source:
paddocktalk.com / By Iain Shankland
As promised - here is my follow up to a previous article I wrote - The Racing
Season's Revving Up ... What's Your Game Plan For 05?
To recap, in my past article I said ... "In the interests of race fans
everywhere, I'm going to take one for both teams this year - I'm going to races
in both series' and I'm going to watch the remaining ones on TV to the best of
my ability. At the end of the season I'll make an honest evaluation and I'll
share it with you if you're interested - so stay tuned."
I know it's not the end of the season, but there's already so much to share!
Since that article I've had the opportunity to attend an IRL race - the season
opener in Homestead, as well as watch my first full, beginning to end, IRL race
on TV - Phoenix.
To state the obvious, there still seems to be a hatred between ChampCar and IRL
race fans, though this is something I can't fathom myself. I've talked to fans
on both sides and they don't appear to have the slightest interest in watching
the other series. At ChampCar races though, there is an interest in what happens
at the F1 race - if one is running on the same day, but at Homestead I couldn't
find a hint of anyone being the slightest bit interested in what happened at the
Australian F1 race ... strange!
A bit of a surprise was the lack of interest in NASCAR by IRL fans. I was
expecting to see a bit of a 'kinship' as it were, because both of them go around
in circles - not so - it would appear.
I found the IRL fans at Homestead to be a little older than the ones that attend
Champ Car events in Toronto and Montreal Indy's. I wouldn't call them 'mature'
fans, they were about 35-50 years old, versus 19-25 at Toronto/Montreal.
Needless to say the Toronto/Montreal events were more of a party-till-you-puke
weekend (with huge dabs of sunburn thrown in), whereas Homestead was a little
more laid back. Toronto is noisy - more in keeping with the crowd, Montreal a
lot quieter and Homestead somewhere in between.