2009 IndyCar Schedule – No Australia
The IRL will make its first visits next year to the streets of Long Beach, Calif., (April 19) and Toronto (July 12), which will be followed by Edmonton (July 26) for back-to-back stops on temporary circuits north of the border.
"St. Pete will be a great opener," Angstadt said. "It's a big-event feel, festive, well-attended and shows well on TV."
Angstadt said the series wanted a warm-weather oval such as Homestead as its finale. The 1.5-mile superspeedway also plays host to the November season finales of NASCAR's three national series.
"That gives Homestead an opportunity to market themselves as a venue of champions," Angstadt said.
The series won't return to Nashville Superspeedway, and the Surfers Paradise, Australia, event also is missing from next year's schedule, which was released today. Angstadt said there's a possibility Australia, which will hold a non-points IndyCar race on Oct. 26, could be added in '09.
"We're optimistic," he said. "We've given them a couple of time slots. It may take a little while."
The problem is that a September 27th tentative date for Australia means it will be a bit cooler than normal since Surfers will just be coming out of its winter season with September 27th being just 1 week into their spring. Motegi and Surfers could have been pushed a bit later but the FIA blocked the IRL from racing in Japan within 3 weeks of the F1 Japanese GP.
Date Track
- April 5 — St. Petersburg, Florida (street)
- April 19 — Long Beach, Calif. (street)
- April 26 — Kansas Speedway (oval)
- May 24 — Indianapolis 500 (oval)
- May 31 — The Milwaukee Mile (oval)
- June 6 — Texas Motor Speedway (oval)
- June 21 — Iowa Speedway (oval)
- June 27 — Richmond International Raceway (oval)
- July 5 — Watkins Glen International (road)
- July 12 — Toronto, Ontario, Canada (street)
- July 26 — Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (street)
- August 1 — Kentucky Speedway (oval)
- August 9 — Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (road)
- August 23 — Infineon Raceway (road)
- August 29 — Chicagoland Speedway (oval)
- September 6 — Belle Isle Park, Detroit (street)
- September 19 — Twin Ring Motegi, Japan (oval)
Sep. 27 Surfers Paradise (Street – Might be added) - October 11 — Homestead-Miami Speedway (oval)
*Saturday night
Angstadt said "IndyCar isn't ready for Las Vegas' 142,000-seat grandstands. For us to put 50-60,000 fans in a place like that, it's almost not good for either side," Angstadt said. "We want to keep an open dialogue. We've also had very positive conversations with Cleveland and Houston, which are both very viable locations. We're not assuming these venues will stay interested forever. We know there's a great window of opportunity, and there's a lot of urgency."
Angstadt said IndyCar is aiming for a 20-race schedule, possibly by 2011.