Fans go
wild when Jourdain pulls away in lead on Sunday. How does
CART take the passion witnessed in Mexico City and
duplicate it elsewhere?
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Sometimes I think this politically
correct world we live in has stripped our people of the
passion we once knew. Without passion we are nothing
more than a bunch of stuffed shirts and lifeless robots.
If you think about it, it's passion about something that
drives you to strive to accomplish great things. I was
reminded of the importance of that passion on Sunday in
Mexico.
While Mexican driver Michel
Jourdain was leading yesterday's CART race before his
countrymen in Mexico City, I could not believe how wildly
excited the crowd was and it reminded me very much like the
infamous
tifosi cheering for Ferrari at Monza. Monza is
special, not only for its history, but more so for its
passion. It permeates your bones. I have not
seen that much excitement at a CART/Indy Car race, since
watching AJ Foyt and Mario Andretti, two heroes of American
motorsport, do battle week in and week out. It was a
special time for open wheel racing in America.
I have long
maintained, that in order for CART to be successful, its
drivers are going to have to be
heroes. Only heroes can generate the kind of
passion we saw on Sunday. Many of the Mexican race fans
are from the working class, and the Mexican drivers are heroes
to those people, having attained something they can only dream
of achieving.
Similarly, many
NASCAR drivers are heroes to the NASCAR fans (many of whom are
fanatical about it) and Indy Car racing used to have heroes
back in the days of Rose, Vukovich, Shaw, Foyt and
Andretti....larger than life figures.
Heroes don't
happen over night. Only the very best athletes in this
world become heroes, and that goes for auto racing. A
wanker driver will never become a hero, much like a minor
league baseball player will never become a Babe Ruth or a
Mickey Mantle.
As CART brings new
blood into the series, eventually a talented superstar will
emerge, a driver that can command the passion like we saw on
Sunday in Mexico City. Unfortunately drivers are too
specialized today, and they don't race in multiple series like
they used to, so it's difficult to determine who really has
superstar talents.
That hasn't
stopped NASCAR from making superstars out of its drivers.
They recognize that it's not the make of car or the paint job
on the car that generates passion in their fans, it's the
drivers, many of which have great personalities and who create
excitement on the race track, that have become heroes to the
fans of NASCAR. Until CART, F1 or even the IRL recognize
that it's the driver stupid they will suffer from
mediocre TV ratings.
Sure CART, IRL and
F1 can pull in a big crowd on any given race day, they have
all proven that. However, getting those people to become
passionate fans of the sport who tune in on TV week in and
week out, will require a wholesale change in the emphasis put
on marketing their product. The emphasis must be shifted
to the driver, because in the end, that's all that really
matters.
Just give them the
tools that allow their skills to shine through on the race
track, a rules package that makes for close racing and
exciting finishes, TV announcers who know how to convey to the
fans when a driver might be doing super human things, some
driver coaching on how to be fan friendly, sponsors who weave
their drivers into their product line and TV and print ads,
and the rest will take care of itself.
You could not go
anywhere in Mexico City without seeing large billboards
featuring one of the Mexican drivers, and the TV was full of
news about the drivers and the race. Mexico has a
passion for its driving heroes. The "new" CART would be
well served to create that sort of passion everywhere, and it
starts with a renewed focus on its drivers.
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