Edmonton race weekend thread (RACE RESULTS INCLUDED)

[macdaddy]

A little research and I correct myself... There's a 2-year option.

[StuiE]

Yep was a great race, I was loving it with both of the RuSPORT guys going so well (Wilson was very racey in the opening laps, and then later when he overtook Tracy), but then it all came to an end

But buy the same token Wilson's win came from some people dropping out at Toronto, so it all evens out, sorta...


The event looked great, all CC events should have crowds like that, seemed like a great atmosphere, Well done to Edmonton!

[racerkeke]

Well. Racegypsy and I are back from Edmonton. I'll let the Gypsy give you his impressions but from my standpoint I have never seen an inaugural that wasn't a goat rope... until now.

We drove in on Wednesday because we thought that our experience at other inaugurals might come in handy on Thursday. Heck, we registered (FABULOUS goodie bag, including TWO event t-shirts, altho they should have given us white so we could wear them on the stations), put out some fire bottles around noon, had a wonderful free hot lunch in the volunteer tent, caught up with friends (all of whom had showed up thinking the same thing we had), kept asking if there was anything we could do to help. Finally we realized that they had everything -- and I mean EVERYTHING -- under control and decided to visit a race sponsor instead. Yes, we went to the Mall.

I should mention that the Mall had a race souvenir shop set up (it opened two weeks before the race) next to the ice rink. Good thing we covered all our souvenir needs then because apparently they ran out of event t-shirts on Saturday morning and had to print more for Sunday!

I worked comm at T12 for the weekend, while Gypsy was at 5. Anyone who was there Saturday, or watched Trans-Am practice on Race Director, knows that 12 is now known as "The River". Control said, it's an airport, it'll drain. Yeah, but what they didn't realize was that the rest of the working airport seemed to drain under the T12 grandstands, through the lift holes in the blocks and across track! Finally got a dam working that diverted the runoff.

Race day was great, we got the stands to do the Wave with us just before Gentlemen Start, and Katherine won the Atlantic race. We could NOT believe the crowds. I have never before in my life been thanked and cheered by so many fans while riding in to the cooldown on the back of the equipment trucks.

At this point the general consensus from the travelling worker crew is that we will be back. Hey, every station had a "green room" and the lunches(provided by Sawmill) were great. What more could a worker want?

keke

[Snrub]

From Ted's Article, Greg Macdonald: "Having 43,200 grandstand seats is a lot,'' he said. "It costs about $40 a seat to put them up." That's very interesting. What were the ticket prices at Cleveland and Denver? Do some minimal math and you take a guess at the profitability of certain races.

''All our sponsors are ecstatic and it's already been made quite clear to us that many sponsors who weren't interested before are interested now.''

Another point worth noting is that Greg Macdonald says that even with the unexpected success they're still not pulling in a profit. I mention this because yes Edmonton had first time expenses, but it puts perspective on other events. It also adds context to the idea of starting up races in new places. It's expensive and I think we can get an idea of why the series had so many expenses in 2003.

Cool summary Keke, thanks.

[Mosport67]

By the look of the grandstands they seemed far more sophisticated than those in Cleveland. Stairs coming out from underneath and up quite high. Some of the grandstands had 35 rows in them.

Cleveland grandstands are about as basic as you can have so I would think the costs would be quite a bit less.

[TedN]

Last Saturday morning, the Auto Racing Zone radio show on The Fan 590 had an interview with the VP of Operations for the firm that constructed the grandstands.

I recall he said the following:

- 100 different components in the seating system
- seating system was shipped to Edmonton from Montreal & Toronto on 60 flatbeds
- $3 million worth of gear
- 10 weeks work to get seats completed
- 80,000 temporary seats available
- the compamy does a lot of major events in the U.S., Canada and the Bahamas

Ted

[marcus]

noticed some mentions of race director in previous posts.

I had no problems at all in fact its the best race director has ever run for me , not once did it cut out and start buffering , for me I hope this continues

great race though , i love the track very fast looking , lots of action towards the middle and the end of it.

Toronto and edmonton have been awesome

[mac]

Originally Posted by enemy-ace

In regards to Servia; the thing that bothers me is that Bourdais came out of the pits in front of him and he didn't really make any attempt at passing him. Bourdais was on cold tires and Servia had at least one lap if not two on his.

Can you imagine if Oriol attempted a pass on Bourdais, screwed it up and took them both out!!??

There is every chance he would not be racing at the next event. Servia's position at Newman Haas is precarious (through no fault of his own), and he is well aware that Coyne may not take him back if he's without a ride.

I reckon Newman Haas got their dream result from the weekend - I suggest they'd be thrilled!

Originally Posted by enemy-ace

His time at Coyne proved he is a great driver, however I am seriously starting to question his ability as a Racer!

Oriol has proved on countless occasions that he is a quality racer - in fact he pulled a stunning move on Tagliani early in the race at Edmonton.

I refuse to believe a guy that went around the outside of Franchitti at Turn 1 at Road America cannot race!

As for how he lost so much time - he was in serious traffic in the laps before and after his final pitstop. This combined with the task of getting his tyres up to temperature while Bourdais was in clear air, on hot tyres and with low fuel ............ it's easy to see how Sebastien made up time.

And realistically, neither Newman Haas car looked like having anywhere near the pace of the RuSport cars on Sunday.

It was a fantastic race. I was riveted the whole time and massively disappointed that I will not be able to go to Surfers Paradise this season!

And I was thoroughly impressed with the venue!

[Omega99]

Well, since I finally attended a race, and a glorious one at that, I finally have some worthwhile informtation to contribute to the thread.

First, the Trans Am and Atlantics races were outstanding! Also, Macdaddy, Koncia Minolta sposored Eric Jensen's Atlantics car as as well as the event.

Second, in regards to future sponsorship, the WEM president stated in the pre race song and dance that he was looking forward to being a part of the event for years to come, so I expect that they will be back next year in a big way! Also, Molson WAS involved. They did all the beer gardens... yes there were at least three that I saw, plus a bunch of tents selling beer around the track. But yeah, it wouldn't surprise me to see them step up their involvement.

As for the population of Edmonton, there are about 1 million people in the Greater Edmonton area. Quite a few people from Calgary (3 hours south) including myself, which has a similar population. You could do a race in both cities, a month apart, and it would work fantastically. There's already a healthy rivalry between the cities, and seeing who could run the better race would only add to that.

I listened to a local radio station on the way of Edmonton (which also broadcasted the race) and they were taking calls about what people thought about the race. It was all very positive. The only almost negative thing I heard was that there wasn't enough merchandise to buy! It was from a caller who was comparing it to NASCAR events he had attended and he brought up a very good point. There were only one or two champ car souvenir stands and a few Edmonton Grand rpix souvenir stands, and they were always swarmed with people. I walked by one on Sunday, and most of the champ car merchandise hanging on the wall had SOLD OUT signs on it! The Forsythe team jerseys sold out by 10:30am on FRIDAY! The moral of the story is, "If people want to give you money, you better be prepared to take it!"

All in all, great experience! I will do everything in my power to be back next year!