What if you had a race and no one saw it!

[SteamWolf]

Watching cars going around in a big circle is as boring as bat**** at the best of times.

[Jandrews]

Matt,

I was also at the Grand Am race at Kansas Speedway on Saturday. Went with a couple guys from the neighborhood and all of our sons. I agree 100% with your assessment. By far the best racing experience I have ever had. We got there around noon and caught the Lambo Trofeo race, which was spectacular. Then, the Continental Tire Challenge was awesome as well! The finale Grand Am race was incredible. While the DP cars were impressive, the GT class completely stole the show with the Ferrari 458's and 911's!! The speeds and endurance of those cars was amazing, and yes, we were right up against the fence at the deep braking zone in the infield!

Fantastic day, all around!

JA

[onewhippedpuppy]

John, we didn't get there until 3:00 so we unfortunately missed the Lambos. I took two 9 year olds and was concerned about their attention span running out. In retrospect they would have happily spent the day there, so next time we will do the full experience. I wished there were more 911s, hopefully by next year the new 991 Cup cars will be out in force.

[RonDent]

I was at the Reunion at Laguna Seca over the weekend. Looking forward to the Grand Am in a couple of weeks.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Just another note, Grand Am and ALMS will merge next year. Will we see the true Le Mans quality cars at the current Grand Am venues? Because that would be AWESOME.

[RonDent]

I'm waiting to see the schedule to decide which races to work. VIR and Road Atlanta would be great.

[UncleRay]

Watching the televised start of the NASCAR race at Bristol today. Attended this track about 10 years ago, it was packed and the partying all around was something else.
This track was on my bucket of list of different kinds of racing to witness, as in Top Fuel dragster, Formula 1, Outboard Tunnel boats, Off shore and Airplane pylon to name a few. The sights and sounds of Bristol was well worth it. Described as flying a jet plane in a gymnasium. That place will make you deaf in no time without very good ear protection.
Today the place looks almost deserted............times are changing.

[Sooner or later]

I have been to Bristol a half dozen times. Once for the Outlaws. Place looks to be far less than half full.

I like the short tracks (goes back to my dirt track days as a kid). Really, really like the drags. They are going four wide at Vegas this weekend.

[Alan A]

Originally Posted by UncleRay

Watching the televised start of the NASCAR race at Bristol today. Attended this track about 10 years ago, it was packed and the partying all around was something else.
This track was on my bucket of list of different kinds of racing to witness, as in Top Fuel dragster, Formula 1, Outboard Tunnel boats, Off shore and Airplane pylon to name a few. The sights and sounds of Bristol was well worth it. Described as flying a jet plane in a gymnasium. That place will make you deaf in no time without very good ear protection.
Today the place looks almost deserted............times are changing.

It’s on FS1 right now. They’ve packed everyone into two sections to make those pieces look full. The rest - not so much.

[Brian 162]

I went to both spring and summer Bristol race in 2017. The crowds were down even in the summer race (75%full).
The crowd in today's race looked less than the 2017 spring race rain date which was on a Monday

[ckelly78z]

I watched a few laps of the Bristol NASCAR race also, and commented to my wife that it looked like both full corners were completely closed off, and straights were only half full. It was always on my bucket list to go to the August night race when the Earnhardts, Labontes, and Tony Stewart were running, and tickets were at a premium....now, not so much.

[CurtEgerer]

Ha! I didn't look at the date of the original post (2013!) and thought, Grand-Am Racing at Indy over the weekend, WTF? What am I missing here? Luckily, IMSA has turned things around fairly well in the past 6 years but more improvement is needed.

[CurtEgerer]

Originally Posted by Alan A

It’s on FS1 right now. They’ve packed everyone into two sections to make those pieces look full. The rest - not so much.

I like the visual trick that most tracks are using - painting the seats multiple colors. Makes it look like the seats are full when the camera is panning with the cars.

[icemann427]

"According to estimates from journalists at the track, there were between 35,000 and 40,000 at the race, won by, guess who, Kyle Busch. Bristol Motor Speedway, nestled in the mountains on the Tennessee-Virginia line, has a seating capacity of 162,000."

[john70t]

Originally Posted by CurtEgerer

I like the visual trick that most tracks are using - painting the seats multiple colors. Makes it look like the seats are full when the camera is panning with the cars.

Slick. (no pun intended)
Or could they could fill them in with .cgi?

The Unreal Engine 4 can transpose life-like faces real time, so I'm sure everything on-screen can be manipulated these days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh9msqaoJZw

[CurtEgerer]

Never thought of cgi. I like it. Maybe they're already doing it! Sounds like something F1 would do -"let's just get rid of these pesky spectators altogether and use CGI, we're only interested in the TV money anyway."

[Jim Richards]