The warmth,
the humility, the vitality and the passion of the Mexican
racing fans created an incredibly electric atmosphere
Photo
by Bruce Hand
As I got on the
elevator this morning, I met two young Mexican girls from
Guanajuato, and I asked them, ´´LE GUSTAN LAS CARRERAS´´? and
they responded ¨Si¨. Yes, they love racing. I was a bit
apprehensive yesterday as to whether today's Grand Prix would
be a sellout or a box-office flop since the ticket prices were
very expensive. As it turned out my fears were
unfounded.
At the start of
the race I decided to mingle with the crowd and took a seat in
Grandstand 9 (outside turn 1), and it....was wall-to-wall
people. Fans of all ages. Young and old. In fact I sat next to
a man with his two year old daughter. The surrounding stands
number 7, 8 and 10 were equally packed.
The huge throng
gave a collective sigh of disappointment when Adrian
Fernandez´ replacement, the ´´grasshopper´´, Luiz Diaz pulled
off at the end of the main straight with a blown engine early
in the race under caution. Likewise, when Mario Dominguez
misjudged the first corner and went down the exit road, he
too, was met by a thunderous round of applause when he did a
180 and returned to the race.
Michael
Andretti takes the green flag for his final CART race.
The huge 174,866 crowd and electric atmosphere was not lost on
him.
Photo
by Motorola
I watched for 15
or so laps, and decided to wander about the vastness of this
venerable circuit named after the immortal Pedro and Ricardo
Rodriguez brothers, which has so much history behind it. The
General Admission areas lining the track were jammed full of
fans who paid US$35 just to get a glimpse of not only their
homegrown heroes, but the remainder of the CART contingent.
The number of infield loiterers was negligible, all were
crammed along the fences trying to get a glimpse of the
action. They were even standing on the bridges over the
track shooting pictures through any opening they could find.
I then walked to the ´´esses´´, where the cars were thundering
through the line hanging it out on a knife edge. I
asked a young man ¨le gusta¨? (you like it) and he nodded with
absolute delight, and I quickly followed up with ´´bonito¨?
(beautiful) and he agreed with alacrity. Such is the nature of
the Mexican racing fans love affair with world class open
wheel racing. It's not only the multitude of beautiful
Mexican women, but the warmth, the humility, the vitality and
the passion of the Mexican racing fans that created an incredibly
electric atmosphere.
It is truly a ´´love affair´. Mexicans love CART, AND
CART loves Mexico. Mexicans respect the discipline of road
racing. They understand it's subtleties, and the level of
concentration and skill required to handle 800 HP methanol
breathing Champ Cars.
Mexicans also are
not naive about ¨POLITICS¨, whether it's the domestic variety
or the destructive nature of the U.S. Open Wheel War. Of
course, Chris Pook's agility in being able to address the
Mexican Media in ´´Espanol¨ , combined with his overwhelming
charismatic charm has cemented this ´love affair for many
years to come.
Thank You Mexico!
Hasta Lavista, Baby, CART will be BAAAAAACK!!!!!
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