Oilpressure

This is not a news site. It never has been. If you want breaking news, this is not the place to come. When news breaks, I have my own reaction, but I also see people’s reaction on social media. Sometimes I’m in agreement with the masses and sometimes I’m not. Then one day, two days or sometimes a week later – I will opine on this site about whatever happened in the racing world.

Sometimes I will write about something going on in my personal life, like when wrote about those blood-sucking leeches at Nationwide Insurance a couple of weeks ago (they are still not on my side), that really has nothing to do with racing – but that is not the norm. Today’s post is all about racing, but I am throwing myself and my wife, Susan, into the discussion.

Over the years, I’ve seen a disturbing pattern develop. It seems that if Susan and I visit a race track, it has a greater than 50/50 shot of being the kiss of death for that track staying in the NTT IndyCar Series schedule. That’s not a great batting average for the longtime viability of visiting a racetrack and hoping it stays on the IndyCar schedule.

When we learned that Texas had indeed fallen off of the 2024 IndyCar schedule, it occurred to me that another track where I had attended an IndyCar race was now gone. I was curious how many times that has happened over the years. Then I was curious how many total IndyCar venues I have attended. I was shocked to find out that more than half of the IndyCar tracks I’ve been to, are no longer on the schedule.

All together, Susan and I have been to thirteen IndyCar race tracks. In all honesty, I thought that figure may have been higher, but we travel to the same ones year after year, so it seems like it would be higher. Six of those tracks are on the 2024 IndyCar schedule, while seven are not.

The six that are on next year’s slate are IMS, Barber Motorsports Park, the Streets of St. Petersburg, Road America, Worldwide Technology Raceway (Gateway) and the Streets of Nashville. Most of those are annual destinations for us, except for St. Petersburg – and we’ve been there twice in the last five years.

The other seven have dropped off for various reasons. Six of the seven dropped off the following year that we attended. I thought I would go over each of the seven, while sharing our own personal experience at each one.

Charlotte: Remember back in the late 90s, when the IRL used to run at Charlotte and Atlanta? They were both very similar tracks – both similar to Texas. For three years, I lived in Charlotte – from 1998 to 2001. When the 1999 race rolled around, I bought tickets in Turn One, right in front of Pit Out. I took my son and went with one of my brothers and his wife.

The race started at twilight and the cars looked great (even though they all had that dreaded IRL-drone sound to them). Things were going fine until Lap 62, when Stan Wattles had a suspension failure in Turn Four. John Paul, Jr. hit the Wattles car and sent the right-rear wheel and suspension pieces into the crowd, fatally injuring three spectators.

This was in the days before smart phones, but it didn’t take long for news of what happened filtered through the crowd. By the time they made the announcement that there had been spectator fatalities, nost of us already knew. The remainder of the race was cancelled, and nothing counted toward the championship. A week had not gone by before track president Humpy Wheeler proclaimed in the Charlotte press that IndyCar would never return to that track. Humpy is no longer there, but so far – he has been right.

Nashville Superspeedway: Susan and I attended every race that the IRL ran at Nashville Superspeedway (NSS), from 2001 through 2008. The track was built by Dover Motorsports and opened in 2001. Each IndyCar race there was scheduled as a night race on the unique 1.33-mile concrete oval. The final race in 2008 was rained out and had to run the following Sunday afternoon. The racing was not all that great on the narrow track, but the event was always very well attended and the facilities were very nice.

Once the open-wheel reunification took place in February of 2008, the combined series had plenty of race tracks to choose from. When IndyCar first started running at NSS, they had cut them a deal on the sanctioning fee. Over time, it became the lowest sanctioning fee of any track on the schedule.

In early 2008, IndyCar made it very clear to track management that they intended to raise the sanctioning fee to be in-line with most of the other tracks on the schedule. The race had become a success and if NSS wanted it to continue, they were going to have to pay to keep it. With other Champ Car tracks now wanting on the schedule, IndyCar had the leverage to request the increase. The General Manager at the time was incompetent and thought he could drag his feet and IndyCar would back off of their demands. He was very unaware of the climate in open-wheel and over-estimated his own leverage. He operated under the impression that IndyCar needed NSS more than NSS needed IndyCar – even though it was the only top-tier series running at the track.

As history shows, the GM misjudged his negotiating power. Three years later, the track closed and was sold off to become a business and distribution park. But the deal fell through and the property sat dormant for a decade. Then SMI bought the track and brought NASCAR Cup races to the track for the first time in 2021 – ironically, the same year of the inaugural Music City Grand Prix.

Auto Club Speedway (Fontana): Back in the early days of this site, Susan and I became (and still are) good friends with one of the series major sponsors at the time. They were the ones who allowed us to get married in their corporate suite at IMS in 2012. They prefer to this day to remain nameless, so I will honor their wishes.

In 2013, they had a big deal planned for the IndyCar season finale at Fontana; but they had some last minute cancellations. About ten days before the race, they called us one night with a proposition. If we would cover our airfare from Nashville to LA and back, along with our rental car; they would cover everything else. Free first class accommodations at an outstanding LA-area resort and all the wining and dining at the track was too much to pass up.

We were able to snag last-minute media credentials from IndyCar, so we had the best of both worlds. This was when I was given the opportunity to wave all three flags for Helio Castroneves on his qualifying run, if longtime readers remember that (Flag Photo by Paul Dalbey). Susan and I were also given complimentary rides in the two-seater around the 2.0-mile oval.

Saturday night at the race, we had complimentary seats with free food and drinks, just behind the pits. We were up high enough that we could follow the cars completely around the track. The weekend was topped off by being able to attend the Victory Banquet the next night at Universal Studios in Hollywood, where I got to spend some time with Helio. Surprisingly, he said he did not see me in the flag stand on his qualifying run.

Two years later, Fontana was moved to a June race. The few fans that were actually in attendance were treated to one of the wildest races I’ve ever seen, with Graham Rahal taking the win.

With all that we got to do (for free), our trip to Fontana in October of 2013 is easily the most enjoyable racing weekend we’ve ever spent. But even if we were there as simply lowly bloggers, I would have put Fontana near the top of the thirteen IndyCar venues we’ve visited. It is certainly at the top of those tracks that have dropped off of the schedule. What a shame that it didn’t work out!

NOLA: As magical and memorable as our trip to Fontana was – our trip to the first, last and only Grand Prix of Louisiana in 2015 was a nightmare most of us in attendance would like to forget.

We drove from Nashville to New Orleans. We arrived at the track just in time for the practice to be put on hold as the skies opened up. That was a sign of things to come. They finally got the practice in under soggy conditions.

Saturday morning actually brought sunshine. It was really our only taste of what normal racing at NOLA Motorsports Park would be like. Rain and thunderstorms affected qualifying. They tried to get it in, but the below sea-level flooding took its toll. Qualifying ended up being scrapped. We went out to dinner that night for delicious New Orleans seafood. That was the highlight of our weekend.

We arrived at the track Sunday morning, in an absolute deluge. We were very fortunate that we had media parking, just outside the media center. Most fans had to park in outlying lots and be shuttled into the track. The stories of muddy lots and shuttles getting stuck are still being talked about to this day. As it was, we sat in our car forever, waiting for the rain to let up just a little. It was raining so hard, we could not see the media center or other nearby structures – just rain.

It finally let up enough for us to make a run from our car. After we got seated in the media center, it started back – harder than ever this time. It appeared there would be no race. The debate in the media center was whether this race wouldn’t count, or if they would return to run in either early May or June.

Miraculously, the rain stopped just long enough to let the course drain enough to race. It still sprinkled throughout most of the race, which was timed. As you would suspect, the race was a mess – but they got it in, with James Hinchcliffe winning.

As luck would have it, Monday dawned sunny and dry. It was a relief to get in the car and get out of town. Looking back over eight years later, I can say without hesitation that NOLA was the most miserable racing weekend we’ve ever spent. The bad weather, the poor fan experience and some shady business dealings with the track sealed its fate after one year. Mercifully, IndyCar never went back to NOLA.

Sonoma: For years, I never liked watching races at Sonoma Raceway. The racing was single-file and it appeared to be nothing but a dust bowl. It always confused me because the announcers would always talk about how beautiful the track and the area was – yet all I saw on television was dust and brown grass. When I conveyed those thoughts on this site, many of you were quick to point out how wrong I was. They said if I had not been out there, I had no right to criticize it. So in 2018, right after the Month of May – Susan and I decided to go out there for the season-finale – our second season-finale in five years.

We flew into San Francisco and landed early on Friday morning. After we rented our car, we went across the Golden Gate Bridge – then headed straight to the track about an hour and a half north of San Francisco. I will admit I was wrong. The area, and even the track, was beautiful. I was impressed how new all of the facilities at the track seemed. The track was laid out nicely, and easy to get around. The racing was still not great, but the multiple viewing areas from up above almost made up for it. You could tell the track was capable of handling large crowds, but they didn’t have to worry about it on that weekend. I came away extremely impressed with a track I had disparaged for years.

We stayed about forty minutes to the north in Petaluma, and stayed in some quaint old hotel Susan found that was way more that a hundred years old. Our room was huge, but echoed with no carpet in the room. We stayed over a couple of days after the race and went to Alcatraz and Fisherman’s Wharf one day, where I may have eaten the best meal of my life, overlooking the sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge.

The next day, we drove along the Pacific Coast Highway to Bodega Bay (where The Birds takes place) and then to a Redwoods forest, not too far from the Oregon state line. Once again, we had a phenomenal trip to California that was wrapped around an IndyCar weekend.

In all fairness, we had a pretty good idea that Sonoma was going away before we ever went out there. About a week after the race, it was confirmed that the season finale was being moved from Sonoma to Laguna Seca, a couple of hours to the south.

Pocono: My good friend Paul Dalbey and I went to Pocono for the first time in 2016. We met at Indianapolis, left one car there and traveled to Pocono in the other. We had so much fun, we did it again in 2017. We stayed home for the 2018 race, but brought our respective spouses in 2019.

Pocono is a very roomy track – on-track and on the grounds. No one should ever feel cramped at Pocono. The racing is good there, but a few recent incidents have made everyone wary of it – even though the incidents were flukes or the result of poor judgment.

The area is absolutely gorgeous. The track appears out of nowhere as you wind through mountain roads approaching it. Once you get on the grounds, you feel like you are taking a step back in time. Most of the buildings were built in the late 60s and no renovation has been done. Some call it quaint, while others call it tacky. Put me in the first category.

Shortly after we attended the Pocono race in 2019, it was confirmed that IndyCar would not return. If IndyCar ever decided to go back to Pocono (which I think they should), I would go back there in a heartbeat.

Texas: For years, we had been hearing rumblings that Texas could go away at any time, but every year it reappeared on the following year’s schedule. That is, until this year. For the first time in the track’s existence, there will not be an IndyCar race at Texas in 2024.

I’ve always loved watching races at Texas. Fearing it would be going away, I decided in February of this past year that I would go. Susan was still trying to recover from her rough summer of 2022, so she opted to stay home and rest. By the time the race got here, she said she wanted to go. Unfortunately the credential plans had already been made.

Texas Motor Speedway was everything I thought it would be. It is essentially laid out the same as Charlotte Motor Speedway; but the facility is newer, the stands are bigger and the amenities are a lot nicer. Like most tracks, it seems bigger in person than it looks on television.

It was a nice schedule that allowed time off at night. The only complaint I had was not the track’s fault – the starting time of the race at 11:30 am on Sunday. I can imagine how spectacular the cars looked under the lights.

The 2023 race was a good one, and I was hoping that it would be saved. But the track tried to change the date at the last minute and it just wasn’t feasible

This may have been self-indulgent, but it has been a fun post to write, even though I had no idea it would be this long. It’s been an eye-opener how my presence at a track can be the kiss of death for its chances of staying on the IndyCar schedule. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for following along on my trip down memory lane.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on September 29, 2023 at 4:03 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.