Overheard at Mid-Ohio – 4 (2009 IndyCar Schedule)
07/29/08 The 2009 schedule to be announced tomorrow is now rumored to look like:
Apr 05 St. Petersburg 1.78 Mile Street
Apr 12 Long Beach 1.97 Mile Street
Apr 19 <–Sonoma could move here or be dropped–|
Apr 26 Kansas City 1.5 M Oval………………|
May 24 Indianapolis, IN 2.5 mile Oval………. |
May 31 West Allis, WI 1.032 Mile Oval……… |
Jun 6 Ft Worth, TX (Sat. Nite)……………. |
Jun 14 Newton, IA 0.875 Mile Oval………….. |
Jun 27 Richmond, VA (Sat. Night)…………… |
Jul 5 Watkins Glen 3.37 Mile RC…………… |
TBD Lexington, OH 2.258 Mile RC…………. |
TBD Toronto, CN 1.721 Mile Street……….. |
TBD Edmonton CN 1.96 Mi Airport…………. |
TBD Sparta, KY (Sat Nite) 1.5 Mile Oval……|
TBD Sonoma, CA RC ————————–
Sep 06 Detroit, MI 2.096 Mi. RC
Sep 13 Joliet, Ill. 1.5 Mile Oval
Sep 27 Motegi, Japan Sat 1.549 Oval
Oct 04 Queensland, Au 2.795 Mi Street
Oct 11 Homestead-Miami 1.5 Mile oval
07/19/08 Look for the ALMS to expand their schedule in 2009 by one race to 12…………IMSA's Tim Mayer has visited the NJ Motorsports Park several times, but we bet ALMS is probably holding out to see how Grand-Am does there this year on Labor Day weekend first…….We hear that IZOD has two people working full bore to design new IRL apparel for 2009. They plan significant activation around Ryan Hunter-Reay and the series…….Subway is in pole position to become the series title sponsor starting in 2009 with the series renamed to the Subway IndyCar World Series. Did you know that Subway is now the largest fast-food restaurant chain in the world with 29,000 stores, bigger than even McDonald's…….Now hearing that rather than move the Australia race to the spring, the Motegi race may move to September, two weeks after Chicago, but Bernie Ecclestone wants the race at least 3 weeks prior to his Fuji F1 race on October 11, 2009. That would mean that Motegi would have to be run on Saturday September 19th and would force the Chicago race onto Labor Day weekend. That in turn would push Detroit to the week before and require Sonoma to move to the spring, which quite honestly, is a better time of the year in California to hold the race. In order to avoid 6 races in a row again next year, another summer race will need to move to before Indy.
The 2009 schedule to be announced is 3 weeks is now rumored to look like:
- St. Petersburg 1.78 Mile Street
- Long Beach 1.97 Mile Street
- Kansas City 1.5 M Oval
<–Sonoma could move here———
<–Kentucky could move here—– | - Indianapolis, IN 2.5 mile Oval……| |
- West Allis, WI 1.032 Mile Oval…..| |
- Ft Worth, TX (Sat. Nite)…………| |
- Newton, IA 0.875 Mile Oval……….| |
- Richmond, VA (Sat. Night)………..| |
- Watkins Glen 3.37 Mile RC………..| |
- Lexington, OH 2.258 Mile RC………| |
- Toronto, CN 1.721 Mile Street…….| |
- Edmonton CN 1.96 Mi Airport………| |
- Sparta, KY (Sat Nite) 1.5 Mile Oval.| |
- Sonoma, CA RC ———————–
- Detroit, MI 2.096 Mi. RC
- Joliet, Ill. 1.5 Mile Oval
- Motegi, Japan Sat 1.549 Oval
- Queensland, Au 2.795 Mi Street
- Las Vegas 1.5 Mile oval
Mark C. reporting from Mid-Ohio.