Is Micheal hanging it up at the end of the season or is the USGP moving out of Indy? They said this would be his last race at Indy or he would be the last winner at Indy I didnt see any of the race except the last lap I was out in the shop building a stand for the big screen TV and forgot it was on

They are not certain if F1 will continue at Indy. Apparently, the FIA and Indy prez are negotiating future races. It would be a shame if no more USGP.

I vote for the 07 USGP to be at Willow Springs

The USGP contract with Indy is up this season. They may re-sign, they may not. Bernie Eccelstone has repeatedly made negative comments about how important the US is to F1 (as in, it ain't). There are overtures being made to run the race at Vegas or a track in or near NYC, as well. Just another chapter in the long, ugly history of F1 in the US. Bernie wants a big packet of money from Indy to keep running the race there, and Indy doesn't want to pay that much. Bernie usually gets his way.

Whether or not Mikey retires at the end of the season is also subject to much speculation.

6 weeks ago, i was actually invited to compete in a RedBull kart race to win VIP tickets/pit passes to this weekends USGP. bummer i was in Russia at the time -- even though i'd have probably been a back marker in that race.

anyway, it seemed like everyone was on their best behavior (fans/sponsors/drivers/teams) to try to save the race for next year.

I think they should move the USGP to Watkins Glen or Laguna Seca or somplace that is a real road race track, not a modified oval..


Wouldn't it be really cool to see F1 cars go through the corkscrew?????

Watkins Glen = middle of nowhere, so not interesting to the F1 boys these days. Laguna Seca = provincial track with no permanent garages for our delicate F1 crews, and not anything like enough paddock space for all of those transporters and hospitality edifices.

this is the way Austria lost it's GP

we had 26 GPs in Austria ... after 2003 Bernie didn't make a new contract

Gustl

I think there should be two races in the US. Not just two races in North America.

For a short period, there were two races in the US. Watkins Glen and Long Beach each had an event for 3-4 years in the late 70s, early 80s. This all fell apart after awhile, and ever since the USGP has been a very nomadic event. They had an event in Vegas basically in a parking lot at Cesaer's Palace, one in Dallas. They ran it at Detroit for a good long while in the 80s. Then, alas, they had it at Phoenix for a couple of years, which was a complete disaster. The attendance in the last year was something like 26,000. They had nothing for years, when Indy suddenly popped into the picture, and here we are.

The ironic thing is the USGP at Indy is by far the best attended GP on the calendar, with something like 200-400K people showing up each year. The next best is Suzuka, which maxes out at 250K. Still pales in comparison to the astounding 750K people that show up to see the Indy 500, but way more than the 150-200K that show up to see Monza, or the roughly 100K that view the "normal" events, like Barcelona, Silverstone, etc. Gate money, however, is small potatoes nowadays.

darn... you just really got my hopes up that Schusucker would leave F1...

Jeroen, one who didn't know better would think you don't like the Shumeister....say it isn't so....

Is it "ok" that I dont give a shit?

Open wheel racing has nearly died in the USA.

I enjoy the technical aspect of F1. It ends there.


B

if I watch F1 on TV, it's usually only the prelim's, which has very good indepth coverage of the tech stuff and closely follows the changes on the cars from race to race
I watch the start and then fall asleep

Guess I'm not the only one tiring of the F1 prima donna.

Go Alanso!!