| | Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS -- If first impressions mean anything, the United States Grand Prix has found the home it has been seeking for 20 years.
"We had Watkins Glen for a while and we kept moving around to other places and there was never really a home," said Max Mosley, president of the FIA, which sanctions Formula One racing. "Now, with any luck, there is a home, and I think it will build up.
"But it's a different culture and it will take time. It's rather like trying to sell soccer in the United States. It takes time."
Mosley, Formula One Czar Bernie Ecclestone, FIA president Max Mosley and Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George all expressed confidence in the success of Sunday's inaugural Indy F1 event even before the cars moved onto the new road circuit for the first time Friday.
"Indianapolis all over the world is synonymous with United States racing. I think it's an ideal venue and has a great future," Mosley said.
The series, which had raced at least once a year in the U.S. since 1959, last was run in this country in 1991 in Phoenix, the last of several venues in the search for a permanent home.
Only Watkins Glen, N.Y., which was on the Formula One schedule from 1961 through 1980, was considered a real part of the series championship, but race eventually outgrew the rural track in the Finger Lakes region of New York.
The Speedway spent an estimated $40 million on new buildings and the infield road course in order to bring the race to the historic 2.5-mile oval, which is the setting for the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR's Brickyard 400.
"I should have done this earlier," George joked. "It was a lot cheaper back in the early '90s."
Great Juan
Defending CART champion Juan Montoya showed up Friday to get acquainted with the Williams-BMW team he will drive for next season.
Montoya, the 1998 Formula 3000 champion in Europe and a test driver who started the season for Frank Williams, will take the place of Jenson Button in 2001, pairing up with the other current Williams driver, Ralf Schumacher.
"I know him from Formula 3000, although I never met him," Schumacher said with a shrug. "Obviously, he's a very strong and quick driver, otherwise he couldn't come in and win in America so quick like he has."
Jacques Villeneuve, who made the jump from CART champion in 1995 to F1 champion with Williams in 1996, said, "I would tell Juan Pablo that Williams is a very easy team to work for. It's a very good team to start with. It's a strong team with a lot of experience, and it's won many races and championships.
Villeneuve, who now drives for the BAR team, added, "They are
racers at heart, both Frank Williams and (technical director)
Patrick Head, and they live to get results. They live to race."
After watching the first practice from the Williams pits, Montoya said, "They've scheduled about nine days of practice in December. We've got a lot of work to do."
Montoya also has some unfinished business in CART, where he is 10th in the points but still has a mathematical shot at another title with three races remaining.
Spark plugs
Drivers Michael Schumacher, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Jarno Trulli, Button and Giancarlo Fisichella, along with FIA and F1 medical delegate Sid Watkins, spent part of Thursday signing autographs and posing for pictures with patients at Riley
Children's Hospital in Indianapolis.
Alex Ribeiro, driver of the official safety car for F1, said his speed of 202 kph (just over 125 mph) at the start of the long straightaway on the new F1
course is the fastest attained at any F1 venue.
Each F1 team was allocated two extra sets of Bridgestone tires for use during
Friday's practice sessions while the drivers learn the new
2.6-mile, 13-turn circuit. Teams are normally given a total of 32
dry-weather tires and 28 wet-weather tires for each weekend.
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