Your opinion on the Gold Coast event.

[Mattracer]

If I may refer to Mr Lambden's "opinion" article in MNews No.295, he refers to the main drawcard at the Indy weekend event, Champcar or V8 Supercar. What do you prefer? Do you attend or watch the TV for the Champcar round or the Supercar round primarily?

Responses appreciated

[pete55]

The titties on the balconies got more cheers that any of the drivers did.

[barney551]

This probably isnt the best forum for such a question as its obvious that the majority here are V8 supporters

[Crash Test]

I love to see the Champ Cars. Even though the cars are detuned and the series is an omlette, they are still bloody quick and good value.

Always love the V8s, nuff said.

But I think that most people rock up to Indy because of the event. Why does it get the same number of punters as Schoolies? Because it's a bloody good time! I know I met a fair few people who just turned up for the after dark party and never quite made it to the track

[stmookeyj033]

Watch both, and I'm glued to the set for both. The fact that I watch most of the other Champcar races though certainly helps.

[mitchie]

Champ Car plain and simple for me. Compared to the Supercars, they are just awesome pieces of machinery.

If there were no Supercars on the card, Id still go. However if there were no Champ Car Id most likely stay at home.

[Falcadore]

Champ cars come but once a year.

[Panzer]

I have been to every one. I realy only used to watch the Champ Cars but these days I watch both.

[Hazza]

Both.

[lowndes6]

I only watched the V8 have lost interest in the Champ Cars since all the GOOD drivers went to IRL.

[mountainstar]

Originally posted by lowndes6
since all the GOOD drivers went to IRL.

Respectfully

[Chucky]

Champcars by far. The V8's looked like a novelty race in comparison.

It's heartening to see they can still put on a show even though most have written them off.

[sizzle]

While I enjoyed both I think the Champcars could have been a lot better had they not been running to fuel strategies. Took a bit away from them I think. Their speed potential was much greater than some showed in the race.

[jetsetter]

The Champcars are what draws me to the event as we get plenty of chances throughout the year to attend a V8 race but that is the one chance we get to see a Champcar race.

[cavvy]

Melbourne based, I will be taking in the Indy before I get to Adelaide for the Clipsal, Indy because of Champcars. WRC in WA is on the must do list, & WOO at Parramatta is on my agenda for 05. Shame I have so little $$s.

[Gaz170]

The event would not be the same if it was just the V8's, despite what Tony Cochrane may think.

[Phase3]

Interestingly enough an impromptu poll of this very question was held by Paul Gale of Sea FM to the Twenty odd thousand people gathered at the lexmark hairpin about 30mins before the race got underway.

The result??

A deafening yell for the V8's, and a chirping cricket for the Indy cars.........

Seams Surfers is V8 country after all.....

[D.R.T.]

I have to disagree that its v8 country at Surfers.

The event sells itself. The image of the event has been built upon the last 14 years, of which Champcars has been an integral part of.

It is the champcars that differentiate this event, from all other v8 championship races.

So in summary, Champcars for sure. I haven't attended the event before (but I planning 05), but watching on tv last Sunday, the atmosphere in my lounge room as the Champ cars rolled out was something to bottle.

I was observing final Champ Car qualifying from inside the Hairpin at the northern end of the circuit leading onto pit straight. Much as I hate to admit it, nobody seem to care much for what was actually taking place and all their motor racing clothing was all from the V8 Supercar merchandising.

[pete55]

Then i guess we are a bunch of knuckle draggers then. Anything with a bit of finese and we're not interested.

[mitchie]

Originally posted by Phase3
Interestingly enough an impromptu poll of this very question was held by Paul Gale of Sea FM to the Twenty odd thousand people gathered at the lexmark hairpin about 30mins before the race got underway.

I wonder if its the same Sea FM guy who asked Bourdais in the post Friday Champ Car press conference if he 'saw David Besnard out there'

Originally posted by Chucky
Champcars by far. The V8's looked like a novelty race in comparison.

Especially with their stateau deluxeau pitlane they worked so hard to get, only to seemingly forget to carry the 1 somewhere

[Aarrgh8]

Originally posted by pete55
Then i guess we are a bunch of knuckle draggers then. Anything with a bit of finese and we're not interested.

I'm not sure what finesse is. Whatever it is, if the Champ Cars have it, most of the drivers don't. If David Besnard can jump in one and finish 7th, I wonder what Craig Lowndes or Mark Skaife could have done in one.

I enjoy both categories, and most categories of motor sport for different reasons, and see no reason in comparing them when they're so different. I first saw Indy/Champ Cars at Elkhart Lake Wisconsin in '99 and saw a fabulous race. It was lead by Montoya for almost 50 of the 55 laps with Greg Moore leading for a few laps. The two Newman Haas cars (Christian Fittipaldi and Mikey) finished 1-2 after Montoya's transmission let go.

Remembering that race reminds me that one into two doesn't go. The line-up at Surfers was evidence of that. The cars are great and the racing can be too. Just a lack of drivers with finesse - whatever it is. hrug:

[GTRMagic]

If the V8s were running there, I would think the chances of these insane chicane witches hats held in by seeingly foot long bolts would cease, and that the circuit would be opened up to allow the Supercars to have their heads... no compromises for the open wheelers' delicate underpinnings...

I dont mind the ChampCars, they arent absolutely frontline competitive when there are normally only a couple of hot car/driver combinations, while running a fuel economy run is not my idea of motor racing by any stretch of the word... "Push to whoosh" has its uses... but the fuel mileage thing ruins the spectacle to some extent....

Which one is more popular up there? V8s probably... as the local media has hardly gone out of its way to keep the Aussie general public up to date with the latest and greatest of the ChampCar series around the place, results and details of events... even Seriously doesnt do that much! So how could anyone besides the dedicated motorsport diehards know anything about ChampCar....



So get writing to the local branch of Seriously and have a whinge.... you never know, they might listen...

[jetsetter]

GTR has a good point about the local press coverage of Champcars as even though Qld host a round the Courier Mail only takes an interest in the series the event before Gold Coast meaning that a lot of non motorsport enthusiast go to the event not knowing anything about the series. A little coverage by Brisbane's only daily paper as the season progresses would mean that the fans that attend this event could know the cars, drivers, etc & become knowledgeable about the series, Channel 10 could help as well by showing the races at a better time than 2.00 AM.

[racer69]

It was interesting that Channel 10 seemed to concentrate more on the ChampCars all weekend rather than the other way round as they had in the past few years, despite the equal billing.