IndyCar is not ruling out a return of the series to Australia's Gold Coast as early as next season, but declined to comment further. North America's premier open-wheel racing series is currently in the process of investigating potential venues for its upcoming season. Those include a number of int'l venues such as a potential return to the streets of Surfers Paradise on Australia's Gold Coast. The Gold Coast Bulletin reported that a private consortium is negotiating with Tourism and Events Queensland to bring IndyCar back to the coastal city as part of a week-long motorsports festival, which would also include Australia's Supercars series. Supercars on Wednesday agreed to a new three-year deal with the Queensland Government to keep the Gold Coast 600 in Surfers Paradise until '19. IndyCar told SBD Global that it is not commenting on specifics as it pertains to the status of any prospective venue, but acknowledged it is in conversations with int'l parties interested in hosting an event. The U.S. racing series hosted an annual race at Surfers Paradise between '91-08. "IndyCar has an extended history at Surfers Paradise and many of its teams and drivers fondly recall the great events and large crowds in Australia," the series said in a statement. Over the course of 17 years, the IndyCar race attracted more than 4.8 million spectators to Surfers Paradise, with an average attendance of 252,000, the newspaper stated. The race also delivered an estimated economic return of A$761M ($566M). A spokesperson for the Australian consortium was quoted saying that an IndyCar race would need support from Supercars to stage the event. The spokesperson said, "All our concern at the moment is on securing the approval through government to hold the event with IndyCars as the major attraction -- 2017 is a possibility, 2018 is more than possible ... There are ongoing commercial negotiations with the government. We are talking to [Tourism and Events Queensland] and the U.S.-based IndyCars."
