Hold-up on 2012 IndyCar schedule
11/09/11 Here is what we think will be announced for the 2012 schedule. We have a gut feeling the China race is now dead so IndyCar is looking for a replacement race.
- March 25 – St. Petersburg, FL – street/airfield course
- April 1 – Birmingham, AL – road course
- April 15 – Long Beach, CA – street course
- April 29 – Sao Paulo, Brazil – street course
- May 27 – Indianapolis, IN – oval track
- June 3 – Detroit, MI – road course
- June 9 – Ft. Worth, TX – oval track (Sat night TWIN race 1)
- June 9 – Ft. Worth, TX – oval track (Sat night TWIN race 2)
- June 23 – Newton, IA – oval track (Sat night race)
- July 8 – Toronto, Canada – street course
- July 22 – Edmonton, Canada – street course
- August 5 – Lexington, OH – road course
- August 19 – Qingdao, China – street course
- August 26 – Sonoma, CA – road course
- September 2 – Baltimore, MD – street course
- September 15 – Fontana, CA – oval track (Sat Night Race)
- October 13-14 – Las Vegas, NV – oval track (could become night Street Race)
Others Possible Rent-A-Track deals
Phoenix – Oval track
Milwaukee – Oval track
Kentucky – Oval track
Porto Alegre, Brazil – street course (IndyCar wanted too much money)
Bold = Confirmed Date
11/09/11 Indy Star's Curt Cavin reports that IndyCar has reached out to Phoenix Raceway boss Bryan Sperber about the possibility of holding a race at that 1-mile oval, a certain recipe for disaster – another oval race where you will be able to shoot a cannon in the grandstands and not hit anyone. If true then IndyCar is getting desperate in their bid to artificially fill the 2012 schedule with oval races that have proven time and time again to be failures for IndyCars. One would think that lesson was hit home when IndyCar tried to give away 80,000 to 100,000 free tickets to the Las Vegas race and hardly anyone showed up. It was embarrassing to say the least, and that was before Dan Wheldon was tragically killed. Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Albert Einstein
Does that mean IndyCar should give up oval races? No. It means you cannot hold an IndyCar race in a market already oversold with NASCAR races and expect to come out looking like anything but a loser. If IndyCar wants to rent tracks, it should rent places like Road America where it is not oversold with NASCAR and you don't have huge grandstands full of fans dressed as empty seats.
11/08/11 A reader writes, Dear AR1.com, Randy Bernard said the 2012 IndyCar schedule would be announced on Friday in Las Vegas. The only thing announced that weekend with regard to the 2012 schedule was that it was in a state of flux. Then he said it would be announced within 2 weeks. That never happened either. Will there be a 2012 IndyCar season? Dan Berkowitz
Dear Dan, We suspect the schedule is still not done and hence the holdup. Speculation is that there are issues with Texas (Gossage wants to pay less now that Texas is not the race right after Indy), or China (maybe it won't happen and Randy has to find a replacement), or Road America (outside chance of a doubleheader with ALMS in August), or the 2nd Brazil race (it apparently could still happen), or Las Vegas (given the financial bloodbath – minuscule crowd – on the oval, the street race must be considered. It's safer too.), or Baltimore (it could go away because the race lost money because of startup costs. Either race organizers pay the city and other vendors what they owe or you can kiss this race goodbye) or all of the above. Then, they have to coordinate the race dates with TV timeslots, and most of them are already taken for 2012. Mark C.