Passing Lane
A NASCAR BLOG BY Mike Hembree
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Bring F1 to The Rock
JOLIET, Ill. – It isn’t often that I have a brilliant idea. I normally leave that field to folks like Scooter Libby and Bud Selig and other remarkable thinkers of the age.
This one, though, deserves some consideration.
You might have noticed among this week’s raft of racing news that the United States Grand Prix, a staple on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway calendar since 2000, won’t be returning to the world’s most famous race track next season.
As is usually the case in these situations, it’s all about the money. Bernie Ecclestone, the czar (and that’s not overusing the word) of F1, wants $30 million, and the folks at IMS are willing to cough up only
about half that. Bernie says bye-bye.
Although interest in F1 racing in the United States creates barely a blip on the radar screen, the sport is an international phenomenon and certainly deserves a race date somewhere on the fruited plain.
That’s where we come in. It so happens that one of the best competition race tracks in the United States, North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, has a schedule next season that is amazingly open. NCS is an oval, but it could easily be converted into a road course for the F1 guys. The people at the Holiday Inn in nearby Southern Pines have plenty of available rooms these days, I hear, as do many other places of rest since NASCAR departed.
And then there’s The Barn restaurant, one of the best dinner establishments on the former Cup circuit.
Other cities – Long Beach, Calif., Phoenix, Detroit – have tried to make the U.S. Grand Prix work without staying power. It’s time for Rockingham to get its shot.
Oh, and schedule the race on a NASCAR off weekend and sign up Dale Earnhardt Jr. for a special appearance. Maybe even let him race in the Bud car.
It’s a no-brainer, Bernie. Give those folks a call.
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