Miami Grand Prix ?

William, the Grand Prix of Miami wont be returning any time soon in any form.
Apparently, the events lost tons of money and posed huge logistic problems for the city.

The final straw happened last year when the organization filed bankruptcy and sold off remaining assets (Sebring obtained fencing and concrete retaining walls for pennies on the dollar).

Panoz has insisted from the beginning that his group will not take over promotion of existing street races, knowing that they are usually money losing propositions.

Direct comparisons were made to the 2003 St. Petersburg Grand Prix where the downtown course was completely asphalted, smooth as a billiard table in the scenic Vinoy Basin area of downtown St. Pete. St. Pete was very well received by fans, media, drivers and teams as a very organized event whereas Miami was chaos in contrast.

The Miami organizers failed to take advantage of the great setting of the race. The course itself was an afterthought, usually still under construction as the first sessions were beginning and in many spots, the track looked more like a jail recreation yard than a race course in sparkling Miami.

The circuit was hated by teams, the huge bump on the exit of the final turn last year was responsible for the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment (a GTS Corvette and Servia's CART car being written
off there) and the drivers said the constant change in surface made the
entire course bumpier than Sebring.

Even if ALMS came back this year, there wouldnt be much to choose from. The fields are deleated to one Audi R8 a couple of Lola MGs and the Corvettes. The only Ferrari left in ALMS is the Risi 360 running in the GT
class as Prodrive/Care Racing and Rafanelli failed to find funding to return this year after sponsors pulled out. Until the Prodrive/Aston Martins enter next year, there wont be very much happening in the ALMS.

It's too bad, we sure had a lot of fun at the race in 2002 and 03. Until someone with huge funding comes up with a better idea for a downtown Miami race, we're SOL I'm affraid.

All the more reason to get our own events going. No reason we cant turnout
at the Cuban restaurant and empty a few cases of wine again.

BHW

 

William, you can still do that. There just wont be any race going on
down on the ground.

We can invite a few Rachel's girls down perhaps?

BHW

 

We need to do our own Grand Prix.

 

That would be the 6 Hours of Moroso Endurance Karting Challenge December 3-4.

Another shameless plug.

BHW

 

Martin:

I think you've got it. Lets run the old track - a-la Cannonball run. Just show up with a few appropriate vehicles and do, say two laps around the roads where the course was, as quickly as possible. As long as teh course doesn't run through a warehouse district, the odds are pretty good that no one will get hurt.

Scottie