Racing Snoop in Indy
25 September 2000
USGP #8 Cosmopolitan USGP • Celebrity Spotting • Stewards With Time To Spare Overall, the consensus seems to be that the inaugural SAP United States Grand Prix was a success. Most of the drivers and teams were surprised and pleased at how well it all went and of the warm reception from the American fans. It appeared in many cases that they weren't expecting to be so well-received or have Indianapolis Motor Speedway be so renovated and purpose-built for their needs. Fans came from all over the world, and all over the United States. One Brazilian journalist pointed out that America being the land of diversity, there are many foreigners who have emigrated to America, and many of them are F1 fans. So, in addition to all the American racer chasers, there was a built-in foreign fan base just waiting for a chance to see an American Grand Prix. There wasn't a high expectation for driver recognition among the F1 teams. Indeed, DAVID COULTHARD had said on Thursday that he was enjoying being incognito, as it were. He liked being able to get around without being recognized or bothered. His McLaren teammate had quipped that by Sunday night folks would know who they were. And right he was. STEVE WRIGHT, Deputy Manager of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation, is one of four AGP folks over at the USGP seeing what is right and not right about the way the Americans ran their first Formula One race in nine years. He was very impressed, as were the others in his party, with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway facility. For the first on-track session Friday morning, Wright went out to Turns Eight and Nine to watch and hear the cars. He said once the fans heard the unique high-pitched sound of the cars and watched them drive, especially the quick-braking, ten thousand new fans were created. Wright also confirmed what I'd already heard about reaction to the Historic Formula One cars. He was at the pit wall when the Historic Formula One Reunion cars came out for their Friday session. He heard a lot of noise, and turned to see all the F1 mechanics literally drop their tools to run out to the pit wall and watch the legendary Formula One cars have their fifteen minutes of track time behind the pace car. One of the pleasures at a large event such as this weekend's USGP is the celebrity spotting. This weekend was no exception. There were so many VIPs arriving in private aircraft that the general airport was closed to all but race traffic. This included Federal Express, which may explain why my overnight package arrived so late. To further accommodate the celebs, a fleet of fancy helicopters were utilized to ferry them back and forth from the track. The helipad area behind Turns 11 and 12 had 20 or so choppers at any given time. And fancy ones they were. Among those enjoying the copter rides were the Princess of York, SARAH FERGUSON. Fergie was by far the most popular with the crowds. She had two body guards. Others included ANTONIO BANDERAS and wife MELANIE GRIFFITH; JAMES GARNER, TOMMY HILFIGER, and DAVID LETTERMAN, who looked a bit on the shaggy side with a beard in progress. He was hamming it up with the McLaren team, who were all taking turns posing for photographs with him. Other sightings included BRUCE WILLIS and what seemed to be half of the CART Community. Among those from CART included CART Chief Steward, KURT RUSSELL; CART Communications people RON RICHARDS and STEVE SCHUNCK; CART team owners BOBBY RAHAL and DERRICK WALKER; CART drivers DARIO FRANCHITTI and fiancee ASHLEY JUDD, TONY KANAAN, JUAN MONTOYA, and PAUL TRACY. MARIO ANDRETTI and AL UNSER Jr. were driving in the Porsche-Pirelli Supercup races. Not seen was GEORGE HARRISON, who rarely misses a chance to see a F1 race, nor the Prince of Monaco who was rumored to be lodged downtown in a fancy hotel. STEVE EARLE, the American FIA Steward was only a little busy this weekend. Up to the actual race, there had been routine Scrutineering details and two pit lane over-drivers. Technically, all the cars passed muster in all the myriad of tests. The No.15 Prost Peugeot of NICK HEIDFELD had its fuel sampled, while twelve of the F1 cars were weighed; a software check and sealing of electronic units for No.2 McLaren, driven by DAVID COULTHARD, No,3 Ferrari of MICHAEL SCHUMACHER, and No.6 Jordan, driven by JARNO TRULLI. All kinds of Scrutineering tests were effected Sunday on the cars mentioned, including tires, before they had track time. All cars were found to be in compliance. PEDRO DINIZ/Sauber was fined for speeding during Practice. Team representatives provided telemetry printouts which caused the Stewards of the Meeting to accept that "the speeding offence was caused by a technical error and not by an act of the driver." The fine was reduced Sunday to $8,000. JENSON BUTTON/Williams was fined $2250 for speeding (128.6 kph) during Qualifying. Saturday afternoon, CHARLIE WHITING, the FIA Safety Delegate, moved the start of the speed limit to a position between Turns 12 and 13, 330 meters earlier than it had been. Whiting also announced that the Permanent Bureau of the Formula One Commision "has agreed that the speed limit should be increased to 120 kph for Sunday Warm Up and Race. The pit lane speed limit had been 80 kph. Race day the FIA Stewards penalized two drivers for jumping the start of the F1 race. DAVID COULTHARD/McLaren and GIANCARLO FISICHELLA/Benetton were both given a ten second stop and go penalty. All in all, not a particularly controversial weekend for the Stewards, and that's the way Earle wanted it. The 'other' STEVE EARLE, Dr. Steve Earle of Garden Ridge, Texas won from the pole in the Ferrari Challenge Series race. He has been with the series since its inception. BERND MAYLANDER of Germany won the first race of the USGP weekend, the first of the two rounds of the Porsche-Pirelli Supercup Series. Maylander got his share of track time this weekend, as he also the driver for the FIA Safety Car, with DR. SID WATKINS as his passenger. In that capacity, Maylander got no track time during the race. Maylander has been married but a month, during which time he has won two races, for which he thanked his wife, MARION. One of the weekend's wasted resources, in my personal and admittedly biased opinion, was the unused space in the new Media Center. IMS had built a new, state of the art four-story Tower which included a large Media Center, along with Timing & Scoring, Race Control and FIA/Stewards areas. More than 700 journalists and photographers could be accommodated on three of the four floors, with the fourth being the cafeteria area to serve all. The main fourth floor had rows and rows of tables, each with a set of eight TV monitors, power plugs, telephone outlets, etc. They were under-utilized in that many more people could have occupied the space available. And the entire second floor area, capable of holding 200 people, went unused all weekend. Countless media requests had been denied because of the overwhelming demand and the FIA restrictions on coverage. And that's not counting all those who didn't even bother applying for fear of rejection. Of those who had been accepted, there were, percentage wise, very few American journalists and even fewer American photographers. All this on a weekend when the world's collective sports attention was being drawn to Sydney, among other places. One would think that FIA would have welcomed the coverage. I was one of the journalists denied media credentials for the USGP, but thanks to some special people, I was still able to attend and cover the race. Without the help of MELANIE CORRELL of the Ferrari Challenge Series, ANDY SCHUPACK of the Porsche-Pirelli Supercup Series, and friends STEVEN COSTELLO and RON MATHIS, it wouldn't have been possible. Thanks to you all for allowing me the opportunity to be part of the first United States Grand Prix! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Initially posted to http://www.racingpr.com/snoop on Mon Sep 25 01:10:04 2000 PST. Copyright 1999, Lynne Huntting. You can reach Lynne at snoop@racingpr.com. For press releases and other racing coverage visit the RacingPR home page. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----