It hasn’t come out yet, but with some tracks already announcing their dates or them being reported in the news, puzzle pieces of the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series schedule are coming together.
Multiple draft versions of the schedule are being circulated at the present time.
WHAT WE KNOW
St. Petersburg, the season opener this year, is the latest race to have its date revealed, with a Tampa Bay Times report confirming a Trackside Online report that the race date will move forward two weeks to March 11-13, 2016.
Here’s the other dates we know for sure:
- Long Beach, April 15-17, 2016
- Grand Prix of Indianapolis, May 14
- 100th Indianapolis 500, May 29 (qualifying May 21-22)
- Detroit, June 3-5
- Boston, Sept. 2-4 (Labor Day weekend)
TORONTO’S DATE COULD SHIFT THINGS AROUND, AGAIN
Although not officially announced, it was revealed in contract writing last year that after its one-year switch to June, Toronto would move back to July 14-17 next year.
So for the second straight year, it appears the Toronto race date could be the single domino that puts all the other race dates in motion for the rest of the schedule.
A Toronto move back to July would have a knock-on effect of forcing Iowa Speedway to move forward a week, into what is Milwaukee’s 2015 date (July 12), or perhaps moving back one week to the end of July. The problem with a move back of one week is it would put it up against the track’s NASCAR Xfinity Series date. Either way, the track is working with INDYCAR on a return.
The Wisconsin situation remains fluid as ever. Multiple sources have confirmed to MotorSportsTalk that a deal is close, if not completely done, to bring IndyCar back to Road America – and the weekend most likely mentioned is with the Pirelli World Challenge weekend, which ran as a standalone feature weekend at the end of June this year.
That end of June slot was also the place for Auto Club Speedway’s Fontana race this year; a low on-site crowd number was unfortunate considering it was one of the best races in recent memory for IndyCar, and it also prompted Robin Miller’s rant against the race date to Hulman & Co. CEO Mark Miles. Miller’s current schedule projection piece for RACER.com is linked here.
If you slot Road America end of June, that frees up Fontana to move to mid-to-late September, after Boston, and be the season finale.
But back to Wisconsin. An Iowa move against Milwaukee puts Milwaukee’s race, again, in jeopardy.
Signs were mixed after the race this year, with Kevin Healy positive and Michael Andretti not-so-much about the race’s future.
Things have evolved since then, with multiple sources indicating internal issues and layoffs occurring within Andretti Sports Marketing, the race promoters. ASM has stepped up to promote multiple IndyCar races over the last few years – Milwaukee was saved, Baltimore helped and NOLA promoted this year – but things have since taken a turn for the worse.
So figure Milwaukee’s chances, like the Brewers’ playoff hopes this season, aren’t high for a return.
RACES SET FOR RETURN WITHOUT A DATE ANNOUNCED
So long as Honda is part of the series – and while an extension with INDYCAR hasn’t been formalized yet, comments from Honda Peformance Development president Art St. Cyr at Mid-Ohio indicated positive developments – Barber Motorsports Park and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course will be on the schedule.
Texas and Sonoma figure to be back as well.
SPORTS CAR KEY DATES
Note these dates for three races (and a test day) that traditionally draw IndyCar driver interest:
- January 30-31, Rolex 24 at Daytona
- March 19, Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring
- June 5, 24 Hours of Le Mans test day
- June 18-19, 24 Hours of Le Mans
If INDYCAR has a race on the June 18-19 weekend, it would prevent drivers from doing the Le Mans race itself. Test day participation on June 5 – which clashes with Detroit – is mandatory for new drivers (barring rare occasional exemptions, as occurred for Platinum-rated driver Kevin Estre this year) but might not prevent a driver such as a Sebastien Bourdais or Simon Pagenaud – Le Mans veterans – from competing.
WILD CARDS AND POTENTIAL NEW, OLD VENUES
The wild card on the current schedule is Pocono, which is in the last year of its original three-year deal right now.
NOLA, as mentioned above, appears to be one-and-done.
Homestead and Phoenix have also been mentioned for potential returns, and this is where things could sync up nicely for them and for crews from a logistical standpoint.
With St. Pete on March 11-13 and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring confirmed for a week later (March 19), which would allow sports car teams that use IndyCar drivers as third drivers to continue to do so, a perfect landing spot for Homestead would be the last weekend in March, in what was traditionally its slot before it moved to the end of season.
Then throw Phoenix a week before Long Beach, and suddenly you’d open up the perfect possibility of back-to-back Florida races, with a week off before a back-to-back west coast jaunt.
Barber for its traditional end-of-April slot would follow nicely after Long Beach and lead in perfectly into the month of May, and the rest of the schedule would sort itself out from there.
It will be interesting to see whether the actual 2016 schedule matches the potential best-case scenario – it usually doesn’t in IndyCar – but there seem to be enough positive possibilities that exist to make it a needed improvement over 2015’s.
