http://www.washtimes.com/sports/20030404-82149517.htm

The D.C. Sports & Entertainment Commission has voided the last nine years of a 10-year contract with National Grand Prix Holdings, promoters of the Cadillac Grand Prix of Washington

 

WTF?

That is soooooo friggin' typical of DC.... it just doesn't surprise me.

Karen

 

I hate to play devil's advocate b/c I loved seeing/hearing the ALMS cars roaring around DC, but the bottom line is that NGPH misrepresented the noise level the first time and DC had to respond. DC asked for some type of noise control, but NGPH was unable or unwilling to comply.

Example: take it out of the middle of a residential area of DC and put it in the middle of some residential middle of no where (say, Summit Point, WV). Impose a sound limit. Some gripe, but all understand they have to meet that level.

Okay, the ALMS and SVGT cars are on a higher level than the average car running at a weekend at Summit and it is only one week a year. But the affected population is probably 5000 time greater, too! Those who don't share our passion are not as willing to sacrifice for it. Of course, those with the passion should understand this. I wonder if NGPH had made any type of good faith effort to reduce the noise whether we woud be in the situation?

Sad to see it, but when __whatzhisname_ didn't make any steps, I knew this was inevitable. (I'd love to see racing in DC in a nice *non-residential* area... like along the Mall and through downtown

[this topic made me think -- most "city" races are/were held in downtown ghost-towns (e.g., Denver, Detroit) where most residents are not human]

 

It one respect, I can see it being a benefit for the series. Maybe (hopefully) it will force the series to move to dedicated road courses, which are established venues. No need for makeshift parking, road closures, and wonky course layouts (although I know the DC circuit was an unusally good design) and problems that arise at street course races. There are so many perfectly good, and recently updated, tracks that are sitting around waiting for a nice big series to come in.

Road America (You'd think after losing Champ Cars they'd be down to do a good deal with Panoz)
Summit Point
VIR
Lime Rock (Not sure if it's up to spec for the LMP cars, but a street course isn't exactly the safest thing around either)

I just don't want to see them using ROvals anymore. Except for Daytona...

edit for pour spelen


[Modified by Vantage, 3:15 PM 4/4/2003]

 

The Molson Indy here in Vancouver, BC, Canada runs right through an area that was probably undeveloped when they started running here but is now surrounded by high rise apartment buildings. Just about every balcony had some sort of banner either supporting or opposing the race weekend. For me, having a high balcony facing the track would be awesome... you'd be able to see the whole track. But I can certainly imagine that for most people it would be a real **** off. Them CART cars is loud, yo!

 

damn

 

This is a real shame. I thought the venue was great. I had worked at the RFK Stadium in prior years and thought it would be great to race there. For which it was. I will mis this venue, but, I bet you could never tell by the way I handled it while being there. Just those darn walls need to be moved back just a tad.

Had the question been asked of us to decrease the sound expelled from our cars for the event, I'm sure it could have been accommodated within reason. Just as they asked us prior to running at Portland a couple of years ago. I remember Taz as well as few others having to make appointments with the local muffler shops to install inline sound barriers.

If this had been addressed prior to the event date I'm sure all the teams would have tried real hard to decrease sound readings to an acceptable level.By the way, acceptable is not 90db. I would feel 98-100 would be considered acceptable at 50 ft away. Which is what Portland was limited to.

The only other way to mitigate the problem is by paying more money to raise the sound level, which is how ALMS and CART do it on a regular basis for Portland or for that matter any other circuit that has a sound advisory board.

 

DC bites.

So now we have a giant possible autocross lot once they get rid of the barriers? I need to test the 330ti.


[Modified by 4WDrift, 2:55 AM 4/5/2003]

 

I don't understand what kind of humans can't put up with one loud weekend when they consider how good the incoming $million$ are for their greater community. It's just background noise, and it's not like the cars run between 6pm and 8am... I think there's more to this than we know and/or think. The noise can't be the whole issue... it's gotta come down to money hoped/promised/lost on somebody's part...

Jon

 

as with most things in politics...you'll never know the inside story