Sounds like we would have a deal to race there if Tony George was still in charge

http://www.montereyherald.com/sports/ci_13736725

Some feel this is an ideal time to bring the IndyCar Series to Mazda Raceway, now that there is a unified series. When I spoke recently with IndyCar officials, they said they love to race here but there were two stumbling blocks, a date and money.

Campbell says a date has been agreed upon, but the fee IndyCar wants is out of our league. Tony George, who founded and operated the series since 1994, long coveted Mazda Raceway but he is no longer in charge. Apparently, the family put the kibosh on the millions of the family fortune Tony was spending each year.

Anyway, we've got a dance date but no one to dance with.

Open wheel fans, email (that's john Lewis) and let your feelings be known. There is no reason for the exorbitant fee the series wants. If they can come down we can get the open wheel racing back on track.

Why do you think Tony George would have been able to get a race there? How much is the IRL asking for?

Same reason they're not racing at Road America!

mearsfan53081 - 07 November 2009 09:16 AM

Same reason they're not racing at Road America!

Actually that one is due to the track lowballing the offer...

Gill Campbell has always groused about sanctioning fees being too high, going back to the late 90's CART shows (and particularly when they had the FIA GT series there, which was a GREAT show); so I have little sympathy there either.

These tracks have to decide if they want to be players or club playgrounds.

That said, I'd fly to Monterey for another Laguna race in a heartbeat - one of my favorite places to go by far.

If the series could pack them in, then the sanctioning fee would not be a big stumbling block. It's , once again, an issue of RoI. What is the track going to get for it's fee to the series ? Will it be enough to make money on the weekend ?

You also have to consider that they already have a race at Sonoma which MIGHT reduce the number of people willing to travel to Laguna. It's not in the same neighborhood, but people from the San Fransico area would probably not drive that far south.

Unless the OP thinks the post TG folks have RAISED the fee, or the Tony would have LOWERED the fee, just to get the race, I don't think having him in the mix would change anything.

^ in the past Tony was known to way lowball his asking fee at some tracks in an effort to get them to drop CART/CCWS in favor of the IRL, often times with no intention of actually running the event (Portland for example).

Sad to say, but the IRL has made it known, pay up or else.

Well, Laguna Seca can afford to set the conditions now that the MotoGP is the big weekend for the track. I doubt an IRL race at Laguna Seca will even come close to the attendance that CART used to have there in the 90's when they had traffic at 6am just to get into the track. Since the IRL already has a contract at Sears Point I don't see them racing at Laguna Seca anytime soon.

" Pay up or else " only works if the amount is within reason. Otherwise, everyone chooses " or else ".

I doubt we will find anyone willing to tell us the fee asked for, by the series.

mearsfan53081 - 07 November 2009 09:16 AM

Same reason they're not racing at Road America!

exactly what I was thinking

Sonoma has become to closest race to me, but I am not excited about driving the 5 hrs to get there. But Leguna would be a different story.