All told, it was always going to be difficult to put a positive spin on IndyCar's 2009 schedule release. The statement uttered at the unification press conference was that '09 would be a "clean slate", and in hindsight, that was not the greatest choice of words. And of course there were those Champ Car fans who, bless their heart, wouldn't support the IRL for anything unless some of their venues were added and their cars adopted.
Contracts more than anything stipulated who made it and who didn't for 2009. For 2010 and beyond, when several contracts expire, the slate should be more open.
The difficulty in that lies with temporary circuits, a la Cleveland and Houston, that have been abandoned for two years. Resuscitation of events such as these take years to ever restart, if at all, as Houston would know previously. One downtown, 90-degree corner boring circuit was on CART's schedule from 1998-01 and after it went away, it took until 2006 and the new Reliant Park circuit before racing there resumed. Miami 's variety of layouts were on and off on a couple occasions.
So in terms of those, don't hold your breath for 2010. Cleveland was a CART staple for 20 years but it is likely not going to make the cut in the future. Developers want to create high-rise apartments on the Burke Lakefront Airport location, and reportedly the last few years as a Champ Car event it was a financial burden.
Previously here, I suggested that future IndyCar schedules needed to maintain the most long-term financially viable events, and for 2009, it appears they have done so for the most part. Playing to 30 or 40,000 in a 140,000 seat arena such as Las Vegas Motor Speedway would have been an abomination, and I can only hope the marketing "geniuses" at IRL, Terry Angstadt and Zak Brown of Just Marketing, can drum up enough interest in the finale moving to Homestead.
That one more than any other threw me for a loop. The party line was that "Southern Florida is best known for hosting championship events". Okay, but running in Miami during October is asinine for a number of reasons. Mainly, there are other sporting events (Hurricanes football, Dolphins if they can still be considered a legit NFL franchise) going on, it's hurricane season, and it's only a month ahead of the NASCAR finale.
If they don't come to IndyCar to get the season going, what incentive is there for fans in the region to go to the event when NASCAR wraps up right after? Especially with a lack of promotion more than likely.
Another murky area is the Australia race. Its on-again, off-again stance for 2008 has been annoying at best, and while it does rake in a considerable number of fans over the weekend, whether it is in the best financial interest of the teams remained to be seen. Already this year one Aussie backer went belly-up (Conquest's Opes Prime) and in all likelihood, Aussie Vineyards wouldn't be around without this race for Will Power. Does the travel expense justify the return on investment? Just food for thought.
Permanent circuits are the only hope in terms of being added for 2010. It's already a year off but I would like to see races at New Hampshire (oval), Portland (northwest market), Cleveland and Road America added for 2010 with a couple events (Kentucky, Detroit, Homestead) dropped. I'd say I wanted Phoenix too, but I doubt ISC will budge in giving a date with two NASCAR races there.
For what it's worth, I will be spending the weekend with a plethora of great road racing up at Road America in Elkhart Lake, WI. Until next week, cheers.
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