Indycar 2018 Schedule. Portlands back Watkins Glen out
 

For those interested
Indy Car 2018 Schedule
Portland is back and Watkins Glen is out.
http://i65.tinypic.com/htxsol.jpg

Re: Indycar 2018 Schedule. Portlands back Watkins Glen out
 

Always liked Portland. Wish they could have thrown Sonoma out, kept Watkins, Glen, and ran Portland as the finale, but hey.... I like Portland being back on the schedule.

Very sad and unfortunate; they don't book or can't get the dates at all the ovals that they did before.

Re: Indycar 2018 Schedule. Portlands back Watkins Glen out
 

Originally Posted by treecitytornado:
Very sad and unfortunate; they don't book or can't get the dates at all the ovals that they did before.

Agree. I wish they would dump 1 of the 2 races at Detroit & put Watkins Glen back on the schedule. He!! add Cleveland back at the Airport 5, 6, 7 wide into turn 1.

Re: Indycar 2018 Schedule. Portlands back Watkins Glen out
 

Look who owns the ovals. The NASCAR people show with Watkins Glen leaving that they have no interest in promoting Indy Cars. They are afraid to expose their fan base to a better product.

Originally Posted by treecitytornado:
Very sad and unfortunate; they don't book or can't get the dates at all the ovals that they did before.

Shame that the series isn't ALL ovals.

Re: Indycar 2018 Schedule. Portlands back Watkins Glen out
 

Originally Posted by Leohr46:
Shame that the series isn't ALL ovals.

It shouldn't be. The strength of this series has long been the diversity of running varying ovals along with street and road courses which even though they are both left and right take a different style of driving and technical skill to run.

Road/street racing is just as much of a part of the history of this series as the oval. While 1905, the first season, was all dirt oval, the second season of 1909 featured 9 road circuits, one point to point, and a dirt oval. Board tracks, dirt ovals, road, street, asphalt ovals, point to point, and hill climbs....all part of the history of this series.

It's honestly a fairly good mix right now with 6 ovals spread out among three at a mile and a quarter and less, one at a 1.5 miles, and two 2.5 milers with five street circuits and 6, maybe 7 if Mexico City is finalized, flowing natural terrain road courses.

There's not another top level professional endurance circuit racing series that tests the drivers and teams like this one. One week you are on a rough city surface mixed with concrete, asphalt, and little margin for error, the following week finds you on a smooth flowing road course, the next you're on a high speed bullring, with a couple of all out speed tests playing the bookends of the summer sessions.

But even more to the point as to why there aren't a couple of more ovals, it's fairly simple. People have to show up. Pretty pointless to go out and tear up millions of dollars worth of equipment, get injured, or killed in a high speed crash in front of all of 10 fans when you can go out and deal with less risk in both injury and crash damage at a place like Long Beach, Road America, Mid-Ohio, etc where people do show up. Not to mention how minor league it looks when your top American open wheel series is playing host to miles of aluminum.

Re: Indycar 2018 Schedule. Portlands back Watkins Glen out
 

Doesn't need to be all ovals, but it does need more - Fontana, Chicagoland..

Originally Posted by miledirt:
Doesn't need to be all ovals, but it does need more - Fontana, Chicagoland..

Agreed. Doesn't need to be all. But these you've mentioned, or Kentucky, Richmond. Miss Milwaukee the most 😢 And pikes peak. Wish they could find a spot for the glen. Cleveland airport race was always cool too. And laguna seca. Used to be some really interesting tracks.

Re: Indycar 2018 Schedule. Portlands back Watkins Glen out
 

Needs 2 one mile dirt tracks in the mix

Re: Indycar 2018 Schedule. Portlands back Watkins Glen out
 

Originally Posted by Leohr46:
Shame that the series isn't ALL ovals.

Originally Posted by mc/rider:
Needs 2 one mile dirt tracks in the mix

:deadhorse::deadhorse::deadhorse::29::29::29:

Re: Indycar 2018 Schedule. Portlands back Watkins Glen out
 

Sad to see such a great track and fan base as Watkins Glen lose a race from any sanctioning body.

Amen to having All Ovals again and definitely adding another 1 mile oval too!

Kentucky, Vegas, California, Richmond, Charlotte, Atlanta, a second Texas race, and the list goes on! Street racing normally sucks! Maybe Burke Lakefront Airport again!

Re: Indycar 2018 Schedule. Portlands back Watkins Glen out
 

Originally Posted by 410fuelinjected:
Sad to see such a great track and fan base as Watkins Glen lose a race from any sanctioning body.

According to Printup, the WGI pres, he wants to look at getting them back for 2019 or 2020. That Labor Day weekend isn't a good date for them. He wants something early summer or later in September. Right now the contract stipulates that Sonoma be the season finale. There is talks in moving one of the ovals to the season finale but I could also see Watkins Glen ending the season as well if they got a late September date.

This was a mutual agreement between both parties being that WGI was a late addition to a failed Boston race and the fact both want a better date for the race. Portland is an excellent addition being that it is an untapped region they want to get back into. Lot's of open wheel and sports car fans up there that used to be served by both a race there and in Vancouver, Canada.

Re: Indycar 2018 Schedule. Portlands back Watkins Glen out
 

Originally Posted by treecitytornado:
Kentucky, Vegas, California, Richmond, Charlotte, Atlanta, a second Texas race, and the list goes on! Street racing normally sucks! Maybe Burke Lakefront Airport again!

They suck if you don't know how to watch them and what to watch for. Different strategy and skill at play other than blinding speed. Went to Toronto and had a blast. Plan on going to Detroit. In fact, I find few who actually attend them to come back complaining about the suck factor. They are usually in awe of how these cars handle on rough streets and the speeds they hit on them. While I concede they aren't the greatest of TV viewing they are anything but in person.

Once again with the ovals, get people there and we'll have a few more of them.

There are three things that are critical to digging this series out of the hole dug by the Grandson and none of them include an all oval series full of short track heroes or even more than 50% oval. You don't even need drivers with names you can pronounce.

1. Stability in the schedule or the majority of the schedule running at places people will attend. Milwaukee is dead Jim and probably not coming back.

2. More team owners. Next season sees the addition of Harding. Juncos is almost complete on running a full time campaign. Carlin has purchased equipment and it is thought he will run Chilton and maybe a second car with possibly Kimball or another driver. McLaren is looking into running Indy again next year with the possibility of a full time campaign. Belardi is looking to run the 500 next year and that could be a potential full time owner down the road. DRR is looking to expand beyond the 500.

In 2017, 12 of the 21 fulltime entries were spread among three teams. That's not healthy for the series, especially if one of those teams goes under or cuts back, as Ganassi is doing next year.

3. A TV contract, not a deal ahead of it's time that Tony George got us locked into, but a TV contract on one network that's willing to promote the series and show more than 4 races a year on it's main network.

The current Tony George deal ahead of it's time was written that only ABC could show on network while Versus, now NBCSN, can only show on there. NBC can't show races.

The only network that I see worthy of this deal? NBC. Screw ABC/ESPN, I don't care how long they've had the 500, they've been a horrible partner.

Re: Indycar 2018 Schedule. Portlands back Watkins Glen out
 

I think the TV deal (at least the NBCSN part) was one of Bernard's ideas, not Tony's...

Re: Indycar 2018 Schedule. Portlands back Watkins Glen out
 

Originally Posted by jjones752:
I think the TV deal (at least the NBCSN part) was one of Bernard's ideas, not Tony's...

The Versus(NBCSN) contract was signed in 2008 and ends at the end of 2018. Randy didn't take over until 2010. Tony was ousted in 2009.

Re: Indycar 2018 Schedule. Portlands back Watkins Glen out
 

It has been more than fifty years since the series was all ovals. Remember when they ran at IRP and Riverside back in the sixties? I too hate to see Watkins Glen go. I attended the race at Gateway, and while it wasn't a real barnburner, it wasn't bad and it was a complete sellout. Management promises to be better staffed next year, so I will probably give it another shot. I also would like to see Cleveland and Laguna Seca back on the schedule, as well as Milwaukee. Unbelievable how the crowd dropped off at the Milwaukee Mile.

Re: Indycar 2018 Schedule. Portlands back Watkins Glen out
 

Originally Posted by Brickyard:
The Versus(NBCSN) contract was signed in 2008 and ends at the end of 2018. Randy didn't take over until 2010. Tony was ousted in 2009.

I'm guessing no one else was really interested...at least most people have NBCSports now & they co-promote / at least aren't on the same time as July/August/Sept NA$KAR races...

Ron,it was all ovals in the 90s and early 2000s with the Indy Racing League! I'm not talking about C.A.R.T.!

Portland would be ok if it was only in Portland Maine instead. Then,if you were there watching it and got bored you could walk down to the waterfront and get some fresh seafood,lobsters etc. For the outdoors person L.L. Bean is just up the road a bit,and if you are really bored you could always drop in to see what Stephen King is up to......

Re: Indycar 2018 Schedule. Portlands back Watkins Glen out
 

Originally Posted by treecitytornado:
Kentucky, Vegas, California, Richmond, Charlotte, Atlanta, a second Texas race, and the list goes on! Street racing normally sucks! Maybe Burke Lakefront Airport again!

Add the Du Quion,Indy, Springfield and maybe one in California:6:

Re: Indycar 2018 Schedule. Portlands back Watkins Glen out
 

My favorite races were at.... Michigan Int. Speedway .....wish they would go back there ....

Re: Indycar 2018 Schedule. Portlands back Watkins Glen out
 

Originally Posted by speed bump:
My favorite races were at.... Michigan Int. Speedway .....wish they would go back there ....

As much as people like to rail on Roger Penske, they'd be there if he still owned it. You can throw Auto Club and Nazareth into that mix as well. He's the main reason Detroit exists and as much as some of the tree hugging locals up there want that race gone, their island has benefited tremendously from having that event.

They all became ISC properties during the split. Michigan seems to have nothing to do with them, has even said they aren't a focus. Auto Club couldn't even entice a rat with free pizza to come to a race and we all know what has happened to Nazareth.

Re: Indycar 2018 Schedule. Portlands back Watkins Glen out
 

Originally Posted by mc/rider:
Add the Du Quion,Indy, Springfield and maybe one in California:6:

:deadhorse::deadhorse::20::43::

I don't really particularly car for isc properties or their cookie cutter race tracks...

Re: Indycar 2018 Schedule. Portlands back Watkins Glen out
 

Originally Posted by treecitytornado:
Ron,it was all ovals in the 90s and early 2000s with the Indy Racing League! I'm not talking about C.A.R.T.!

I was going even further back to the days before CART, when USAC sanctioned the series. I attended the Hoosier Grand Prix (pretty sure that was what it was called) two or three times at IRP in the mid to late sixties. They also always ran at Riverside.

Re: Indycar 2018 Schedule. Portlands back Watkins Glen out
 

Originally Posted by treecitytornado:
Ron,it was all ovals in the 90s and early 2000s with the Indy Racing League! I'm not talking about C.A.R.T.!

Sadly no one supported it. The crowds were terrible. In that time I bought $65 ticket at Indy for $5, NASCAR controls the ovals and they don't want them.