Fontana 500 - Championship decider

[JHamilton]

Did anyone see the crowd last night? No you didn't because no one was there.

Congrats to RHR.

[gomick]

Poor Wil - Aussie choke lives on

Congrats to RHR - everything fell into place for him at Fontana. Happy that an American won the series, even tho it would be shattering for Power...

[Razzzor]

Originally Posted by JHamilton

Did anyone see the crowd last night? No you didn't because no one was there.

Congrats to RHR.

Yeah even the main grandstand, half of it was empty. And this is an oval for the big finale, and a very good race at that! AND an American driver in contention that wins the title.

If that doesn't get the seats filled, then what does Indycar have to do? An all American field like Nascar?

[Paradise City]

'98



'12



Courtesy of a poster from motorsportforums: http://www.motorsportforums.com/indy...-thread-3.html

[marcostraz]

I think we have to be honest and positive...ok, the crowd wasn't so good, especially for a season finale...but all of us know how damages came from the split...rebuild credibility is not a thing that you can make in few months or years...the '98 image is few years after the split, and the crowd is good despite the creation of two different series had halved teams, drivers and the quality of the show...few years had not yet destroyed the credibilty of AOWR...now, on the opposite, do you think that a few years are enough to solve all the problems? On the contrary, rebuild credibility is a even slower process that destroy it...we have to be positive, we have to recognize that we had a great season, with a lot of very very good races...I think that in few years we can imagine that a lot of other people will notice that...

[Razzzor]

Yeah I remember that grand stands from the 90's and thinking how amazing it was with so many people.

But if that's all there was for 2012, that's pathetic. I guess a lot of fans have gone to Nascar instead.

What's a shame is that the field is really very strong now since we've had the merger. Not quite as strong as 98. Pre-merger was when things were looking particularly bad. Though it's easy to look back on the field of 97/98 and know what the future held for guys like De Ferran, Franchitti, Kanaan, Helio. We could look back the at the field 2012 in a decades time and realise that guys like RHR, Power, Pagenaud, hell even Newgarden, Hildebrand, Rahal and Wilson, could all go on to be champions.

[mac]

Gutted for Will... Such a good guy - just really genuine. The best, most consistent driver for the last three years - he should have a championship, and I'm sure he'll be on a mission next year. Still can't believe it ended like that...

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by Paradise City

'98



'12



Courtesy of a poster from motorsportforums: http://www.motorsportforums.com/indy...-thread-3.html

Holy smokes! Two pictures speak a thousand words. That is pitiful. Missed this race as I missed most of the season.

Congrats to RHR! Good to see another American champion in the American OW series.

[Peat]

On another note -Wasn't is a pleasure to have the obligatory 'WAG' interview with someone with some humility and genuine emotion.

I was suprised that Ashley Judd didn't force her way into a shot somewhere to tell everyone how important her role in RHR's year was.....

[Paradise City]

Some upbeat remarks from Robin Miller.

And that might have been the most encouraging thing about the first Indy-car race at Fontana since 2005. There were enough people to constitute a crowd. Of course it was nothing like the 70,000 that CART drew the first few years and there were still thousands of empty seats.

But the motor home lot on the backstretch was filled (roughly 8,000) and more than 21,000 seats were sold so there was probably an honest 30,000.

So how could that be considered anything but disappointing in a city the size of Los Angeles?

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...rn-california/

[bjohnsonsmith]

'12



It was a cracking race but with attendances like this it doesn't bode well for the future and really asks the question, how sustainable is IndyCar?

[bjohnsonsmith]

The red flag and restart:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/102625