UK newspaper review of Brands Hatch race...

[The Moon Monkey]

Cart's half-throttle is full bore

The American series' British showpiece is turned into a dull procession

Richard Polkey at Brands Hatch
Tuesday May 6, 2003
The Guardian

It is not yet clear whether Cart, the nearest thing America has to formula one, has a future in Britain but, if it does, it is not on the short circuit at Brands Hatch.

Or at least not in the format it chose to use yesterday. On a circuit which measures just under 1.2 miles, necessitating a race distance of 165 laps, the powers that be decided that each driver would make only two mandatory pit stops.

The problem was that the limited capacity of the cars left the drivers having to conserve fuel to ensure they made it to the next stop, and an extra stop would cost too much time on such a short circuit. They could not drive flat out because to do so would use too much fuel, and the result was a procession as boring as anything produced by formula one. Ever.

It was hardly the way to help spread the gospel of Cart - Championship Auto Racing Teams - around the globe, which was the reason they were here - and at Rockingham in the past two years.

"The race was about who saved more fuel, not who went faster," shrugged the Brazilian Bruno Junqueira, who finished second to his Newman-Haas team-mate Sébastien Bourdais. "It's a good track for the drivers but we need to change the rules."

Like Bourdais he calculated he had made only four overtaking moves throughout the race, all when lapping back markers. Mario Dominguez, who finished third for Herdez Racing, reckoned he had passed only two cars, and described the experience as like racing 800hp cars on a kart track.

Darren Manning, the sole Briton on the grid, finished 10th after providing one of the day's more interesting moments when he slid off attempting to overtake. He was able to attempt it only because he had had to make an unexpected third pit stop and so had enough fuel to put his foot down.

"The cars just didn't get a chance to stretch their legs out there," said the Yorkshireman. "That's a big shame because, believe me, they're great at slip-streaming. We had to come here to show what we could do, show the quality of the drivers and teams, but maybe it would have been better to use the grand prix circuit."

Clearly it would, but Cart was promoting this race itself and the money was not there to prepare Brands Hatch's longer track.

"Did we miss the mark today? In some ways, yes," admitted Adam Saal, Cart's communications chief.

Given that the two-stop rule was decided upon by Cart's board of directors, which includes representatives from all the teams, no individual is likely to carry the can for what can only be described as a shambles. It would have been interesting to talk to the Cart president Chris Pook, but he left shortly after the race.

In fact it is far from certain the financially troubled series has a future at all. Falling television ratings, ferocious competition from numerous other formulas and the straitened US economy means Cart is losing money hand over fist.

If Pook is hoping that the formula one supremo Bernie Ecclestone may yet come riding to the rescue, yesterday's British leg of the series did him no favours. Ecclestone is not known for spending the smallest part of his fortune without the prospect of a serious return.

The half an hour before the start of the race was far more interesting than the half an hour after it. A fan was picked from the crowd to put a question to Manning as he stood by his car in the moments before the start. An unfortunate choice, as it turned out; "When are you going to get into formula one?" asked Stuart from Eltham.

Required to think fast, Manning made the best of it. "I like this better. They're too hard-nosed in F1; they never come and say hello to you guys," he replied.

There was nothing wrong with the razzmatazz, the "Americana" as Pook called it. The honorary grand marshals Damon Hill, Mario Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi chorused the customary "Gentlemen, start your engines", the race began and, for almost 50 laps, 18 cars lapped in perfect formation.

Only after the pit stops began was the field mixed enough to provide some occasional excitement. Alex Yoong, as formula one fans will recall, can usually be relied on to mess things up at some point, and duly crashed out. It looked as though the Canadian Paul Tracy would win his fourth race of the season for Players Forsythe Racing until his Cosworth engine blew up, leaving Bourdais and Junqueira to lead the field home.

The crowd, estimated perhaps a fraction optimistically at just under 40,000, watched in some bemusement. Having been promised wheel-to-wheel racing and constant overtaking, they were entitled to feel let down.

[DNQ]

Sadly most of what was said is true. It's a bit downcast, but in all honesty, Brands promised more than it delivered, mostly due to the pitstops problems. Hopefully they sort that out, and they can come back and have a REAL race on the GP circuit in 2004

[Mr V]

Brands is one of the few tracks in the world (with the exception of Ovals) with 3 proper overtaking spots within just over a mile. The fuel rules have to change, plus go to the full GP circuit to give the race a chance of staying there.

[DavidStHubbins]

Whatever the reasons for the bore-fest it was still extremely tedious viewing. Once the novelty of watching them go round the track had worn off I switched off a bit dissapointed.

[Liz]

The television review I saw focused on Bruno's whining about fuel economy runs, not mentioning that Bruno has never found anything to be happy about ... but on such a short track, having fuel rules was indeed stupid.

And as far as "boring" goes, I am amazed that people who will sit open mouthed in front of the TV to watch "Michael Must Win" racing, week after week, would dare to call anything else boring. Next to the mind-numbing parade at Barcelona, Brands looked like the Gumball Rally.

[DavidStHubbins]

Originally posted by Liz
Next to the mind-numbing parade at Barcelona, Brands looked like the Gumball Rally.

No way Liz!

Barcelona was an above average race for F1 whilst CART was sleeping tablets.

Maybe you mistook the Formula Renault for the CART?

[DNQ]

To be honest, for once I seriously thought the F1 race was better than a CART race on the same weekend. Overall it's the other way around, but last weekend, the Spanish Grand Prix was fat better than the Champ Car event. And I say that as both a CWS fan and an F1 fan.

[DNQ]

*far

[D.R.T.]

Agreed it wasnt the ideal motorsport event, however much can be taken from this event to make future events better. Many things worked against CART, the short track didnt really give the drivers a chance to really battle with someone, the nature of the open wheel cars didnt work with the short track and didnt allow cars to tack on to the back of cars infront. Also the fuel strategy which atleast they know now that they wont use that one again.
Many positives should and must be taken from the event, Bourdous first victory, the huge narrowing of the points table and next race at Lauzits

[Paul Rayner]

Originally posted by Liz
The television review I saw focused on Bruno's whining about fuel economy runs, not mentioning that Bruno has never found anything to be happy about ... but on such a short track, having fuel rules was indeed stupid.

And as far as "boring" goes, I am amazed that people who will sit open mouthed in front of the TV to watch "Michael Must Win" racing, week after week, would dare to call anything else boring. Next to the mind-numbing parade at Barcelona, Brands looked like the Gumball Rally.

I don't think having fuel rules on this track was stupid at all - if there hadn't been any then exactly the same thing would have happened - two stops was the absolute minimum around here - but the stops rules should have been for three stops, at least two under green flag racing.

Then we might have seen more racing but, as anyone who's ever watched an F3 race round Brands Indy could tell you, it's a rubbish circuit for slicks and wings racing. Put cars on that are much wider than F3, and a driver only had to move left or right by the smallest amount and the guy behind couldn't get past.

I'm sorry Liz, but I think you're being biased here. Yesterday, someone said to me at Brands "Aren't Champs Cars boring?" My answer was "No, Champ Cars aren't boring, but THAT RACE was." A disappointing display for Champ Cars when they had a real chance to shine in front of the British public and media. I think it's a great shame that article didn't mention that they were clearly outshone by Touring Cars, as the mass exoddus of fans that traditionally happens after the main race of the weekend didn't happen until after the second BTCC race. I heard that some fans went for CART, but were so impressed by the BTCC that they stayed for it. Let's hope they come back for that, because I really don't think this will make them come back just for CART.

[BootsOntheSide]

I agree with DNQ. It was a very disappointing affair, but there is clear potential for something better next season on the Grand Prix track with different fuel rules. At least the Touring Car races were thrilling.

[racer69]

The race was about as exciting as watching the Big Brother housemate read a book for 20 minutes, as happened just prior to the Brands Hatch telecast here.

I'm not sure going to the GP course would help the racing. The main problem i saw was firstly the fuel rule, and also the aero package rule, how some are at a disadvantage this week, whilst others will be next week. If they could have been fixed, coupled with the tightness of the Indy circuit at Brands Hatch, the race could have been a cracker.

The GP circuit, while being a much better circuit to drive on and watch a car on, wouldn't i don't think have produced a better race.

[cos]

I saw CART for the first time yesterday and I ahve to agree... the first few laps were interesting (just seeing the power of the cars etc.) but after 165 circuits that novelty had more or less worn off. Only interesting bit was when Yoong walked past me after crashing out.

[DavidStHubbins]

Originally posted by racer69
The race was about as exciting as watching the Big Brother housemate read a book for 20 minutes, as happened just prior to the Brands Hatch telecast here.

Glad to see someone else went through that too

[Jay]

Well...if it's any consolation to Champ cars, that was the most boring race I've seen in memory for the series. But, I wasn't too surprised, as I couldn't see that there was any good overtaking spot on the track for Champcars (different story for slower cars). The pit rules didn't help either.

As for Cart's future in England, I think they had better televise more of the North American races, because if that's all they see Cart should forget about England and go somewhere else.

That said, they were running low downforce setups because they have to use the same aero package next weeked in Germany. This made overtaking even more difficult if not impossible. The good news is, it should make overtaking much easier in Germany. So, hopefully that will at least be 'exciting' in the way oval races can be.

[Craig]

As for Cart's future in England, I think they had better televise more of the North American races, because if that's all they see Cart should forget about England and go somewhere else.

If that is all the show they're gonna put on then good riddance!

[Lee Janotta]

Originally posted by Jay
That said, they were running low downforce setups because they have to use the same aero package next weeked in Germany. This made overtaking even more difficult if not impossible.

Which is precisely why Lausitz really doesn't work for CART. Spa and Brno would be much better choices, the same equipment could be used for them as for Brands GP. And they'd be running three of the best road courses in Europe.

And they'd draw huge crowds at Brno if they got Thomas Enge in a seat, even for a one-off.

[Mal]

I think it was a bit boring but fairly predictable as it is such a short circuit. However we know that CART can produce some of the best racing in the world. It really needs to use the GP circuit and to forget about economy runs.

I switched on Eurosport in the evening and for the first time I thought the TV coverage was more exciting than the live show!

[Woolley]

The cars were great, the circuit is fine, the race was boring. Why? A few thoughts:

The pitstop situation was wrong, preventing the drivers from racing. The pit lane needs work to allow yellow flag stops, and 3 stops are needed for that race distance.

The cars were on a compromise setting because of Lausitzring. Wih proper street downforce, they should be better able to race.

There aren't enough cars, so leaders aren't fighting through back markers.

There are not enough experienced, quality drivers. 11 of 19 are rookies, some of whom have no business at this level. Last year's crop of drivers would have had 9-10 possible winners battling for position. This year's aren't close enough or competitve enough. Many of the teams are new too, so close racing is unlikeley for now. Let's face it, the first few races weren't a whole lot better, but I'm sure it will improve.

Before we damn it completely, let them work on the changes needed and the experience of this year, and welcome them back next year.

[tanalised]

The leaders were quite frankly struggling to pass anything let alone back markers

[McKay]

Originally posted by Liz
And as far as "boring" goes, I am amazed that people who will sit open mouthed in front of the TV to watch "Michael Must Win" racing, week after week, would dare to call anything else boring. Next to the mind-numbing parade at Barcelona, Brands looked like the Gumball Rally.

F1 produces better races than Champ Cars and Oval Racing anyday

[Jay]

lol...this was a bad race, but realistically, it was no worse than most of the F1 races last year. And if you think differently, you probably just have a chip on your shoulder against Cart or American racing.

[429CJ]

Originally posted by McKay
F1 produces better races than Champ Cars and Oval Racing anyday

[EBTM]

Unfortunately, It appears that for at least the 2004, the race will remain in the small circuit instead of the complete one. That's really a shame, but everyone in CART agrees that there are a lot of changes to be done.

http://www.cart.com/News/Article.asp?ID=5972

****
The other matter that was debated vigorously last weekend was the prospect of moving the race to the 2.65-mile Grand Prix or long circuit, last used by Formula One in 1986. Many of the drivers would love to see the move. Most prominent of those in favor of the move is Mario Andretti.
"I personally would like to see it because of the prestige factor," Mario said. "It’s the Grand Prix circuit versus the Club circuit and these cars belong on the Grand Prix circuit. It’s the same thing as Watkins Glen. It’s not the Glen if it’s not the long circuit. I maintain that the ultimate goal has got to be to move the race at Brands to the long circuit."
****

[Jordi]

So it was boring? Well. Not all races are Monza 1971.

The thing is that CART doesn't do it as often as F1 did last year. But CART shouldn't be viewed with such a negative attitude for just one race. If we did judge championships for one race, we maybe would not like any motorsport at all.