The number of passes does not equal the quantity of entertainment value, as F1 officionados are wont to say about NASCAR. van Gisbergen demonstrated, as a first time winner in his first start, that V-8 Supercar drivers are far more adept in the art of passing on a road circuit. Racing in the wet is almost never done in NASCAR, so another barrier to NASCAR being pigeonholed as a regional sport has been assaulted. So an interesting race on several levels. Clearly, the author is not a race fan with a hammer in his had with everything lookingike a nail. I’m guessing you aren’t a race fan either because you didn’t watch the whole race.
Actually, I was trying to be as objective as I could be. I held back a lot in this piece.
It’s really not a matter of whether I am a race fan or not… The issue at hand is the location of the race.
The point of the article is that the city of Chicago imposed a stupid idea on a location ill-suited for it. Whether you are a race fan or not is irrelevant.
I am a huge fan of contract bridge.… But if someone proposed a bridge competition outdoors on a windy day, I would oppose it… because the cards would be blown all over the place.
I am a huge fan of live theater… But if someone proposed an open air production of Guys and Dolls on the beach between Lake Michigan and Lake Shore Drive, I would oppose it… because the audience wouldn’t be able to understand a word.
My point here was that an event was forced on an area without that area’s consent, due to the dictatorial powers of a modern big city mayor’s office… and the only thing people are paying attention to is whether the race was a success, or not, from the perspective of the participants and fans.
I believe that it’s important, in such an instance, to step back and look at the effect on the entire town.
Nobody else is reporting how tons of tourists were kept away by this stupidity… How tons of businesses suffered losses of ticket sales and product sales and restaurant sales, because people stayed away in droves, knowing that this debacle was about to occur.
I didn’t write the article to slam racing… There are lots of horse racing aficionados in my family. I have nothing against racing. I have placed a few bets at the parimutuel windows, myself, over the years…
But I oppose an authoritarian government writing roughshod over the community… Whether it’s in my hometown or in the nation’s capital 1000 Miles away.
JFD