San Jose race is approved

[Dov]

At least that's what Mark C. has posted at the top of his homepage over at Spyplanes. We should know pretty soon.

[Dov]

It's official now. From sfgate.com:

Northern California's largest city will host a Grand Prix open-wheel street race in July after the San Jose city council approved a measure Tuesday to help fund the race.

[Brian W Keske]

Whelp, to be honest, I'm surprised this passed.

I guess that pretty much 'does Laguna in' for next year. Another one bites the dust.

[Omega99]

It is definitely a shame to lose Laguna, assuming that is what is going to happen. Hopefully the San Jose track turns out to produce better racing than we believe its going to.

[camcartfan]

How do the logistics for something this large happen so quickly? Do they rent Long Beach's seats and walls for the first year and then buy their own later? Does the promoter handle these things? Anyone know? Very curious...

[macdaddy]

This, from the ChampCar website:

In addition to the auto race itself, plans for the San José Grand Prix call for a week of activities including concerts, fairs, charity events and promotional activities. The festival is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of fans to Northern California's largest city and become a mainstay on the Champ Car World Series calendar.

Under the proposal, the City and the San José Redevelopment Agency will invest $650,000 toward the $3 million infrastructure costs to install and remove barriers, equipment and street improvements needed for the race.

Over the next ten years, revenues from the event would repay the public investment with interest. Event revenues and Canary Fund Enterprises would pay the balance of the project cost.

Canary Fund Enterprises, an affiliate of Canary Fund, will produce the San José Grand Prix.

Ten years? Some hockey clubs don't even stay in the same city for that long!

This will likely prove to be the end of Laguna, and that's sad in its own right, but OWRS have said time-and-time-again that they will be market-driven. As much as we may hate to admit it, this is the only way for the series to grow and prosper.

Now, if we could only get the city councillors to cough up the money to build a 2-mile superspeedway in the downtown core...

[StickShift]

They've changed the track. Now that horrible southern loop is gone. Still, it's not that long a track. Only 1.5 miles.

The track is better than before, but I still hold reservations about how much of a passing area the backstraight chicane will be.

[f1manoz]

From what I just read off my Yahoo page, the San Jose race is a GO!

[racinthestreets]

It is a go San Jose Tickets

[Mike_Wooshy]

they have edited the track thou right, they arent using the southern loop.

[Dov]

^ So does this mean that the new track is not as long as the old design?

[GBoehm]

I know its a bit early but is anyone here planning on attending?

[Silk Cut Jaguar]

It's a shame this appears at the cost of Laguna. Like said above, OWRS are marketing driven and if they won't go to the show, send the show down their steet at 200mph.

The track doesn't look all that inspiring, but it does look fast.

[marcus]

the track layout has been officially opened by jimmy Vasser.

Im not sure of the layout at all but I found this article about it all.

http://www.sanjosegrandprix.com/news_010605.html

[Dov]

Thanks for the link, Marcus. Here's the track layout:

[enemy-ace]

Originally Posted by Silk Cut Jaguar

The track doesn't look all that inspiring, but it does look fast.

I think the days of inspiring or challenging race tracks are gone. It looks like the majority of the fans would rather see the cars on tracks that produce tight racing at the cost of great circuits. There are not to many fans who would search out the great corners just to watch the drivers taking them at the limit. Look at the new tracks in F1. They're not bad tracks, but they are almost exclusively designed to promote overtaking. This isn't a bad thing, but the great tracks have some corner/s that challenge a drivers chicken bone.
San Jose does look like it could have some good overtaking spots though.
No really fast corners though.
Having said all that though i am not particularily sad about Laguna being replaced with this street circuit. I don't consider it to be one of the great circuits and it also didn't allow for great racing. Just my opinion.

[Amar7605]

I do hope that this race will be successful. I menn, I have a fondness for Laguna, but it was hard to get to, and getting out was a pain as well.

Not that San Jose will be that much better, but at least the race near the freeway.

[marcus]

Thanks for the Layout Dov.

not super inspiring is it , but it may provide some good passing to which I agree with enemy ace's post.

[macdaddy]

Thanks again to carsten66, who earlier provided us with this link to an aerial photo of the track.

[gttouring]

good for the extra race- good for a solid population full of spectators being available in the millions....i have been to laguna it isn't that far people are lazy and spending a day at the races sun burning stinks...
why did they not just try to run the race at laguna on saturday? party it up until morning sunday- who can complain?
that said- at least we have a new confirmed date, adn Champcar needs more fans, you have to draw them in somehow.
how about a bay area cup, champcars at laguna, san jose, and sears point- the winner gets a million dollar bonus and 15 extra points- a mini championship to spur on interest midseason
oh this won't happen...

[Snrub]

I looks like it'll be tough for passing perhaps only turn 8 (even there it's hard to tell from the layout) and maybe turn 3...

I suppose I can see enemy-ace's point regarding F1's newest tracks having some problems, but I'm not sure that I'd critisize the "newest" F1 tracks compared to the older ones. I hate how a lot of the F1 circuits seem to have aspects specificially designed to ruin overtaking. eg. They'll have these wacky little "pre-corners" which prevents drivers from passing. I think Elkhart is a pretty cool track because it has a nice mix of the more traditional elements with proper passing zones.

[Ac.]

Much depends on the width of the streets they are racing on. Does anyone live in the area that can comment on how many lanes the roads are that the course in on?

[Rick Mears fan]

The first section of the track is fine, just that I would rather the configuration was longer.

[macdaddy]

Welcome to 10T's, Rick Mears fan!
I hope you enjoy it here, I think you likely will.

I must admit I'm a Rocketfan myself!

A reply card from our wedding invitations...

[marcus]

are you saying you invited the mears to your wedding Macdaddy ????

How cool would that have been