From Cart.com:
http://www.cart.com/News/Article.asp?ID=7341
GK'S INSIDE TRACK: THE SECRETS BEHIND STREET CIRCUITS
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
CART enjoys plenty of first-rate street races with Long Beach, Surfers Paradise and Toronto standing out. Surfers Paradise may be the finest example but all these races enjoy great settings and draw large, enthusiastic crowds. They’ve established themselves as perennials and as essential money-spinners for their respective regions.
Each of these classic street races emphasize the point that it’s all about location, location, location. Long Beach president and CEO Jim Michaelian is acutely aware that the right setting and track layout are critical to making a successful street race.
“You can’t just put these things anywhere,” Michaelian says. “There has to be the right environment. There has to be enough room to run a race. It has to be fast. It has to be competitive. They have to be able to pass.
“You’ve got cars that will do 200 mph and you’ve got to let them do at least 190 mph. You’ve got to let them go and gallop a little bit. Shoreline Drive is a pretty good blast, but you need at least that. Anything less is not really enough. And you need to have grandstand seating along the pits so you can see the pits from the stands. That’s a big deal.”
Beyond the track, there has to be plenty of room to operate. “There has to be room for the teams so they can reasonably work and can access their equipment and their cars,” Michaelian adds. “You’ve got to have room for the support races and all the customer amenities – stands, servicing, an expo, concerts, and all the things that go with it.
“It needs to be located in an area that’s got some attractability to it. The closer to the water, the better, because you’ve got to have a good visual presentation for television and for the fans who come to the event and say, ‘Man, this is a neat place to come to.’ That’s a key ingredient.”
Michaelian is very aware that few street races have enjoyed much longevity. Many of them run for a couple of years and go away – The Meadowlands, Detroit and Houston for CART; Detroit, Dallas and Phoenix for F1, not to mention lesser venues at places like Des Moines. Races like Long Beach, Surfers Paradise and Toronto stand out from the crowd because of their stability and appeal.
“A combination of things are required,” Michaelian remarks. “Everything has to work together. The fans have got to access the premises and get around and see what they want to see. And of course, it’s got to be clean, and it’s got to be in a major market where you can attract more than just your hard-core race fans. You’ve got to be in a market where people say that it’s fun and they want to go to the event because they always have a good time there.
“You’ve got have expos and concerts and maybe extreme games for kids. You’ve got to appeal to as many people as possible and you’ve got to make the facility – the location – work for all the different constituencies so that you don’t get to a point where you’re too compromised on too many fronts.”
Another important factor is having the local community and media on side. “The only way to do it is to tell the truth,” Michaelian says. “You’ve got to tell them this is what we’re going to do, this is how it’s going to operate. You have to level with them because they’re going to catch on real quick if you don’t.
“It’s a delicate mix. If you can set it up so that it operates without affecting downtown, like in Long Beach and St Petersburg, that’s big plus. If it doesn’t upset the normal activities in the downtown then you don’t upset the local people. That’s a key to having them onboard and keeping them excited about the race. If the media or the local city fathers hear and see that it’s a pain in the neck for the locals, you’re in trouble.”
Michaelian is confident that St Petersburg has the right combination, like Long Beach, Surfers Paradise and Toronto.
“St Petersburg is one facility that just worked,” he said. “It has all the right characteristics. The city is very enthusiastic about it. The location is neat. You’ve got shops and hotels nearby and there are some facilities inside so it’s not spread out all over the place. There’s room to put on a concert inside or outside. It just works. Some places aren’t like that.”
It’s essential to work closely with the city so that the layout and operations of the racetrack aren’t compromised too much by the kind of development that’s taken place in Long Beach.
“One of the reasons we do this is to profile the city, assist them in terms of future development and do whatever we can to help them exploit all the natural attractiveness of that area,” Michaelian points out. “As new developments come in, new hotels are built, it begins to encrouch on and shrink your operating area for the paddock, grandstands and hospitality areas.
“It’s a very delicate balance in terms of being successful with your mandate for the local government and yet working with them so there’s still enough room left to run the event. We’ve been able to do that at Long Beach only because we’ve been there so long and we’ve worked so closely with the government and the developers. But it’s been a challenge.”
Long Beach, of course, is the best example of using a motor race to help redevelop an aging city’s downtown core.
“There can be some very positive benefits that accrue,” Michaelian says. “They’re looking for economic impact and exposure through television and the media and everything else, and also to generate a sense of esprit de corps. That’s what you want. You want to make them feel good about their commitment to you to run an event in their town.”
Still, given the history of street racing which shows few races surviving more than a couple of years, it’s probably impossible to have an all-street racing series, as some people have suggested.
“Could it be done?” Michaelian ruminates. “Yes, but realistically, I seriously doubt that you could merge together enough really viable venues. It takes a long time to establish them. You can’t take five or six of them and say these are going to work.
“If you wanted to put together a series of nine or ten events, it would be a challenge and, I’ll be honest with you, I’m not sure a series needs to be all street races. I think it’s interesting to the fans to see a mix of different types of tracks. I think that part of the Champ Car World Series is really healthy and should be maintained.”
Michaelian doesn’t think it’s possible for his group to stage many more street races. “We could probably do one more,” he admits. “The problem is not so much the number as the timing. We can’t do two events in two months. The way it is now is pretty good. It would be good for us to have one in November or December.
“One of the challenges would be to do something in the northwest, in the Seattle area. I know they’re looking at Houston as a potential venue. We looked at that. It just doesn’t fit in with our time frame.”
Michaelian says Dover Downs will be very careful in deciding to back any future street races. “Dover is going to be very judicious about what they’re going to do and where they’re going to do it. We want to see the series succeed and one way to have the series succeed is to run our events as successfully as we can and let that be counted in the plus column. We want the fans to like it, the sponsors to like it, and the competitors and media, too. For us to take on another venue would be a very serious commitment on Dover’s part.
“Dover is as interested as anybody else in where CART is going and how much success they can look forward to in the years to come. Dover has made a big investment to get to this point and they’re looking for a return on that investment which is not unreasonable. They’re a public company and they need to get a bottom line on it.”
Michaelian says that, regardless of all the surrounding events and attractions that can be developed, the key element in making a successful street race is the strength of the feature race.
“We need to host a strong series. There’s nothing that’s going to replace that,” he observed. “I agree that additional entertainment is key. There’s no question about that. But the core of the people who come to these events want to see something that’s competitive.
“You need a strong series that people identify with and come out for. There’s got to be a core. We’ve got to be able to say we’re featuring the best road racing series in America and here are the names and you’re going to see them last year and this year and next year too. You’ve got to have that relationship for people to identify with.”