(autosport) New York state could yet be the venue of a United States Grand Prix, after details emerged this week of plans to host a race at the Monticello Motor Club - 90 minutes from Manhattan. Just a few weeks after a bid to hold a race in New Jersey was scuppered when the mayor ruled it out, it has been revealed that talks are underway for a race at the venue that is located at the foot of the Catskill Mountains. American publication Autoweek has published a letter from Ari Strauss, the president of the Monticello Motor Club, who talks about meeting F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone and having hosted F1 track architect Hermann Tilke at the venue. In the letter, Strauss says: "A few months ago, [MMC chairman] Bill McMichael and I met with Bernie Ecclestone, President/CEO of Formula One Management (FOM), and discussed the terms for an exclusive 10-year United States Grand Prix to be hosted at MMC. "Shortly thereafter, Hermann Tilke, the chief engineer and circuit designer for F1, spent time at MMC and confirmed that our track and surrounding properties, with some expansion and minor track modifications, is an excellent location for a Grand Prix "Since receiving a letter of understanding from FOM confirming their hope to bring the U.S. Grand Prix to Monticello, Bill and I have continued to secure the backing and support of local, state, and federal politicians and organizations." Despite the hopes expressed by Ecclestone, Strauss does admit that it is far from certain an F1 deal can be pulled off. "Securing F1 is like winning the Olympics, competition is fierce, and this is not a done deal," he added. "While the prospect of F1 at MMC is exciting, we remain focused on our core business: the club and its members." The Monticello venue is 4.1 miles long, and features 22 corners.
One of Bernie's complaints about Indy was the crowd size. There is no way a track in Catskills will draw better numbers.
The Montecello track looks nice enough, imagine all the bureaucracy they went through just to get it built. Problem is, there appear to be no fan facilities and they're going to have to cut down a lot of those nice trees in order put in grandstands, pedestrian bridges, expanded runoff areas, etc. which will no doubt bring out the self-appointed enviro police. Looks as though they've got big plans there. Very interesting, Great if they can pull it off. Good luck to them. Bernie complained about crowd size at Indy? Wasn't it the case that Indy was drawing the biggest crowds on the schedule each year? RM
If the great ego wants bigger crowd numbers he needs to have a track built in the south and have F1 run as a support race for a NECKCAR race. Yeah like that is going to ever happen
ZERO chance it happens at Monticello Motorsports Park. I took a client's car up there last year and it is a great place, but I could give you an entire page of reasons it will never happen there. Forget about it. MB
I have trouble seeing this happening also. If they can run there with some "minor approvements" then I wouldn't think it would take much to have them run at Road America. After all, it's only a little farther time wise from Chicago to RA as it is from New York to MMC.
I like Monticello it is a really nice "TRACK" emphasis on the word track. As far as drawing bigger crowds to the area for an F1 race absolutely. In a 300 mile radius there are about 70 million people, so that isn't the problem. The problem is the last time that area had an influx of people the size of an F1 crowd was in 1969 when there was a concert up the road in Bethel, NY. The infrastructure really isn't much better than it was when the area hosted Woodstock.
Bernie is grasping at straws. Actually, they're not even straws... he's grasping at thin air. What an utter joke. For those who have been there, it is clear Monticello is never ever going to host a GP. May as well talk about hosting a GP at Englishtown Dragway. It's about as likely to happen. Bernie is obviously very desperate and trying to throw any and all names out there to scare Indy to bow to his demands. But Indy doesn't care too much about having an F1 race there, unless they can make money. And they can't make money and also pay Bernie's fee. And that pisses Bernie off, and is making him desperate. Monticello? LOL!!!
Lots of people doesn't necessarily translate into lots of F1 fans. One of Indy's attributes was that it was centrally located and reachable by car from many different major and mid-major cities. By hosting an event in the backwoods of New York City, you're putting all your eggs in one basket. And I have a hard time believing 100K + New Yorkers are going to trek out there three days in a row. Any non-local F1 fan deciding between Monticello and Montreal will choose the latter any day of the week. It's always nice to hope and pray for a grand prix in your own back yard, but this isn't going to happen.
I was sure Liberty Park wasn't going to happen from the get go, but I'm not so sure about Monticello. I'm not familar with the location, but like the fact that it is nearer to Montreal than other sights mentioned so far. The distance to Manhattan is not ideal, but it sounds doable. Ironically it is about the same as the trip from Paris to Magny Cours, which Bernie killed. On the other hand, Bernie wasn't being pressured into having a venue in France like he is in the U.S.. You can't compare attendance numbers at Indy with income because tickets prices at Indy were significantly lower than in Europe, less than 50%. Since things cost more in Manhattan than other locations around the country, prices could be upped from Indy, closing that gap. Another advantage, and maybe a big one, is that you have a more international population in New York than Indianapolis, and therefore a great potential fan base. The people at Monticello obviously have their heads screwed on tight because they are doing their homework, not jumping off the cliff. I say give them a chance. They are going to need to find a big pockets investor or sponsor. I say wish them good luck and hope. If this were to happen, it would be a natural for U.S. fans to do the Catskills GP and Montreal all in the same trip. In fact, a great selling point for the locals would be the number of fans filling up the resorts between Monticello and Montreal during that week.
Exactly. Sounds more like MMC is pursuing Bernie than the other way around. I can't imagine that place being the site of an F1 race. In fact, wasn't this the same place that was hawking exclusive ownership shares in the track and excluded "outsiders" only to, two short years later, start hosting weekend 4wd snow racing, clube events, and all the things they said they wouldn't do? Sounds simply like they need money.
Wasn't the Texas Motor Speedway in "contention" to host a night race a few years back? I would put this offer in the same category of no way in hell.
Hotels, international airport access, highway infrastructure, etc, virtually non-exisitent, not to mention most of the track would have to be rebuilt to FIA standards. Who would pay for that? This could be Bernie's ploy in his negotiations with the actual real location of the future USGP.
if a USGP is going to happen with in the next 5 years it will be at Indy. Indy is the only track in the US that is ready to host a grand prix. with George no longer in charge at Indy I also think that there is a good chance at this happening as early as next season. I think Ecclestone is using Montecello to test the US market for possible promoters, and sponsors. with Montecello being right out side of New York its easy to get potential promoters and sponsors interested because all the major ad firms are based in New York. As for Texas Motor Speedway, I would not put anything past Eddie Gossage.
I'm surprised more people aren't getting excited about this. Bernie's trial balloons usually get a lot more enthusiastic response among those desperate for a USGP. Don't tell me the US fans are finally seeing through the gnome's evil plans
I'm a member of MMM and happened to be there today with P 4/5. I spoke to the principles and while by no means a done deal it is a serious inquiry and could with a lot of money be made to work. NY is a huge media/publicity draw for Sponsors and if staged here would accomplish that. The logistics would actually work if enough money was spent. NYC by Helicopter is a short hop and by bus in a dedicated bus lane is only one hour and ten minutes away from Giants stadium which could park more than enough and have a lot of buses. There is a lot of interest from politicians up there to help. It's definitely not impossible. There's also an airport close by that could land the teams cargo planes.
heed the warnings of Donnington!. You can put in a lot of money and come away with nothing!. Yes, Donnington was handled incredibly badly, by people who thought they could get rich quick off the back of F1, whilst at the same time failing to see that they were just a pawn in a much bigger game, but a big part to note is that here in the UK, there's a much larger following for F1 than in the USA and yet it still failed. As F1 stands at the moment, it simply doesn't grab the attention of the majority of racing fans in the US, it has pretty much a cult following. You can have the best access to the circuit in the world for fans and teams, but if you can't attract the fans in the first place, you've wasted your money!. Look at Indianapolis and the number of fans it's geared up to handle for race weekends. Access for fans and teams wasn't a headache for them. The circuit, while not a classic, was pretty good for overtaking, better than some circuits F1 still goes to, and yet the motor racing fans decided that, after an initial curiosity, F1 was not their cup of tea and the numbers dwindled (from 200,000 down to 100,000, which for most circuits would be a successful weekend, but not for Indianapolis). As for the politicians, of course they are showing great interest, this sort of thing always gets them noticed. If it's a great success, they'll take all the credit and probably make some money out of it. If it's a complete failure, it'll be someone elses fault and they personally won't lose any money at all. Please don't get the wrong idea, I'm not knocking the whole idea, I'm just saying that with this sort of plan it's very easy for ambition to get the better of people and cause them to fail to see the pitfalls, which with F1 can be massive and devastating. Don't believe Me?, look again at Donnington, a once great race circuit that held BTTC Touring cars, World Touring cars, Moto GP etc., has pretty much become derelict and is now desperately trying to survive as little more than a club circuit and rebuild itself, which could take years. That's pretty much the same gamble that the MMC track would be taking, so careful thought has to go into the decisions being made as to whether it's really worth the risk. And if it did go wrong, F1 wouldn't care, just ask Donnington!.
Very true, but Donnington didn't fail because of some conspiracy, it failed because the money wasn't there. Same is true for the USF1 team. This proposal has another advantage that Indy didn't, reasonable access to the Montreal F1 fan that doesn't get enough at the Canadian GP. For starters there has to be someone with real money to make a commitment and will stick with it. Trouble comes when the funding comes from 14 different sources with everyone watching everyone else. One party doesn't come through and the dominos start falling. It also comes when those doing the cost estimates cut corners to begin with, to try and make it work. Then when more money is needed, things can fall apart. If it gets far enough to become a real proposal, not just an idea, those against it will come out of the woodwork. The good news with this proposal is that it is for a location that is already a race track, not a park.
