IROC: Taking a break or packing it in?

The press release that arrived Wednesday morning from Texas Motor Speedway didn't come as much of a surprise. It started off with this announcement:

Due to a lack of title sponsorship, the International Race Of Champions (IROC) has canceled its event scheduled for Friday, April 13, at Texas Motor Speedway.

In January, IROC officials had announced that there would be a delay to the start of the 2007 season and that the opener at Daytona would be skipped due to a lack of sponsorship, so this press release was pretty much expected. In fact, I'm surprised it didn't come sooner.

And although they aren't prepared to publicly admit to it, the principals behind the series, brothers Jay and George Signore, privately say they already are looking toward 2008.

Some in the racing business have already written the series off, saying it will never come back.

Not so fast.

This isn't the first time the series has gone on hiatus.

Back in 1981-83, the series took a break to reorganize itself. And when it reemerged in 1984, the "new-look" IROC focused more on racing ovals than road courses, where it had primarily staged events in its first seven years of existence.

When the reborn IROC came back, it had a new title sponsor in Budweiser, along with hefty manufacturer support coming from General Motors in the form of supplying Camaro Z-28s and extra parts. More at Yahoo Sports.