Why didn't ASCAR take off?
Discussion
Watching nascar the other day and got me thinking about when i used to go to see ascar at rockingham fantastic racing and all round a good day out i was only 13-14 at the time.
Why didn't it take off it was on tv, good grid numbers and of the times i went the stands were normaly fullish.
So what caused it to end lack of support from teams and spectators can't see that myself or something else.
Why didn't it take off it was on tv, good grid numbers and of the times i went the stands were normaly fullish.
So what caused it to end lack of support from teams and spectators can't see that myself or something else.
Reading between the lines, it was heavily subsidised by the yanks and rocking ham to get it off the ground which bought some teams and well known drivers, however the teams took more money than they put in and the money dried up. Shame really as the cars were great and rocking ham had so much potential
fundamentally becasue there is no feeder series. its really hard to establish a one off series with no way of developing people in junior series first. pretty much every racing driver back then went from karts to FFord, to FRenault, to F3, to F3000 and then to F1... of course a few went to touring cars, sports cars/GT or endurance type stuff but no one really felt it would be a good career move to go to a roundy-roundy racing series at any stage of their career...
I went to the ASCAR races the first couple of years, it had promise but they never had the numbers you need for this type of racing, fifteen or so cars just looked a bit ridiculous trying to draught.
The track looked nice, though I think they have a few thousand seats that have never seen a bottom.
The track looked nice, though I think they have a few thousand seats that have never seen a bottom.
Scuffers said:
stephen300o said:
The track looked nice, though I think they have a few thousand seats that have never seen a bottom.
to be fair, it was never built for ASCAR, Indy was the plan (till Silverstone and NCC colluded to screw them)I alwayas felt ASCAR had a prolem in that it could only run at one circuit, so the potential viewers were always limited. And with potential viewers (TV and at the track) lacking, the money will not appear
Scuffers said:
stephen300o said:
The track looked nice, though I think they have a few thousand seats that have never seen a bottom.
to be fair, it was never built for ASCAR, Indy was the plan (till Silverstone and NCC colluded to screw them)There is now an official NASCAR series in europe after this series was given official NASCAR status this year:
http://www.racecarseries.com/
From what i've seen it has pretty big grids and the cars look and sound great - there is even an end of season event at Daytona - It's a shame rockingham hasn't pushed to get these, they do race in the UK at Brands once a year
http://www.racecarseries.com/
From what i've seen it has pretty big grids and the cars look and sound great - there is even an end of season event at Daytona - It's a shame rockingham hasn't pushed to get these, they do race in the UK at Brands once a year
Yep for European NASCAR fans the racecarseries looks great and after testing one at a slippery / icy Brands i can confirm they are great fun to drive. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehmVWZ6QAaI )
designndrive62 said:
There is now an official NASCAR series in europe after this series was given official NASCAR status this year:
http://www.racecarseries.com/
From what i've seen it has pretty big grids and the cars look and sound great - there is even an end of season event at Daytona - It's a shame rockingham hasn't pushed to get these, they do race in the UK at Brands once a year
How the heck are these not racing at Rockingham!? politics, head up bottom, or both..http://www.racecarseries.com/
From what i've seen it has pretty big grids and the cars look and sound great - there is even an end of season event at Daytona - It's a shame rockingham hasn't pushed to get these, they do race in the UK at Brands once a year
nigel greensall said:
Yep for European NASCAR fans the racecarseries looks great and after testing one at a slippery / icy Brands i can confirm they are great fun to drive. ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehmVWZ6QAaI )
Looks fantastic - not at all jelous... :P lolI always imagined ASCAR as the top run of the stock car/hot rod scene, rather than fitting in so neatly with the domestic circuit racing scene. I saw them race at Rockingham (including Colin McRae's appearence) but they looked deathly slow compared to the Champ Cars.
Also caught the new Racecar Euroseries (I think that's how it was billed then) at Brands last year. It was fairly entertaining actually. I can't help but think that using the Mallory oval, Brands Indy and Rockingham, with support from Legends might be quite fun. Of all the races I watched last season I think Legends provided the most entertainment.
Seems a long time ago but Eurocar was an attempt at long-circuit stockers and never really took off. The key will be making the series credible within the existing oval community but getting regular long-circuit punters interested too. The spectacle of brawny V8 stockers is awesome and one to relished for the UK race-goer.
Also caught the new Racecar Euroseries (I think that's how it was billed then) at Brands last year. It was fairly entertaining actually. I can't help but think that using the Mallory oval, Brands Indy and Rockingham, with support from Legends might be quite fun. Of all the races I watched last season I think Legends provided the most entertainment.
Seems a long time ago but Eurocar was an attempt at long-circuit stockers and never really took off. The key will be making the series credible within the existing oval community but getting regular long-circuit punters interested too. The spectacle of brawny V8 stockers is awesome and one to relished for the UK race-goer.
chevronb37 said:
Seems a long time ago but Eurocar was an attempt at long-circuit stockers and never really took off. The key will be making the series credible within the existing oval community but getting regular long-circuit punters interested too. The spectacle of brawny V8 stockers is awesome and one to relished for the UK race-goer.
That's the series I was trying to remember. Sure that used to be on Eurosport and had a few BRISCA (and maybe even Tuscan?) teams in it? In theory it was a nice link between the short oval stuff and bigger circuits, but always seemed beset by politics. Think it morphed into the European Late Model series, which only seemed to race a a few short ovals and has popped up on Motors TV once in a while. I'm guessing that is what's now evolved into this "new" series?I did try and watch NASCAR in the days when Sky Sports was free, but it always seemed pretty tedious to me.
Sure the cars run together for hours, but all too often the real race is the last 10 laps, the rest is just a destruction derby to end up with the final 5 who compete the race.
Didn't and still doesn't appeal to me.
M.
Sure the cars run together for hours, but all too often the real race is the last 10 laps, the rest is just a destruction derby to end up with the final 5 who compete the race.
Didn't and still doesn't appeal to me.
M.
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