June 19, 2005
Farce
I witnessed quite a spectacle today, but not the one that I expected and hoped to see. As a Formula 1 fan, I have looked forward to the US Grand Prix all season, and attended the event today at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with my father. In an extremely unfortunate development, only six of the usual twenty competators took to the track to compete (and only two who could have been in contention). I won't go into the details, because there are better places for that, but I will say that everything is the result of a major failure on the part of French tire manufacturer Michelin.
That's right -- I blame the French. No joke. Everyone else involved in the event did exactly what I would want them to do.
I was obviously disappointed to not see a real competition, but my disappointment must have been nothing compared to others. There were more than 150,000 fans at the venue, and a large percentage of them had travelled from abroad. Can you imagine travelling from Columbia or Spain to Indianapolis to see a race that does not happen?
The dejected internaional tourists weren't the problem, though. The problem were the ignorant, drunk American "fans" who knew nothing about what was happening, but decided that this injustice demanded that they throw debris onto the track. Jackasses. Happily, these people were in the minority, but it only takes a few.
The american fans for the most part stuck around and enjoyed the race as it was. I was happy to get out there and spend a beautiful afternoon with my dad and see those incredible cars run. We had really, really good seats. I just hope this isn't such a business disaster that the USGP will be left off future championship schedules.