[Wayne Maybury]

Tommy

The only F1 race in North America is in Montreal. The US lost their race 2 years ago and the Canadian Grand Prix was actually chopped off the schedule for 2009 as Bernie thought he could make more money elsewhere that weekend. It turned out to be a disaster so Montreal is back this year.

Ford (Jaguar) backed out of F1 a few years back and there is no way GM or Chrysler are going to spend a dime on an F1 team. They are cutting back on NASCAR spending which is their bread and butter racing base. Toyota and Honda have also both exited F1 in the past year.

All of the car manufacturers involved in F1 consider North America to be an important market and they were very upset with Bernie when he cut the US GP and then when he also cut the Canadian GP last year. One of the big problems with F1 in the US is that Americans prefer stock car racing over open wheel racing. Even IRL has a difficult time making ends meet. US F1 was a very ambitious endevour but the team was facing stiff odds before they got started.

Wayne