A field of 24 cars will contest the IndyCar Series’ inaugural running of the Gold Coast Indy 300 in October at Surfers Paradise, Australia. The official list of competitors has not yet been released, but we can assume that the entire full-time contingent of drivers — including Aussies Will Power and Ryan Briscoe, plus New Zealander Scott Dixon – will make the end-of-season trip.
Meanwhile, a major figure in motorsports Down Under is hoping that the IRL won’t try a power play when it comes to future dates.
The fate of the 2009 race is still up in the air and Tony Cochrane, chairman of the V8 Supercars Championship, said that the IndyCar Series alternate dates for next year’s event – one in March and another in September — would not only “incredulously” end a “long-standing agreement” to stage the GCI 300 in October, but that both dates would clash with multiple major sporting events in Australia.
Cochrane’s series, a popular stock car racing operation that stages events in Australia, New Zealand and Bahrain, will be the undercard this October for the IndyCar as they were for many years with the Champ Car World Series. But Cochrane seems willing to help race officials find a new partnering series should they and the IndyCar fail to come to terms on a suitable ‘09 date.
While the IndyCar should recognize that Surfers is a great event, they should also know that Cochrane’s basically doing the same thing that he says the league is. What is he demanding — that the league should extend the season deeper into October for the sake of one race?
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