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The State of Open Wheel Racing
I have been a pretty consistent fan of open wheel road racing for the best part of 15 years and a part time fan for many years before that. I have consistently watched both F1 and CART on TV (more since Speed has been on the dial) getting up faithfully for 8am Sunday starts and occasionally 8am Saturday lately for F1 qualifying. I have attended a few races live (the Molson Indy locally a few times, Laguna Seca a few years ago and this year the German GP at Hockenheim). Never in my mind has the state of this type of racing been in such sad shape from the point of view of the fan. After CART's demise and recent attempt at reincarnation there is no local TV coverage -- what races I have seen on TV have been totally lame with weird forced pitstops and no name untalented drivers. It just wasn't interesting. I attended my first live F1 a few weeks ago at Hockenheim and was underwhelmed. I guess I knew most of it going in -- there was no access to drivers or cars, the surrounding fan support show was low brow and uninteresting, the view of the track from relatively expensive seats was unspectacular. There seem to be a lack of decorum -- drunks everywhere, goons storming the track after the race. F1 has been all Schumacher show all the time(not that I blame him or Ferrari but it just makes it dull when one guy is the only guy that can win). Before Hungary at least there was some semblance of racing farther back. Not Hungary though -- it was dull and boring through and through. I see both series apparently spiralling down from my point of view. I have been watching more and more Touring Car type races (both from this side of the pond and from Europe when I can find them). Seems like that fendered racing is just more exciting, more competitive and all round more entertaining.
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