| | Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS -- It's race weekend in Indianapolis, but forget about serving Buffalo wings and beer. This crowd is more accustomed to vintage wine and continental dining.
The domain of distinctly American racing for more than 80 years, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will entertain European royalty and other jet-setters for the U.S. Grand Prix on Sunday, the first Formula One race in the United States in nine years.
"Instead of a fried chicken dinner, we're doing Chateaubriand," said Peter Fulgenzi of IndyAnna's, a catering company.
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“ |
We
have reservations with Hugo Boss, Vanity Fair
magazine, Mercedes, and we sold our suites and
our penthouse to Tommy Hilfiger's group, who is
affiliated with the Ferrari team. said Malibu's Rich Brown. ” |
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— Rich Brown of Malibu's |
Until six years ago, the only race at the Brickyard was the Indianapolis 500, featuring heroes named Foyt and Unser and Mears. NASCAR arrived in 1994, but the biggest changes were Southern accents and fenders on the race cars.
For this weekend, the speedway will be an international venue, with European-based teams and drivers and some 25,000 foreign fans converging on the Hoosier capital. Hotels are posting signs in Italian, German, French, Japanese and Portuguese, and restaurants are revising their menus. Even the track is different, with the traditional oval replaced by a winding circuit favored by Formula
One.
Malibu on Maryland, a downtown restaurant that also offers a penthouse suite at $5,000 per night, is ready for the well-heeled guests.
"We have reservations with Hugo Boss, Vanity Fair magazine, Mercedes, and we sold our suites and our penthouse to Tommy Hilfiger's group, who is affiliated with the Ferrari team," said Malibu's Rich Brown.
"For Formula One, we're having princes," said Johnny Molony of Ruth's Chris Steak House. "There's people coming in who'll probably need security."
The Indiana Center for Intercultural Communications, affiliated with a local university, has trained about 1,000 volunteers and hotel, restaurant and bank employees.
A study commissioned by the Speedway indicated the U.S. Grand Prix, which includes several support races and a historic car parade over the weekend, will pump about $170 million into the local economy. That's roughly half the impact of the Indy 500, but it's concentrated over three days instead of Indy's two weeks.
A crowd of about 250,000 is expected Sunday, lower than both the Indy 500, which draws up to 400,000 each year, and NASCAR's Brickyard 400, whose attendance is estimated about 320,000.
Indianapolis International Airport spokesman Dennis Rosebrough said all commercial flights are booked solid. The airport also expects a large number of private jets and other aircraft.
Hotels across central Indiana are sold out for the weekend, at more than double their normal rates. The Jacksonville Jaguars, who play the Indianapolis Colts in the RCA Dome on Monday night, had to settle for a hotel in Muncie, more than an hour away.
"We're getting excited when we hear something open up in Louisville," said Rick Hughes of the Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association. Louisville is two hours away.
The only other Formula One race in North America is the Canadian Grand Prix held in Montreal in June. The last Formula One race in the United States was at Phoenix in 1991.
Bernie Ecclestone, Formula One's chief executive, has an agreement with Speedway president Tony George for a multi-year commitment. The Speedway spent more than $40 million for construction of the new 13-turn, 2.6-mile road course, as well as a media center, control tower, suites and garages.
"They've never been able to establish themselves at a United States venue, and the principal reason they're coming to Indianapolis is because of the worldwide reputation of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the fact we promised to be a
permanent home for them in the United States," Speedway spokesman
Fred Nation said.
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