USGP Sunday: The Day the Music Died

The Six Car Start
By Jamie Makin
July 3 2005

The subject of the weather keeps coming up on this trip and Sunday wasn't quite as gorgeous as the first three days. It was cool and comfortable yet overcast, as though it was foretelling what was to come.

I hadn't had a lot of sleep the prior night. I kept waiting for news on the internet but there really wasn't any. It seemed the teams and the officials still hadn't reached a decision. Somehow I just wasn't surprised.

For the past three years I had sat in the covered "Stand C". It was a great place to be in the rain soaked race in 2003 but I'd grown tired of the mediocre view. It was midway between start/finish and turn one but didn't really provide a decent view of either one. All you got was the cars zipping by in a blur as you watched most of the action on the monitor on the opposing grandstand.

So I was anxious to see my new seat. I had upgraded to "Stand J" which is Indy Turn Four and between F1 Turns Two and Three. When I got there my jaw dropped. I could not believe my luck. My new seat was in the very top row of the stand, right across from the jumbotron, and offering a stunning view of the infield from Turn One all the way to Turn 7. I knew right then that as long as they hold the US GP at Indy, I will be renewing that seat. My joy was at least a temporary distraction to the drama about to unfold.

There were two more support races that morning; Formula BMW and Porsche Supercup. I don't know why, but I barely remember them. I seemed to be getting way too obsessed about the F1 situation. The PA system offered no hints or concerns but I was now receiving text messages from my sister back home and a friend in the UK. The situation was deteriorating and it seemed they were demanding a chicane be built or they wouldn't race. Several other people in the stand near me were getting the same type of information and we were all comparing notes. The vast majority of the crowd seemed oblivious though.

Having followed the year's events with the new tyre rule and the pending FIA/GPWC showdown I was not the least bit surprised over what I was hearing. Yet I believed in my heart that no matter what they would find a way to race. Maybe the start would be delayed. Maybe a few Michelin runners would bail, but surely we'd have a good race coming. That optimism did little to quell the growing knot in my stomach though.

The clock counted slowly down towards the planned 1:00 start. The fans now packed the stands. It was a sea of Ferrari red. I expected to see more Sauber blue and green for Villeneuve after the strong showing in Canada. Villeneuve has a strong fan base in the US, yet he did not get anywhere near the show of support as he did at his true home track.

After an eternity of more text messages and no resolution the cars started their drive to the grid. First out were the Ferraris and Jordans and then nothing. The idea of a Bridgestone-only race had been floated around the internet but I didn't really believe the Michelin runners would be so quick to give up all those points on a year when they were in command of the championship. The leading theory now seemed to be that some of the Michelin runners would pull in early on but many of them, notably the Renaults and McLarens, would race as usual. But where were they? No one had followed the Ferraris and Jordans to the grid.

It was nearing 12:45 which is when the pits close when they all decided at once to come out. The 14 Michelin cars along with the two Minardis filed out onto the track. Phew!! Did this mean they had found a solution? Surely the race would go on as usual and I'd feel silly later on for being so worked up about it. Things seemed surprisingly normal at the track now. The national anthem was sung, the grid girls did their march and fighter planes did the fly-over. Still no hint over the PA that there was any issues preventing the race from happening.

Finally 1:00 arrived and the cars were off on the formation lap. I always get excited about the start and this time was no different. Finally the trouble was pushed to the back of my mind and I was enjoying myself again. But then things got uglier than ugly. All 14 Michelin runners pulled into the pits at the end of the formation lap. Okay, not too surprising, but what now? Would they change tyres, then come back out and accept whatever penalty was handed to them? Would the start be aborted and tried again later when a solution was found?

The Ferraris, Jordans and Minardis took their spots on the grid and the world held its breath. I was as shocked as anyone when the lights came on and then went out and just six cars were underway. They came through turn one cleanly and began their way through the infield. I watched in utter disbelief until they vanished around Turn Seven.

I turned my attention to the jumbotron and soon I saw teams pushing their cars back into the garages and the drivers start to climb out. And that's when all hell broke loose. The crowd jeered and booed and gestured disapprovingly. The six cars continued to race but nobody was paying them much attention. By lap two, there was a stream of people heading for the exit already. Still a lot of people stayed.

I've been trying to sort out my feelings on this farce of a race for two weeks now and the best word I can come up with to describe what it was like in the stands was "surreal". It just didn't seem that this could really be happening. It got even uglier as some unruly fans starting throwing beer cans and water bottles onto the track. I was sure then that the race would be red flagged but they continued on in spite of the obvious danger. The corner workers would run out and pick up the debris as fast as the fans threw it there. I guess it was easier with only six cars circulating but the danger was still there. It infuriated me!! Here there's six drivers and dozens of corner marshals doing their best to actually put on some semblance of a show and yet inconsiderate fools were endangering their lives when they weren't even the source of the problem.

At this point I seriously got scared. I feared a large scale riot would break out and I started to think what would I do to protect myself. Luckily being at the very top of the stand I figured nothing thrown would land on my head and that the crowd was more likely to go down than up so the best thing was to just stay put.

Around lap ten about two dozen police cruisers came flying down Georgetown Road with sirens blaring. This did little to calm my fears and I wondered what was going on. I found out later that basically the people who left on lap two had stormed the administrative building demanding refunds. Nothing much happened though. Apart from more fans throwing things, people seemed to be expressing their anger verbally instead of physically.

The race continued with the six cars and I tried to settle down more to watch. It was hard getting into it though, it was all just too sad. I sat there feeling like I was witnessing the death of F1 in a country that just seemed on the verge of accepting it. Would the series return? Would I ever sit in this wonderful seat again watching it? The race hadn't even gotten to the first pitstop and this things were weighing heavy on my mind.

Perhaps I didn't feel quite as cheated as most others in the stands though. I had seen five wonderful F1 races in person before and I knew this six car farce was still a race that would go down in the history books. You almost HAD to be there to fully understand it and the sinister mood of the crowd around it.

But one thing did sting me badly. I knew coming here that it was most likely the last time I would see my beloved Sauber team race before BMW bought them. Because Sauber had become a Michelin team this year, they had pulled in and in doing so I lost my last chance to see them in action. That hurt more than anything, even though the announcement had not yet been made.

The race continued, slowly and painfully. There wasn't much excitement really. The Ferraris led the way easily and eventually the Jordans got the better of the Minardis. It was all very predictable. At least I was happy to see Rubens Barrichello leading, that is until Michael Schumacher ran him off the road coming out of his pitstop. What a really crazy day it would have been if the Ferraris took each other out. Here they were literally handed a free win and they almost blew it. Okay, it would have been neat to see an all Jordan and Minardi podium, but it was still unthinkable.

After Michael got the lead again and it was clear Rubens had backed off, there was another wave of departures from the stands. Even so, more people stuck around than I expected. Maybe it was because the crowd was so pro-Ferrari, but even at that they seemed to be taking little joy in seeing their heros get their first win of the season.

The booing that followed them to the podium seemed to be aimed more at the sport and its politics than at the Ferrari drivers themselves, yet they had to endure the brunt of the crowd's dissatisfaction. Tiago got some mixed reactions for his celebrations but as a whole I dare say the crowd seemed to be happy for Jordan and Minardi. Afterall, they were little more than innocent bystanders to the whole mess and for once they could score some serious points.

After it was all over, the crowd disbursed in what seemed to be a pretty orderly fashion. By now there was a heavy police presence throughout the track. It seemed strange seeing so many troopers but it was really for the best. I took my time leaving and returned to my hotel utterly exhausted. I caught the final laps of the Champ Car race in Portland on the tv as I logged onto the internet to read up on the aftermath of the six car race. Christiano da Matta won his first Champ Car race since returning from F1 and he was probably counting his blessings to be in Portland instead of Indy that day.

One fact that seemed to get lost in the fans' outrage was that thankfully no driver had been hurt or killed. It's clear that Michelin had a serious safety problem and we should not forget that fact. I would rather have driven home upset about the six car farce than to be mourning the death of a driver.

Days later though, I was still shaken by the whole fiasco at Indy when official word finally came that BMW was purchasing Sauber. Although it came as no surprise, two blows like this to me in the span of four days really became too much to take. Suddenly everything I loved and cared about was disappearing from my world.

I renewed my US GP ticket for next year in spite of all of this though, even before Michelin announced the refunds, in hope that they will find a way to stage the race again next year. But the grief was really hitting me hard. I still haven't totally dealt with or accepted this loss but it's going to be very hard for me to maintain my passion for the sport once my favourite team is gone.

The following weekend I snuck off to Cleveland for the Champ Car race as the organizers were kind enough to let US GP ticket holders in for free. My trip had less to do with a free ticket though, than just trying to escape the world of F1 for a bit. And who knows, perhaps now I will try to follow this series more closely. It was a nice trip even if I was quite exhausted by the end of it. "My guy", Sebastien Bourdais, didn't win it but heck, I was just happy to see a race without all the politics weighing it down.

Two weeks have passed since that crazy day at Indy now. It feels more like two eternities to me. I'm sure the sport will go on and I'm sure they'll find a way to set things back on the right path here but the future is still very unclear. The only thing that's for certain is we'll still be talking about this race for years to come. And as bad as it was, it'll be interesting to be able to say "I was there."