IndyCar: Schedule Needs More Road America

By all accounts, the Verizon IndyCar Series’ return to Road America was a smashing success. Ticket sales, while not officially announced, were rumored to be at or near the 100,000 mark. Camping passes were sold out and the race itself was spectacular. It all amounts to exactly what the series needs to incorporate into its schedule moving forward.

It’s no secret that IndyCar’s leadership is constantly tinkering with the schedule. Several events have come and gone from the season slate over the past few years. Hulman & Company CEO Mark Miles has even tried to make the series more appealing by shortening the schedule (opening up whole separate debate about when the series should be racing). The answer to firming up the schedule may lie in the type of events of which it is comprised.

In the recent history of the Verizon IndyCar Series, especially in the years directly after CART and the Indy Racing League unified to become IndyCar, one type of race has been the most unreliable: the temporary street race. Except for outliers like Long Beach, St. Petersburg, and Toronto, most temporary street events have failed.

Just this year, two such events failed to even make the calendar. The Boston Grand Prix dropped off the schedule after the promoters ran into a mountain of issues with city leaders and citizens who outright protested the event. It was replaced at the last-minute by the permanent and likely superior, road course at Watkins Glen International.

Also in 2016, there was a rumored non-points post-season race planned for China, but Miles has since said plans for that event will not go forward. China was also the site of another failed race. This one, planned for the streets of Qingdao, fell through in 2012 after the promoters decided to pull the plug.

But it hasn’t just been planned events that have fallen off the calendar. Events that were at one time successful have also disappeared. The street race in Baltimore ran from 2011 to 2013, but it had to be canceled after organizers ran out of money while facing a mounting controversy with the public. Meanwhile, Brazil has the distinction of landing in both categories having had existing races and planned races dropped from the schedule. IndyCar competed in Sao Paulo between 2010 and 2013 and the Brasilia Indy 300 would have kicked off the 2015 championship, but it was cancelled after the newly installed Brazilian government decided the event was too costly.

All of the aforementioned events faced similar problems. The temporary street circuits either rubbed governmental officials the wrong way, (usually for cost reasons), or the people living where the race courses would be built spoke out against the disruption. In Boston, for example, community members held protests and launched an online campaign against the race even before tickets were sold. Add to that a lack of date equity, meaning the same events happening at the same time year in and year out, and you have a serious problem for the IndyCar schedule.

Race fans want events that they can attend on a regular schedule and they can get to without it being a major issue for their daily lives. Give them a solid weekend event where they can camp, grill, and have fun and you’ll have success. Need proof? Look at Road America. It was a smashing success. It’s likely that the same will be true when the series returns to Watkins Glen.

The idea that IndyCar should be competing at permanent road courses with a record of solid events is even supported by the drivers. After the Kohler Grand Prix at Road America, veteran and fan-favorite Tony Kanaan told the NBC Sports Network, “We need more events like this. We need this, Mid-Ohio. We need places people can camp and bring their families and their kids. These are the races that we need”. And the race winner, Will Power, told Indycar.com, “I am just so stoked to be back here. We should have been back here a long time ago.”

The drivers want to race at beautiful permanent race courses. The fans want to attend events that they can make into a worthwhile weekend event without any disruptions. The schedule needs solid events with date equity. It all adds up to dropping temporary street courses, (aside from the long-standing events like Long Beach etc.), and replacing them with circuits made for racing.

Next: IndyCar: The Return of Will Power

What do you think? Which tracks would you like to see the Verizon IndyCar Series visit? Let us know in the comments.