Belle Isle Cracked, Officials Fear Sleep Deprivation

The loss of the race at Belle Isle for the 2009 IndyCar season has public health officials worried that IndyCar fans may end up sleep deprived.

"We could always count on the Belle Isle snoozer to give people three hours of uninterrupted sleep every year," said one national health expert. "Now that it's gone, I'm afraid race fans may do something that actually keeps them awake."

The loss of the race probably won't be lamented by many drivers who blame it's tight confines for sticking a fork in any "overtaking."

At Chicagoland 2008, pressdog.com asked Dan Wheldon his opinion on removing the fuel setting knob to encourage actual racing as opposed to fuel conservation, he had this to say:

Dan Wheldon: "If you're talking about races like Detroit and Sonoma, I don't think that's going to help the races. Those kinds of tracks you can't overtake on, period. You look at Scott (Dixon), who is always very quick at Sonoma, and he was running behind a car that was two seconds slower and he just couldn't pass. I don't think you can blame the fuel knob for that. I think you can just blame the track.

There are some great tracks over here that you can overtake on and if enough thought and willpower went into it you could definitely have a very good race. I just don't see how you are ever going to have a very interesting race at Detroit. Sonoma is a little bit easier to pass, but a place like Detroit is always follow the leader." More on driver's opinons of The Knob here.

Indy Star story on the death of the Detroit race for 2009 here.

Comments

[My Name Is IRL]

Stupendous quote, p-dog, although I think Dental Plan Dan meant "willpower". "Will Power" WAS at Detroit and even he couldn't overtake on that circuit.

[Matthew Little]

Considering the economic woes hitting Detroit, seeing this race get the axe wasn't surprising. As street circuits go, Belle Isle wasn't anything to celebrate(street courses rarely are, if ever).

Now, the question is.....will they find another venue to replace Detroit on Labor Day? Hopefully they'll figure out a way to slot Road America back onto the calendar or...maybe even a trip back to Michigan.

[ramblinman]

You've hit the nail on the head once again, pressdog. Thanks for the unabashed and dead-on racing coverage. Luv the Wheldon interview!

I agree with Matthew, as I've always thought that the Michigan 500 was a much needed asset of Indy Car Racing.

As for Belle Isle...zzzzzzz...

[Matthew Little]

Pressdog's the best at it; we fellow OW bloggers are just following his example.... :)

Like I said in my earlier post, I'd love to see Road America back on the calendar[it's the last natural-terrain circuit in North America that hasn't been neutered for reasons of safety......] but if they can ever work out their disagreements with MIS over scheduling, I actually wouldn't mind seeing both races on the schedule once again. RA always saw drivers/teams use every strategy known in the book to win[think Tagliani's win back in 2004] while Michigan's always been a horsepower track with some very close finishes over the years.

[pressdog]

Will power, willpower, vegemite, it's all the same to me.