INDIANAPOLIS — It is appearing more and more likely that there will be two races held on the weekend of April 19-20. The regular IndyCar competitors will run at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan while many of the former Champ Car teams will race at the Long Beach Grand Prix.
Both races will award IndyCar points.
The 2008 IndyCar schedule ends at Chicagoland Speedway on Sept. 7, which means one of the races that will be added to the IndyCar schedule at Surfer’s Paradise, Australia, may be held in October, but the points would count toward the 2009 IndyCar championship.
“We really haven’t gotten into that at this point,” said IRL founder Tony George. “Those are the things we will be looking at in the next coming days and week. Part of what we have to consider looking forward and the challenge is making this all work in the short term. In the long term, we have a great opportunity to look at the best opportunities for venues and races and scheduling are. This year we have a season that is basically locked in. We are looking at some holes and we don’t have very many holes so we can absorb some of their events. We really haven’t talked to promoters to finalize those things or with television.
“While they are possible, it’s not certain at this point. Brian Barnhart (IndyCar president, competition) and Terry Angstadt (IndyCar president, commercial development) and others will be delving into that in very short order. But how it works out whether it’s a fall race that counts toward the 2009 schedule or some kind of non-points race, those things are all speculative at this point, subject to evaluation.
“We have some holes, but we’ve got some issues with Long Beach on the Motegi weekend. We’ve got a window around the time of Edmonton which is a race we’ve talked about trying to pick up, but we have a conflict with its traditional date. We are planning right now to end the season at Joliet again and the Surfer’s Paradise race takes place six weeks after we were planning to end the season. Those things are big question marks at this point. I don’t have the answer to that right now.”
While those scheduling issues need to be settled, Barnhart and George look at the 2009 season with tremendous optimism when they will be able to carefully plan a schedule that is devoid of conflicts.
“We are excited about what 2008 can be but we are doubly excited for what 2009 can be,” Barnhart said. “While unification is great and it is happening for 2008 we won’t be able to take full advantage of it from a scheduling standpoint until 2009. I think 20 is a very doable number for our schedule.
“It gives us ultimate flexibility now because it’s open-wheel racing under one roof. We have a lot more to offer for the promoters. We have a position of better strength when we can bring them maybe 25- to 28-car fields which is a different business model than they have seen the past few years.
“Now, we can make sure we are racing at the places that have the best business relationships and the markets we need to be in. It’s clearly better for the future. It lays the foundation for growth in the future and that applies to teams and drivers, it applies to promoters and venues and it most certainly applies to sponsors. We are going to be so much more attractive as a unified series to the sponsors. It eliminates the confusion and the negativity associated with it and it improves our chances for sponsorship both from a League level and team level.
“We have to make the most of those opportunities.”