A1GP Canadian Race

[Last2LiftOff]

Article in the Globe & Mail today regarding holding an A1GP race in Canada.

Among the hurdles mentioned, I like this bit the best: "the possibilities for a Canadian race are limited since the "nation versus nation" series runs from October to April." What, that's a problem?

If the series does carry on though, flying everything out here and back for only one race certainly won't.

[Leighton Irwin]

They don't have snow tires. First safe dates for St Jovite or Mosport would be late May. Latest safe fall date would be mid Sept.
Sure it can be beautiful both earlier and later but! Sept tends to be rainy and I have seen heavy frost and snow in both Sept. and May.
No other tracks are suitable and anyway the weather is no better.
Mind you I would low to see them.
Crowd in Mex. seemed pretty sparse.

[Kiwi3]

Well they had a...no wait...kind of a race in Beijing in November in freezing temperatures and that was a great success...

[Redneck Rocket]

What about Vancouver? I was very surprised when the Champ Car race fell off the schedule. Sept/Oct and April/May are very mild in Vancouver although could be quite wet. There are loads of places other than the Concorde Pacific site that could host the event. UBC comes to mind, and I can think of several other potential sites.

[Francis Albert]

Originally Posted by Kiwi3

Well they had a...no wait...kind of a race in Beijing in November in freezing temperatures and that was a great success...

Yeah, it's apparently been cancelled for next year. There was an article on Pitpass, last week I think, but I can't find it.

[Last2LiftOff]

Originally Posted by Redneck Rocket

What about Vancouver? I was very surprised when the Champ Car race fell off the schedule. Sept/Oct and April/May are very mild in Vancouver although could be quite wet. There are loads of places other than the Concorde Pacific site that could host the event. UBC comes to mind, and I can think of several other potential sites.

Sure Robert, a street race in Vancouver in April, or October even, is not out of the question. But staging an A1GP race in Canada must have plenty of other problems to overcome besides the weather. I can't imagine staging an A1GP event here would make any sort of sense on paper at this point. As Leighton pointed-out, the crowd in Mexico looked a little sparse, and while it was a great weekend on track, I wonder how the promoters were feeling about it on Monday.

[Redneck Rocket]

Originally Posted by Last2LiftOff

Sure Robert, a street race in Vancouver in April, or October even, is not out of the question. But staging an A1GP race in Canada must have plenty of other problems to overcome besides the weather. I can't imagine staging an A1GP event here would make any sort of sense on paper at this point. As Leighton pointed-out, the crowd in Mexico looked a little sparse, and while it was a great weekend on track, I wonder how the promoters were feeling about it on Monday.

Never had any attendance problems for Vancouver Molson Indy? Crowds were huge every year.

[Last2LiftOff]

That's hardly apples and apples Robert. As a quick example, at the moment, the television rights to an AIGP broadcast here appear to be worth so very little they tape-delay it a few Wednesday afternoon's following the race.

But hey, I'm probably way off. You should ask Molson's.