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Edited Date/Time
1/27/2012 12:03am
Formula 1 set to add second US race on streets of New Jersey from 2013
By Jonathan Noble Saturday, October 22nd 2011, 06:41 GMT
Formula 1 is set to have two grands prix in the United States from 2013, with plans for a race around the streets of New Jersey expected to be confirmed as early as next week.
Although F1 is returning to the US for the first time since 2007 next year with an event in Austin, Texas, Bernie Ecclestone has made no secret of the fact that he would like another event in the country - with his preferred location being New York.
Ecclestone told AUTOSPORT last year: "It's happening. We are talking to them and trying to do our best. Let's see what happens."
High level sources have revealed that the plans have now reached fruition, and an announcement is expected to be made by New Jersey governor Chris Christie and other local politicians next week.
It is understood that the New Jersey GP will take place in June 2013, so it can be a back-to-back race with Canada, which will then leave the Austin event to keep its place at the tail end of the schedule to tie up with the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Last year, the Mayors of Weehawken and West New York revealed that they were in the preliminary stages of talks with a group of investors, led by former YES TV Network executive Leo Hindery Jr, to hold a grand prix in the area from as early as 2013.
It is not confirmed where the track will be, but it is likely to run along the banks of the Hudson River - using the waterfront and the iconic Manhattan skyline as a backdrop.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that a press conference has been scheduled at Port Imperial in Weehawken for next Tuesday, where an announcement could be made.
from autosport.com
By Jonathan Noble Saturday, October 22nd 2011, 06:41 GMT
Formula 1 is set to have two grands prix in the United States from 2013, with plans for a race around the streets of New Jersey expected to be confirmed as early as next week.
Although F1 is returning to the US for the first time since 2007 next year with an event in Austin, Texas, Bernie Ecclestone has made no secret of the fact that he would like another event in the country - with his preferred location being New York.
Ecclestone told AUTOSPORT last year: "It's happening. We are talking to them and trying to do our best. Let's see what happens."
High level sources have revealed that the plans have now reached fruition, and an announcement is expected to be made by New Jersey governor Chris Christie and other local politicians next week.
It is understood that the New Jersey GP will take place in June 2013, so it can be a back-to-back race with Canada, which will then leave the Austin event to keep its place at the tail end of the schedule to tie up with the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Last year, the Mayors of Weehawken and West New York revealed that they were in the preliminary stages of talks with a group of investors, led by former YES TV Network executive Leo Hindery Jr, to hold a grand prix in the area from as early as 2013.
It is not confirmed where the track will be, but it is likely to run along the banks of the Hudson River - using the waterfront and the iconic Manhattan skyline as a backdrop.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that a press conference has been scheduled at Port Imperial in Weehawken for next Tuesday, where an announcement could be made.
from autosport.com
and as shitty as most of the street courses are, its not like the Tilke designed tracks have been any better.
The Shop
its a beautiful venue. ive raced near their myself. but for f1, just doesnt make for close races.
theirs something to be said for the classic tracks. they have soul. and produce great races no matter how bad the fia and fom fuck up the technical regs. tilk tries so hard to recreate this stuff in his designs but it always fails.
All natural...
The United States, which hasn’t had Grand Prix since Indianapolis in 2007, is getting two in the next two years, it seems.
As everybody who cares knows, the Grand Prix of the United States will be held next year in November on a purpose-built Formula One track just outside Austin, Tex.
Now comes word that at 2 p.m. Tuesday, an announcement will be made that another F1 race, the Grand Prix of America, will take place in the Township of Weehawken in New Jersey, directly across the Hudson River from midtown Manhattan, in June 2013.
Weekhawken Township, about the size of Monaco (maybe even a little smaller), is where traffic between New Jersey and New York goes into the Lincoln Tunnel, or comes out it, depending on your perspective.
While some of the tunnel and the on/off ramps run pretty much through the middle of the community, there is a four-lane parkway alongside the Hudson called Boulevard East, which would likely be part of any circuit design because of its proximity to the New York skyline.
Bernie Ecclestone has long lusted after New York. An attempt to get an F1 race there in the early 1980s (a promotion that involved the then-owners of Mosport International Raceway, Harvey Hudes and Bernie Kamin) that would have been run either through parkland and some city streets in Lower Manhattan, in or around the Meadowlands or at a site on Long Island, never really got off the ground.
But since then, Ecclestone has talked to any number of groups and seems finally to have made a deal involving investors and the city governments of Weekhawken, West New York (the mayor there, Felix Roque, has really been talking this up in recent days) and the State of New Jersey.
A lawyer for West New York, Joe DeMarco, as quoted by the BBC, says of the New Jersey Grand Prix circuit: "It will provide a very challenging course. They compare it to Spa in Belgium and it will have the feel of Monaco."
I wonder if Mr. DeMarco, who represents a city, which is flat, knows of what he speaks when he talks of "Spa in Belgium," which is out in the countryside and goes up hill and down dale. However, he has the Monaco bit right.
We’ll find out more about this at 2 this afternoon.
Having said all this, however, it’s one thing to announce something of the magnitude of an F1 Grand Prix and another thing to get it formally approved, once the NIMBY crowd gets wind of it.
If it does get the OK, and it goes ahead as scheduled, I remain apprehensive about the future of the Grand Prix of Canada at Montreal. Many millions of dollars are going into the pockets of Ecclestone and his F1 partners as a result of the deal in Dallas and you can bet there will be as much, or more, for a race in the New York area.
Canada’s race is a cheap one, by F1 standards – $15 million a year with the current contract scheduled to end in 2014, which presents a problem.
Ecclestone will not agree to continue racing in Montreal if the accounts receivable side of the ledger is millions of dollars short of the total being paid for another race that’s almost next door.
So enjoy our GP while you can, because I fear its days are numbered.
i hope it becomes a classic. austin is a great venue. it will be good for f1 in the usa. i believe the lack of a proper permanent venue is what has hurt things here.
and arent they also gonna bring the Australian V8 Supercar series to this event also?
that will be so insane.
As for the New Jersey race, all I can ask is "Why?" Race some crap temporary track just so you can get NY city in the background? Great spectator viewing at street courses...if you like watching roll hoops wiz by. There are some great tracks around, why not use them? Hell, the Glen is in New York. Just shoot some stock footage of the City skyline, and flash it up at commercial breaks.
Oh, and the Mayor comparing whatever they bodge together to Spa, and Monaco...seriously?
Track map
Exit turn 1 approaching turn 2 (not exactly FIA-spec kerbing!):
Exiting turn 12 downhill to turn 13 (NOT Monaco!):
Turn 16 will be flat (but definitely NOT Eau Rouge!):
Courtesy of autoracing1.com
has a similar look to it as athe australian and canadian gp's.
maybe i shoudnt write off this proposal so soon.
its just really hard to give ecclestone any credit when he proposes some of the shit he does. he's worse that roger goodel and almost as bad as david stern when it comes to running a sport.
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