Surfers race will go on with or without the IRL

The Indy Racing League still does not have a contract with officials in Surfers Paradise, Australia, for a race in 2009, but the Aussies have announced when their event will be held, with or without the IRL joining with the Aussie-based V-8 Supercar Series.

According to the Supercar Web site, the event will be Oct. 22-25, which means for the Indy cars to participate it would either have to be a championship decided on foreign soil or a non-points race like this year's event, which will be conducted on Oct. 26.

The IRL has announced that the final IndyCar points race of 2009 will be Oct. 10 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. League spokesman John Griffin said a possible return to Australia will be discussed when they arrive in Surfers Paradise later this month. Indy Star

[Editor's Note: Rumor is that Team Penske really does not want to fly all the way to Surfers for a non-points race and since Roger runs the IRL (Tony only thinks he does) this will probably be the final year for IndyCars in Surfers. Does Penske still own a huge amount of shares in ISC. The season finale points race is at an ISC track. It was held at Chicagoland this year but moves to Homestead next year – so Homestead gets both the IRL and NASCAR season finale in an effort to bolster this otherwise marginal ISC holding.]