2015 IndyCar schedule

[Yannick]

Regarding the AUS-GP: Hasn't the FIA always helped Bernie out whenever such a threat has happened? I'd rather expect things to go like they went down in Canada a few years back: one season without an F1 race and then a new contract at a slightly discounted rate. No IndyCar.

IndyCar's Australian hometown is Surfers Paradise anyway.

I agree with the criticism of the layout of NOLA Motorsports Park: there is just one obvious overtaking spot at the end of the main straight. It's good to see, though, that IndyCar is indeed taking its events to new places. Time will tell if this is a good venue. Too bad they had to retire too many venues that had recently proven to be quite good ones: Baltimore, the Sambadrome circuit in Sao Paulo, Kentucky Speedway.

A month or so back, there was talk of the new management of Gateway (the oval outside of St. Louis) being interested in bringing IndyCar back. However, there wasn't anything official yet.

And what's the status on the Elkhart Lake / Road America round of IndyCar? Is that still in the works?

I also feel should the F1 race in New Jersey happen, IndyCar should be one of the support races, like Saturday after F1 qualifying, because there is no track closer to New York City. The Verizon IndyCar Series should go there even if they are not the main headliners and might not even get their full sanctioning fee, just so they can pull in some F1 fans who are already there.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

A very intereresting development. Nothing on the IndyCar website yet.

It is in the local paper

http://www.nola.com/sports/index.ssf...incart_m-rpt-2

The track was built to be a club racing/karting venue and I will be interested to see what improvements they make to accommodate spectators and the series infrastructure.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by joeb

It is in the local paper

http://www.nola.com/sports/index.ssf...incart_m-rpt-2

The track was built to be a club racing/karting venue and I will be interested to see what improvements they make to accommodate spectators and the series infrastructure.

The IndyCar website now has an article on this prospective race.

http://www.indycar.com/News/2014/05/...s-race-at-NOLA

[Adam43]

Autosport are running it too. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/113792

Go Saints er...

[Beetle]

Originally Posted by joeb

It is in the local paper

http://www.nola.com/sports/index.ssf...incart_m-rpt-2

The track was built to be a club racing/karting venue and I will be interested to see what improvements they make to accommodate spectators and the series infrastructure.

Immensely excited about this. Never been to New Orleans but this would be a perfect excuse for me to visit... not far from where I live. Assume you'd be in attendance if it pans out, joeb?

Nice circuit, a bit of a club course right now so they'll need to have it up to at least the level of Barber before going there. Any chance they'll try and finish the full, 4+ mile circuit before IndyCar comes or is that dead in the water?

Nevertheless, cool news.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by Beetle

Immensely excited about this. Never been to New Orleans but this would be a perfect excuse for me to visit... not far from where I live. Assume you'd be in attendance if it pans out, joeb?

Nice circuit, a bit of a club course right now so they'll need to have it up to at least the level of Barber before going there. Any chance they'll try and finish the full, 4+ mile circuit before IndyCar comes or is that dead in the water?

Nevertheless, cool news.

I'll try and go but it honestly will depend on the date.

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by Yannick

Too bad they had to retire too many venues that had recently proven to be quite good ones: Baltimore, the Sambadrome circuit in Sao Paulo, Kentucky Speedway.

Yeah, and Richmond as well.

Originally Posted by Yannick

A month or so back, there was talk of the new management of Gateway (the oval outside of St. Louis) being interested in bringing IndyCar back. However, there wasn't anything official yet.

And what's the status on the Elkhart Lake / Road America round of IndyCar? Is that still in the works?

No news yet.

[joeb]

More info regarding the New Orleans date was in the paper this morning. It is a 3 year deal (2015-2017) and if things go well they are hoping to make it a permanent feature on the schedule. 3 possible dates have been selected for 2015, but that info is not being released at this time. They claim it will bring 80,000 fans and over $100 million to the area annually.

NOLA Motorsports Park is literally in a swamp. I haven't driven the track but it is flatter than flat. Some of the things that probably need to happen before the race are some general track improvements, for instance they need to make a pit lane. they will need to add facilities for the fans (concessions, bathrooms, bleachers, viewing areas). Also, at the moment fans will probably not be able to drive to the track. There is enough parking for the team transporters - depending on what the support series are but not much else. This means there will have to be off site parking and a shuttle, but again, since this is in a swamp, the offsite parking is going to have to be pretty far away. In other words, not very convenient for the fans. Not trying to be a downer, but it is going to take a lot of wok to get this thing going by 2015.

[NaBUru38]

http://indynola.com/

So they are "exploring" a deal. Right.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

http://indynola.com/

So they are "exploring" a deal. Right.

Yep. Let's just say I'm not pre-ordering my tickets! The governor is asking the legislature to find $4.5 million to help with the upgrades. Which is funny because the tracks owner is not exactly hurting for money, and could probably find that kind of money in the couch cushions!

[joeb]

Well you don't have to take my semi informed word for it, the track designer has a piece on Racer
http://racer.com/indycar/item/103331...l=&limitstart=

[NaBUru38]

Oh, no! New Orleans is flat!

Like Sebring, Silverstone, Hockenheim, Thruxton...

Yes, I prefer hilly circuits, but whatever, I'm sure the race will be as exciting as any other.

[Yannick]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

http://indynola.com/

So they are "exploring" a deal. Right.

LOL. Thanks for the scoop!

And while we're at discussing road courses in untapped markets for IndyCar, let's look at a place with history in American Open Wheel Racing where they used to go in the late 60s and which is indeed located in an untapped market: Brainerd, Minnesota

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-PmaFiLc2c

The runoff areas don't look too shabby, do they? (It's just that they would have to introduce a chicane before the bridge).

[Hendrix]

As much as I would love for IndyCar to go there, it will never happen. For starters it's about 2 hours from anything resembling a big city so it may be tough getting people to show up. It would also need quite a bit of work as there is no pit road and some of the run off has no fence so a car could go right into the trees.

[NaBUru38]

The New Orleans metro area has over a million people. It's not Chicago, but it's hardly nowhere.

[Hendrix]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

The New Orleans metro area has over a million people. It's not Chicago, but it's hardly nowhere.

I was talking about Brainerd(presuming this post was directed at me, if not, disregard).

[NaBUru38]

Oh, I got confused, sorry.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by joeb

NOLA Motorsports Park is literally in a swamp. I haven't driven the track but it is flatter than flat. Some of the things that probably need to happen before the race are some general track improvements, for instance they need to make a pit lane. they will need to add facilities for the fans (concessions, bathrooms, bleachers, viewing areas). Also, at the moment fans will probably not be able to drive to the track. There is enough parking for the team transporters - depending on what the support series are but not much else. This means there will have to be off site parking and a shuttle, but again, since this is in a swamp, the offsite parking is going to have to be pretty far away. In other words, not very convenient for the fans. Not trying to be a downer, but it is going to take a lot of wok to get this thing going by 2015.

I've spent enough time on it and it's a "nice" club track. Typical Alan Wilson track and if anyone has driven his tracks you'll know exactly what I am talking about in terms of the "feel" of the place. Wide, lots of constant radius turning with medium speeds, no elevation change.

For a club circuit they spent a lot of money, over $70 mil and it has nice enough facilities for club folks. For racing series trying to draw a crowd, not so much. Plenty of room for parking but they'll need more than what they have if people actually turn up.

The big problem with this place is that it's out in the middle of nowhere. If you did not know where to drive to, you'd never find it. It is a swamp and when it rains, which it will, there is nowhere for the water to go. It's also hot as hades there, so unless it's run sometime from October to March, have fun cooking in your own sweat.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by mountainstar

I've spent enough time on it and it's a "nice" club track. Typical Alan Wilson track and if anyone has driven his tracks you'll know exactly what I am talking about in terms of the "feel" of the place. Wide, lots of constant radius turning with medium speeds, no elevation change.

For a club circuit they spent a lot of money, over $70 mil and it has nice enough facilities for club folks. For racing series trying to draw a crowd, not so much. Plenty of room for parking but they'll need more than what they have if people actually turn up.

The big problem with this place is that it's out in the middle of nowhere. If you did not know where to drive to, you'd never find it. It is a swamp and when it rains, which it will, there is nowhere for the water to go. It's also hot as hades there, so unless it's run sometime from October to March, have fun cooking in your own sweat.

Portland would be a delightful alternative.

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

The New Orleans metro area has over a million people. It's not Chicago, but it's hardly nowhere.

The folks down in New Orleans are about as lackadaisical as you will ever meet, so getting them motivated to go to a racetrack in a swamp, good luck.

This is no different than any of the other situations the irl finds itself in. The PR folks will declare the usual pap about expanding markets and new races. The track will declare their excitement and sky high projections of attendance numbers and corporate sponsors. The local and state governments will get shaken down for millions of dollars to fund "track improvements" and the race itself. Joe Bobs construction company and Jimmy Bob's contracting company will get the contract for track improvements. The first year the race will attract a modicum of interest yet lose millions of dollars. More government shakedown will occur but by the 3rd year the race will be canceled.

The indy racing league gets their meager sanctioning fee and gets to present the illusion it is moving forward into the future. The track gets a bunch of infrastructure improvements for free. All the right people get their pockets lined. The racing league is then onto the next big thing and the process repeats.

[rwintle]

I am still wondering what will happen in Toronto in 2015, given that the Pan Am Games are going to be on the same site at the same time. Haven't heard anything from any of the people I know here who would likely know. AFAIK the current contract is up at the end of 2014.

[icemachine]

I'm guessing there are talks going on to move it to a post-Caribana date. They can't afford to take another year off, it almost killed the race last time

[joeb]

Back to the New Orleans talk, I saw a headline today in the news that says the latest state budget has $4.5 million in it for track improvements and similar costs to get the race to happen next year. The article points out that they got this money by reducing funding to handicap services... Ouch.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by joeb

Back to the New Orleans talk, I saw a headline today in the news that says the latest state budget has $4.5 million in it for track improvements and similar costs to get the race to happen next year. The article points out that they got this money by reducing funding to handicap services... Ouch.

Is there a link to the article?

[joeb]

It was in autoweek.

http://www.autoweek.com/article/2014...n=awdailydrive