Re: JPM to McLaren for 05

On Tue, 25 Nov 2003 13:28:15 GMT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Mark
Jackson) wrote:

>David Betts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>> On Mon, 24 Nov 2003 19:55:33 GMT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Mark
>> Jackson) wrote:
>> 
>> >Similarly, it would be very difficult to defend the proposition that
>> >the USGP is "the biggest and most important" auto race of the year to
>> >folks in the US.
>> 
>> Didn't say it was <g>. 
>
>No, you said it about the Australian GP and Australia.  A quibble in
>context, since this particular argument is the lineal descendent of
>your assertion:

Sorry Mike, but I didn't say it about the Australian GP either. I said
the GP is the biggest race in Australia from an international
perspective. It actually doesn't desperately matter what the
Australians think of it as long as enough attend to make it
worthwhile.

>> All GPs are important, yes. Each is the annual championship of that
>> country and deserves to be taken seriously.
>
>In my view there is no meaningful way in which the USGP is the annual
>championship of the US.  Or do you disagree?
>
>> Mind you, US racing is in an awful state. The
>> only vaguely successful series is a motorised version of WWF and is
>> still tiny in world terms. The only race anybody had every heard of
>> outside the US has been massively devalued in recent years. The only
>> worthwhile series for big single-seaters is dying as we speak.
>
>All irrelevant, although nearly all true.  (I fear you underestimate
>the success of NASCAR, which has promoted itself from "regional
>obsession" to "major-league sport" over the last decade or so.)

Still pretty puny in world terms and never going to be a threat to
serious motor sport outside of the US. Still a minority sport in the
US compared to the likes of American football, basketball and the
like, surely.

Thank heavens for the ALMS.

David Betts ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) 

"In the end it's always a matter of more accelerator and less brake" - Frank Gardner

British Racing Green: http://dbetts.motorsport.org.uk/brg