Ryan Briscoe drives past a broken piece of asphalt during IndyCar's Detroit Grand Prix auto race on Belle Isle in Detroit, Sunday, June 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Bob Brodbeck)
Posted on 06/03/2012 9:59:14 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
Detroit Grand Prix Stopped Because Of Detroit’s Terrible Roads
The first running of the IndyCar Detroit Grand Prix since 2008 was red-flagged this afternoon after a piece of the track started to crumble, causing driver James Hinchcliffe to go flying into the wall. As you can see in the video (YouTube link provided below), he was not happy about it.
Indy's return to Detroit's Belle Isle course was supposed to be another signal of the rebirth of the American automaker. Instead, it's just been a reminder of Detroit's failing infrastructure and Indy's inability to make anything outside of the Indy 500 remotely interesting.
Race organizers patched up the cracks in the road with a filler that, it seems, couldn't survive a weekend of racing abuse and started coming up earlier in the race. The Grand Prix was allowed to continue until Hinchcliffe hit a chunk and lost his steering, causing him to kiss the tires.
"The f*cking track just came up. They leave that big piece of track just sitting there. What the f*ck?" Hinchcliffe screamed after plowing into the rubber. This led them to red flag the race. Since then they've been hanging out in the paddock waiting for the track to get patched.
UPDATE: The race eventually finished, but shortened with multiple yellow flags.
(Note by DogByte6RER: Scott Dixon won the shortened Detroit Grand Prix)
(Excerpt) Read more at jalopnik.com ...
Ryan Briscoe drives past a broken piece of asphalt during IndyCar's Detroit Grand Prix auto race on Belle Isle in Detroit, Sunday, June 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Bob Brodbeck)
“James Hinchcliffe Angry F-Bombs as Detroit IndyCar track surface breaks apart and causes crash”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5J771xECXH0
More coverage ...
“Scott Dixon wins shortened Detroit Grand Prix”
DETROIT—Scott Dixon just wanted to enjoy his first victory of the year and hail crews that patched up problems on a shoddy surface.
Dixon won IndyCar’s Detroit Grand Prix that was marred by poor track conditions that stopped the race for a little more than 2 hours on Sunday, leading the lackluster race from start to finish.
“We have to focus on the positives,” he said.
That’s easier to do of course when you win.
A red flag halted the event 45 laps into a race that was scheduled for 90 laps and shortened to 60.
I think this type of thing would make the race more interesting - and hence why one would have the race in a certain place. In Detroit the additional local flavor would be crumbling infrastructure, avoiding lines of unemployed on turn 16, a gang fight on turn 4, etc.
My last word ... Detroit should get onboard the Sister Cities International program with Pyongyang. They have so much in common and so much to share.
An EBT/TANF Obama Money Card for every lap led?
Happens all the time in MI, home of the 160,000 lb. truck limit.
Get over it.
The dude is fortunate that the deer are not jumping out in front of him....
Wow! That photo says it all.
If only they had laser warfare, decapitations, dinosaur beatdowns, explosions, fires, and accordion playing galore like you see in this soccer game you would probably actually have people tune in to watch the race!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AleYSkW2LoQ&feature=youtu.be
I think they should throw in a tanker truck that comes around the various corners of the track, rolls over, and smashes into competing cars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dypVgSEQ_Y&feature=youtu.be
Lol, and a flash mob at the concession stand...
The sign coming in to Detroit should read:
Welcome to Detroit, America’s third world shit hole.
Or simply...
“Welcome to Detoilet”
And why stop with racing? Imagine the interesting obstacles Detroit could provide for a miniature golf course! The possibilities are ENDLESS!
LOL!
Indycar was just ‘keeping it real’ with the torn up street!
This is not really an example of deetroit roads. It is Belle Isle, a seldom visited chunk of land floating in the Detroit river between the us and Canada. Sheesh. actually the real.roads are much worse - and they redo them every other year with lots of stimulus money, seemingly “repairing” the decent ones over and over while the trouble spots languish. Keeps the right voters working, until we run out of other peoples money.
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