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IndyCar looking abroad for 2016 race sites

Undeterred by this year’s canceled race in Brazil, the Verizon IndyCar Series is moving ahead with its international push and could hold races in either the United Arab Emirates, South Africa or Colombia next season, according to Mark Miles, CEO of Hulman & Co., the series’ owner.

Miles said IndyCar is in negotiations to have one and possibly two warm-weather, foreign races that would start the season in either February or early March. That would help IndyCar’s stated goal of starting its season earlier and ending on Labor Day weekend.

IndyCar’s last race outside North America was in Brazil in 2013.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
This year’s season opener, scheduled for March 8 in Brasilia, Brazil, was canceled in late January by local officials due to logistical problems. Instead, IndyCar’s season opened March 29 in St. Petersburg, Fla. The 16-race season is scheduled to end Aug. 30 in Sonoma, Calif., the week before Labor Day weekend.

Miles declined to assess a favorite out of the three foreign options for next season. But Zak Brown, CEO of CSM Sport & Entertainment, whose company has deep roots in IndyCar, said that he sees the UAE and South Africa as the best markets commercially.

“With the UAE, there’s a good market, they like their racing, economically very strong, people like to go there; the same I think could be said of South Africa with the racing heritage, etc.,” Brown said. “So if they can land South Africa and a race in the Middle East, that’d be great.”

IndyCar would need to have those dates locked in by June to make it feasible for the 2016 season, according to Miles, who added that it remains possible that none will fall into place for next year. The series also held talks about another effort in Brazil, Miles said, but the chances of that happening next year are slim.

“Any of those international races would be in markets that have some history and established fan base for open-wheel or IndyCar racing,” he said. “And any of them would be an opportunity to tap into another market. Even though we’re not looking at racing in Europe … motorsports fans and companies that invest in motorsports and media companies internationally, all those folks would begin to pay more attention to IndyCar.”

Among the sport’s various stakeholders, including team owners and sponsors, Miles believes he has adequate support for the international effort. IndyCar, or its Indy Racing League predecessor, has raced internationally numerous times in its history, including stops in Australia, Brazil and Japan, but the last two seasons have seen no events outside of North America.

“I think there will be at least adequate support if not enthusiasm for it if we can find any number of high-quality races and if we are prepared — and we would be — to pass along some of the sanction fees to the teams,” Miles said. “If anything, there are more questions about whether that market is there yet than there are about whether it makes strategic sense.”

Some of the sport’s most powerful executives, including Roger Penske, have made clear that they don’t want too many international races, which Miles said he understands.

“Roger has made it clear that maybe one, maybe two” would be the most he would want, Miles said.

Meanwhile, IndyCar is in talks domestically to add events to the latter part of the season, including a race in Boston. Miles said those talks are going well.

“There’s the potential there to have a terrific event that’s a real foothold for IndyCar in the Northeast,” he said. “Great city, their ideas about where to run the race are pretty compelling, and it’s looking like there’s a great deal of political and civic and business support for it. We hope we can get it all pulled together shortly and add it to the schedule for next year.”

The series also is in talks with Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Salinas, Calif., and Road America in Plymouth, Wis., as well as additional markets in Canada. However, Miles said that while the sites are “interested and they’re attractive,” the series doesn’t “yet have clarity on where we could swap them in to the schedule.”

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