Michigan Speedway Not Hosting IRL In '08 Amid Scheduling Issues

IRL Not Returning To Michigan Int'l Speedway In '08

REV UP YOUR MOTOR SCOOTER: In Indianapolis, Steve Ballard reports Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) confirmed it will host the MotoGP Red Bull Indianapolis GP on September 14, 2008, the first motorcycle race at the track since 1909, the year it opened.  IMS has committed to a “multimillion dollar reconfiguration of the infield road course” for the race, and President & COO Joie Chitwood said the track would not have made such an investment "if we didn’t think this was going to be beneficial to [IMS] financially.” Ballard notes IMS joins Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in California as the two U.S. hosts for the MotoGP, which is holding 18 races at “major road circuits around the world” this year (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 7/17).

U.S. GRAND PRIX POST-MORTEMS: IMS CEO Tony George said the decision by F1 not to hold the U.S. Grand Prix (USGP) at IMS next year was “totally considered independently of any consideration there might be given to having a motorcycle race here” (SPEEDTV.com, 7/12). An INDIANAPOLIS STAR editorial stated the USGP was “by far the least popular of the three annual races at IMS" -- after the Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard -- and the event “cost [IMS] millions of dollars more every year in sanctioning fees and travel expenses than the [IRL] and NASCAR demand for their events.” For all his investment in F1, George “has been rewarded with mediocre attendance and several ludicrously screwed-up races” (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 7/16). However, in Indianapolis, John Ketzenberger wrote it is “easy to pin the blame” on F1 Management Chair Bernie Ecclestone, but George “needed to land a title sponsor and nab a national network television-rights deal” (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 7/15).

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