Balance seen in IRL’s future
Fewer races on oval tracks are a strong possibility.
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (AP) — The IRL IndyCar Series schedule of the future could look a lot different than the 2008 slate that includes 10 oval races and up to nine events on road or street circuits.
Series founder Tony George, who initiated the recent unification of the two American open-wheel series under the IRL banner, says he envisions a more balanced schedule down the road — similar to the schedule run by rival CART in the 1990s.
“I think it’s likely we’ll see more of a balance than we have today,” George said. “I don’t know what it might be. Recently as this week, it’s suggested it might be six [ovals], six [road courses] and six [temporary street circuits].
“But I don’t know what that might be. We could have 18 races. We could have 20, 22 races. We could see some more ovals developed. We could see some ovals fall off the schedule. We could see new opportunities.”
George and other IRL officials are hoping to finalize the 2008 schedule within the next two weeks, adding two additional events from the former Champ Car schedule.
Champ Car’s recent bankruptcy filing tentatively was approved by a judge in Indianapolis and is expected to be official in a week or 10 days. After that, the IRL must go to the FIA, the international ruling body of motorsports, for approval of the race dates.
Edmonton is expected to be held July 26, while the race at Surfers Paradise in Queensland, Australia, likely would be run Oct. 26.
The Champ Car race in Long Beach, Calif., will go on as scheduled, with the teams from the soon-to-be-defunct series to run their old equipment the day after the IRL event in Motegi, Japan.
All three of those events are expected to become permanent fixtures on the IndyCar schedule, with George saying that other former Champ Car events also will be considered for a return to the schedule in 2009 or beyond.
Saturday’s race at Homestead was not completed in time for today’s edition.