Just back from Vegas

[Tony Clifton]

Got back late last night from the Vegas GP race. Had a great time, here are some of my observations:

-if you go to the race and rent a hotel, stay on Fremont street downtown. It makes it much easier to get around the race track. I stayed in the Golden Nugget as did many (or most) of the race teams. Met Derrick Walker, wished him luck after Power's poll.

-the downtown street party was great, Vegas KNOWS how to host an event. Bands, booze, extreme motocross jumping along with other events made the weekend very enjoyable.

-for a street course, the track is wide for passing and has some decent viewing areas.

-Bourdais kept losing tires, he cut at least 3 tires during the race, during practice and qualifying Seabass broke at least 5 gearboxes.

-CCWS is working as hard as they can to market the drivers and the series, lots of banners, there was a drivers autograph session on Friday evening that was well attended.

-after speaking to a couple of crew members and other that work with the various teams it appears that spares for the Panoz DP-1 may be difficult to come by. There is real concern that if drivers start breaking race tubs that the series will not have enough spares to keep the cars going. The DP-1 also IS NOT for oval track racing, it is not strong enough. How true this rumor is, I do not know. Some crew members were also complaining that the Panoz chassis is delivered requiring more fit and finish work than the Lola ear series chassis.

-I had a chance to briefly meet and shake hands with Kevin Kalkoven. He came across as very personable and friendly.

-Robert Dornbos looks like Jean Claude Van Damme's brother, I cracked up when I took a look at him during the autograph session.

-I also heard several drivers only had their driving deals done the week of the race and had absolutely no driving time prior to the first practice. Dan Clarke and Katherine Legge were the two names I heard.

-The chicane just before the tunnel and final turn gave many drivers fits during practice/qualifying and the race. Graham Rahal just could not make it through that chicane, he crashed during Saturday practice.

Graham appears to be a good, very very young and inexperienced driver for cars with this much weight and power. This season is going to be a HUGE learning curve for him. I do not expect him to run upfront on a consistent basis.

-When Bourdais broke the front end of the car during the race, the crew told him to park it, he kept driving, they got back on the radio and told him "SEB, park it, you are damaging a car we cannot afford to further damage and fix, PARK IT". Seabass parked it.

-The attendance appeared to be very good in the general admission grandstands, and good in the reserved mainstraight grandstands. Admission overall was much better than when they ran at LVMS for the 2 years that race ran. If the series can recover and get some consistent and decent drivers this event WILL grow and be one of the great street event/parties, just as Long Beach and Surfer's Paradise have.

-the fuel hose problem MUST be fixed, it was a complete embarassment.

-the yellows seemed long at the start of the race, but I did notice in practice that there were not alot of places for safety crews to park and easily get to the drivers quickly, this may turn into a safety issue. Also, the track has alot of elevation changes, far more than what shows on TV.

I hope that Champ Car can hang in there, the IRL/CCWS split and hurt both series and open wheel racing in the USA. When I think back to the events I went to in 1992 to 2001 it was really, really amazing. Great drivers, manufacturers and teams for a while there Champ Car was almost getting on par with Formula 1 back in the mid 90's.

Remember when teams use to take in their chassis in December and start testing in Janaury and February?
What we as race fans are left with now are 2 open wheel spec series that are teetering on the edge of failure and NASCAR which is a type of racing I have absolutely no interest in pulling all the sponsorship and fan interest.

Come on open wheel, get these series back together again!!!