What happened to holding the Houston races at night?

[Dave Anderson]

Orginally, it was rumored one or both of the Houston races would be held at night. They ended up being scheduled as afternoon races. Was there some reason the idea of holding them as night races was dropped? I can't imagine how bad the heat and humidity will be in the late afternoon.

[3Paige14]

They don't seem to realize the fact that it's June and, in the southern part of Texas, it's gets HOT and HUMID then. The heat and humidity are still prevalent at night but it's a little more tolerable.

[INDY500FAN13]

.

[Maelochs]

I'd imagine might be an issue--even the best portable spotlights are going to leave dim or dark spots---portable spots might work for sports cars, which have serious onboard lighting, but for IndyCars ... Theoretically they could rent enough lights to illuminate the whole course, but I suspect in some places there might not be room, and of course each light trailer would need to be in a secure enclosure to keep drunks and vandals away ... and maybe someone added up the number of extra volunteers/feet of fencing/anchors/fuel and of course the lights themselves and said ... "Let's let someone else be first on that one."

[TimmyZ1]

Maybe the cost of lighting the track?

[Thorzdad]

My first thought was about lighting, too. Both cost and effectiveness. Properly lighting a temporary circuit has to be a huge undertaking, so that you remove odd shadows around corners, and lights in the drivers' eyes. That's a lot of portable lights and generators.

[Luy]

My first thought was about lighting, too. Both cost and effectiveness. Properly lighting a temporary circuit has to be a huge undertaking, so that you remove odd shadows around corners, and lights in the drivers' eyes. That's a lot of portable lights and generators.

I wonder if Houston being a doubleheader was a factor too.

[BizzyV]

I don't know. It really, really, really needs to happen. I'm as die hard of a fan as you'll find in Houston and even I'm not looking forward to July heat. I totally understand running TMS and Houston back to back but the Houston races really need to be Friday and Saturday nights. Would be great for TV and the event because I just don't see you convincing people to brave what could be 100 degree heat + brutal humidity. Can you imagine the toll on the drivers and crew? October wasn't nice to start with.

The parking lot at reliant already has a pretty good head start as far as being lit go with the lighting currently in place. I think the promoters stand to lose alot of walk up customers if it's a typical July day in Houston.

[Blood-1]

It's not a technical hurdle considering they did it once already.

I can't imagine the math of having no one show up to the race and having to deal with the people who do suffering from heat is a hell of a lot better than paying for lights.

[drdisque]

During the one time they did it before, I recall a car running into a run-off/escape road that wasn't illuminated by the flood lights and being totally missed by the marshalls. Nobody could see it and the driver sat there for minutes until someone finally noticed and came to turn him around. So that would probably have to be addressed if they wanted to do it again.

I think they are worried about it running too late on Sunday night as being the main issue (and it's hard to get a TV window on a Sunday night) and are worried that the turnaround from a Saturday night to Sunday afternoon race would be too short.

[Grizzlor]

They were going to consider a night race for one of the two nights, but I guess decided against it. I have to assume cost.

[Jakester]

For some reason, the Houston organizers have always tried to stuff too much track action in (never thought I hear myself say that), causing a number of problems, not the least that the corner workers end up putting in a 16 hour or so day.

At the previous editions with the night ALMS and IndyCar race, us flagging and communication types had to be at the track at 6:30AM for morning meeting and didn't get off track until around 9-10PM, depending on the day.

Even this last year with day races, we had 6:00-6:30AM morning meetings and the last race groups (MX5 Challenge and Race for Champions) didn't finish up until nearly 8 PM on Fri/Sat. Illumination from the parking lots lights was, uh, minimal.
Sunday looked to go until around 7 PM until Dario's accident ended the day.

That kind of schedule made it quite a bit tougher for us to get an adequate number of folks to come out and play. Don't know how that affected getting other enough folks for groups like promoter volunteers, security etc.

As mentioned, the prior edition did have night races...and lighting was a problem in terms of having runoffs as well as track adequately illuminated. Wasn't as big a problem for ALMS drivers as their cars do have headlights.

Now if you didn't start on track action until around 11AM or so....

[Spike]

...portable spots might work for sports cars, which have serious onboard lighting, but for IndyCars ... Theoretically they could rent enough lights to illuminate the whole course...

Nothing "theoretical" about it. As others have mentioned, it has been done before at Houston (not to mention Cleveland).

...but I suspect in some places there might not be room...

There was room the last time they did it.

...and of course each light trailer would need to be in a secure enclosure to keep drunks and vandals away...

Oh, but of course.

Those darn drunks and vandals ruin everything.

...maybe someone added up the number of extra volunteers/feet of fencing/anchors/fuel and of course the lights themselves and said ... "Let's let someone else be first on that one."

Considering "someone else" already was first, it probably was simply a matter of cost-cutting.

[Count Tracula]

Houston, we have a problem.

[Luy]

Houston, we have a problem.