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Originally Posted by Uncle Bob
What I do like is this:
It's accessible (You can still talk to the drivers in person)
It's competitive (No Dynasties)
It's affordable (I can't fly to Monaco, much less watch a tiny part of the race)
It's understandable (The cars are semblances of street vehicles)
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While it may be accessible, it's got nothing on ALMS where I got to have my picture taken in front of the Audi R8 that won LeMans as it sat on the grid and wish JJ Lehto good luck before he stepped into the car (the grid is open to the public at Mosport and from what I understand will be at most/all ALMS venues next season.
If you don't think there are dynasties, have a look at how many teams have won the Cup over the last few seasons.. Three wins for Gibbs (stweart (2) and B. Labonte), 2 for Rousch (Kenseth and Busch), one for Yates (Jarrett), and five for Hendrick including four straight with Gordon (4 total) and T. Labonte (1).
While Schumacher has definately been dominant over the last decade in F1, the numbers aren't all that different from NASCAR. Schu does have 6 titles in those 10 years, but by the measure of the teams Ferrari have 5, McLaren have two (Hakkinen), Williams have two (Hill and Villeneuve), and Benetton and Renault each have 1.
Affordability? For the teams and competitors yeah, but not for fans. My buddy paid more for his Bristol ticket this year than two of us paid to rent a car, drive to Indy, buy our F1 tickets, and pay for gas and hotels. Yeah the race definately sucked but it was an aberration we're not likely to ever see again in modern F1.
I can see the udnerstandable part. The cars are familiar looking and let's face it, it doesn't take a whole lot of attention to follow the pack around the track. And there's the rah rah USA thing - see how many people recently polled like the idea of Toyota entering next year..
But you're never going to see anything like Alonso passing Schumacher on the outside of the 180R at Suzuka. Or watching 18 Champ Cars go from 190 mph to 40 on a public road in the braking area of the back stretch in Toronto. You'll never see anything like Senna and Prost duking it out over 16 races, each trying to beat his teammate to the championship.
But there's a god point about the drivers - American kids these days want to drive cars, and their heroes are guys named Earnhardt and Gordon and Stewart. They're more likely to get into quarter midgets on dirt and late models on pavement ovals. European kids want to go karting and their heroes are guys named Alonso and Schumacher. NASCAR's got it easy as far as driver recognition goes - when your two gateway series (Trucks and Busch) are televised the public already knows the rookies names. How many of you have ever seen an Atlantic race? Formula BMW? Star Mazda? F3000? GP2? Only hard-core open wheel guys had heard of people like Bourdais, Junquiera, and Montoya before they became Champ Car drivers.
It used to be that kids wanted to be Unser or Andretti or Mears. Now they look up to the motorsport equivalent of professional wrestling.
Thank goodness karting season starts soon
