The weather was fabulous at Watkins Glen for last weekend’s Indycar race. The sun shone brightly all weekend and Will Power scored an excellent win from pole for Team Penske. But the weekend unfolded amid a poignant atmosphere as rumours persisted that this was the last time Indycars would race at the Glen. The track is owned by the International Speedway Corporation and new Indycar boss Randy Bernard is weighing up whether he should continue to do business with ISC because of the disappointing turnout for most Indycar races at its tracks, Watkins Glen included.
“This is a beautiful track,” Bernard said at the Glen. “The weather’s perfect and there’s quite a lot of fans out there – a lot of campers. I’d like to find a way to continue to race here. But I’m held accountable for my bottom line and I want to make sure each facility is held accountable with plenty of butts in the seats. I don’t want to go anywhere where we don’t have the full support to make the event successful.”
Bernard said he’s still talking to Watkins Glen about next year. “We have to have an answer within six weeks and it might happen sooner than that,” he said. “We need to make sure we give our team owners and sponsors plenty of opportunity to be able to plan for next year. The key is to get 18 promoters behind us who really want to make the series grow to reignite open-wheel racing. That’s one of my primary goals.”
“We love this event, ” said Watkins Glen president Michael Printup. “These guys and girls race the hell out of this track, so I’m personally pushing very hard. We have a fantastic camping crowd this weekend and I’m pretty excited about that, especially in this economy. We did take a bit of a risk and put a lot of advertising dollars up in Toronto and Niagara Falls. I’m not sure that paid off. I really thought we could bring a lot of those people down here, but I don’t know if that’s working.”
As delightful a place to visit as Watkins Glen is, the crowds for the six Indycar races run at the track since 2005 have been disappointingly poor. Back in the Glen’s heyday it used to draw huge crowds not only for the United States Grand Prix in the fall, but also for July’s Can-Am, Formula 5000 and Six-Hour World Championship sports car races. The village of Watkins Glen was full of crowds all weekend and traffic jams filled the road up to the track.
But the only race that pulls a serious crowd to the Glen these days is August’s NASCAR Sprint Cup event, first run in 1986. As NASCAR took over as the dominant force in American racing the Glen has struggled to find a healthy sports car or open-wheel alternative. Everyone hoped the Indycar race would be successful but it looks like last weekend’s event was the end of the road, and possibly the end of any major form of racing at the track save NASCAR.
“It’s like Spa, ” said Power after his victory. “It’s the nicest track we race on. You can pass here – it’s a flowing track with fast, banked corners. It’s a real dream to drive, especially when the car is working. I’d be really disappointed if we don’t come back here.”
Road racing in America started in 1948 on an open road circuit through and around the village of Watkins Glen. But 60 years later the great tradition of mid-summer road races at the Glen appear to have come to an unhappy end, leaving NASCAR in command of the track that was once known as the ‘home of American road racing’.
Indeed, “The Glen” is a beautifull track for drivers, auto racing enthusiasts and campers.
Campers make up the base for sports car racing’s fan base at tracks like Sebring, Road America,Mid Ohio and “The Glen”. We must find a way to accomodate those like myself who look forward all year to meeting up with their friends at their favourite corner at these American racing institutions.
Many of those true fans will go to other tracks if we leave “The Glen” However I feel a sense of “we were here first” back in the 50′s 60′s and 70 ‘s long before the NASCAR take over.
I do hope we can retain our ” Home of American Road Racing”
What a shame it would be to see one of the best tracks Indy Car races on dropped off the calendar. Particularly when they don’t race at Elkhart Lake and Laguna Seca.
Have been at a lot of race tracks around the world. #3 is Glen #2 Ring #1 Spa.Glen is a beautiful area and track with no complaints. Great place for fans to watch race. Think the problem is that it is not located close to a large city.That was the reason that F1 left Glen.
that was a great race yesterday… I love the Glen and I am starting to like Indy more and more…. I left for F1 when Champ split in the mid 90′s, but I am coming back more and more….
I think Randy Bernard is mistaken in this case. The crowds aren’t coming to Watkins Glen because Indycar Racing itself isn’t attracting them, it’s not because of any problems with Watkins Glen. Quite the contrary, Indycar Racing needs tracks like Watkins Glen so that if it can revive the series and interest in it, it has spectacular racing venues to go to.
The Glen may not be next door to a major metropolitan area but THAT ISN’T THE REASON WHY attendence for IRL races there was poor…
F-1 was a success for 20 years until Ecclestone, typically, raised the ante beyond all reason. The fans came from all directions, a glance at the map reveals that it’s well placed in the northeast and to Ohio, Maryland and Virginia…. I’m a road racing and Indy car fan for over 60 years, my first “Glen” was in 1950… Could the present problems lie with the IRL itself? Should they deal with Internatinal Speedways Corp, a France family and NASCAR clone that’s determined to dominate American racing to expand their commercial interests?
I think the IRL has been, and continues to be, its own worst enemy. They allow pay drivers from South Amerca who don’t belong in any form of motor racing, let along the pinnacle of open wheel US racing, while talented drivers with magnetic personalities (good for series marketing) like Graham Rahal and JR Hildebrand (last year’s Indy Lights dominating force) cannot find a drive. This erodes the US fan base. How can a series have credibility with fans when it has the likes of Milka Dunno and the absence of Rahal/Hildebrand?
Yeah, since when did the IRL determine it couldn’t do business with ISC? Just cuz Robin Miller says it over and over again don’t mean it’s true, Mr. Bernard. And copying CART just means another bankruptcy. Maybe a new way of doing business is needed.
If Watkins Glen wants more butts in the seats start the race earlier. 3:30 does not cut it when travel home is involved.
Personally, I would hate to see the Glen lose the IRL.
I have said it before the Glen needs to be bookended with the Montreal Grand Prix in June as America premier F1 race. The France family will be doing America a service by making that happen.
Once, you see F1 back…. then the Glen will reclaim it’s rightful place.
p.s. It should be a Fall race….
So if Randy Bernand says he is “I want to make sure each facility is held accountable with plenty of butts in the seats. I don’t want to go anywhere where we don’t have the full support to make the event successful”, how come there is no longer a Surfer’s Paradise race? It was always a sell out, massive crowds, good times, and the drivers loved going to the Gold Coast, plus it got Australian’s interested in Indycar.
To me it seems like Randy wants to be the IRL version of Bernie Ecclestone, looking for circuits who are willing to pay multi-million dollar fees for the right to host a race. If so, it’s a shame that great circuits like Watkins Glen might lose their races.
Spa is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, so is the Ring and Silverstone. But people do go there. Why on earth sending F1 to Austin when it belongs to the Glen ?
Why does it seem that the tracks that are driver/fan favorites are always on the chopping block. One thing for sure is that if Randy Bernard thinks that NASCAR is doing things in the IRL’s interest then he is mistaken, they suckered George and would want nothing more than for the IRL to go away and leave NASCAR in charge of American racing.
The IRL needs a American hero and with Rahal etc on the sidelines so will be the crowds. Maybe the IRL should race Indy and then in all of the countries of drivers that make up the current grid.
Eight year old slow on road courses cars, awful sounding engines and they wonder why fans like myself stay away…
Thanks once again Mr. George for your vision!
Just about everybody who wrote above missed the boat. John Mylenek comes the closest. The whole thing is simple: a series does not go to a track where it will not make money! If the crowds at the Glen are not sufficient to turn a profit, the Glen is gone. This is rather elemental, I would think.
Why isn’t Indy Car at Road America? Simple. Without a major title sponsor the track would lose money and they are not going to do that. When they procure a major sponsor (hard in these times) Indy Car will be at Road America. Much the same everywhere else.
Understand also that the Glen is a France track. The France family, ISC, nascar, et al, is no friend of Indy Car racing. Tony George never fully understood that he was being played for a patsy by Bill France et al. The Frances are determined to monopolize US racing. Through various machinations they have destroyed SCCA Pro Racing; would have destroyed IMSA if, in a development unforeseen by the Frances, Don Panoz had not bought IMSA and saved it; and nefariously encouraged Tony George to form the IRL. They knew that the resulting split would seriously cripple open wheel racing and would open the door wide for nascar to take over. ISC has never bothered to promote non-nascar races at its tracks. That is why Bernard and the IRL are wisely dropping Kansas, and sadly may be forced to drop the Glen. Homestead and Joliet will be soon to follow. Bernard realizes the France plan of total domination and is moving the series in another direction to escape it. So don’t blame Bernard if the Glen goes away. It is not his doing.
Also, I am sick and tired of the chauvinistic whining (whingeing for UK consumption) about “foreign ” drivers in Indy Car. Come on, they are a plus for many reasons. One, and I admit it is obvious, is that some (not all!) of them bring money. Without that money, in this economy of little to no sponsorship, several teams could not run and the series would collapse. Second, all lot of them are very good. I submit that Mansell, Villeneuve, Castroneves, Kanaan, Franchitti, Dixon, Power, Briscoe, Tracy et al were and are anything but ‘wankers’. Statements such as the frequent “that nobody every heard of” are just plain ignorant. If you are really interested in racing you would make the small effort required to learn about who is in the series and what they have done. If you do not want to think, go watch nascar.
I had been going to The Glen since the ’60′s and it is truly marvelous; the Finger Lakes region is spectacular, particularly in the fall. And the track is terrific for both drivers and spectators, so what’s wrong?
Many have answered this question in various ways but I was interested that the President of the Glen, Michael Printup says they marketed heavily in Toronto (over 5m population, 3 hr drive). I am a fan and I saw not a single piece of promotion in the mass media!
The Toronto market is difficult because it has it’s own IRL race downtown and with the two races so close together, it is difficult to get families to do both which only the hard core will do.
Incidentally, Mosport suffers from the same problem but obviously to a lesser degree.
It would be a grave shame to see The Glen go.