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IndyCar's $1 Million Exhibition Race At A Club Track Was A Ridiculous Attempt To Recreate The Worst Parts Of Formula 1
If you watched IndyCar's $1 million exhibition race at Thermal Club on March 24, 2024, you could be forgiven for thinking you'd tuned into a glorified advertisement for the California club track. As commentators flaunted the trackside mansions — with their private chefs and Lamborghini-equipped garages — fans had to wonder: Is this live event even for me, a dedicated IndyCar viewer? Or is this just a frankly ridiculous attempt at emulating the most off-putting elements of Formula 1?
Thermal Club is an exclusive gated community for the kind of rich people who would love having a race track in their backyard. The track is lined with luxury villas, and it costs a minimum of $5 million to buy the package deal of a membership, house, and lot. But if you're the kind of person who lives in a multi-million dollar home overlooking a race track, then you're probably the kind of person who already has a multi-million dollar luxury car collection, and therefore you're probably not super concerned about money.
One of the club's several layouts, a 3.067-mile FIA Grade 2 track, was selected to host the Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge IndyCar exhibition. Effectively, this was intended to be a sort of "all-star" race, with a series of 10-lap heat races narrowing down the field for a 12-car, 20-lap final (that featured a 10 minute break at the halfway point). The winner of that final would take home $500,000, not the advertised $1 million.
If that whole concept sounds perplexing to you, then I've got bad news. The execution was worse.
Motorsport, as a whole, is growing in America. When we were confined to our couches during the COVID-19 pandemic, many folks turned to Netflix to pass the time; as a result, "Drive to Survive," the streaming service's docuseries about Formula 1, exploded. F1 was one of the first forms of live sport to return while other series remained on hiatus, and unlikely viewers tuned in just for the communal experience of watching something with a big group of your online friends. The compelling 2021 F1 season kept viewers around — but as many Americans checked out ticket prices or grew bored of 2022's extremely procedural events, they started to look outside of F1 for a similar, but ultimately less expensive and more compelling, thrill.
IndyCar has been perfectly poised to attract those disaffected F1 fans looking for something new. The events are contentious, ticket prices are cheap, drivers are sociable, some of your favorite former DTS stars now race in the series, and with plenty of U.S.-based race locations to choose from, it's also easier to travel for IndyCar.
IndyCar, though, hasn't seemed quite sure what to do about this influx of new attention.
That isn't a total shock; after all, American open-wheel has a long tradition of shooting itself in the foot. Constant battles between series owners and team personnel resulted in the sport fracturing multiple times; the opposing factions reunified in 2008 as a way to stave off bankruptcy, but regaining legitimacy has been an uphill battle ever since. The reason why it's cheap to attend an IndyCar race, for example, is because not many fans have been going. The reason why the races are contentious is because IndyCar is fielding the same chassis it introduced over a decade ago. The reason why the drivers are personable social media mavens is because the series has consistently dropped the ball on promotion, leaving drivers like Josef Newgarden, James Hinchcliffe, and Pato O'Ward to shoulder the task.
But there has been reason to be hopeful. Despite all of its struggles, IndyCar has been growing. Former Formula 1 racers like Romain Grosjean and Marcus Ericsson have raised the sport's profile. Prospective F1 talents like O'Ward, Colton Herta, and Alex Palou have built very impressive careers in IndyCar. South American investors from Argentina and Brazil have poured millions into the sport. Pato O'Ward alone has leveraged such an impressive audience in Mexico that he can sustain his own merchandise lines, organize Spanish-language race broadcasts, and sell out grandstands that are specific to his fans.
IndyCar has responded by turning inward, shutting itself off from an international future, and emulating the very worst parts of F1.
The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge IndyCar exhibition is a perfect exemplar of the sport's current misguided approach to growing its own profile.
First, let's look at the strange nature of the event in the first place. Its timing — two weeks after the opening race of the IndyCar season in St. Pete, but about a month before the subsequent race in Long Beach — is confusing. The hype for the season has barely begun. As a result, the Thermal event felt like a hastily organized attempt at maintaining momentum during IndyCar's start-and-stop beginning to 2024. Further, the race took place after a two-day open test session at Thermal, making it feel as if IndyCar simply couldn't wedge in enough pre-season testing and needed to turn this post-St. Pete test into something more compelling.
Then came the supposed $1 million prize. About three weeks before the planned running of the Thermal event, I heard from two insiders that the series had struggled to raise the necessary funds. As a result, the $1 million prize for the winner was reduced to $500,000 — not ideal, considering the fact that IndyCar intended its drivers to race all-out and potentially damage their cars for what could potentially be no financial gain. Just look at Romain Grosjean's frustration after being wrecked in the first heat race; during a post-collision interview, he said, "Who is going to pay for the damage? We come here with no points on the line, we do nothing wrong and the car is completely smashed. What is that? It's not what I signed to IndyCar for."
Further, ticket packages for the event were initially sold for a whopping $2,000. When the series failed to sell out, it was forced to drop the price to $500 — and issue refunds to the folks who had spent the big bucks on the event. Teams were pleased, since they had also been forced to spend $2,000 just to bring guests to the track that weekend.
The races themselves weren't particularly compelling. Drivers held back in an attempt to preserve their tires, but Thermal's narrow width also prevented a ton of passing. The 10-minute mid-final break was deeply confusing. One driver was disqualified from the final because his team miscalculated his fuel needs. Another driver had to withdraw thanks to a throttle problem. The podium was effectively just three boxes of varying sizes plopped in, essentially, a lot in front of someone's villa. Before the event had even ended, Racer was already reporting that the event would need to be "evaluated" before IndyCar would confirm a return.
All the while, the commentators were seemingly forced to mention the gorgeous amenities and explain what Thermal Club was over and over and over again. Commentator Townsend Bell was sent around the track to show off how rich Thermal's residents are.
IndyCar seemed confused about what the event was supposed to be. Fans were sold on this made-for-TV event as if it would be something akin to an all-star event, but there wasn't enough pomp and circumstance for that to be the case. Why, for example, did the series force a 10-minute break in the middle of a 20-lap event if it wasn't going to fill the gap with, say, a concert? Why were there so many rules structuring races that were supposed to be fun? Why was there no attempt at glitzing up the podium celebration? What was the intrigue and draw — especially when it became clear that the winner would not be taking home $1 million? I've seen weekend kart races at K1 Speed with more impressive execution and a clearer sense of purpose.
Part of me wants to say that IndyCar intended the event to be a commercial considering all of the broadcast promotion it did for Thermal Club, but I think that would be far too generous. No one watching this race at home is going to go out and spend $5 million to become a member of a prestigious private race track.
No; instead, this felt like a frankly desperate plea by IndyCar directed at wealthy investors who might be able to inject some life into the sport. See? If you funnel some money into IndyCar, we'll show off your impressive car collection on TV! We'll give you exclusive access to our drivers! You'll have so much fun! Please!!!!
As a longtime IndyCar fan, it was embarrassing to watch. It's like IndyCar decided it wanted to adopt the worst part of F1 — its ultra-exclusive mindset dedicated to attracting celebrities and forcing fans to pay out the nose for the pleasure of seeing a car fly by every now and again — without offering fans any of the benefits you'd get from F1. At least if I spent $2,000 on a ticket to the Las Vegas Grand Prix, I could justify it by feeling as if I'd just witnessed a capital-E Event. At Thermal, I'd rather spend a few hundred bucks and drive the track myself courtesy of BMW's Performance Driving School.
Things look bad for IndyCar right now, in a lot of ways. The series has once again delayed the introduction of its promised hybrid engines — a technology that will be in its third developmental stage in Formula 1 by the time it makes its IndyCar debut — because one of its two engine suppliers simply isn't ready; meanwhile, the other engine supplier is looking for an out.
The much-hyped season finale in Nashville, Tennessee is no longer happening — at least not as promised. Instead of racing through downtown streets, the series will set up shop at Nashville Superspeedway. While many diehard IndyCar fans are happy that the finale will once again take place on an oval, the teams are irate. According to Marshall Pruett's mailbag on Racer, many teams leveraged the downtown Nashville finale as part of the package they pitched to sponsors for 2024. Let me just pull right from the story:
From not being able to get refunds on their downtown hotels to losing Nashville GP-specific sponsors to having sponsors call with serious concerns about the bait-and-switch with the huge hype with the downtown finale going away for an oval event they didn't want or ask for when they signed their contracts.
Based on all they were told about the splashy new season finale in downtown Nashville, each team went and hyped up their sponsors, made big plans, and built that event into their 2024 sponsorship and promotions plans. And what happens when the downtown event goes away? The teams are the ones who look like idiots. Penske Entertainment didn't offer to call all of those sponsors and apologize and smooth things over. That was left to the teams, which have caught hell for it.
[...]
Countless relationships have been stressed. How many total logos are on the field of 27 cars, and how many calls to those sponsors, and how many blistering inbound calls or emails or texts did the Rahals and Shanks and Carpenters and Andrettis and so on receive about Nashville? None of their faults, but they get all the heat. Not a good look.
On top of that, Penske Entertainment — the owner of IndyCar — has adamantly refused to expand into new markets. Instead of forging a compelling new path forward, we'll be returning to the Milwaukee Mile in 2024. Many team personnel I've spoken to have criticized that direction as being a safe way forward. Unfortunately, "safe" does not necessarily mean "successful."
IndyCar's Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge is just one more example that the series is looking in the wrong direction for growth — and it is increasingly frustrating, because so many people are absolutely desperate for the series to expand its horizons.
Back in November, Jalopnik spoke to Arrow McLaren IndyCar driver Pato O'Ward. O'Ward hails from Mexico, where he has almost singlehandedly leveraged a massive international audience; he knows that market well, and he knows it is absolutely rabid for an IndyCar event. And yet, it isn't happening.
"It's mind-boggling that we don't race in Mexico," O'Ward said, the exasperation clear in his voice. "And then IndyCar was like, oh, we're gonna have an exhibition race at Thermal. What? If we're going to do something, let's do it properly."
Surely the introduction of an IndyCar race outside of the U.S. And Canada would bring in a slew of interested investors. Surely a race in Mexico City would be far more compelling for the teams, the drivers, and their sponsors. Surely IndyCar could have found a way to negotiate the logistics of international travel, if only it were willing to try.
The problem is, IndyCar doesn't seem willing.
Let's look at another example: Juncos Hollinger Racing. Former racer Ricardo Juncos has invested heavily in the IndyCar ladder program since 2009; his team has produced exceptional talents that have graduated to race series around the world, and as of late, he's fielded fellow Argentinian AgustÃn Canapino. Argentina is — and has been — desperate for some kind of IndyCar event hosted within its borders. That event, as well as a similar one in Brazil, has been "on the horizon" for years, with no indication that it will ever come to fruition.
There's a massive amount of potential should IndyCar be willing to look below the U.S. Border; even Pato O'Ward has presented the idea that IndyCar should look to take over all of the Americas as a way to become more globally relevant without trying to completely mimic a series like Formula 1.
"We have this massive pool of people in Latin America waiting for a race," O'Ward told Jalopnik. "Go full-in. Brazil. Argentina. Mexico. Uruguay. Somewhere in South America, then maybe a race in Europe — then we've got a badass calendar."
Instead, IndyCar's apparent interest in expanding its horizons extends only to American tracks it has already raced at, and to building a charter system that forces teams to pay for the privilege to race.
The Thermal Club $1 Million Challenge was a bad event for IndyCar, yes, but it's far from the first warning sign the series has showed in the past few years; rather, it is just the most egregious and public red flag we've seen yet. It was a farce. It was embarrassing to watch. It's also indicative of the direction IndyCar has been going for several years.
In an ideal world, the overwhelming backlash to an event like the Thermal exhibition would serve as the eye-opening moment IndyCar needs to reevaluate its current direction and find a way to change. Unfortunately, that seems like far too much to ask for.
'I Want To Build A Dynasty': How Gavin Ward Is Transforming Arrow McLaren's Culture
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How The 2024 Australian Grand Prix Led The F1 Season For Female Fandom Community Engagement
BY NOW, YOU'VE probably seen all the glitz and VIP glamour from the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix that took place in Melbourne over the weekend.
There was the highly coveted Glamour on the Grid event, which turned the Albert Park Circuit's grid into a black-tie affair and brought some of the biggest names in fashion, culture, the arts and sports out to celebrate the opening of the Grand Prix; the coveted VIP and luxury customer ticketed events, like Harper's BAZAAR x Porsche's Woman With Drive luncheon, the enormous Marriott Bonvoy marquee, the chic Mercedes-AMG lounge, the bellissimo Lavazza Atrium — with its molecular caffeine caviar — and the magnificent Casa Ferrari, to name a few; not to mention the lauded Paddock Club suites. People watching: 15/10. Accessibility to the everyday fan: let's be for real, 3/10.
All of these were indeed magnificent places to watch and soak up the race and the scenes, if you were willing to fork out a ticket price of anywhere between $6,000 and upwards of $10,000 before they sold out, or were lucky enough to snag an exclusive invite, that is. But luxury, glamour and parties are not all that new when it comes to the most expensive sport on the planet — they have been a staple within Formula 1 for decades. In Australia, Porsche's Woman With Drive and Mercedes-AMG's former woman's day events have been fashionable hot tickets at the Australian Grand Prix for years (though the latter has since pivoted to diversifying its offering towards family-centric offerings), as have the Paddock Club suites and the various watch, alcohol and lifestyle sponsor hospitality pavilions.
Related: Peek inside the luxury Porsche Pavilion at the F1, in partnership with BAZAAR Australia
Sure, outside of the racing drama itself, many of us do have an appetite for the content, the 'fits and Martin Brundle's famous (and gleefully awkward) A-lister grid walk interviews. Formula 1 race weekends at their very core are, yes, a global sporting event — but importantly, they are a community event. For those passionate fans attending on the consumer ticketed side, this glamorous side of the sport, and one which speaks to the culture almost half of F1 fandoms engage in and relate to, has been rarely represented.
What I actually mean by this, is that among the activations, activities and brands engaging with fans on the ground between the racing events, the growing 41 per cent of female-identifying F1 fans have rarely seen themselves represented on the ground. That was, pleasantly, until the past weekend, where glimmers of change finally started to emerge.
"39 per cent of our audience in attendance this year, have never been to a race before," Claire Beck, General Manager of Marketing and Experience of the Australian Grand Prix Corporation tells me trackside at the race, as we stood on top of the pits and surveyed the buzzy crowd. "And they're skewing female and younger."
Over the course of the weekend, the Australian Grand Prix welcomed 452,055 fans through its Albert Park gates, the biggest crowd we've ever seen in the history of the event. According to Beck, 39 per cent of those in attendance were female-identifying, which is above the global Grand Prix average of 32 per cent (which has risen 4 per cent in a year) — and Beck says they expect this number to continue to climb.
"We are actively making sure we are catering to those fans, we want them to have a great day and we want them to come back," she notes.
Over on the official merchandise stand, Beck reveals that the first piece of merchandise that sold out over the weekend—including the team kits — was an Albert Park / Australian Grand Prix branded t-shirt the team had designed especially for the growing number of Gen Z F1 girlies. As we've said on these pages before, there are plenty of economic reasons Formula 1 should be catering to female fandoms — we engage, we share and we spend.
Just outside of the paddock, where you traditionally find gaming or technology partners hosting demonstrations alongside car brands showing off their latest models, this year's hottest stand was, of all brands, Mecca Max's pink-branded pop-up. Attracting a hundreds-of-metres snaking, buzzy queue of race fans, the pop-up offered makeup touch-ups and a chocolate wheel race attendees could spin to win full-size Mecca Max products.
Throughout the four-day Grand Prix, Mecca's 'pit crew' of makeup artists performed more than 500 express makeup looks using the yet-to-be-launched Mecca Max Zoom Zip Liner Liquid Eyeliners, Zoom Shadow Sticks and Zoom Flex Fluid Eyeshadows. So not only could you score some product, but also snag a preview at the hands of a makeup artist. And according to Mecca, the spinning wheel of beauty gave away more than 7,000 full-size Mecca Max products.
Related: Shanina Shaik on Melbourne's haute wheels gala, Glamour on the Grid
A huge success, but not without critiques. The stand was only small, with no more than five makeup chairs in action — a criticism that many had on the ground and in the media, and perhaps a show of a light toe-dip into F1. Yet, in terms of proof of concept and the hunger that exists among beauty-loving F1 fans, the activation knocked it out of the park. Unsurprisingly, because F1 fans have been crying out to feel seen at these events.
Elsewhere, a small handful of brands had cleverly noticed the uptick within the community: La Roche-Posay was hosting skin checks and ensuring that every fan was wearing their SPF, Campari had a very glam presence, the bars and restaurants were more diverse and cooler than ever before (notably, the Espy's F1 outpost was popping), there was a large family-orientated offering and Ralph Lauren fragrances had an enormous sports-glam activation just up the lane from Mecca Max.
The most ADORABLE emerging TREND to appear this year was the SWIFTIE-LIKE homemade FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS
And then there were the outfits — homemade team kits, vintage Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes looks, racing and bomber jackets aplenty, items from last year's A$AP Rocky x Puma x F1drop and a huge and delightful sartorial presence of some of the wider global community-designed merchandise aimed at women, like Sunday Fan Girls and F1R The Girls drops. Not to mention, plenty of representation from the drivers' own fashion lines, like Enchanté by Daniel Ricciardo, Lando Norris' Quadrant and Lewis Hamilton's Plus44. As I said, with a rising female fandom comes spend and sartorial signalling.
Over at the famous Melbourne Walk, the stretch of road where fans can line up to watch the drivers, team principals and personnel make their way into the paddock, the energy was palpable, and much closer to a concert, festival or red carpet than a sporting event. Fun fact: Australia is the only race that has this fan-centric stretch of road into the paddock. Here, there were homemade signs, fans toting giant cardboard heads and plenty of selfies and autographs taking place. One of my favourite, and arguably, the most adorable emerging trend to appear this year was the Swiftie-like homemade friendship bracelets, which were either swapped around or given to (or tossed at) drivers and team principals (Oscar Piastri even posted them on his Instagram). Australian Grand Prix Corp, if you're reading, consider this an official campaign for a bracelet-making stand for next year.
What's important to point out, is that the rise of women wanting to engage with motorsport shouldn't be minimised to just economic power and fandom — though it too often is. And this is something that a handful of organisations are desperately trying to change by using the Australian Grand Prix as a platform for lift-off.
While the off-track events held on the various stages and areas around the track would see drivers and team members appear for interviews and media and fan engagements, on Friday, it was the FIA's Girls on Track talk featuring Australian Rally and Extreme E Champion Molly Taylor that piqued the interest of a curious crowd of young motorsport fans. The initiative was launched off the back of Susie Wolff's 'Dare to Be Different' program in 2018 and is now a global non-profit initiative in partnership with the sports governing body, FIA and Motorsport Australia. Since 2018, Girls on Track has seen a 564 per cent growth and last year, 467 participants aged 8 to 15 went through its Inspire program and 424 15 to 22-year-olds, participated in its Pathways program. Since its launch, Girls On Track's participants have gone on to secure roles at Extreme E, Porsche Cars Australia, Australian Grand Prix Corporation, Supercars, Nissan Motors, Speedcafe, Triple Eight, Karting Australia and more.
Sadly, over the entire race weekend, that was the only event of its kind aimed at inspiring young women in a way they can see themselves represented. That said, there is hope (and a lot of people campaigning) that these kinds of diversity initiatives will have a much greater presence (and perhaps on the more key race days too) in future events, as more decision-makers wake up to the power and hunger of women and young girls interested in the sport and wider industry.
"There is a huge interest from women wanting to get into motorsport," says Rachel Butler, who is the co-owner and director of Women in Automotive, an important and independent organisation that works to support, promote, empower women and non-binary people and helps place them in careers so they can professionally grow within the automotive and motorsport space. These initiatives bring a sense of visibility, and inspiration at mass public events like the Grand Prix, she says, really do help create wider change for women in the male-dominated space.
"Of course, you see all the glitz and the glamour of the sport, which is the shiny top tier of it all," says Butler. "We know for a fact there are plenty of workshops screaming for female workers and there are plenty of grassroots motorsport opportunities that are wanting to work with more women. So from our perspective, we hope the interest also translates into filling more roles that we need to fill desperately in the automotive industry."
Again, while we love to see it, many of us in the community were still hoping for more — so let this be a lesson for the GPs on the rest of the calendar and future brands looking to engage with the sport at the community level. Luckily, however, from everything we've seen and the rumours circulating post-race, the Australian Grand Prix is recognising the importance of setting the tone, supporting and future-proofing the female fan community's engagement and sense of belonging at its events.
"We know that fandom starts between 12 to 15 years of age, and that young women around 13 are watching Drive to Survive and wanting to come to races, it's really exciting," Beck noted, assuring that the Australian Grand Prix is focused on listening to fans. "We have a really big focus on GA tickets, creating more moments and for fans at the race itself."
This, girls, we can hope, is just the beginning.
Related: The backlash against Charlotte Tilbury's F1 Academy sponsorship tells us exactly why it's needed
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