In the past decade, Nascar has parlayed its South-eastern blue-collar roots into a national phenomenon with shrewd marketing, accessible and charismatic drivers, and exciting competitive races. Attendance at Nascar Winston Cup races, the premier Nascar division, nearly doubled to 6.5 million in 1999 from 3.3 million in 1990. Last year, Nascar signed a six-year TV deal with News Corp.'s Fox and General Electric Co.'s NBC for more than $400 million a year starting in 2001.

Traditionally drawing on a slightly more affluent Midwestern base, CART and IRL are both relatively healthy, though still recovering from a nasty 1996 dispute that saw American open-wheel racing split in two. CART drove away with the higher-profile teams and drivers while IRL, headed by Mr Tony George, president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, retained the crown jewel of American racing, the Indianapolis 500.

Most observers agree the US Grand Prix will not compete with American racing leagues, which have established or growing fan bases. Also, despite American racing's recent move into the mainstream, its fans generally do not fit the upper-class profile that F1 attracts in Europe. To make the US Grand Prix accessible to its Midwestern base, Speedway sold most race tickets for between $75 and $85, only $10 higher than for the Indianapolis 500 and Nascar's Brickyard 400, the track's two main attractions. At most Grand Prix races, tickets can run into hundreds of dollars.

A Grand Prix is a spectacle in its own right, however, and can only draw more fans to auto racing, not further divide the pie, according to Mr Fred J Nation, a vice-president for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Indy Racing League.

With its roots on road courses over city streets, most Formula One races are now run on road tracks similar to the newly constructed 2.606-mile oval road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Organisers say the new course will ensure an exciting and high profile race. The more than 2,00,000 available tickets sold out months ago, according to Mr Nation. F1 has signed a multi-year contract with Speedway, and German software company SAP AG also made a multi-year commitment to be the race's title sponsor.

"Before, there wasn't a [US] venue that would shape up to our standards," says Mr Bernie Ecclestone, who co-owns the company that controls the F1 circuit. "Indianapolis has done us proud."

On the business side, Formula One is undergoing major changes, though Mr Ecclestone retains firm control. In February, he sold half of SLEC Holdings, the company through which he controls everything from F1 television rights to race promotion to a piece of merchandising sales. The two firms that bought into SLEC, Morgan Grenfell Private Equity, a unit of Deutsche Bank AG, and Hellman & Friedman LLC, a San Francisco private equity firm, planned to take the company public. Then in May, they sold their stake for approximately $1.8 billion in cash and stock to EM.TV & Merchandising AG, a German children's media company that said it also desired a public offering.

One obstacle to any initial public offering for SLEC Holdings is a four-year-old European Commission anti-trust investigation into whether Mr Ecclestone and the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, or FIA, the sport's governing body, illegally stifle competition, especially regarding TV rights. Mr Ecclestone denies all charges and says that the FIA, not SLEC, "needs to amend its statutes."

In late July, some news reports suggested that Mr Ecclestone and EM.TV might sell part of SLEC Holdings to the car manufacturers and team owners to soothe regulators. Mr Ecclestone strongly denied that pressure from the European Commission would trigger a sale. EM.TV declined to comment.

However, some EM.TV investors are nervous about the anti-trust investigation, the large amount of EM.TV stock now in the hands of the two investment firms and whether EM.TV, which recently bought Jim Henson Co. and its Muppet characters, has lost focus with its F1 involvement.

Meanwhile, Tag Heuer got an early start in trying to raise F1 awareness with the Hollywood set. It distributed 100 "Formula One 2000 Grand Prix Chronograph" watches, valued at $1,700 each, in the "Oscar basket" given to all performers and presenters at this year's Academy Awards.

"It is hard to understand Tag without F1," says Ms Nicholas of Tag Heuer USA. "If sport is in our blood, then F1 is our soul."

The Wall Street Journal