I agree Spitzer got ripped off. But then we really don't know what he got for his money either. He may have been covered in batter and dipped in oil, fried, dyed and smoked as a ham, all of which would have taken a lot of effort for just one girl.

Excellent point Walking M, I stand enlightened.

The one equation that always seems to be missing from F1 conversations is profit for the local sponsor. I think the main reason for the money cap is so that governments et al don't have to shell out hundreds of millions for a event which is clearly unsustainable. The same thing can be said about most professional sports world-wide and particularly the NFL.

I would like to see the manufacturers jump to the LeMans series and leave F1 more wide-open for the creative privateers who don't bring with them all of the ulterior motives and politics the money machines do. There's a lot of talk about Indy becoming the free-for-all it once was. I'm convinced that at some point, the amount of money generated by a sport ruins it. Dumbs it down. Disney-izes it to where it all becomes the same homogenized Mac-shit.

It's ultimately the biggest problem with democratic consumerism... finally, in an effort to appeal to the most people, the whole thing melts down to the lowest common denominator... which is flat fucking boring.

MR. C. make a very good point and you are correct about Disney, they do own the Indy track. Could be one reason F1 does not run there anymore, that and the hospitality or lack thereof.
The problem with Indy, in my view is that it is coming from the circus maximus and horses that can only run in circles. F1 and Le Mans are based on road and street courses begun after the advent of the automobile. That is the attraction for this ol' boy. Perhaps the steeplechase had some influence upon the sport.
Americans never had to chase steeples until the last few years. (chuckle)

I dunno. I think the country was founded on chasing steeples wasn't it? Maybe I've got it backwards, maybe the country was founded by people running from steeples. Makes more sense.

Actually, the road course paradigm in Europe was probably founded because originally, only the very rich could afford the cars to race and they were out for "sport" and raced on public roads and didn't give much of a damn about trifles such as public safety. Even today, Spa, Monaco and Le Mans are still raced on public roads.

And, Indy style circular racing wasn't begun because of any affinity for public safety either, but good ole Yankee ingenuity as the owners of the track found a way to utilize it when the State Fair moved and the horse racing declined. As you can see, it worked.