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IRL Notes: ‘09 schedule shuffle continues to unfold

IRL aiming for 50-50 oval/road blend; Laguna Seca enters the fray

The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Joe Reedy reports that Kentucky Speedway should expect to be a regular stop on the IndyCar Series schedule despite the influx of new tracks into future schedules.

I figured that would be the case anyway, considering that the speedway’s move to make the Meijer Indy 300 a Saturday night race last season netted them a crowd of almost 60,000 fans. Unification can only help continue this upward trend for Speedway Motorsports Inc.’s newest facility.

But Reedy’s also snuck a few interesting tidbits into his piece, including the fact that in addition to Mexico City and Cleveland, the IRL has also talked with officials from Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in California — another former CART/Champ Car outpost.  He also reports that three finalists have been selected for an IndyCar Series title sponsor.

Laguna Seca is not one of my favorite tracks, but it would give the IRL another needed West Coast facility. It’d certainly help the league try to quell the notion that it’s always going to be a Midwest-based series that may translate regionally but not nationally.

With that said, they can’t try to abandon it completely. We saw what happened when NASCAR attempted to rid itself of its Southern heritage; while they got the money in bigger markets, they alienated a sizable chunk of their fan base.  It took a “back-to-basics” edict from Brian France (and Dale Jr. going into a car that can actually contend for wins) to stop the then-looming uprising.

As for the title sponsor news, it’s promising. However, the key word is activation. Whoever steps into this role has got to promote and market the hell out of the series. The squeaky wheel gets the grease; NASCAR’s learned that philosophy. Terry Angstadt, the man in charge of the IRL’s commercial division, has got to know which company can learn it as well.

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Thieves smash up, loot IRL fan exhibits

Six driver helmets and several laptops were taken from the Indy Fan Zone trailer during a break-in Monday at Sinden Racing Service in Indianapolis.

The exhibit also sustained extensive physical damage as well, forcing SRS and the IRL to put the Fan Zone under wraps for a while. Both companies are hoping to see it return at Watkins Glen in July according to IndyCar.com.

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IRL drivers hope to raise spirits in Iowa

In addition to the IRL’s donation of $60,000 to flood relief in Iowa, drivers have also been sent across the state to talk with and sign autographs for volunteer workers and victims that have been put up in shelters.

While there’s plenty of people that may question the IRL and Iowa Speedway’s decision to go ahead with this weekend’s Iowa Corn Indy 250, there’s also plenty that wouldn’t mind a distraction from their woes. IndyCar drivers, like Vitor Meira, are hoping to provide a good one. Meira told Craig Murphy of the Newton (Iowa) Daily News:

“For some people there won’t be reason to celebrate. We want to do our best to take their minds off what is happening there right now.”

According to the News, Bruno Junqueira went to Des Moines, A.J. Foyt IV and Ed Carpenter went to the Quad Cities, and Ryan Hunter-Reay went to hard-hit Cedar Rapids.

Remember, you can donate money for Iowa flood relief to the track’s Race2Recovery fundraising campaign. In case you can’t make it to Iowa for the race, you can also donate online at Race2Recovery.com starting Saturday.

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All quotes used in this article were attributed to their proper writers/organizations. 

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 2:13 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.