Indianapolis Grand Prix Experience
Written by Mark Chipperfield
In the year 2005 I had the
unfortunate experience of seeing an event unfold similar to the one that
happened at Indian Wells in 2001. I was attending the United States Grand Prix
with my father and older brother for the third consecutive year. My dad had
always been a huge fan of Formula one racing and he instilled that passion into
us. We would and still do watch every race of the formula one season even though
the majority require being up at odd hours in the morning. So when the series
starting having a race in the United States we jumped at the chance to attend.
It also helped that the race usually took place during the summer.
The weekend started like any other
with teams having multiple practice sessions on Friday and Saturday leading up
to the race on Sunday. However there were a couple cars that kept spinning out
on the last corner of the racetrack that led to the cars slamming into the wall
at a very high speed. It was noticeable to me as one of the cars that this
repeatedly happened to belonged to my favorite driver at the time. But it wasn’t
really viewed as anything out of the ordinary in the media and things were
going normally as they would on any race weekend. The day of the race came and
there was excitement in the air due to the possibility of Formula one becoming
more popular in the United States with an exciting race. Then things took a
dramatic turn for the worse. After the cars were finished taking their warm up
lap the vast majority of them pulled into the pits and did not lineup on the
starting grid like the usually did. And all the cars that pulled into the pits
drove straight into their respective garages and the drivers climbed out of
their cars. It was a sure sign that they were not going to be participating in
the race. Amid all the confusion the remaining six cars started the race as if
nothing happened and the crowd started to get upset. The following video is the
beginning of the US broadcast of the race and some of the shock expressed by
the analysts’ sort of captures it all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhgnc6VruQs
. This experience does differ
from the Indian Wells event because it the dislike wasn’t really expressed
towards individual people as it was against the Williams Sisters.
rady Munger
ReplyDeleteI really like this comparison to the Indian Wells situation that Mark has made. There are a lot of similarities between the two, and I myself would be upset if I was a spectator too. But I believe one huge thing about each instance was the underlying reasons behind each thing happening. With the Indian Wells incident it was an injury, and lack of action on the tournaments part. The player had no other thing she could do and did her best. In the race situation it sounded like it was a danger to the racers, so you can not blame them for refusing to race feeling endangered. That in turn would be the circuits responsibility and the tracks fault. The fans in both situations I feel attacked the athletes when it was not their faults overall. Another huge key I believe people are missing is the fact that with sport comes an inherent risk involved. You always know when there is a risk of not seeing your favorite athlete due to injury, and that it is a possibility. When people buy tickets the assume the risk that comes with it. I feel that when people react in such a way as the Indian Wells incident, it is absolutely disrespectful to the athlete, and the sport. Fans need to gain a level of maturity and be able to respect the safety and personal choice of the athlete. They are the same as any other person, and if they are injured or feel their safety is in question they should not be expected to compete and put themselves on the line. Fans are often times to misunderstanding of athletes and have to high of expectations placed upon them.
I’ve never experienced such a situation like this but recently my brother attended a Cleveland Cavaliers game, and was hyped to seen the up and coming start Kyrie Irving in action. As a game time decision he had the flu and wasn’t dressed. I realize that there are about a dozen more players to see, but the fact that the number one draft pick who is having a better rookie season then Lebron did in this first season in the NBA was disappointing. I think my story more compares to Marks, but isn’t the same stature of the Williams Sisters at Indian Wells. They were the main event and I’m sure tennis fans had traveled very far distances to see them in action.
ReplyDelete-Alyssa Robinson
Thanks for sharing this story Mark. I did not know about it but it helped to see the video of what happened. I can understand your disappointment in not getting to see the event; I can also understand Alyssa's brother being disappointed to not get to see Kyrie. Good discussion on this topic.
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