IndyCar: 2015 And Beyond – Part 1

Graham Rahal races through turn seven at Road America during a test day to prepare for the 2016 event. [John Wiedemann Photo]

Schedules, an upcoming birthday, aero packages and double points were a few of the important subjects dealt with during the 2015 IndyCar season and will likely continue to crowd the headlines in 2016 as well.

In Part 1 of our look at IndyCar, we’ll see what the 2016 schedule could look like; especially with hoped-for new events.

Elkhart Lake, Boston and any more?

Sixteen races were listed on the 2015 Verizon IndyCar schedule. Brazil had been on the list for a while, but problems with completing the circuit on time, combined with a major change in government leadership cancelled the event and hope was that the race would be on the 2016 schedule.

But as of October 7th, the still-to-be-announced calendar shows 14 likely races as Fontana and the one-and-done New Orleans event have been lost, while Boston and Road America seem to be, for now, solid additions. Nothing has been mentioned recently regarding the aborted Brazil event, while Milwaukee and Pocono are iffy at best and new additions at Phoenix, Gateway and Mexico City remain in the speculation stage.

When all is said and done, 16 events should be listed, with Phoenix and Mexico most likely to make the final cut.

If that is the case there would be just four ovals (25%): the Indianapolis 500, Texas, Iowa and Phoenix. Twelve road/street venues (75%) would make up the remainder of the list: St. Pete, Long Beach, Barber, Grand Prix of Indianapolis, Belle Isle (2), Toronto, Mid-Ohio, Sonoma, Road America, Boston and Mexico.

Honda driver Graham Rahal told us at the recent Road America test day that fans of oval track racing, those who see ovals as the backbone of IndyCar, need to support those tracks if they want more of them on the schedule.

“Milwaukee is a classic case. Everybody always get mad at us when we leave, but if they really want ovals to live—then show up. It’s as simple as that,” chided the RLL Racing pilot who finished fourth in the 2015 run to the championship behind Scott Dixon, Juan Pablo Montoya and Will Power. “We have to go to events that are successful and this (Road America event) will be successful. The Grand Prix and the 500 at Indianapolis will be successful. St. Pete is successful and Long Beach. Boston will be successful. It’s not the quantity of events, but the quality. And you’ve got to go to the good ones and unfortunately the ovals in recent years, even when we’ve put on great races—they just don’t pull the crowds. That’s what you’re up against right now. I know people want us to go to the ovals, but the challenge to them is to make sure the grandstands are full if that’s really how they feel.”

And why will people come to a road course like Road America and not to a race at Milwaukee’s historic oval?

“This is more than just seeing cars drive around the track. It’s a family atmosphere; camping out over the weekend, wandering the circuit, cooking out with family and friends. That’s what Mid-Ohio has latched onto, and there’s no reason that it can’t be going on here, too. It’s an event and it should be cool to be back here.”

Unfortunately, there is no schedule growth with another year of 16 events, but also no shrinkage. The final calendar had been promised toward the end of September, but now, a week into October, there is just speculation.

We hold our breath.

Update: As of October 7, IndyCar CEO Mark Miles has announced that the proposed spring opener in Mexico City is unlikely to happen in 2016. Whether that means that the final schedule will contain 15 events, or perhaps Gateway will become a viable sub will likely be will answered when the final calendar is announced, perhaps next week.

Breathe.

Next week we’ll continue our look back at IndyCar 2015 and some of the other issues it faces going into 2016.

Paul Gohde

Paul Gohde heard the sound of race cars early in his life.

Growing up in suburban Milwaukee, just north of Wisconsin State Fair Park in the 1950’s, Paul had no idea what “that noise” was all about that he heard several times a year. Finally, through prodding by friends of his parents, he was taken to several Thursday night modified stock car races on the old quarter-mile dirt track that was in the infield of the one-mile oval -and he was hooked.

The first Milwaukee Mile event that he attended was the 1959 Rex Mays Classic won by Johnny Thomson in the pink Racing Associates lay-down Offy built by the legendary Lujie Lesovsky. After the 100-miler Gohde got the winner’s autograph in the pits, something he couldn’t do when he saw Hank Aaron hit a home run at County Stadium, and, again, he was hooked.

Paul began attending the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, and saw A. J. Foyt’s first Indy win. He began covering races in 1965 for Racing Wheels newspaper in Vancouver, WA as a reporter/photographer and his first credentialed race was Jim Clark’s historic Indy win.Paul has also done reporting, columns and photography for Midwest Racing News since the mid-sixties, with the 1967 Hoosier 100 being his first big race to report for them.

He is a retired middle-grade teacher, an avid collector of vintage racing memorabilia, and a tour guide at Miller Park. Paul loves to explore abandoned race tracks both here and in Europe, with the Brooklands track in Weybridge England being his favorite. Married to Paula, they have three adult children and two cats.

Paul loves the diversity of all types of racing, “a factor that got me hooked in the first place.”

racingnation.com

Related Posts

• 
  Sebring 2024
• 
  Giuseppe Victorious
• 
  Car or Driver