Vis a tergo

San Jose Grand Prix

Ronda and I attended the San Jose Grand Prix again. Last year was the inaugural race, which was something I was excited about. A major motorsport in my backyard was a great surprise when it was announced! Both years we've taken the Friday of the race weekend off to explore the festival grounds around the area of the city that's been turned into a track. The Champ Car World Series is more than just a single race. Both years they've included more than just Champ Cars, which makes it more interesting. The good news is that the success last year didn't wane this year. I was expecting a slight dip in attendance this year after the novelty of the first annual event. Here are the numbers I found in multiple places online:

Attendance 2006: ~156,000
Attendance 2005: ~154,000

2005 Grand Prix

Not everything was improved over last year, though. So, there were a number of pros and cons, which is my cue to make a couple lists:

Pros:
- Much better crowd control. Three pedestrian bridges over the track and regularly scheduled track crossings between races.
- A better view of the race on the front straight. They switched the pits to the other side of the street, so the cars went right in front of the grandstand,
- We took the lightrail this year. This might have been done well last year too, but we didn't take advantage of it.
- The car auction, paddocks, and all of the displays in the Convention Center were the same as last year, and we were glad they kept them that way.
- Well, the paddock for the Atlantic cars changed. It was inside, which was nicer for us, but probably especially nice for the Atlantic teams.
- The work carts that travelled around through the crowd all had misters with fans, which was a nice touch.
- Ronda says "Good bratwurst!"
- Ronda says "Good shaved ice!"
- We both say "Good brawl!"
- Diamond Dave.

Cons:

- $8 beer? $6 shaved ice? $7 cheesburger? Was it me, or were the prices way out of control this year? Do I sound like an old man?
- They moved the large screen TVs, so there were two in front of the Gold 1 grandstand, but nothing in front of Gold 2. Bad.
- A number of the timed races were stopped early. I assume it was in order to keep the schedule, but it sure made the races anti-climatic.
- The T-shirt selection seemed limited. Maybe there were just none that we liked very much.
- They removed all of the nice shaded seating in front of the Convention Center near all of the food vendors.

So, on balance, more good than bad. Plus, we were kind of nitpicking. The prices were a little shocking, though.

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Posted by Rob at August 3, 2006 04:21 PM