Distances between venues

[paul-collins]

How far is it between Monterrey and Mexico City? I've looked at others:

1) Long Beach and Fontana?(100 km)
2) Cleveland and Mid-Ohio? (140 km)
3) Milwaukee and Elkart Lake? (100 km)
4) Vancouver and Portland? (500 km)
5) St Petersburg and Miami? (425 km)

Seems to be some clustering here.

I'm just wondering if Mosport could reasonably ever host a Champcar race without Toronto Molson Indy organizers objecting.

[Lee Janotta]

They probably could... But I wonder how good their attendance would be. Mosport's a gem, but the fans probably wouldn't turn up for both, and the downtown circuit's a success because of easy public transit access.

It really is a shame tracks have been built so far from the cities.... Races would be much easier to organize if they'd been built in the suburbs like country clubs. Plant some big trees around the property to deaden the sound, and use the venue for other events like concerts and fairs.

Mexico City, Portland, Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires definitly had the right idea.

Cleveland's close... We did it with an airport. Less overhead, and the place is already zoned for the noise. But we only get racing there once a year.

[paul-collins]

I guess that's the question - would both be a success?

I think they would - a lot of racing fans like myself have spotty attendance records for Toronto, and stellar records for anything that moves at Mosport. True, while Toronto would boast something like 200-250k weekend attendance, Mosport would have to hustle initially to get over 100k. But I'd bet that they could do it, and once the fans came, they'd stay.

You could have loads of day coaches to Mosport, if there was an event of Champcar's magnitude. Tour companies that do, say, student ski trips would be well-connected for something like that - especially if they do something like rafting trips in the summer (as I know one did years ago while I worked for them), because they'd be able to get camping grounds set up. Mosport would have to help the trip organizers with catering, by at least setting up an area specifically for the camp tours.

Heck, they should be doing this already for the ALMS!

[Flatspot]

Monterrey and Mexico City are about 850km apart.

[Jay]

I don't think Mosport would be a success...firstly there's a ton of upgrading that would need to be done at the track.

Second, the Toronto event is so successful because it is just that, a huge event. With street parties, non-racing attractions (beach volleyball, concerts, beer gardens, games etc) and a ton more away from the track in downtown. Plus, any idiot can come to the track for the price of a street car ticket. In other words, people can decide on Sunday morning if they feel like going. You won't have any of that at Mosport.

[Liz]

Mosport is a sports car track. True, you might get a mid-Ohio size crowd if you could set up the kind of facilities they have, but I question if you could get enough people to take a bus trip to make it commercially viable.

As presently configured, Mosport has no catering facilities for a Molson Indy sized crowd (and for those who can't eat at the Media Centre or Corner 2, not that much for the sports car sized crowd either), and nothing to do in between the races. (Sports car weekends of course solve this by having five support races!) Plus it's undeniably true that Mosport is frequently foggy, rainy, cold or all three. And there's nowhere to get out of it except whatever shelter you bring yourself. (Not everyone can fit inside Bruce's and Marty's motorhomes or under the restaurant marquee.)

However, if you could solve these problems and if you could get some real publicity -- the Motorsport Hall of Fame has a lot of old video and film of the track and we have tried without any success to get them to organize "film nights" with some of the old drivers who still live in Toronto to talk about the "good old days" and show off the cars that raced there -- it might possibly work.

Would the fencing have to be modified though? Mid Ohio is darned near completely fenced off now.

[f1manoz]

I live in Sydney and it's around 900km to Surfers Paradise/Gold Coast.

I'd like to see ChampCars round Bathurst. Although I could predict a monster shunt somewhere up around the mountain. And Bathurst is only around 200-300km from where I live - much better.

[pferrf1]

Mosport has trouble handling 35 to 40K on ALMS weekend. People hate to walk around....they park along the exits from the tunnels, blocking them, rather than drive into the infield, that said, the inflied was nearly full this year. getting around the track is OK for a small crowd, not for a big one. You would need stands or terraces built into the hills around turn 2 (both inside) outside at turn 3.

[paul-collins]

FWIW, Mosport over the past 3 years has been upgraded to FIA spec. The next step is paddock upgrading, and I understand that's happening soon.

Liz, there's the old concession back at turn 5. You haven't gotten there, yet, but the new Continental Tire bridge is pretty decent.

Concessions will be erected as soon as the crowds warrant it. Probably in the next couple of years. Turn 5 was very busy for ALMS qualifying this year.

[tanalised]

Manoz, I would love to see Champcars at Bathurst. Imagine them blasting down the mountain to the chase. Or trying to funnel into Hell corner on the first lap
awesome

[macdaddy]

Last season Belle Isle, MIS, Mid-Ohio, Cleveland, Chicago and Toronto were all within a four hour drive from here!

[Liz]

There's talk about building terraces at Corner 2 like they have in Atlanta, and some of us Corner 2 people believe (with good reason) that this is one way to get Corner 2 Racing out of there without blasting! It'd be an ideal place for them, objectively speaking. But they ought to put up a monument to us if they do. We have a small concession stand at the top of the hill as well, but often it isn't open. I don't know where I'd camp if they evicted us -- probably up where you were, paul, although I like having the trees around me.

I think Mosport would need more fences before Champ Cars could race there. I can see somebody blasting around Corner 2 and missing the apex (lots of people do that) and ending up somewhere around Oshawa before he could stop.

And for sure they need more signage or nobody would ever find it.

[tanalised]

what was the race 3 years ago in which Tags or Pat flipped their players car over a safety fence?

[paul-collins]

Road America, I think.

Liz, turn 2's new fill would mean that the cars would not end up in the fence at the bottom (or the now-gone swamp, for that matter). I think the marshalls down there felt a little better at the ALMS this year, and I certainly did while I was down there snapping away.

[TheRob]

It was Laguna. Scary accident.

[Liz]

Is that fill new this year? It was almost as bad as Turn 3 when Herbert went into the wall there in '01 and I could have stepped over the wall if I'd been eager to get in the middle of the people clearing his car out.

When I go up for the Trans Am this spring I'm going down to Moss Corner and see what they have done down there. I don't think I got out of the media centre more than a couple of hours during daylight -- and of course it was COLD last year too.

[paul-collins]

Originally posted by pferrf1
Mosport has trouble handling 35 to 40K on ALMS weekend. People hate to walk around....they park along the exits from the tunnels, blocking them, rather than drive into the infield, that said, the infield was nearly full this year. getting around the track is OK for a small crowd, not for a big one. You would need stands or terraces built into the hills around turn 2 (both inside) outside at turn 3.

To be fair, there isn't much parking at the tunnels (30 or 40 cars total?). All they'd have to do is police it and tow 'em and it would clear that right up.

I don't think you could say people don't want to walk. I saw loads of people moving all over the place in my strolling around this past weekend.

Mosport needs to rebuild the stands at S/F line, and along Mario's straight. They could also build some at the outside of Turn 4 to give a view from exiting Quebec corner and down the hill into Moss corner. Access would be through the currently unused entrance 7 (I can't get used to the entrance renumbering) and the new bridge.

And terraces would be good for Moss Corner - they'd have to take down that stupid, huge billboard at 5b, but I'd be happy about that. Or, just clear the trees further back at the 5b portion and let the crowd fill the natural bowl.

Don't touch Quebec Corner! Actually, there isn't much depth of property there, so putting any sort of terracing or stands wouldn't really work.

Liz, at our campsite, if you move a bit back from the track, there are some trees for your cover - not as much as at Turn 2, but some.