IndyCar could be poised for a return to Australia’s Gold Coast as early as 2017, with a private consortium keen on pursuing a return to open-wheel racing around the Surfers Paradise street course.
The Surfers Paradise street course was dropped from the IndyCar calendar in 2008, after a non-championship event ended the 2008 season during which IndyCar and ChampCar amalgamated.
IndyCar has a rich history around the Queensland street course, with events being held at the venue between 1991 and 2008, the majority of them prior to IndyCar’s amalgamation with ChampCar.
Despite being dropped by IndyCar, open-wheel racing was scheduled to remain at Surfers Paradise in the form of A1GP, however that series soon ceased to exist and therefore open-wheel racing on the streets of Queensland failed to make a return.
Meanwhile Supercars continued racing around the street course each October in the form of the Gold Coast 600.
Although the Supercars series has a deal with the Queensland government to continue racing until 2019, it seems a private consortium is pursuing the return of open-wheel racing as soon as 2017.
“Our preference is the Gold Coast,” explained a consortium spokesman to The Bulletin.
“There are ongoing commercial negotiations with the government. We are talking to TEQ and the US-based IndyCars.
“All our concern at the moment is on securing the approval through government to hold the event with IndyCars as the major attraction — 2017 is a possibility, 2018 is more than possible.”
Despite the ongoing negotiations with the Queensland government, several logistical factors would need to be addressed before a return could be guaranteed.
Firstly the Gold Coast 600 is an October event, a month after this year’s IndyCar season is scheduled to conclude at Sonoma.
Secondly the current layout used by the Supercars is in fact a much shortened version of the original IndyCar layout, due largely to new tramlines towards the south of the circuit.
Meanwhile INDYCAR has remained exceptionally coy with regards to a return to Australia, however the series has confirmed that it is pursuing plans on hosting an international venue outside of North America.
“INDYCAR is in the process of investigating potential venues for the Verizon IndyCar Series schedule, which includes a number of conversations with international parties interested in hosting an event,” read an official statement from INDYCAR.
“INDYCAR has an extended history at Surfers Paradise and many of its teams and drivers fondly recall the great events and large crowds in Australia.
“However, at this time, we are not going to comment on specifics as it pertains to the status of any prospective venue.”
