There is an unusual trend occurring in sports currently. More and more people from around the world are beginning to watch American sports, and a lot more Americans are beginning to watch sports from elsewhere around the globe. With the sudden spike in Americans watching the World Cup in Brazil, we also have had a sharp increase in Americans watching motor sports from elsewhere around the globe and not just NASCAR and IndyCar over the last few years, and vice-versa.
There are a few reasons that come to mind as to why we from elsewhere around the globe such as Europe and elsewhere find your forms of motor sport so fascinating. Prior to 2012, not many people over here were even aware of the IndyCar series; they were probably aware of the Indy 500 due to the United States Grand Prix and also the Triple Crown of Motor sport, but not of the actual series itself. Few Formula One drivers had jumped from Champ Car, IndyCar or CART into Formula One except from a few notable names such as Juan Pablo Montoya and Jacques Villeneuve and perhaps Alex Zanardi as he jumped back and forth and we also had very little coverage over here, with it occasionally on one of the Sky Sports channels here in the UK, which requires a subscription.
I put the glamorisation of IndyCar to our audiences down to a few simple things. Firstly, the lack of fan-friendly interaction between the FIA-sanctioned championships seem to drag a few people away, whereas IndyCar and NASCAR do a lot more to interact with fans, such as posting races on YouTube and plenty of interaction on Twitter, especially from the teams. Formula One teams only caught on a year or two ago on the wonders of social media. Secondly, a big name jumping from Formula One to IndyCar in the shape of Rubens Barrichello, the most experienced man in Formula One history and a winner of multiple Grand Prix with Ferrari and with the Brawn team gave people the incentive to at least ‘give IndyCar a go’. I understand that it was not for everybody but it helped a lot of fans of Formula One start to watch IndyCar races. Another factor is the timing of the races, a lot of fans could be at work until say 5pm on a Sunday and they miss out on all of the motor sport during the day, but with IndyCar they can at least watch something as it is on in the evening over here. There are only a couple of races which are on at really unsociable times for us (usually Texas and Fontana). The final factor is Twitter. I mentioned Twitter earlier, but with Tweeters from outside of America, including ‘IndyCarUK’ giving us the times for the races corrected to our time zones, communities from elsewhere are able to have their own meet-ups and such and watch IndyCar together despite not being in America. It took many years it seems, but IndyCar seems to have a proper home now on BT Sport, where it and their other great range of motorsport (MotoGP, Formula Renault) are also gaining in popularity.
With NASCAR however the picture isn’t quite so bright over here. We do not seem to get the coverage live at least, just highlights or delayed races and it has a smaller following it seems than what IndyCar does, as oppose to America. You could argue the style of racing puts some (including myself) off, but it does have its fans over here too. That isn’t to say that if there is the demand, it could one day have a similar following as IndyCar does over here. A few former F1 stars have jumped ship to NASCAR too, notably Montoya and Nelson Piquet Jr.
Some of the points I raised earlier work in the same respect as to why people from America are starting to not only watch F1, but other series such as the World Endurance Championship and the likes of MotoGP too. The ‘show’ seems to be improving in F1, with things like DRS and these new 760bhp hybrid turbocharged engines providing some very good racing this season already. A new American team for 2016 and possibly a former IndyCar driver in Simona de Silvestro joining Sauber would do wonders too. With the World Endurance Championship, plenty of American drivers taking part in Le Mans this year will have given at least some interest across the pond, and although it can be very long and complicated, the hardcore fans seem to be enjoying it too. I’m getting lots and lots of followers on my Twitter account from North America all highly interested in F1 and other series too. Having two absolutely world class circuits in Montreal and COTA is great too, and I am sure it has increased viewing in North America, even if the worldwide figures have dropped a bit for F1, but has risen in other series, especially for the World Endurance Championship, where Mark Webber joining with Porsche has given Le Mans its best turnout since the turn of the millennium, and plenty of Americans were in the crowd cheering on the likes of Patrick Dempsey and Tracy Krohn.
From a personal perspective, having now watched IndyCar for three years now (my first full race was the 2011 Indy 500) I can now say that I am a huge fan of it, and one day I plan to head over to America to watch a race live. I am just one of many Brits who have been converted into the American way of motor sports, as many Americans have been converted to the European or Worldwide way of motor sports, there doesn’t seem to be as much of a divide any more, and I can only see this as a good thing.
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