ESPN Formula One

INDIANAPOLIS -- Now in its fifth year at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the United States Grand Prix has firmly reestablished Formula One's foothold in this country. But more needs to be done to attract F1 fans and keep them coming back.

After bouncing around at various venues like Watkins Glen, Las Vegas, Dallas, Detroit, Phoenix and Long Beach in the 1980s and early 1990s, F1 disappeared from the U.S. after three unsuccessful races in Phoenix between 1989 and 1991.

What F1 needed to be successful in this country was a solid, permanent home with sound financial backing at a track in an auto racing-oriented part of the country. Enter Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Tony George and Indianapolis, a town synonymous with motorsport that is within one day's drive for half the population of the U.S.

While others talked in wide generalities about their ideas to build tracks and hold F1 races in various parts of the country, George presented F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone with a solid, viable plan.

The first U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis in 2000 drew 200,000 fans on race day, which was a modern day record for F1.

Sunday's crowd for this year U.S. Grand Prix is expected to be in the 125,000 range. That's small compared to the 250,000-300,000 or so that turn up for the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400, but it's the second or third largest turnout of any F1 race in the world including F1 crazy countries like Italy and Germany.

Indy's F1 fans are also among the most vocal and enthusiastic on the tour.

"I look forward to it," Michael Schumacher said of the fans. "It was quite an excitement last year at the Indianapolis Grand Prix. There was a lot of emotion going on among the fans and a lot of competition amongst different camps. It was great to see."

The Speedway's initial five-year contract to play host to the Grand Prix expires after this year's race. However, both George and Ecclestone are keen for the event to continue at the Brickyard.

"I just said to Tony, 'We're happy if you're happy. If you don't want me to pick up the option I won't. If you want to extend the contract beyond the (optional) two years, I will,'" Ecclestone told The Indianapolis Star. "We're going to make it work. I'm committed. He's happy with it, and we should continue with it."

George told The Indianapolis Star: "It's certainly our intention to keep this going."

Still, F1 is going to have to become more fan friendly if it wants to see a massive growth in popularity in the U.S. And the onus there lies firmly with the F1 teams and drivers who have been far too aloof for far too many years. The good news is that F1 has woken up to the fact that it needs to do more for the fans, and teams are beginning to cooperate with track promoters.

"Americans like to be entertained, and if we don't entertain them, it (F1) won't catch on," said Jaguar Racing's director Tony Purnell. "Simple as that."

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has been working flat out to improve the interaction between fans and F1. This was the second year of the "pit walk about" at Indy. Fans who held a race day ticket got free access to the track and the pit lane on Thursday. Last year, 18,000 people turned up, and the crowd was considerably bigger this year. Fans got to peer into the garages where the F1 cars were being prepared, watch several teams do pit stop practice and get autographs.

In the 2004 expanded version of the pit walkabout, the track and teams had organized autograph sessions with past and present F1 drivers. There were Q&A sessions with people like Mario Andretti, Danny Sullivan and several of the current F1 drivers, plus live music and other entertainment.

Indy was one of the few tracks to hold a pit lane walkabout last season. The idea has caught on with other tracks this year, but the rest of them have yet to offer all the extra activities that turned this year's day at Indy into a truly festive event.

Both Ecclestone and George have said that they would like to see a second U.S. Grand Prix either on the West Coast in Long Beach or in New York in Manhattan. Far from hurting the Indianapolis F1 event, they believe that a second race would help increase F1's overall popularity in this country.

"We'd all support it, providing it doesn't increase the size of the calendar," said West McLaren Mercedes boss Ron Dennis. "I think a West Coast race would be very beneficial to the commercial interests of all of our teams and probably F1 as a whole."

Lucky Strike BAR Honda director David Richards believes F1 needs to concentrate on Indianapolis and building up its U.S. fan base before expanding.

"We've got to think how do we get better penetration into America," Richards said "Someone was telling me ... how little awareness there was of F1 despite the fact that we're here this weekend, (and) we were in Montreal last weekend. Does an extra race in the West Coast help us? I'm sure it will, but there's still an awful lot of work to be done with what we do already."

Team owner Eddie Jordan says F1 just needs a little more time to grow in the U.S.

"It (the Indy F1 race) has been a huge success and you must be a little patient," Jordan said. "I remember not very long ago going to Barcelona to a handful of people, or going to Canada to a handful of people, and they have turned out to be probably two of the best supported events on our calendar. So I'm quite certain things will turn around."

"We also have to get our act together," Jordan said. "We do realize in an American context we are not close enough to the people. We must make sure that we think carefully about this, how we -- we understand we have technology and we have newfangled cars and stuff, but we have to reach out and make that extra effort, and that is part of the American culture, and it's not for them to change, it's for us to change."

Dan Knutson covers Formula One for National Speed Sport News and ESPN.com.