The Detroit IndyCar Grand Prix has been red-flagged after 45 of 90 laps.  I'm not at the race this year but I attended the last two races in 2007 and 2008.  The race was revived this year after being shelved for economic reasons.

Unfortunately while Belle Isle is a lovely locale for a race, it suffers from all the maladies of a temporary street race. Let me make this clear, with the exception of Monte Carlo and perhaps Long Beach, all street circuits should be banned. Because of the absence of run-off areas, the entire track is lined by concrete barriers and fences that make for terrible sight-lines for the fans and a lousy racing experience for the drivers.

After the 2007 race I put forth the idea that Detroit organizers should remove the fencing and transform the circuit into a permanent road course the way Montreal did with the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve where the Canadian Grand Prix is run.

This year, the Detroit race was stopped because of man-hole covers and huge chunks of pavement coming loose, leaving huge and dangerous pot holes. If the course were properly paved and opened up, this sort of thing could be avoided but instead we have a huge embarrassment.

It's great to see racing return to Detroit, but if we are going to do it, we should do it right.

#detroitgp #detroit #belleisle  

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Detroit Grand Prix 2007: The Postmortem
After a five-year hiatus, motor racing returned to the Motor City this year and to a large extent it was a huge success. The race was revived in large part

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