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Andrew Longman
05-24-04, 02:48 PM
Went to my last race there yesterday. I will be in Montreal on 29 August :p

Not a bad crowd, biggest I've seen in a few years, but far smaller than CART races there in just a few years before they left. Two major sections were not even open.

I'm going to miss it. The flat, 3-6 turn (depending on how you count, or how well your car was handling), up and down, hard to pass track drove many a driver nuts. But it usually showed who was the best driver.

Cookie cutter it was not. It was unique, some might say odd, but typical of many Eastern tracks. I put it with the right hand dog-leg oval at Trenton, the semi-circle at Langhorne, the flat "circle-squared" 5/8 mile at Flemington, the High-Bank 1/3 mile still at Wall, and the Pocono three-unique turn tri-oval.

It had history too being a key curcuit on the dirt portion of the old ChampCar Vanderbuilt Cup championship. And of course it was the Andrettis home track.

Yesterday I watched Busch cars turn laps in the 29s and Modifieds turn in the 27s, but I will never forget seeing Paul Tracy get the pole with a 18.8 in 1996. Watching a champcar race there was like watching a tornado.

I don't think it translated well to TV, but it was always great in person.

I wonder were Busch and especially IRL will go next year. If the NE is important, the IRL has only one race, Richmond, east of Michigan.

Back to NH? Back to Dover? The Glen? Pocono? Not too many other choices and the Glen and Pocono would require major safety upgrades, if anyone cared enough. None would feel compelled to take a race given the poor chance of selling any tickets (for IRL I mean)