Temporary Circuits and "No Passing" on Them

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GTPlanet, Speed Channel show "WindTunnel with Dave Despain,' had a "My Take" on how the Edmonton race went. From what I heard, the Edmonton event was sensational. But what he mentioned was that people who obviously go to temporary race courses on airports, downtown streets, and such. The thing Mr. Despain discussed on the show was that there were cities such as Houston, Dallas, Detroit, Miami, East Rutherford, and all that have held street courses and temporary circuits have had little or marginal success. Also mentioned was that a person who attends a temporary street course, park course, street course, etc. are likely not to become pure racing fans. Then I sort of heard why Dave Despain doesn't like street courses, by calling them "downtown crashfests with no passing." GTPlanet, this thread is about the topics of temporary race circuits (like park roads, airports, street courses, etc.), and the other issue involves "no passing."

Had it not been for the Texaco Grand Prix of Houston, I probably wouldn't know what (then) CART was about. I remember back in 1998. I thought the course seemed pretty tough. What Mr. Despain also mentioned was that if a city plans on running a street course event, that a proper race course is made and not just a cheap way to expand tourism to the cities involved. The reason why I like street courses is because I like different sorts of environments. I think if you're looking to bring more fans to a race track, you go for a street course. What if there's no permanent race track and fans want to see some action? Take it to a street course. You do what you can do bring fans in.

The biggest sound off I'm going to make is about "no passing" on street courses. Like I say, if you're a racer, you have to be able to tackle all sorts of conditions. Street courses aren't impossible or "crashfests." And why in American motorsports are we always into passing? Passing takes skill, it doesn't just happen like on a dirt oval. And don't give me that bulls:censored: about no passing. You drive your ass off, even if sacrificing your car or your personal health. That's what a real racer can do. I'll add more to this, but offer your opinions about street courses. This is not a thread about your favorites. Instead, this is about temporary circuits in general and the thing that I hate hearing from American race fans: "no passing." Reply.
 
Ohhh passing HAPPENS on street courses. Ever seen Trans-Am on Long Beach? Shoot, 2003 I recall that on the last lap Paul Gentilozzi, Boris Said, and Justin Bell swapped first place four times!

Vancouver, Long Beach, Burke Lakefront Airport (Cleveland), Monaco, Surfers Paradise, Trois Rivieres, Columbus (back when IMSA raced on it), all have had tons of passing.

And, as a former short track driver (305 Sprints and Supermodifieds) and member of the short track press, I can tell you that it's not passing that American fans like - it's battles. American fans like to see conquest. They don't like it when someone is untouchable.

The idea that NASCAR fosters is that anyone can win on any given day, some folks just have longer odds than others. That's a purely democratic ideal when you get right down to it. Yes, it's a little staged and a little trumped up, but it's what the American public wants, and it's what Formula One, ALMS, and CART fail to offer.
 
A real racer should be able to make a pass on any course, not just a NASCRAP oval or a permanant road course. Dave Despain said the first bad thing I have heard about the event. From all other accounts I heard, it went off without a hitch. And for the record, I was in Edmonton during race weekend, but was unable to attend the race events.

I'm also just going to say, it's better to have a temporary circuit race than to have no race at all. And about the 'crashfest', it is not the fault of the course that a driver loses control and hits a wall or other car. It is the fault of the driver, or occasionally, equipment failure.
 
Temporary circuits can offer just as much passing as full-time circuits. LeMans - plenty of passing there. Cleveland: i remember some Cart races there from the late 90's - again there were plenty of passing. The Canadian F1 Grand Prix does pretty well for action, even by modern F1 standards. I've seen plenty of action at the past two Austailian GP venues, Adalade and Melbourne. In modern times only the 80's Birmingham SuperPrix has offered a temporary venue in the UK, footage i've seen of that seemed to have a good amount of overtaking. DTM races at the Norisring have more action then any other race i've seen, NASCAR included.

I think the main problems with street/temporary circuits are that the drivers generally don't like them. The surfaces are usually poor, the lack of run-off makes it hard for drivers to fully push the cars to their limits and corners are often blind.
 
Here's the thing. Dave Despain is big on motorcycles, believe it or not. I can see why AMA doesn't try out anything like Long Beach or anything, because it can be too dangerous. I remembered seeing races on the dreaded streets of Macau in China. It can be pretty much like suicide to bang into a high wall, not to mention probably flying off the motorcycle.

The argument I seem to make is that there seems to be a sort of double stanard in American racing. The double standard I usually make is that it's okay to fit 36+ "stock" cars on a "short" track, and there's passing. But others think its so bad to see cars compete on city streets or something with "little or no passing." So I ask "whazzupwitdat?" (what's up with that?).
 

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