WILL INDYCAR EVER COME BACK TO AUSTRALIA?

Many years ago, I used to go up to the Gold Coast Indy 300 to watch my step dad, Geoff race in the GTP Nations Cup class. As a 10 year old kid, I had no idea I was watching some of Indycar’s most memorable moments in its history right in front of my eyes. Before the Supercars took over the streets of the Gold Coast it used to be all about Indycar around the streets of Surfers Paradise with late night parties, grid girls, drag racing and so much more!

To this day people are still wanting Indycar back in Australia. Will it ever happen again, who knows? Where should it be held? Who knows? This blog is all about the history of indycar in Australia including the potential race circuits it could be held on and how it could work if all the right plans are put in place.

The original Gold Coast event has been held ever since the early 1990’s. It was the first race of the season for IndyCar to be held outside of North America that year. Following the split between Champ Car and the newly formed IRL back in 1996, the race was then continued by CART (Champ Car World Series) until the series folded in early 2003. Following the merger between the IRL and Champ Car in 2008 the Gold Coast race continued as an IndyCar sanctioned event into the future, having plans to eventually rival its Formula 1 counterparts down in Melbourne.

However, the race was eventually omitted from the IndyCar Series schedule in late 2009, with the mediocre A1GP trying to take its place in 2009, as a way to somehow rescue the event. The A1GP series later that year also went into liquidation in a similar situation to what happened to Champ Car. It’s like the Gold Coast race was cursed sending promoters and series organisers broke. The IndyCar governing body completely dropped the Gold Coast event by early 2010 before the V8 Supercars franchise bought out the entire rights and the assets to keep the Gold Coast race going as a national event, which is still being held today.

Here’s an article that got found on the website reddit about Indycar and Supercars being in talks about bringing the series to Sydney back in 2019.

Indycar is gaining traction once again in the modern era and bringing back that worldwide audience it had back when Champ Car was travelling the world with its international drivers such as, Sebastien Bourdaise, Christiano De Matta, Dario Franchitti and Adrian Fernandez, being the series biggest names at the time. These days Indycar has huge racing stars from other series joining, such as Scott McLaughlin from Supercars, Romain Grojean from Formula 1, Callum Illott and Christian Lundgaard both from Formula 2 and seven-time NASCAR Champion Jimmie Johnson, all joining the fray this season.

The Penske Entertainment Group owns all the rights to Indycar, Indy Lights, and the Indianapolis Speedway. Creating a huge buzz, that just maybe, Roger Penske could do something with the brand internationally in future years. For example, bring back races to Mexico, Canada, Japan and Australia. Roger Penske not long ago held a stake in Australian Supercar team, Dick Johnson Racing, from 2015 to 2020 in Australia and even brought over a NASCAR Cup Series car that Scott McLaughlin drove around the streets of the Gold Coast.

Supercars boss Sean Seamer has even tried to work with Indycar in the past to try and create an entertaining event for the motorsport fans at Sydney Motor Sport Park commenting to AA, “If they want to come out to Australia and race with us, we will do everything we can to help them and manage the event, but ultimately that’s for them to work through,” as he confirmed IndyCars’ interest in returning to Australia.

The market and demand is there for it to actually happen with Sydney Motorsport Park, as it is a FIA level 3 circuit that complies with racing IndyCar’s powerful machines such as, s5000’s and older model Formula 3’s that already race around SMSP. The venue itself is now the centre of attention because it has a $35 million dollar investment plan by the New South Wales state government to create a motorsport industry hub, which already includes kart racing, car and bike racing around the park itself, a multi million dollar drag way and a purpose built speedway all within the same Eastern Creek complex.

Having an IndyCar race at Sydney Motorsport Park would help increase the value of the sport and create a buzz the Indycar and Motorsport Australia industry needs after extended lockdown’s that resulted from the pandemic.

Sydney isn’t the only option for Indycar to race in Australia, which could include circuits like, The Bend, in South Australia and Phillip Island in Victoria. If we’re lucky maybe they could even reopen the Adelaide parklands circuit that once held the Australian F1 Grand Prix in the 90’s and create that party vibe atmosphere that racing once had in the early 2000’s when the Supercars rolled into town. Personally I don’t see them ever going back to the Gold Coast due to the local government shortening the track to fit in tram lines and the areas around the streets being more compact than it already once was. I just don’t see the small street circuit playing a part in IndyCars future, but I’d love the IndyCar’s to be back racing there just for the nostalgia. It won’t happen, but one can dream!

Thanks for reading. Let me know down in the comments if you’d love to see Indycar back on Australian shores and I’ll see you all again next time for another blog commentary.

Until next time,

DH

Here’s another article found from Auto Action about the potential that Indycar has if it returns to Australia