Mmmm I'm a bit surprised about the home advantage worries. Our most popular race ever, the belgian GP in kampenhout, is a permanent track with the same layout waaaaaaaaaaay before the event. However that didn't stop any of the UK boys to come over and have a great time on and off track.
Now for the EIR, suddenly this is a problem? Even if you do change the layout drastically, the home advantage is huge on any track. Yes also on any of your national tracks (I've been and raced at 3, making H, F, I and whatever finals where I didn't practise, and C-finals where I did practise only once, on a different layout - reverse direction!).
Also realise that this is an indoor astro track, so the astro doesn't have any sand, rain etc on it, which keeps it very 'fresh'. The effect is that it has weird driving characteristics when a new layout is put. The more you drive on it on the same layout, the more the small hairs fold in the driving direction, and the more neutral the grip gets. So in fact it is very good to open up the track weeks prior to the event. This will make sure that the grip doesn't change too much throughout the EIR2011 event.
Also, JP is still adding features to the track, so the vid you've seen isn't the final track. He also constantly changes small things to make the track better, less prone to breaking stuff, securing the obstacles etc... He also constantly asks a lot of drivers for input and comments, and tries to listen as much as possible. That way you get a track where everybody will like at least some parts :-) I can assure you that the track is getting very good, with a lot of nice features: long turns, chicane, sharp turns, small jumps, doubles, corner jumps, a slippery part, whoops, etc...
And although the track is not easy, it shouldn't be a problem to learn with some 1.5 days of practise available. It's not like it has the southport back section or stuff like that in it
(now THAT'S a home advantage!!!)
I do agree on the qualifying on friday, it's a bit weird, but it's JP's decision and already online from the start (except for the 'same as 2010' error). If the round scores are added by points, this is a problem if on friday only half of the drivers are racing. If they will add up laps and times, it could be fair as you still have a good chance then when only driving on saturday.
Just my 2 cents. Well maybe a bit more
