2013 IndyCar schedule

[NaBUru38]

I won't bring Cleveland or Laguna Seca into discussion, or speculate with 2013 dates randomly. I just want to follow all real news on future venues in a single thread.

I've listed the venues that have been discussed seriously in the last months:

Temporary courses

o- Las Vegas Strip
o- Fort Lauderdale
o- Porto Alegre
o- Houston

Permanent road courses

o- Road America
o- Watkins Glen
o- Mexico City

Ovals

o- Fort Erie
o- Chicagoland
o- Phoenix

The most recent news were:

o- The Strip and Fort Lauderdale projects are well know.
o- Randy said in January 2012 that Houston will return "very soon".
o- Watkins Glen was mentioned in December 2011.
o- Mexico was discussed in August 2011.

[nickyf1]

Fort Erie looks interesting. Will Canadians go to an oval race?

http://www.cdnmotorspeedway.com/

[Purist]

Other tracks that I've heard mentions of from various quarters also include North Carolina Motor Speedway (Rockingham), Michigan Int'l Speedway, and Pocono Int'l Raceway. It's hard to know just how solid these are, though Rockingham did get a mention in a very recent "Miller's Mailbag", so it is at least somewhat on the radar.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by nickyf1

Fort Erie looks interesting. Will Canadians go to an oval race?

http://www.cdnmotorspeedway.com/

They've been barking about that track for eons and I don't think they've even stuck a shovel in the ground yet.

[Paradise City]

2013 is very speculative at this point. Alot will depend whether the ovals fly or sink this year.

[nickyf1]

Road America - YES
Watkins Glen - YES
Phoenix - YES

[icemachine]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

They've been barking about that track for eons and I don't think they've even stuck a shovel in the ground yet.

They went to a provincial tribunal because despite getting local and regional approval some locals still didn't want the project to proceed. They had a pre-hearing a month ago, and the main hearing last Friday. They should get a verdict within the next few weeks, then shovels can hit the ground.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by icemachine

They went to a provincial tribunal because despite getting local and regional approval some locals still didn't want the project to proceed. They had a pre-hearing a month ago, and the main hearing last Friday. They should get a verdict within the next few weeks, then shovels can hit the ground.

Is the financing in place to actually get it done? I heard the GFC had caused some problems in that area, but I cannot remember the specifics now.

[icemachine]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

Is the financing in place to actually get it done? I heard the GFC had caused some problems in that area, but I cannot remember the specifics now.

The money is coming from a Dubai based group so its never really clear if they are fully funded or not.

[madman16]

Run the F1 track in Montreal.

Plus bring back Laguna and Road America

[hockey al]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

They've been barking about that track for eons and I don't think they've even stuck a shovel in the ground yet.

Recent news reports say that the earliest a hearing on whether they will be allowed to proceed with construction can happen is June. Would not seem that 2013 is in the cars.

[icemachine]

Originally Posted by hockey al

Recent news reports say that the earliest a hearing on whether they will be allowed to proceed with construction can happen is June. Would not seem that 2013 is in the cars.

OMB Case file is here

http://www.omb.gov.on.ca/english/eStatus/eStatus.html

[NaBUru38]

How about Australia? It's not just Surfers Paradise, it seems Perth wants formula cars too.

[nickyf1]

The only circuit in Perth is Barbagallo Raceway, which I'm not sure would be suitable for Indycar.. Unless they want a street race of course.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Paradise City

2013 is very speculative at this point. Alot will depend whether the ovals fly or sink this year.

I think a lot will depend on whether the series flys or sinks, especially with that car.

[NaBUru38]

Oh, god! The World Rally Championship wasn't enough for them. They got the FIA GT1 World Championship, then the Rally Dakar, then the FIM MotoGP, next year the F1... and now IndyCar???

A few hours ago, Fox Sports's motorsport news show Máxima Velocidad (pretty lame btw) announced that the ACTC, the organizers of the Turismo Carretera, is backing Esteban Guerrieri's adventure in North America not just to show Argentine drivers internationally.

There's more than that. They have designated a province where they will build an oval to bring IndyCar back to Argentina. Here's the story.

The place hasn't been revealed, but it's a dry region to prevent rainouts. This meanss, it's very far from Buenos Aires and the populated Pampa. I doubt they have picked the south. So there's two places: the Andes and the northwest.

[Purist]

Is the picture a rendering of the proposed track, or just an aerial photo of Phoenix?

If they want to put on an oval show in Argentina, take the next few years and rebuild Rafaela. The slipstreaming should be nuts, but the corners are flat enough that you're going to have to back out of it, and actually drive the car through the turns.

[NaBUru38]

Nobody announced anything about the project. It's been leaked by a journalist.

I'd prefer a short oval. First, it gives a stadium feeling. Second, smaller cars could race there too.

[Purist]

You can incorporate a smaller oval into a larger complex; that's not really an issue.

Ideally, apart from a few one-milers, and Iowa, I suppose, I want to have a few of the bigger ovals. The bump-and-grind that often happens at "short tracks" for NASCAR kind of gives that term a bad taste for me when it comes to Indy Cars. And anyway, we have plenty of shorter ovals in the States that should be covering that segment of tracks. The international rounds should have something extra, and there's no denying that there isn't really another oval out there like Rafaela.

Just pulling what I've got right now from my brain, a 20-race calendar would have something like eight ovals. The short ones would be Milwaukee, Loudon, Phoenix, and Iowa (I wish Nazareth was still usable). The big ones would be Indianapolis, Michigan, Pocono, and Rafaela.

By the looks of the picture, and your statement above, I'm guessing they just used an overhead shot of Phoenix for the piece.

[Yannick]

Originally Posted by Purist

Is the picture a rendering of the proposed track, or just an aerial photo of Phoenix?

If they want to put on an oval show in Argentina, take the next few years and rebuild Rafaela. The slipstreaming should be nuts, but the corners are flat enough that you're going to have to back out of it, and actually drive the car through the turns.

I agree that the most sensible thing to do for Argentinian organisers to attract IndyCar would be to rebuild the Rafaela oval. The touring car series currently running there (with chicanes) would benefit from that, too.

And then, how long might it be until former US-F1 driver Jose-Maria Lopez makes it to IndyCars? He knows Rafaela well from that touring car series I guess.

[NaBUru38]

Pechito López had a terrible experience with USF1. I don't see him trying formula cars again. However, I'm sure he could get a wildcard, as long as a sponsor steps up.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by Yannick

I agree that the most sensible thing to do for Argentinian organisers to attract IndyCar would be to rebuild the Rafaela oval. The touring car series currently running there (with chicanes) would benefit from that, too.

And then, how long might it be until former US-F1 driver Jose-Maria Lopez makes it to IndyCars? He knows Rafaela well from that touring car series I guess.

People have been throwing out the Rafaela fantasy for almost a decade and it is just that, a fantasy with no basis in reality.

[Purist]

Sometimes things we think are fantasy do happen, while things we think are set in stone turn out to be fantasy.

It's still far healthier to have hope in what might be than to breath too deeply the funk of reality.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by Purist

Sometimes things we think are fantasy do happen, while things we think are set in stone turn out to be fantasy.

It's still far healthier to have hope in what might be than to breath too deeply the funk of reality.

Nice philosophy but none of it has anything to do with The Reality of Rafaela.

You would need to completely bulldoze the place and start over.

People talk about this stuff like it's a legitimate proposal with millions of dollars ready to go and it's totally nonexistent.

[Purist]

You probably had that same thought about people saying V8s should go back to Pukekohe for a New Zealand round not all that long ago. Now, it's under very serious consideration by people with such purse strings.

I think I did use the term "rebuild" referring to Rafaela, but it would still be a hell of a lot cheaper than a brand new, FIA Grade 2 road course being designed by Herr Tilke.