INDYCAR SETS RACE FOR CIRCUIT OF AMERICAS
Open-wheel series to debut locally next March as area continues to raise its national sports profile.
Austin’s national sports profile was raised again Tuesday with the announcement that IndyCar racing is coming to Circuit of the Americas next March.
The Verizon IndyCar series will make its Austin debut the weekend of March 22-24. It will be the second race of the series’ 17-event schedule. COTA signed a multiyear contract with IndyCar, the exact length undisclosed.
“We’re really excited,” COTA chairman Bobby Epstein said. “This will be one of our crown- jewel events. We can really do this up big, turn it into a festival weekend. It’s going to be spectacular.”
Mark Miles, president and CEO of the North American, openwheel series, said Austin is a “natural fit” and that the move is popular inside and outside the garages.
“I’d say it’s off the charts,” Miles said. “Whether it’s the drivers who want to be on that great stage or the team owners and sponsors who’d like to affiliated with a happening city like Austin. I haven’t heard anything but enthusiastic support.”
Austin is in a sports boom. Within the last month, the city made a deal that will bring a Major League Soccer team to town in a new stadium, the PGA Tour re-committed to the Dell Match Play Championships at Austin Country Club and now the IndyCar race. COTA also is building a 5,000-seat stadium for the expansion Austin Bold FC of the United Soccer League.
Motorsports organizers are loathe to release attendance figures anymore — COTA among them — but most IndyCar races are thought to draw in the 35,00050,000 range on race day, outside of the Indianapolis 500, which pulls in roughly 300,000.
Epstein has high hopes to easily
outpace the typical IndyCar average. The United States Grand Prix Formula One event previously estimated crowds of 100,000 on race day.
“We thought we’d do even better (for F1),” he said, “but, yeah, I think IndyCar will be popular in Austin. When we put on these big events, we try to give a weekend festival to the fans. A bunch of stages, great Austin music along with big headliners and a lot of other activities and entertainment.”
The IndyCar race will join Formula One, MotoGP, World Rallycross and the Pirelli World Challenge in showcasing Circuit of the Americas road-course racing.
It also gives Texas two IndyCar races. Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth will keep its early June date.
“The oval race and the road race are very different products and Austin and Fort Worth are very distinct markets,” Epstein said. “There are 22 million people within a 3½-hour drive of Austin. There should be more than enough to support two events.”
Next spring will bring a crowded Austin sports calendar. The Pirelli weekend is March 1-3. The IndyCar weekend leads right into the Dell Match Play Cham- pionships (March 25-31). MotoGP released its provisional schedule that has the Red Bull of the Americas weekend April 12-14, a week earlier than usual. The pro soccer teams begin in March.
IndyCar has a close race at the top this year heading into the season finale at Sonoma, Calif. Scott Dixon leads with 598 points, followed by Alexander Rossi with 569 and Josef Newgarden and Will Power are tied with 511. Power won this year’s Indianapolis 500. Rossi won two years ago.
Epstein said Rossi already has some experience here.
“He was actually the first driver of any sort to test COTA,” Epstein said. “We had nine turns finished, and he and Mario (Andretti) were the first to check it out.”
Legendary Texan A.J. Foyt fields a two-car team with Tony Kanaan and series rookie Matheus Leist. Third-generation drivers Graham Rahal and Marco Andretti also are big names. There is talk that Fernando Alonso will join the series.
Support races will come from the Indy Lights, Pro Mazda and the USF2000 series.
Next year’s IndyCar schedule begins March 10 with a street race in St. Petersburg, Fla.
NBC and NBC Sports Network televise all the events, and Miles said he expects the Austin race to be on NBCSN.