New Jersey "On Track" for 2014

The inaugural Grand Prix of America in New Jersey will go ahead next year, according to race promoter Leo Hindery.

Hindery, a keen racer who won the GT2 class in the 2005 Le Mans 24 Hours, has no doubts that the circuit will be ready in time for next year's race even though the race was pulled from this season's calendar.

He admitted that it was over-ambitious to attempt to put on the race in 2013 and takes full responsibility for the race not happening.

But now he is certain that funding is in place to ensure that the 2014 race, the first of a 10-year contract, will happen.

"We are on track for June 2014," Hindery told AUTOSPORT.

"It was nobody's fault but mine [that it didn't happen in 2013], it's a Rubik's cube that has had to come together.

"We knew we could design the course with [Hermann] Tilke's help, we knew that the state would be supportive because we would be paying them for the privilege, but we didn't have the capital structure."

The New Jersey race is part of a mooted 21-race calendar, with the Russian GP in Sochi the other new race.

The deal is for a June race, almost certainly as the second half of a double-header with next year's Canadian GP.

Hindery insists that he has yet to be given a final date, but is happy that his organisation has a strong relationship with the Canadian GP.

"Sometime in June following Canada, that's what my envelope says," he said when asked if the race would definitely follow directly after Montreal.

"Francois [Dumontier, Canadian GP president] has been a tremendous ally,

"A good race in Montreal helps to develop a good race in Port Imperial, which helps to develop a good race later in the year in Austin."

Hindery is hoping that the race will attract plenty of interest from European visitors, in addition to drawing in local racegoers.

"We expect a lot of Europeans," said Hindery.

"New York is an easy city to get to from Europe and it's a fun city to be a tourist in.

"We also expect to introduce a lot of young Americans to a sport that they have never seen first-hand."

SOURCE: Autosport 

Now I wanted to put this in a separate post because of what I've read.

Sean Kelly - part of the F1 broadcasting team in America - feels that there is absolutely no way this circuit can be raced on, as it is effectively more dangerous than Monaco.

His biggest concern is that there's no run off at the track's biggest braking point, which would be about 170MPH - they can't add a run off because there is a house directly at that corner, so could not move it. If a car had a brake failure going in to there, a driver could be seriously injured.

Another worry is that F1 requires a special form of tarmac to run the cars on, and this is only effective, really, in places where the temperature remains in a wide-ish, but as close to consistent as possible window. New Jersey has extremely hot summers and extremely cold winters - so there's concerns over that, too.

Then add in having to re-direct most of the drainage system around where the track would be, alterations to buildings, the disruption to locals as it's right in the heart of the city centre...

Basically, there's a lot to suggest this race will never happen, based on what I've read up about. 

Are they going to have two GPs in the US? If so, why? 

I really wish that people making racing circuits stop saying "on track". It's a terrible pun.sambob530

Haha I just commented on this on the random posts thread.

But back on track with the topic (eh, eh), I would like to see this take place. Although I am concerned about what Redders is saying, if the cars are going full speed and there is no run off area (i.e. driving straight into a house) then this is very dangerous for all involved. I would assume however this has been thought of and the correct safety measures will be in place.