2010 IndyCar Schedule

[JagtechOhio]

Thanks Jacques,

Who doesn't love dicing like that? Great clip.

Footnote: Rio was announced for demolition January 2008.

[gttouring]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Magnusson

For me, too many good tracks are missing (Loudon, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Road America, Portland, Cleveland, Laguna Seca)..

these are great FIXTURES of Indy Car since the days of board track racing a place has been in every one of these locales... what was wrong with Rio for a roval (why demolished?)- racing was always good, and really no Phoenix or Milwaukee- with the new chassis and rule tweaks the good tracks can provide excellent stuff-
if you can time the races with fairs or something better but as usual the IRL management and promoters are bozos.

[JagtechOhio]

I just found this, there is a little bit of firsthand insight presented about scheduling:

http://www.sportingnews.com/auto-rac...obref=obinsite

gt, as for Rio, what I read said that the site was to be used for construction of Olympic training facilities in preparation for a future Olympic bid. That means it's true, or not.

[JagtechOhio]

One more link, and then I'll stop for fear of being redundant to many of you. This is the interview which accompanied the 2010 schedule announcement. The only point I'd make about it as it pertains to the discussion here is that when specific sites have been ruled out, there doesn't seem much logic in continuing to suggest them.

Angstadt's public statements are certainly not full disclosure, but there must be significant reasons behind the League's decisions to eliminate certain venues and some things we're just going have to take on faith. From our vantage point, we can't hear the money talk.

http://www.indycar.com/news/?story_id=14778

[drdisque]

gttouring, you need a bit of a history lesson.

The only two of those places with any history pre-dating the mid 1980's are Milwaukee and Phoenix.

IndyCars haven't raced at Loudon in over 10 years.

Major open wheel racing hasn't been to Laguna Seca in 6 years.

IndyCars don't race in Phoenix because ISC won't give them a date to race there now that they have 2 NASCAR Cup dates.

You can't really do much when the track owner won't offer you a reasonable date and when the promoter won't pay you a reasonable sanction fee.

[JagtechOhio]

Not too rough Doc, I know I'm missing out on alot of recent history too. That's why I still don't get the courtship of Loudon, after a short marriage in the sticks and a bitter divorce. Must have been some rockin' honeymoon video I missed out on.

[Jay]

Originally Posted by Jacques Rabbit

Champ Car ran a race there in 2007, you can see some footage of it here: http://tinyurl.com/llxgg3. It isn't the best for overtaking, but it's a gorgeous circuit, in my opinion at least. It also gets the IRL in Québec, considering that Montréal isn't a possibility with Formula 1 looking likely to make a return in 2010. The only concern, of course, is attendance. Without a French-Canadian like Alex Tagliani or Andrew Ranger, it might be hard to sell seats, and I'm not really sure how the CCWS race did there in 2007 considering there are probably more trees than seats to be had.

I photographed that event, and if I recall, there were around 45k for the weekend - I think it was around 30k for race day...which is about twice as many as Toronto had this year. Only about half of the circuit is open for public viewing, and there were only a few grandstands, but the place was completely packed to the point where it was difficult to move around because of the crowd. They had 4-6 deep rows of people along the general admission areas (and there was a lot of great GA viewing areas). The Champ Car race was one of the most exciting of the year - as there was on/off rain throughout the race. Tremblant doesn't allow for much passing, but sudden showers are frequent which makes things interesting. Here are some of my photos from the 2007 event (link) - it's a beautiful circuit.

All that said, the year after, they had an Atlantic race by itself there, without an promotion at all and hardly anyone showed up at all - the place was ghost town. The Indycars, being larger and around the same speed as the Atlantic cars might look painfully slow on what should be a fast, sweeping circuit.

[johntt]

Originally Posted by Jonerz

@Andy (Jagtech) : New Hampshire is a perfect track for IndyCars. I find that watching the IndyCars go side-by-side on a 1.5 mile oval is simply frightening. Yes, it is fantastic to watch side-by-side racing but that is for boys with fenders. It is suicide for open-wheelers to go side-by-side. Tracks where the IndyCars can run-up a tremendous amount of speed on the straights and have to brake into the corners, therefore providing passing opportunities are the best.

Exactly, I watched the first half of the Nascar Nationwide from Iowa last weekend and the "highlights" from Kentucky.
"
Iowa was great racing, Kentucky was a snoozer (and that was the highlights)

[D.R.T.]

Originally Posted by gomick

3-Adelaide. Surfers’ doesn’t fit the schedule. Adelaide does & is an even better track with a huge attendance of nearly 400,000 for the V8 weekend there.

Hlave that figure and amend to over 4 days and you have a closer picture of reality

[drdisque]

This weekend proves that the criticism that IndyCars are about the same speed as Atlantics cars is a complete fallacy.

Briscoe's IndyCar pole speed at Mid-Ohio is over 6 seconds faster than Summerton's Atlantics pole speed.

[gomick]

Atlantics & Indy Lights are about 1 to 1.5 seconds different in times, with suprisingly to me Atlantics being quicker...

[JagtechOhio]

Jay, thanks for the firsthand report on Mont Treblant. After reading that it was 90 miles from Monteal, I was wondering what sort of attendace the Champ Car races drew.

jonerz and johntt, I'm flomoxed by both of your points, my apologies for not understanding them...

This years' IndyCar event at Kentucky was fantastic, and alot more of it than just the finish was side by side. Briscoe ran just off of Dixon's shoulder lap after lap in the early going, just as he did with Carpenter at the end. If you saw the race, you couldn't call it boring: and I don't see how you could label it as "frightening", with the skill and judgement that everyone in the field showcased in that race. One bingle in a crowded pit lane was the extent of the fear factor. The rest was thrilling, it was of great interest to me to watch Briscoe handle the high line so well and seem as though he could lead when he wanted to. In the early dice with Dixon I thought he was holding back, but it sure didn't seem like that at the finish.

If they can run an event like that at New Hampshire, and make it a well-attended money maker, I'm all for it. Apparently the IRL is all against it, and apparently they have their reasons.

What sort of stock car/ pickup truck races they have there don't interest me in the least. That's different taste, not elitism. There will be plenty of fender benders in the future at New Hampshire, so you have lots to cheer about.

[Jay]

Originally Posted by gomick

Atlantics & Indy Lights are about 1 to 1.5 seconds different in times, with suprisingly to me Atlantics being quicker...

That Atlantic was quicker than Indy Lights shouldn't surprise anyone who has followed both series. If the Atlantic series had the teams and support that Indy Lights had, the Atlantic cars would be a second or two faster I would guess. The Atlantic series has always been a better development series than the Indy Pro Series (now called Indy Lights, which has nothing in common with the former CART Indy Lights series, which was actually a good series), and I believe the list of Atlantic graduates versus IPS/"Indy Lights" bares that out - even if you only consider the time when the two series co-existed.

JagtechOhio, Tremblant could have a decent crowd of up to 30,000 on race day, but it would all depend on promotion. If it was promoted the same way as Toronto, there'd be more staff than fans at the event.

[JagtechOhio]

This business of "Loudon" and "New Hampshire Speedway" has me a bit confused too...the later is located in Loudon, NH.

I worked at Loudon for a 1981 SCCA Atlantic race, I remember it as a small banked oval with an infield road course. I'm guessing that the new track now stands in place of the old one?

Thanks Jay, your point about promotion is it pertains to Toronto is a lesson that a whole lot of folks had best learn from. I'll have to say it was good to catch radio and TV spots in Columbus for the race an hour north of here this weekend. I'd suspect that was Mid Ohio management on the case, and I didn't here any KISS songs in the background.

[Matt]

Originally Posted by JagtechOhio

This business of "Loudon" and "New Hampshire Speedway" has me a bit confused too...the later is located in Loudon, NH.

I worked at Loudon for a 1981 SCCA Atlantic race, I remember it as a small banked oval with an infield road course. I'm guessing that the new track now stands in place of the old one?

Thanks Jay, your point about promotion is it pertains to Toronto is a lesson that a whole lot of folks had best learn from. I'll have to say it was good to catch radio and TV spots in Columbus for the race an hour north of here this weekend. I'd suspect that was Mid Ohio management on the case, and I didn't here any KISS songs in the background.

The current NHIS, is on the site of the old Bryar Motorsports Park.

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by JagtechOhio

Hi J,

There have been a few mentions for Road Atlanta, mine among them. Doesn't that compare favorably to Barber, with its' proximity to the metropolitan area? Opportunity for better competiton?

If the scedule is to be close to 50% ovals...which is a bit of overkill to me too, but might be considered as a necessary evil...at least a couple should be on the front end before Indy as in Jonerz' schedule. "Old school" was the ovals at Phoenix and Atlanta leading into the Month of May: racecar and driver development was focused in one direction (literally). Next year, Indy will have only one circle track race preceding it.

I'd rather keep Indycar away from Road Atl. I'm afraid they would push the viewing areas back from the track, restrict access to T6 & 7, add catch fences, etc. I'd rather them leave the track as is. I don't think you'll see much more passing at Rd. Atl. anyway. The package is just not conducive to passing.

Barber is less than 2 hours away from a major market and is a lovely course that deserves some attention. I think you'll see a very similar race to what you saw at Mid-Ohio today.

[DanicaFan]

There are have been some date changes to the 2010 schedule. The new races and dates are as follows. Kentucky was confirmed for Sept. 4th.

Twin Ring Motegi ( Japan) - Sept. 19h
Texas Motor Speedway - June 5th
Kentucky Speedway - Sept. 4th

[johntt]

Originally Posted by DanicaFan

There are have been some date changes to the 2010 schedule. The new races and dates are as follows. Kentucky was confirmed for Sept. 4th.

Twin Ring Motegi ( Japan) - Sept. 19h
Texas Motor Speedway - June 5th
Kentucky Speedway - Sept. 4th

The Texas date got changed because of the Nascar Truck Series wanyting to keep their date where it is.

Its a sad state of affairs when the support events are dictating the dates to Indycar...

[fieldodreams79]

i'm fairly asleep when it comes to IndyCars and just noticed the schedule/thread.

like some have stated, i'm not a huge fan of this schedule. as a matter of fact, i will go out on the limb and say it sucks because they are not going to the Milwaukee Mile or Road America. thought the cheese heads would have a little more pull.

o yeah...i'd start following this series again if they went back to Cleveland.

with that being said, i'll see you at Barber come April.

[JagtechOhio]

Cleveland, Road America for road courses. And I think Milwaukee and Phoenix are both preferred to the 1.5 mile, flat out all the way 'round circuits.

Some blogger says Phoenix doesn't want an IRL show.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by JagtechOhio

Some blogger says Phoenix doesn't want an IRL show.

They can't make a business case for it when the irl demands a seven figure fee and they only sell 8000 tickets like last time. They make more money running the regional Nascar camping world west series.

[JagtechOhio]

At least that nugget I can verify, I just now read the notes from Angstad's meeting with owners on Saturday. Phoenix is offering peanuts.

And unless today's decision gets reversed, Versus just lost a whole bunch of viewers for the last two races this year.

[drewdawg727]

Yah and now DirecTV has dropped versus..........oy

[Purist]

Is there anything out there as far as a preliminary track layout at Ribeirao Preto goes? I'm curious what Cotman has in mind wih a "series designed" street circuit down there.

[Yannick]

Having watched the DTM race yesterday has led me to believe that if the IndyCar Series ever comes to Europe, they should run at Dijon Prenois.
Those DTM cars are a sportscar / touring car hybrid and usually, they don't run in trains of 6 or 7 or more, all battling with each other for position. But they did so yesterday at Dijon, because the track allowed this tight kind of racing. They even went three wide several times in the middle of the pack - and that on a road course.

This race made me realize what's wrong with the track design style of the current era: there are too many sharp corners and too many hard braking zones.
I guess Dijon would be a track that oval specialists can also enjoy.