There is nothing new under the sun. The hot, Texas sun. Having grown up in Dallas but only being 5 years old when this occurred, I was thrilled to find this Dallas Grand Prix 1984 broadcast preserved on the youtubez. It's fun to take a walk down pit memory lane... in my case seeing this for the first time. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKFJJPjTOM4[/ame]
Part 2 [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lULLZULPoEg[/ame] Part 3 [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG439aDzzHk[/ame]
I was at that race. It was hotter than hell outside (gotta wonder about the geniuses that planned a F1 race in the summer in Texas), the track layout was crap, the track surface lasted about 8 minutes, and I think about 6 cars finished the race. But I didnt give a crap because it was my first live F1 race, and the cars were glorious. Couldn't believe the access to the garages, cars etc. Had great pictures from a high quality 110 Instamatic at some point ;-)
Back then access is not something any F1 fan could dream of for the past two decades but watching Mansell push and "WILL" his car towards the finish line will go down in F1 history imho.
I am glad to have went..but I remember it being seriously hot and dusty, both the track and the seating were awful.. I remember seeing the Ferrari driver's personal Ferraris... Also, it was when the TV show Dallas was really popular so they had all the actors from the show there.. Austin should be waaaaaay better.. Dallas was not even my first F1 race. My first F1 race was at age 5; the 1977 Long Beach Grand Prix with my dad... I remember it being much better than Dallas..
So why did the race fail in Dallas, a city substantially larger than Austin, with great air connections?
then you saw one of my all time favorite races..btw you had the 77 wdc on the podium as well as the (eventual) 78 and 79 champs....great battle in the streets....
the race was sponsored by Stroh's. LOL. somehow I doubt that would happen today btw thanks for the vids, love the old skool stuff!
Without Bernie, most of us would not get to watch F1 on TV. FYI, rumor is that Bernie will soon be knighted by the Queen. Sir Bernie has a nice ring to it!
Bernie is behind all of the other F1 races that continue year after year*, so your reasoning, in all due respect, is not correct. The race failed because it was not in a long term user friendly market. Texas is not F1 country. Just like Austin, Phoenix, etc. *Silverstone, Monaco, Monza, should I go on, and on?
Blame Bernie for everything, but F1 is what it is today, because of Bernie. You can not understand F1 if you do not understand this simple fact. He may be a bastard, but he is the bastard that made F1 second only to soccer as a spectator sport.
By what measure? F1 actually has the largest global TV audience of any sport, measured annually. Single events like the superbowl and world cup overwhelm F1 numbers, but those events are one-offs and don't make up for the annual numbers.
I wholeheartedly agree with you but I still think Bernie has something to do with a races demise even if it does not fit into his "business model". Like I have said on several occasions I am just going to sit back and see what happens.
F1 is a business to make money. I doubt that Bernie would ever cancel a race venue that is profitable. So, if a race doesn't fit into Bernie's "business model", it should fail.
Crappy course, bad surface, terrible weather. Also the oil bust in '85 probably contributed to abandoning the idea of another race in Dallas. I think oil hit $10 a barrel just about a year after the race, and Texas was pushed into its worst economic crisis ever. As for Bernie, his claim to fame is that he can wring every possible dollar of profit out of an F1 race -- that means 100% of any money the race could make, plus more (govt subsidies). This is a feat unparalleled by any other businessman, and his investors know it. If a promoter or track (or anyone else) is making a dime on F1, then Bernie is not doing his job correctly.
As mentioned in the OP, it was a temporary street circuit and the paving failed, big time...no idea on financial profitability.
They probably made a killing, after all, all you have to do is throw up a few concrete barriers on an existing set of streets, like they're fixing to do in Joisey.... right?
It was hot as hell, but worth it for an amazing weekend. The Historics race was my favorite. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I don't know, those photos above indicate at least a couple of compelling reasons to have it during the summertime.
