  Will Power waits to take off from pit row during the second practice round of Honda Indy Edmonton on Friday. (Amber Bracken, Sun Media) |
EDMONTON - What were they thinking?
Will Power and Ryan Briscoe, the two fastest drivers in practice for the Honda Indy Edmonton Friday, were dumbfounded when they took their first trips around the track.
What happened to the stands in Turn 1?
Where did they go?
Those stands, both maintain, gave the place a big part of its fabulous flavour, not just for the fans but for the drivers.
It just felt great driving into that colourful crowd before taking that first turn.
“I thought it was very unusual. I was disappointed,” said defending Honda Indy Edmonton champion Will Power, who was fastest on the day as he began his quest to win his third consecutive race of the season Sunday.
“Why did they take them away?” he asked. “I couldn’t understand why they would.
“To me it’s very disappointing. That’s the most exciting corner! I always thought that stand was pretty cool.
“It was a pretty high stand. It’s on Turn 1 at the start of the race where all the passing happens!”
Briscoe was willing to start a petition to return the stand.
“Hopefully, there’s demand from the fans to bring those stands back next year,” he said. “I thought last year there were lots of people up there. It’s a pretty good place to watch the race. It’s where the cars come out of the quickest place on the track. It’s where all the passing happens, actually.
“You never like to see grandstands disappearing.”
Briscoe is one of the vast majority of drivers who give the track rave reviews.
“It’s so much fun. I love this track. It’s so exciting,” he said again Friday.
Power, who almost acts as a promoter, agrees.
“I think the good thing about this track is that you can see the whole thing. It’s probably the best there is on this circuit,” he said.
So, what were they thinking?
Mike Burton, director of major events for Northlands, explained the decision to reconfigure the grandstand layout and eliminate the stands, which sat more than 5,000 fans.
“The No. 1 reason is that runway will be the only runway in operation at the airport after this year. We were thinking that for the future we wanted to leave a model to leave that runway open as long as we can. It was to keep that runway open and build a model for the track that could work long term.”
Burton called that the No. 1 reason.
But who is kidding whom here? The No. 1 reason was to cut costs.
“Reducing costs was certainly a reason,” he admitted. “To put up those stands as late as we do, we have to pay overtime. And that worked out to an extra $10.50 per seat.”
While the crowd was decent for a practice day compared to other races in the IZOD IndyCar Series, it was nothing like the crowds for practice days before Northlands took over this event three years ago.
And, as the drivers themselves made the point, the place just doesn’t look as sexy this year as in the past.
The cost-cutting by Northlands, at the urging of city council after losing $9.2 million on the previous two years, didn’t result in losing as many grandstand seats as it looks, Burton swears.
“We changed the angle of the Grandstand B and we moved some of the seats from Turn 1 to in front of pit lane. We’ve never had a pit lane grandstand before.”
Burton said the actual seating inventory was only reduced by 3,000, a figure, I can assure you, every photographer and visiting journalist here would dispute. It’s what they all came back to the media centre after practice Friday afternoon talking about.
What happened to this great race place?
The Octane Racing Group from the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, which is taking over as promoter of the event for the next three years and are having a look around, ought to be asking a lot of questions about what has been lost around here lately.
That big set of stands is pretty obvious. But there have been dozens of cost-cutting moves made, especially this year, which has robbed this race of what has made it one of the best stops in the series.
terry.jones@sunmedia.ca
