Miami Seems an odd venue seeing as we have Homestead Speedway nearby. I'm going w Bubbles, See you there
Since 2004, the Race of Champions events were moved from their first base on the Canary Islands to sports stadiums around the world to create a more intimate atmosphere so fans may come out and be close to the action. Previous versions of stadium ROC races were held at Paris, London, Beijing, Bangkok, and back to London again. Homestead, being an ISC track would have no interest in hosting any sort of major international racing happening such as this as their sole emphasis is on NASCAR. It's being covered in the racing section. http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/other-racing/530822-2017-race-champions-miami.html BHW
NASCAR is their main emphasis, not the sole emphasis. Theyve had Indy & IMSA races there. FARAs field is impressive w Daytona Prototypes, DPi, Lambos, Ferraris. Porsches, Astons, Corvettes, BMWs etc all battling it out. They also have Friday night drag racing
There hasn't been a sports car race or Indy Car race at Homestead since the ISC/NASCAR kicked Indy Car out of all but two of their circuits several years ago now. It's an all but distant memory but Homestead even hosted FIA GT (now Blancpain) and even with those cars, hardly anyone turned out. Grand Am raced at Homestead, but calling that sports car racing is a reach. I attended one of these events back around 2010 as a guest of one of the teams and I've seen more spectators at club events there than were at that race and I don't recall IMSA having ever raced there. A circuit which regularly had crowds of 100+K for CART races at their height, were lucky to get 10K for IRL/Indy Car as they simply have no interest in promoting these types of events as they see a dollar spent on anything other than NASCAR as a dollar out of their pockets which they will stop at nothing to recoup. Outstanding facility, no doubt, but a pity what has happened there since the ISC takeover. BHW
I received the attached brochure for VIP packages. I had Diamond Club season tickets for the first 3 years of the new stadium (until they got so bad that I had to practically pay people to go to the games with me), and it was fun. The dining room is nice, the service is good, the seats are comfy, and they were right behind home plate. I don't know how that translates on the race course, but it looks like a hairpin and straightaway are right in front of you. I'd do that option if other people are going. Has anyone done anything about getting tickets? Image Unavailable, Please Login
We've ordered tickets anticipating a large European and Brazilian contingent coming to see the event but they're cheapish seats. Haven't gotten any news as to how ticket sales are going but we're in so no worries. Some of our Danish and English friends made their plans to attend the minute the announcement about the event went live so there will be some crazy Danes supporting Tom Kristensen and Brazilians supporting Filipe Massa and Tony Kanaan. There will be more coming as we're discussing doing an extra curricular event around the ROC. BHW
There's FARA which has impressive fields. The next race Miami 500 Nov 27 has 7 DP, 4 LMP3, 6 radicals & Pragas, Huracans, 458, GT3RS, Audi R8, Corvettes etc. It's not IMSA but it's great racing.
When speaking about sports car racing, I'm usually referring to major international points paying championship calibre events sanctioned by the FIA or to a lesser degree, IMSA (which is now controlled by NASCAR) featuring, you know, professional drivers, professional factory backed teams, sponsors, attending media, etc. The last such events that took place at Homestead featured Grand Am which, as per usual, featured their newly invented "Man on the Street" fans which chose to stay away by the droves and the race played to 100K empty seats. I've not seen the ticket sales yet for the upcoming RoC event here in Miami but would expect to see a large crowd from all over the world in attendance which should make it very interesting. We'll be there and watch for announcements with regard to any extracurricular events taking place in town. BHW
Indy Car stars Helio Castroneves and James Hinchcliffe join the Miami RoC event line up. The full line-up includes: Kurt Busch (NASCAR) Kyle Busch (NASCAR) Ryan Hunter-Reay (Indy Car) Alexander Rossi (Indy Car) Travis Pastrana (WRX) Scott Speed (WRX) Gabby Chaves (Indy Car) James Hinchcliffe (Indy Car) Juan Pablo Montoya (Indy Car) Tony Kanaan (Indy Car) Filipe Massa (F-1) Helio Castroneves (Indy Car) Jenson Button (F-1) David Coulthard (F-1) Tom Kristensen (Sports Cars) Petter Solberg (WRX/WRC) Sebastian Vettel (F-1) Weve got our tickets Castroneves, Hinchcliffe join ROC line-up, ROC Factor launched BHW
From the seating chart, the most sold seats are behind home plate which is good for baseball but head on and getting high to the long straights. Any good/bad ideas about being low between the fences and either first or third and being closer to the track?
Personally, I think sitting behind the home plate area may not be the best viewing particularly. Somewhere down the first or third base lines may afford the best overall viewing of the entire circuit. Having never been inside the stadium, it's difficult to say. Sometimes, the most expensive seating may not be the best but then there are the amenities that come along with privilege. BHW Image Unavailable, Please Login
Looking at the stadium pics, I'm leaning to around first near the jump. I haven't seen any VIP tickets or perks available to the public so the only amenities could include an overpriced hotdog.
Taking place this weekend. Tom Kristensen's winner's trophy is all but a formality of course but we'll be there to see all the races. BHW Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
The track was Super lame, was a glorified go kart track very poorly laid out & the "flag men" were completely clueless. This was not road racing. The races were 2 lap events were the drivers would swap tracks end of 1st lap. The worst part of the track was the last 2 corners. The right side corner was very tight & killed your speed while the left corner allowed for better exit speed. So the driver on left side was the winner 90%. The driver list on the other hand was spectacular. We got to talk to David Coulthard, Helios Castro Neves, & JP Montoya who won the whole thing Sat. Travis Pastrana was surprisingly strong giving serious F1, Indycar, & NASCAR drivers a serious challenge.
Putting a work a day race track into a stadium is no small task. And, of course, it's not going to be Nurburgring Nordschleife. They did a good job of laying the asphalt as there didn't seem to be any patches coming up in the turns as may be expected. The variety of cars taking part was interesting. It seemed they could have done away with the Whelen NASCAR and Polaris Slingshot SLRs in favor of Shifter and/or Rotax karts. Since all of the drivers are accomplished karting drivers in their own right, it would have been interesting to see them race karts on the circuit absolutely. The remaining cars were pretty much at home on the tight circuit. The Aerial Atoms must have set the fastest laps as they were visibly very quick off the line and through the turns. The NASCAR type cars just looked like dinosaurs on the track and could barely get out of first gear. It looked as though all the drivers were having trouble controlling the Slingshots as with only one wheel in the back where the drive is, they were sliding a lot and of course Wehrlein's incident on Saturday in a Slingshot was pretty dramatic when he flipped after losing control coming out of the last turn, slightly brushing Massa, and doing an end-o over the barriers and almost ending up in the front row along the third base side grandstands. Word at the stadium on Sunday was that Wehrlein's sponsors (he'd only just signed with Sauber a few days ago) objected to him continuing after the incident and therefore he pulled out of the Nations Cup event leaving Vettel to carry on for Germany solo where he secured the 1st Place trophy. For sure, Vettel got the biggest applause from the crowd during introductions and he didn't disappoint. The crowds were respectable, Saturday estimates reported to be upward of 15K to 20K with the grandstand down the first base side nearly full. Perhaps 7K to 10K on Sunday. Haven't seen exact figures yet. Our section seemed to have a lot of Germans, Columbians, Brazilians and Danes so that was great with a good many flying in from Europe especially for the event. The kick is to see so many top drivers from different disciplines all racing together. They all seemed to be having a great time and enjoying the event. Several noted that they hoped that Miami would become the permanent home of the ROC. It reminded me of the days IMSA and NASCAR used to race at Daytona during the 4th of July events when you could see Peter Gregg and Hurley Haywood talking with Richard Petty and David Pearson in the garages where here it was the Busch brothers hanging out with Vettel, Coulthard and Kristensen. During breaks in the action, organizers kept things going with crazy stunt car driver Terry Grant, motorcycle stunt driver Aaron Colton and an original Group B Audi Sport Quattro rally car doing some demonstration laps and providing some fun. Downside, food and drink prices. Chicken tenders with fries $10.00, pulled pork sandwich $12.00, import tall boy beer $14.00, domestic tall boy beer $12.00, hotdog $6.25, nachos $12.00, regular soda $4.75. Frankly, how can a guy bring the wife and kid(s) without taking out a second mortgage? Didn't $1+B of tax payer money go into building this facility? Doesn't seem fair that they gouge prices for food and drink. We Uber'd over so we didn't have to pay for parking but on site parking must have been $30.00 at least. Suppose though, still better than paying $20.00 for a bottle of water at the Breakers, a-hem... All in all though, a very fun event. We had a great time Saturday and Sunday. A few pics. Sorry for the quality, recently lost my fancy new camera and used the old one. BHW 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 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 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
They really need a real track for next year or it's just a goofy novelty event nad not a real race. The way IROC used to do it but with maybe 10 lap sprints w all drivers together in same car. The add different races for different cars.
In some of the photos, the circuit looks like a 1/1 scale version of an Aurora A/FX slot car track! I'd rather see these guys race in real, identically-prepared race cars on a real racing circuit. Bring back the IROC!
Information courtesy of the ROC Miami Press office... Felipe Massa had the fastest time of the entire weekend: 36.5331sec (Radical SR3 RSX) Crowd across both days was 15,000 (Sat) and 13,000 (Sun). BHW