Location of next year’s season finale still to be announced
While the IZOD IndyCar Series will continue to sport nine road/street races and eight oval races next season, there’s going to be plenty of changes on the horizon.
Three new events are on the 2011 docket at the Milwaukee Mile, the New Hampshire Motor Speedway and the streets of Baltimore, Maryland, while International Speedway Corporation facilities may be shut out entirely depending on which track gets the season finale (SMI’s Las Vegas Motor Speedway and ISC’s Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California are the top candidates). The popular Texas Motor Speedway event has been split into two, 275-kilometer “twin” races and multiple events will have a date change as well.
Let’s take a look through what we’re going to get.
The season will start with four road/street races in a row before the Indianapolis 500, which will once again serve as the first oval of the IndyCar calendar. The street event at Sao Paulo, Brazil (May 1) will replace Kansas Speedway as the lead-in to the “500,” but before then, the series opens up at St. Petersburg, Florida (March 27) and from there goes to Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama (Apr. 10) and the streets of Long Beach, California (April 17).
After Brazil and Indy comes Texas (June 11), which will play host to the aforementioned “twins.” Milwaukee will make its grand return to open-wheel racing the next week (June 19) under the auspices of AB Promotions. Another short oval follows the next week as IndyCar goes under the lights for the first time at Iowa Speedway (June 25).
July brings the annual Canadian swing into the streets of Toronto (July 10) and the airport course of Edmonton (July 24). The series then hits Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (Aug. 7) and then makes its return to the one-mile New Hampshire oval (Aug. 14) after a 13-year absence. Two weeks later, IndyCar is back in California at Infineon Raceway (Aug. 28) in Sonoma.
The inaugural Baltimore Grand Prix (Sept. 4) will bring in the fall by the Inner Harbor and presumably close the road racing portion of the schedule. The series then preps for its annual trip to Japan (Twin Ring Motegi, Sept. 18). Kentucky Speedway comes next, as it will move its IndyCar event from the Labor Day weekend to Oct. 2 — setting up the season finale, still “TBA” as of now.
Did you get all that? There’s a media teleconference coming up later today that will discuss the new schedule. I’ll see if I can sit in on it and get some more details — especially on where IndyCar’s leaning right now on the “Vegas vs. Fontana” thing.
