It's not IndyCar news, but...
A stormy eight-year relationship between Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Formula One ended today with the announcement the international racing series would not return in 2008.
IMS chairman Tony George and F-1 boss Bernie Ecclestone could not reach an agreement on a sanctioning fee to continue the U.S. Grand Prix. George had set today as a deadline for a new contract.
The Speedway's 2.6-mile road course won't go unused next year. MotoGP, the motorcycle equivalent of Formula One, is scheduled to visit in September 2008. (MORE from IndyStar)
DAMN!
How about running IRL at IMS twice? The second time we can replace Sonoma with Indy. Just sayin'.
too bad for the F 1 fans but I say
ba bye Bernie ! !
Buh-bye!
Yeah, I was there this year knowing it was likely the last. I'm pretty neutral in the whole Open Wheel War thing but was really impressed with the way IMS handled the event and from what my F1 sources tell me, Bernie was trying to extort huge amounts of money out of IMS to get the event back. The playing field for Indy isn't very level since the Feds or Indiana won't subsidize 30-40 million dollars worth of event fees like the governments in Spain or Singapore will. Oh well. Let F1 fall into new management hands in 2009 or beyond and we'll see how bad they need an American race after the "rent a race" system falls through.
So the Indy Pro race will be scheduled to coincide with MotoGP?
Sayonara, adios, arrivederci, and goodbye. Given the shape of open wheel in the United States, I stopped going to the USGP after 2005. After witnessing that Ferrari test session, I thought my money and vacation days would be better spent attending as many IndyCar races as possible to show my support for the series. This year it was either the USGP or Sonoma. Needless to say, I decided to get my F1 fix this year at Mario Andretti's winery in Sonoma, instead of spending the weekend with Bernie.
So would this mean no USGP at all next year or would they try to move it somewhere else?