Miller: New Orleans fans deserve better

Tony Kanaan goes swamp buggy racing with his IndyCar.

Robin Miller of Racer writes, Here are some sad facts about Sunday's inaugural Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana:

Between the French Quarter Festival and the Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival, there were more than 200,000 people in and around New Orleans over the weekend. The first IndyCar race in Louisiana may have drawn 8,000, if you count crew members, parking lot attendants, corner workers and the alligator outside the main gate.

Locals said the wettest weeks of the year in New Orleans are in mid-April or the first week in May. It rained out qualifying on Saturday and, after a morning-long monsoon Sunday, the race started an hour early and became a timed event.

Of the 47 laps of competition, 26 were run under caution. In a 105-minute race, only 31 minutes were green. On the flip side, the Pro Mazda kids ran Sunday morning in a driving rainstorm and put on a yellow-free clinic.

"I felt bad for the fans because we had so much yellow," said winner James Hinchcliffe, who of course assumed the lead under caution on Lap 33 and led the final 15 circuits – all but one behind the pace car.

"That was embarrassing," said one veteran driver. "I hope the fans who came out today don’t think this Robin podium was a normal race. They should have gotten a refund."

"Sorry," tweeted owner Chip Ganassi.

Yes, the organizers and track crew did a nice job of throwing a club track together and making it ready for the professionals (?) under some very trying conditions.

The paying customers who braved the elements (and paid $20 to park a mile away so they could take a shuttle) were enthusiastic and engaged ‘til the end when they got the bad news the race was going to finish at 40mph. The ones who stuck around for the post-race festivities were greatly entertained by Hinchcliffe’s stand-up act following his implausible, one-pit-stop victory and they cheered wildly for runner-up Helio Castroneves.

Some of locals said they’ve been hoping for an IndyCar race for a long time and they would be back in 2016 so that begs some questions:

• Can there be another race without a title sponsor? Baltimore drew great crowds and still lost millions.
• Should IndyCar even be racing in a swamp a half hour from downtown New Orleans that’s a challenge to find? (There weren’t any signs to lead anyone to the track anywhere).
• Will IndyCar change the date to give it a chance to make it?
• Or will this be a typical here-today-gone-tomorrow scenario that follows IndyCar around like a band of gypsies? More at Racer.com