GP2 Forum

kimi_mp4-18 wrote:I never forget the moment when I have discovered IndyCar races during the 1993 season ! Good memories ...

Back then I wasnt born but this races were very fun to watch and the cars are near perfect for my eyes. I love this cars more than F1 ones.

Yeah, IndyCar in the "nineties" was very interesting and fun to watch. Also, this was before the "Europeans don't care for American racing" explanation that mainstream sports channels would use so they would not carry IndyCar and NASCAR anymore - so "dinner and then US racing" became a bit of a family tradition around these years...

They also had what possibly was the best variety of race tracks in that era, with even the big ovals like Michigan, "try that, Grand Prix racing" permanent tracks like Laguna Seca and Road America - and then the street circuits / none-permanent circuits, such as Long Beach, Surfers' Paradise or the airfield tracks.

I'd still be watching the modern incarnation of the series, if television would carry it over here and you wouldn't be nudged towards some internet streams... or the kind of "blaring rock music and a few overtakes and crashes edited together and colour-corrected like anything" videos official channels see as "engaging"...

Over here in the UK there was a brief flurry of interest in IndyCars when "Our Nige" went there in 1993. There used to be a highlights programme every couple of weeks on Saturday afternoons, but only if you lived in certain areas of the country (back then, our ITV channel was heavily regionalised, and truth be told was a lot better that way). Of course, I had the misfortune to live in the Yorkshire TV region, which didn't show it... I had to fiddle with the aerial on my little portable TV to pick it up on Central, and even then it was pretty grainy! Bloody well worth it though, especially as it was usually followed by repeats of Knight Rider

Of course, in these days of Sky and heavy British interest in the series, we get full HD broadcasts of every race. The kids now don't know how lucky they are! All we need is Laguna Seca, Road America and Surfers Paradise back on the schedule... Alex Zanardi's pass on Bryan Herta at the Corkscrew way back when was awesome! The cars back in the 90's looked great, kind of like 1990's F1 cars but with an 80's twist to them, and no traction control or semi-auto gearboxes or anything. Ace.

Unfortunately here in Bulgaria the ONLY way to wach Indycars is through Internet No one Bulgarian TV shows Indycars, only when the "news" are shown they mention, who is the winner of qalify or the race thats all.

Even F1 was a exotic here. The first F1 season which you were able to see here was in 1992 broadcasted by our national TV program "BNT". But from back then to nowadays every season is broadcasted here.

Currently even in Brazil, where current IndyCar run at São Paulo streets each year since 2010, we had no live network TV broadcasting of many races. Around 2/3 of the season are broadcasting in overnight, a full tape of the race some hours after the checkered flag. This occours because the races starts around the same hour of the football here in Sunday evening, and "Brazil is the Football nation", as said here... And the TV choose to broadcast live some game of our national football league instead IndyCar races...

The IndyCar of the 90's...
I miss that, the best era of a motorsport series I've watched. Better than 90's Formula One in many aspects. And tremendous better and funniest than 2000's Formula One...

Emerson Fittipaldi (our hero), Nigel Mansell (a popular and well known driver here), Mario and Michael Andretti, Al Unser Jr, Jacques Villeneuve, Alessandro Zanardi (a hero for many race fans here), Greg Moore (a legend), Gil de Ferran (a very popular driver here), Juan Pablo Montoya, André Ribeiro (and his unforgettable win at Rio 1996), Reynard chassis, Lola chassis, Penske PC94 chassis, Mercedes-Illmor engines, Ford-Cosworth engines, Honda engines, Firestone x Goodyear battle, races at Michigan super-speedway, speed records at Fontana, Laguna Seca and its Cork Screw, Elkhart Lake's Road America and its challenging 4-mile beautiful road course, Cleveland airport's wide track and fast race, Surfer's Paradise with its glamour and jumping chicanes, and each car sponsored by a well-known company, as Marlboro, Texaco/Havoline, Target, Kool, Player's, Miller, Budweiser, Valvoline, Pennzoil, Shell, etc

From May 1989 to November 1998 all CART races was broadcasted LIVE for Brazil in network TV.

Great times. Great days. Great races. Great Sunday afternoons/evenings watching that races. Unforgettable moments of my teenage years.