Sandy Beaches and Tight Turns…
It was a long trip for IndyCar Series teams for a non-points race in beautiful Surfer’s Paradise Australia. The teams and drivers did not hold back at all on the 2.795 mile street circuit. Ryan Briscoe pulled off a first place victory followed by Scott Dixon and Ryan Hunter-Reay rounding up the top 3. The question is, will the IRL return to Surfers Paradise next season. The racing proves to be fast and the teams love being there. The only negative side to this would be the cost. The IRL already travels overseas to race at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan. Having two overseas races might sway teams from trying to start an IndyCar program. If these smaller teams were to not attend these races they would lose out in the IRL’s TEAMS program. Many have even called the race at Twin Ring Motegi, Honda’s corporate picnic. If the IRL does decide to keep an overseas venue, then perhaps they should go with Surfers Paradise and scrap Japan. Let’s not forget Motegi almost did not happen this year due to rain. The fact that it is an oval only allows for racing in dry conditions. Australia, which is a street circuit, can be run rain or shine.
November 6th, 2008 at 12:06
The financial perspective can be viewed as a hot topic especially with the IRL being very small. Isn’t the plan to cut Homestead this year or in sometime in the near future to make room for international scene?
The way I see is that if there is an apparent growth for the intrernational scene they need to have a steady base here in the U.S after the merge. I think there almost there as far as that goes but another year of two would be good to have under their belt. However, the races held in Australia and Japan lose ratings here in the U.S especially since the IRL has parted with ESPN. This might have cost Danica Patrick the ESPY award for best female athlete of the year simply because her win was not on U.S soil and not watched live by Americans either at the site or on TV.
Even if the IRL feels the need to race elsewhere due to the brands of the cars they drive as well the nationality of their drivers they have to be aware of the loss of ratings of the fans that are not Die Hard here in U.S where the majority of thier races are held.
If they can somehow balance that out more power to them but if they can’t it could turn into a mess. A mess that I don’t think they can afford to have. When it comes to this situation slow and steady wins the race.
November 11th, 2008 at 03:31
I think IRL needs to stay in North America. Mexico and Canada can be our international scene, with 1 maybe 2 races outside. No more than 2. Motegi is an ugly and boring track, they need to take it off the schedule in my opinion. If Honda didn’t own it, I would think they would be out.
Reacing overseas does do weird things sponsorwise. Example: If the ICS doesn’t return to Australia, then KV racing will cease it’s operations mst likely. On the other end of the spectrum, international racing is one of the reasons Chip Ganassi made the jump from CART to the IRL, was because Target wasn’t happy to be sponsoring their car in markets they dont exist in such as Australia and Japan. And do global companys want to sponsor in the Indy Car series when TV exposure of the series is limited?