Indy Racing League adds two more races to slate next season

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indy Racing League’s IndyCar Series is expanding, and more growth could occur soon.

The IRL will make its debut in Long Beach and Toronto next season.

The Grand Prix of Long Beach will be run on April 19. The 35-year-old event has hosted F1, CART and Champ Car races. This season, Champ Car ran its final event there after its merger with the IRL, but awarded the drivers IRL points. Next year, it becomes a full-fledged IRL event. The agreement is for through 2015.

The IRL will hold the Streets of Toronto race July 12. It will make up for the loss of the Nashville event, which was dropped after efforts to negotiate an agreement for a 2009 race there failed.

“We don’t think it’s a perfect schedule, but we think it’s progress towards a much improved schedule,” Terry Angstadt, president of the IRL’s commercial division, said in a teleconference.

Angstadt said the IRL is interested in expanding into Cleveland and Houston, as well as sites in the northeastern and northwestern United States.

The IRL has taken steps to expand globally. The league will run its first IndyCar Series event in Australia this season with the Gold Coast Indy 300 scheduled for Oct. 26 in Surfers Paradise. The race also could be added to next year’s calendar, but nothing is completed.

“We are in active conversations with them for ’09,” Angstadt said. “We are keeping a couple of slots open for them. We are hopeful we can get them included.”

HVM Racing Team owner Keith Wiggins said the updated schedule, and specially the expansion in Canada, is good for the sport.

“When you race at venues like St. Petersburg, Toronto and Texas, along with Indianapolis, it naturally creates a better environment and greater interest,” Wiggins said in a statement. “This can only move our sport and, therefore teams like HVM Racing, to the next level.”