head of Formula One Management.

All this makes me wonder...Is Bernie that spiteful of N. America? he even went on saying "Formula one doesn't even need America", shortly after the Indianapolis demise. Some time after that, the FIA has expanded to other tracks around the world - China, Turkey, Bahrain, and most notably Singapore and Valencia, Spain. Basically ignoring the US & Canada entirely

I believe that the continent deserves a race somewhere, anywhere!, personally. Its a global sport, and to take out a major continent, deprives all of the fans of F1 of actually wanting to see a great series around the world. Also, the series is based on manufactures, there's no denying that. Mercedes (McLarren), Ferrari, BMW, & Toyota all have a major automotive market here in N. America, and with the recent dropping out of Montreal, I believe it has irritated the manufacturers just a little bit more, to say the least.

"It is a problem that must be dealt with seriously by Ecclestone. F1 is a global sport and we must be in North America,"
Luca di Montezemolo, Ferrari Team President speaking on the issue, after Canada's demise

Recently, the mayor of Montreal, Gerald Trudeau, says its "still possible" to save the Canadian GP. I hope so, to be honest with you, and bring back the U.S. while you're at it, because we're not all huge fans of NASCAR, like many would believe. F1 is very different, as I know, watching a ferarri scream by me at 150 miles per hour and I was 5 feet away from the rumble strips. Don't deny the North American fans of something as exciting as that, Bernie.

Photo Credit: F1 Fanatic.co.uk

Unification - And The Long and Winding Road To It...

Finally, it took 12 years, hundreds of races, many gallons of fuel, and sets of tires to make it happen. The Indy Racing League's Tony George and Champ Car's (Formerly known as CART) Kevin Kalkhoven has reunited after a 12 year split, that has damaged the fabric of open wheel racing in North America. When I was a little kid, around 13 or so, I first had my real glimpse of open wheel racing with the Indianapolis 500 in 1995 - 1 year before the split. I was flipping through the television one Sunday afternoon, and i got to this channel, showing the beautiful Indianapolis Motor Speedway...as soon as Scott Goodyear passed the pace car, and lost the race due to a black flag penalty. Jacques Villenuve won that year, but the next year would be completely different. Of course i didn't know either series well, or the ramifications of what the split caused at the time. to me it was just more racing to watch on the television. So in 1996 I sat there, tape recorder in hand, to watch Buddy Lazier, a no name compared to the likes of Unser, Andretti, or Mears, win the famous race.

Over the years, I began to notice certain things about CART & The IRL - like the attendance being down at most, if not all of the IRL & CART events, Indy was slowly losing its infamous luster, and most fans were complaining about the Dallara & G Force chassis in the IRL being powered by the likes of Oldsmobile (soon to be Chevrolet) and Infinity, not sounding like "real" race cars. CART, on the other hand, had Unser, Zanardi, Andretti, the best road courses, street circuits, and ovals (except Indy) and Turbocharged Honda, Toyota, Ford & Mercedes Benz power with Reynard, Lola, & Swift chassis. Real race cars as some might have said, but this was all before CART CEO Andrew Craig resigned, and a succession of stand in CEO's came through the boardroom- Bobby Rahal, being the most notable, followed by the series eventually filing for bankruptcy in 2002, along with most of the well known Champ Car teams at the time, moving over to the IRL

In 2000, However, the very first sign of unification was a relatively small one - Chip Ganassi Coming to Indianapolis with Juan Pablo Montoya and Jimmy Vasser to race in the Indianapolis 500. Montoya Won the race, a feat no rookie has done since Graham Hill in 1966, but little did he know is that he, Jimmy, and the team started sowing the seeds of unification. years followed along with more CART teams coming to Indy (Roger Penske came the following year, winning with Helio Castroneves - Former CART driver) along with rumors, talks and statements....some true, some not so true, but they were all leading to the moment Robin Miller, of Speed Channel, leaked the story to the general public, earlier this year












So after realizing the years of politics, and angry fans, and watching both series crumble to NASCAR's overall dominance of the sport in North America, am I happy they got back together?

Yes..

but my only thing is that some people will unfortunately be left out in the cold, and it seems unfair, somewhat. Engine builder - Cosworth, has no where to go, along with a majority of Champ Car employees, and Panoz - chassis manufacturer to champ car. several tracks will also feel the blow, such as Toronto, Cleveland, Laguna Seca, Assen, and Edmonton, with Long Beach being one of the few tracks spared on the schedule. Time will tell on how far things will go between both series, and who knows...It may give NASCAR a run for its money, in the top spot of #1 morsport in North America.



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