US Grand Prix Tickets

The NASCAR US Grand Prix Speedway, the first since 1991, will be the first ever within the limits of ability housing a 2½-mile oval track. Forbes point out there would be no team or car pre-testing on the route, although a Formula one team will make a final scrutiny travel around sometime during the winter or early spring. Building has moved quickly. The medium room, which had took care of a gaggle of world-wide press representatives for thirty years, has been knock down along with the row of producers' and subsidizers' rooms behind it, to make room for the 36 Formula 1 garages and twelve suites that are to be built on the inside south end of the main straight. The garages will extend nearly 200 feet south of the end of the old Tower Terrace. In the clockwise-running race, pitting cars will enter as they come around what is Turn 1 on the oval from the south. All other races are conducted in counter-clockwise fashion, and cars enter the pits when they exit the oval's Turn 4 from the north.

The pit surface has been removed from south of the new Pagoda at mid-straight and will be widened to accommodate the Formula 1 pitting procedure that sends the cars back onto the regular surface north of the garages. However, this will have no effect on the way oval track drivers enter, make their stops and exit the pits. Demolition of the old timing-and-scoring room at the start-finish line was completed in early September. "It's pretty significant," Forbes concluded. "It includes the tunnel (being lengthened) and phone room. It's very, very complex. There is very heavy infrastructure that we're kind of weaving around." February - Plans are in motion to put up viewing hills for the NASCAR US Grand Prix Speedway Tickets. The speedway says, "...they will be located outside the circuit (but in the infield of the oval). The mounds will be along Hulman Boulevard (which runs down the center of the oval) and where the F1 cars will turn east towards the Museum.

"The mounds will be available during practice and qualification days and open to those who purchase general admission and reserved seating tickets for race day." February - Seeing as how there will be many foreign visitors, tons of worldwide media and coverage in over 50 countries when the NASCAR US Grand Prix Speedway Tickets comes to town, IMS has wisely decided to form a U.S.G.P. Hospitality Committee. At a press conference, Tony George told some F1 journalists he wants to put 200,000 fans in the seats for the first F1 visit to America since 1991. That would make it the largest-attended Formula One race on the circuit just as the Indy 500 and Brickyard 400 draw many more fans than any other race in their categories. The three events should attract more than 1 million fans combined in 2000, adding the IROC race during the Brickyard 400 weekend and a proposed support race for the F1 race, along with qualifying attendance for all events. "I think 200,000 are achievable," George said about crowd projections for the inaugural NASCAR US Grand Prix Speedway. "If it was wildly successful and we had demand for 300,000, then we would have to deal with that. It will be interesting to see what the response is when we begin our ticket sales efforts.

"A support race will accompany the feature F1 event, George said. He already has been contacted by a number of organizations such as Porsche Super Cup, Toyota Atlantic, the Ferrari Club and even the Mexican Formula 3, which is being revived next year. But George's dream has him leaning in another direction. He wants the support race to be unique, something that will spark even more interest to the casual race fan. His idea is a Champions or Legends type race, although he doesn't have a preconceived idea on the actual makeup of the race yet. "But I think it would be fun to get the Mario Andrettis and Nigel Mansells of the world together for some type of event," he said. "I don't know if that is possible or not. I think it would have a lot of interest." George emphasized that any support race will be run on the road course. There is just too much NASCAR US Grand Prix Speedway Tickets involved in changing from one setup to the other to make it viable to attempt to compete on both tracks at the same event. The changeover from the oval to the road course was one of the reasons George said he didn't want to hold the F1 race in June. Other racing organizations like motorcycles, sports cars and vintage cars have expressed interest in competing on the new course. George has started a file for future consideration.