5Speed,

They covered many acres with CONCRETE for the paddock, that is what many were upset about.

We can USE grandstands, but they took those away.

And Belle Isle was run for MORE than two years, it stopped and then came back, if memory serves correctly.


But at least that time was immortalized in the 2001 Stallone film, Driven.


I've always wanted to make a driving game out of the freeways of downtown Detroit, and then have the two race courses bonus rounds if the freeway system was mastered. We've got some of the greatest sweeping ramps of ANY city, THAT is where they should've run races.


Come to think of it, the motorcyclists do now, I hear them in the wee hours, but NEVER see 'em.

In 1982, we had someone drop us off on Jefferson for the race. That was in the middle of the circuit, so we actually never bought tickets, and had nearly full access. Afterwards, I did mostly the free-day Fridays, because that showed me the whole thing was better seen on the telly...except perhaps for the F1 groupies. Whoa.

But the absolute best time was attending with a frat brother who's father owned one of the huge display manufacturing companies for the auto shows...they set up their own grandstand INSIDE Cobo Hall, at the end of that one stretch before the 90-degree turn onto Washington Blvd, to the bridge across Jefferson...just before that turn to go down and through that tunnel.

THAT was amazing, with the cars screaming straight at us behind the glass...and a very liberal free-drink policy. It seemed appropriate to drink Absolute Kamikaze's the whole day.


MOST of the guardrails are still existent from that time, too.

Cheers