Re: JPM to McLaren for 05

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, David Betts
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

> On Mon, 24 Nov 2003 19:41:24 GMT, Mike Fleming <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> wrote:
> 
> >In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, David Betts
> ><[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> >
> >> On Sun, 23 Nov 2003 13:02:26 GMT, Mike Fleming <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >> wrote:
> >> 
> >> >In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, David Betts
> >> ><[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> >> >
> >> >> Sorry, but neither of those responses make a lot of sense to me. The
> >> >> Australian GP is the biggest and most important race in Australia for
> >> >> that year. 
> >> >
> >> >Out of curiousity, how do you know that, and what criteria are you
> >> >basing it on?
> >> 
> >> That's it is an FIA-sanctioned Grand Prix for F1 cars, of course.
> >> Australia's most important domestic series is for V8 tin-top
> >> dinosaurs. Very entertaining and they race on some exciting tracks,
> >> but hardly rocket science <g>. 
> >
> >Yebbut that's what I was getting at, the Bathurst is (probably) the
> >biggest and most important race to Australians.
> 
> Very possibly. I'm talking internationally.

Well, you were talking about countries regarding their GPs as a
national championship, as opposed to an international championship. I
assumed that when you said "biggest and most important", you meant
nationally, ie. in the views of the inhabitants.

> > Or maybe WSB or MotoGP
> >might be, as one had an Australian champion a couple of years ago and
> >the other has got that champion currently riding in it, plus another
> >Aussie, and Mick Doohan used to be in it...
> 
> But that's motorcycle racing, isn't it? What's it got to do with car
> racing?

It's got to do with racing. I could have been really pedantic and
asked what the level of support for the Syndney Marathon was, but I
thought I'd stick to motorised sport...

They might not have the same number of wheels, but they will appeal to
similarish audiences, and, given that there are two world motorcycle
championships running over a similar season to the one F1
championship, there will be date clashes which will mean that the
serieseses will be competing for audiences.

> >> Only one of those races has any
> >> international status or interest. They don't have a worthwhile big
> >> single-seater series any more, although they used to.
> >
> >That's the perspective of the outsider though, isn't it? I don't know
> >which of the races is the most important to Aussies.
> 
> I don't care which of the races is more important to the Aussies.

Perhaps the Aussies do though. After all, they have one event which is
uniquely Australian, and one which is a homogeny of nations and is
part of a series of identical events. Which of them is the real
national championship?

-- 
Mike Fleming