America - A Motorports Island Unto Itself, Again

As an American soccer fan, I'm used to a sport that is a passion all over the plant being virtually ignored at home. For years, Formula 1 was in the same boat. There was no round of the World Championship in the US. There were no American drivers, save for Michael Andretti's half-assed semi-year back in 1993.

That started to change back in 2000, when Formula 1 returned to the US with a round at Indianapolis, on a specially constructed road course built inside the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Shortly thereafter, Red Bull began a search for young American drivers to bring to Europe and develop for F1. Californian Scott Speed moved up the ladder in Europe and, last year, became the first full-time American driver in F1 in more than a decade. Although his team, a Red Bull junior team dubbed "Scuderia Toro Roso" (Italian for "Red Bull Stable"), wasn't all that competitive, Speed acquitted himself fairly well, at least in comparison to his teammate. Maybe he wasn't the next Alonso, but he was someone the American fans could wave the flag for.

In the space of a month, both of those things came crashing to a halt.

First, IMS head honcho Tony George and F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone announced that the contract for the USGP at Indy would not be renewed for 2008. As much as I loathe George for the mess he's created in American open wheel racing, it's hard to blame him for not ponying up the excessive sanctioning fees that Bernie requests these days (it's no secret that the new races on the F1 schedule in places like Bahrain and Malaysia are heavily government subsidized). Still, it sucks that the circus won't come to town next year.

Second, Speed was dismissed from Toro Rosso after the European GP. Speed, along with a handful of others, was caught out during a massive downpour and wrecked. Back in the pits, he had a physical confrontation with the team boss, which was the the final brick in the wall that had been building between Speed and management all season.

So now, we American fans are without a race and without a driver to root for. The potential toehold in the American sports landscape that had been carved out in the past few years is gone. Does it kill interest in F1 for me? No. It just means a return to following a great sport that the vast majority of my countrymen don't even know exists.