No, the focus was on the massive grandstands that surround the hallowed IMS grounds. Would they be safe from any repeat terrorist act? And would they be half empty?

Thankfully, the largest public gathering in America since the attacks on New York and Washington earlier this month were safely able to watch Mika Hakkinen score his second victory of 2001.

There were no incidents and not even any threats, according to IMS vice president of communications, Fred Nation.

"We had about 1,000 off-duty policeman scattered throughout the track and our security staff was distributed in key places. We took every precaution possible," said Nation. "But I'm happy to report everything went very smooth.

"Our uniformed police even reported that many fans stopped and thanked them for their efforts."

Because of the events of Sept. 11, the ridiculous hotel prices ($300 to $500 a night with five-to-six night minimums) and the lack of drama (Michael Schumacher clinched his fourth Formula One championship a month earlier), advance ticket sales were "only" 175,000.

Scalpers were selling $140 tickets for $60 four days before the race and rooms were available almost anywhere in downtown Indianapolis.

The gloom and doom report was that between the European no shows and lack of interest in this city, as many as 50,000 of the 200,000 available seats might be empty.

In other words, after drawing 210,000 a year ago for the inaugural USGP, Round 2 could have been a noticeable disappointment.

But it wasn't. The Speedway sold all 10,000 general admission tickets and, while there were obviously 20,000 to 25,000 unoccupied seats, the estimated crowd of 180,000 came early and stayed late -- showing their passion with hats, shirts, air horns and flags.

There was no shortage of enthusiasm, or people, on this glorious fall day.

True, the Speedway is use to sellouts but this was still the third largest sporting crowd in the U.S. and, clearly, F1's largest turnout.

Between the cost of building the road course ($50 million), paying Bernie Ecclestone an estimated $16 million to deliver his teams each year and the fact he shares none of the television money, Tony George may never realize a financial profit.

However, in terms of a major league event, it was another success.

"After seeing all those people here last year we weren't sure what was going to happen this year," said Schumacher, who drove to an uninspired second place in his Ferrari. "But I was very happy to see the strong support.

"Considering the recent tragedies in the United States, I thought it was very good. Very encouraging. It appears the American public enjoys our racing and I'm very happy about that."

The race itself could have been a big winner had Juan Pablo Montoya not been KO'd by a faulty gearbox on lap 39.

Because of his prominence in America (1999 CART champion and 2000 Indy 500 winner) before bringing his tremendous talents to F1, the 26-year-old Colombian had a lot of vocal support in the grandstands.

And when he used a tire-smoking, late-braking maneuver to pass Schumacher for the lead going into Turn 1 on lap 34, not only did the fans let out their largest roar of the day, there was also scattered applause in the press box.

But Montoya's race ended a few laps later and the only real theatre after that was whether Rubens Barrichello could catch Hakkinen (he didn't, of course, as his engine expired).

The bottom line is that three races at Indy in a five-month period may be over-saturation but, if F1 can maintain an audience of 150,000-plus, it's here to stay.

"Formula One is an acquired taste and if we can stay in America long enough for people to acquire that taste, it will be a winner," said Jaguar's Eddie Irvine. "It's like when you start drinking wine. At first you don't appreciate the good stuff but the more you drink it, the more you start to notice the differences."