McNulty predicts IndyCar’s demise in Canada

With only a week before the big rigs carrying the IZOD IndyCar series teams arrive for the first of back-to-back stops in Toronto and Edmonton, one has to legitimately question the future of big-time, open-wheel racing in this country (Canada) outside of the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.

If you listen to the naysayers — and this column has had some real concerns about IndyCar’s viability — what we could be seeing over the next three weeks is an inglorious end to the single seaters north of the 49th parallel.

On the other side of the coin, Toronto will get a second chance to re-invent the wildly successful Honda Indy Toronto next week and will do so with the added impetus of having lured the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series to headline the Saturday show. That alone should do wonders to bring back the big crowds that once jammed the Exhibition Place temporary street course.

Out in Edmonton there has never been a question about fan support — it has always been there — but of a constant drain of millions of dollars out of city coffers to prop the race up.

But if you pay attention to the new IndyCar boss — former Pro Bull Riding CEO Randy Bernard — the future in Toronto and Edmonton is not only solid, but just a start of a renewed effort to add a couple for more races here.

Bernard is on he record as having said he’s met with promoters in Quebec City about a race there and has had less formal talks about a race in Calgary.

And rumors that the folks that promote the Canadian GP and the NASCAR Nationwide NAPA 200 in Montreal are negotiating with Edmonton race promoters to take over running that show in 2011 bode well for that kind of optimism. Dean McNulty, Toronto Sun