Hey I was THERE!!! - Indy Personal experiences

[CamF1]

If one thing has come out of the weekends events, it's peoples bias towards F1 (both for and against).

[Inigo Montoya]

Originally Posted by lookleft

Pointless, stupid and irrelevant to the thread. Pity the mods are so idle on this topic - strange....

I've allowed some emotion on this. Its understandable under the circumstances. But that stops now.

If you want to complain about the mods, there is anannouncements and feedback forum.

This thread started with someone's account of being there, which was fair enough. The rest of the BS will be deleted.

For the last time. Keep the registering of disgust to one thread.

[jonboyG]

We were there too, and left after 20 laps. Thankfully we only had 300 miles to drive, but I feel awful for the Japanese fans next to us, or the English contingent of wideboys behind me.

Still no word from any of the responsible parties as to whether they will offer restitution to the fans who shelled out hundreds of dollars to have the **** taken.

[Inigo Montoya]

Out of respect for those who were there, please use this thread to discuss your personal experiences at Indy. And don't turn it into the usual argument.

[N I Tram]

Thank you for reopening this thread Inigo. I wasn't there myself, btu I have immense sympathy for those who were. I don't care whether there is a legal requirement for refunds, but I think it's critical that they do, as at least that way there is a chance of saving some reputation, and maybe getting a decent crowd in the US in future. Very easy to say "that's motor racing" when your wallet is intact, isn't it?

[MacMan]

I'm happy to have my post moved to the correct thread if felt this is needed. I quickly got caught up in what I was wanting to say.

MM

[Kirk]

Originally Posted by Dixie Flatline

Fortunately, a good decision, I think, and we now need the money for other, more important things than Formula One.

.. and I'm afraid that most American's will feel the same way next year unless some serious healing takes place. Bernie could take the easy way out and cancel next years race, but a far better approach would be to be to give this years ticket holders a free pass for 2006. Indy is a huge place and the extra attendance could easily be accommodated.

[Dixie Flatline]

Originally Posted by Gt_R

Indeed! Like changing your motor's Michelin to Bridgestone perhaps?

No, actually. We're having (well, to be accurate, my wife is) a baby in about 7 weeks.

[knock-on]

Originally Posted by MacMan

My thoughts are that the teams themselves were not at fault, from what I have read so far no one is saying this.

Nobody except the FIA who have summonsed them.

I was dissapointed and frustrated just watching the race on TV so can imagine the outrage by people parting with hard currency to attend the event.

It was also dissapointing that so few Americans turned out. Only 150k I heard. They will be lucky to get 1/2 that next year if the event goes ahead.

[Tony Clifton]

I doubt it. Who is going to refund it?

I might be able to get ticket fees refunded, but other travel and lodging expenses? Forget about it. I will go on with my life, I have better things to do with my time.

IMS might get sued but it was completely out of their hands, at best they may offer a discount or some sort of voucher for next years race.

Either way, I am not going back. F1/FIA has just proved that they are unable to solve a problem that destroys a race. The tire issue was a serious safety issue, changes and compromise could have been made to allow this race to go forward with a safe and full field.

The (apparent) way the contracts are written, IMS essentially pays the F1 to hold a race. The FIA/F1 sanction and run the race according to their individual agreements.

IMS has put a tremendous amount of money into holding this race between the race fees (reported at $15 million a race) and track upgrades ($50-80 million). IMS gets to keep the money from the ticket sales and concession stand sales, the rest goes to FIA/F1.

Do the math, IMS has yet to turn a profit, and has absolutely no say on how a race will be run on their track.

[marcel82]

not really a refund, but you can attend the Cleveland Champcar race with your USGP ticket.

http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/champcar/17707/

[Robert Duncan]

I was there also. I didn't have a large amount invested, about $150 in travel and meal expenses and two days vacation time (out of the 5 days I get each year). I live about 300 miles away. I was a turn marshal at station 9, so no ticket expense.

The turn marshals first heard of the mess on Saturday night when we met after the days activity for a few cold brews. We had no update Sunday morning but one of our radio scanners picked up the ESPN TV people talking about a chicane.

I noticed activity near turn 10 about 45 minutes before the start so I walked over there. The course crew were stealing tire stacks from the end of one of the tire walls. In the middle of their work someone in a golf cart showed up and they stopped. I asked the fellow if this was for the chicane at 13 and he said "there is no chicane" and walked away.

Overall a very sad day for racing. As a corner worker I feel I was a part of the show and it was not a good one for the people that took the time and effort to attend. I will support future races and show up to work as required.

I do feel the FIA have painted themselves into a corner with their rules. The teams get very little track access and limited resources (restricted number of tires) to find problems such as this Michelin issue. Then there is no recourse when a problem shows itself (except for the Brazilian 2003 race where the FIA delayed the start of the race to better suit the Brigestone runners who had poor wet tires when it rained ).

[Menelaos]

Originally Posted by Mekola

Menelaos, don't waste your time. K-B and the other loyalists are so stick to the rules to understand your point.

You know what's funny? I too stick to the rules. But I ALSO think about people who paid their hard earned money to watch that ridiculous ride around the indy circuit!

I'm a McLaren fan, but I feel it would be unfair if the guys just put in a chicane. That'd be the best for my favorite team, but that's not what I wanted. I wanted them to place a chicane (or come up with any other plan to help Michelin runners actually RUN) and then probably add a (few) minute(s) to their total time as a penalty. I didn't ask for Ferrari and Bridgestone to be screwed, cause that wouldn't be fair. But they could come up with a FAIR settlement, and they didn't. The FIA are to blame for this thing, 100%.

[BootsOntheSide]

No one was asking for the chicane to be added and the Mcihelin teams not to be penalised for it. Imposing a one-lap penalty on their race results would have been fair, safe and reasonably easy to understand. I have huge sympathy with everyone whoa ttended the race, and I'm itnerested in Ron green's claim that more people have renewed their tickets than have requested refunds so far. if that's true, maybe F1 can survive this situation.

[Speed]

Originally Posted by Kicking-back

Yes, it is racing.

Michelin had a tyre which wasn't good enough and they retired from the race, Bridgeston had one which worked and finished 1-6.

Perfectly fair.

Correct.

[Speed]

I´m not a Ferrari/Bridgestone Fan, but changing the circuit at the last minute would be unfair for those engineers/testers who did their homework correctly.

[Redlake27]

Exactly, Speed.

What if engines and gearboxes had failed, or brakes had been stressed by the addition of a slow corner in the middle of a section of track where all the teams had planned for their cars to run flat out?

There is only one company to blame for this issue, as they were offered alternatives that they refused to take. Any spectators should send a letter to Clermont Ferrand demanding a refund, not to the FIA or Tony George.

[jhansen]

kicking-back, some of your comments surprised me a bit...

To those that think this all goes down to "just racing", I wonder what your feelings would be had you been at the race in person? Perhaps you could show a bit more empathy.

As for me, I will remain a fan of Formula 1. But, it does depress me that this type of occurance would only happen in Formula 1.

[Kidzer]

Im sure kb would be righly disapointed but still, it is racing...take the good with the bad, and c'mon, lets be fair there's been a lot of good this year

[Mosport67]

Originally Posted by knock-on

.

It was also dissapointing that so few Americans turned out. Only 150k I heard.

I would have thought that 150k was a pretty good attendance. I think very few GP's get attendance at that level.

[Speed]

Originally Posted by jhansen

To those that think this all goes down to "just racing", I wonder what your feelings would be had you been at the race in person? Perhaps you could show a bit more empathy.

I really feel sorry for those who paid so much to get so little.

The one-tire rule stinks!
Add to the stinky rules list: the same-quals/race-fuel-loading rule, and the only-one-qualifying-lap rule.

FIA must change this bunch of improvised rules.

Just my $0.02

[GP Racer]

I don't really want a refund, especially from Tony George and the IMS. I love that place and will support it with my ticket dollars. They, and the folks in that city, are a fantastic bunch of people that put on one hell of a good show. Remember that they only ran the Indy 500 3 weeks prior, yet they were able to change everything in that short span of time for the GP. Quite a feat really. It takes more work than we know to accomplish that in a place that big.

The ticket price is really the cheapest part of a race weekend. The food, hotels, and transportation is the big cost, and that cannot be recouped. So don't feel that just because there hasn't been a huge bunch of fans asking for there money back, that the anger has subsided.

Now if Michelin and there teams wants to give it to me, I'll gladly rip it out of there hands...

[Testure]

Watching the "race" and the build-up beforehand, I was wondering how well the IMS were keeping the crowd informed. Maybe they didn't do a great job and that's a pity. I think some of the drivers should have said something to the public...

[GP Racer]

Originally Posted by Testure

I think some of the drivers should have said something to the public...

Absolutely, but fat chance of seeing that happen!

And IMS has nothing to do with the PA announcements. Thats all F1 people...