2012 IndyCar Dream Schedule

[DanicaFan]

Since we are still waiting for the 2012 schedule to come out. I got this idea from another site to make our own schedule on how we would like the schedule to be. Here is my dream schedule below...


1. Streets of St. Petersburg (Street Course)
2. Streets of Long Beach (Street Course)
3. Iowa Speedway (Oval)
4. Kansas Speedway (Oval)
5. Indianapolis Motor Speedway -Indy 500 (Oval)
6. The Milwaukee Mile (Oval)
7. Texas Motor Speedway (Oval)
8. Richmond International Raceway (Oval)
9. Nashville Superspeedway (Oval)
10. Watkins Glen International (Road Course)
11. Michigan International Speedway (Oval)
12. New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Oval)
13. Chicagoland Speedway (Oval)
14. Kentucky Speedway (Oval)
15. Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course (Road Course)
16. Infineon Raceway (Sonoma) (Road Course)
17. Auto Club Speedway (Oval)
18. Phoenix International Raceway (Oval)
19. Atlanta Motor Speedway (Oval)
20. Homestead-Miami Speedway (Oval)

[ptclaus98]

No idea why people like St. Pete. It's where Graham won his first race, I've put many a lap in on rFactor there, and it's just such a bland place. I'd much rather they had a race on the Sebring short Circuit.

[Jonerz]

I like two corners at St. Pete, otherwise it's not that interesting as a race track. Great location, good fan experience and I love the town of St. Pete. Not a "game changer" addition to any calendar, but it is nice to have an event that is successful for promoters, teams, series and the city.

My (Moderately Pragmatic) Dream Schedule: (It is ever-changing, but this one seems the most reasonable that I've come up with, and simply the best for IndyCar.)

1. Sebring (on Friday of the 12 Hours, make it a super-week, with World Challenge and Trans-Am, too.)

2. Walt Disney World (in lieu of St. Pete. Seems like an interesting oval... It would be interesting to see if it were promoted well with the stars that exist in the series nowadays how much more successful it would be than in the original IRL run.)

3. Barber (with GA. Hopefully the new cars will improve the overtaking possibilities.)

4. Long Beach (w/ ALMS and WC)

5. Indianapolis 500

6. Milwaukee (w/ Road to Indy)

7. Cleveland (with WC perhaps?)

8. Michigan 500

9. Toronto (w/ Continental Tire SCC, NASCAR Canadian Tire, Canadian Touring Cars.)

10. Watkins Glen (w/ Grand-Am)

11. New Hampshire (w/ Road to Indy)

12. Mid-Ohio (w/ ALMS)

13. Road America (w/ ALMS)

14. Gateway (w/ Road to Indy)

15. Iowa (w/ Road to Indy)

16. Edmonton (w/ Road to Indy, Canadian Tire Series, Canadian Touring Cars.)

17. Fontana 500

18. Surfer's Paradise (w/ V8 Supercars)

19. Motegi (oval)

20. Texas (so long as the cars run with seriously low downforce.)

9 Ovals

5 (incl. Sebring) Natural Terrain

6 Street(/Airport) Courses

I don't think it is a terribly unreasonable schedule to actually put together. Motegi needs repairs of course, and Surfer's would be on if it was easy to do for all sides. Most of all, put proper race cars on these tracks and it would be an exciting schedule that helps define IndyCar as kick butt once again. Plus you don't go to any of the personalty-less boring ovals, long schedule with a goodly number of events featuring exciting support/headliner series. Also, promote the pants off of the 230mph-500 mile-Triple Crown.

Chris

[FordCosworthPanoz]

*Ovals have new very low downforce package which forces drivers to lift in corners, otherwise you can sratch these.

1. Phoenix International Raceway (with USAC, Road to Indy)
2. Grand Prix of Long Beach (with ALMS, WC, FD, Road to Indy)
3. Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace (with WEC)
4. Barber Motorsports Park (with GA, Road to Indy)
*5. Atlanta Motor Speedway (with NASCAR Trucks, Indy Lights, no other R2I)
6. Indianapolis 500 (Triple Crown Race 1) (USAC, Road to Indy at ORP)
7. Milwaukee Mile (with USAC, Road to Indy)
*8. Texas Motor Speedway (with NASCAR trucks, Indy Lights, no other R2I)
9. Cleveland Grand Prix (with ALMS or GA, Road to Indy)
10. Watkins Glen (with GA, Road to Indy)
11. Iowa Speedway (with USAC, Road to Indy)
12. Michigan 500 (Triple Crown Race 2) (Indy Lights, no other R2I)
13. New Hampshire Motor Speedway (with NASCAR Trucks/Modifieds, USAC, Road to Indy)
14. Mosport International Raceway (with ALMS, Road to Indy, NCTS)
15. Edmonton Indy (with ALMS or GA, NCTS, Road to Indy)
16. Road America (with ALMS, WC, Road to Indy)
17. Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca (with ALMS, WC, Road to Indy)
18. Suzuka Circuit (Support race to Super GT with Formula Nippon)
19. Gold Coast Indy 300 (with or support race for v8 supercars)
20. California 500 (Triple Crown Race 3) (With NASCAR Trucks, Indy Lights)
21. Sebring 1 Million Dollar Challenge (Marlboro Challenge, NASCAR all star race type format) (Non Points)

[nickyf1]

In (sort of) no particular order.. Not really a schedule, just tracks.

Adelaide (With Aussie V8's)
Long Beach (With ALMS)
Phoenix International Raceway
Barber Motorsports Park
Indianapolis
Milwaukee
Elkhart Lake
Laguna Seca
Toronto
Montreal
Pikes Peak
Iowa
Michigan
Watkins Glen
Circuit of the Americas (if it ever does get built... might be nice to see how Indycar does on a modern F1 track)
Detroit
Mexico City
Okayama (a.k.a TI Aida)
Brands Hatch Grand Prix

[stripedcat]

1. Long Beach

2. Milwaukee Mile.

3. Phoenix Speedway.

4. Adelaide Street Circuit.

5. Road America.

6. Austin F1 Circuit (if it ever happens).

7. Indianapolis Speedway.

8. Spa-Francorchamps (a pipe dream I know, but come on it would be great to see the cars zoom around there).

9. Silverstone (likewise a bit of a dream, but still).

10. Paul Ricard.

11. Sepang F1 track.

12. Suzuka.

13. Circuit de Gille Villenevue Canada.

14. Laguna Seca.

14. Mid Ohio Road Course.

15. New Hampshire Speedway.

16. Zandavoort (again another dream, but hey-ho).

17. Michigan International Speedway.

18. Interlagos .

19. Texas Motor Speedway.

20. Infineon Raceway.

[ECW Dan Selby]

Is Spa not a potential option if they'll be alternating the F1 there...?

I presume Indy Car is a fair bit cheaper to host than Bernie's prices.

Selby

[Jacques Rabbit]

In reality, Indy won't be going to Europe anytime soon. They only leave North America if they get a full subsidy to send all the equipment over, which they wouldn't be getting in Belgium to run a race at Spa...

...but in a dream schedule, sure, why not.

Sometimes I get to the point where my dream schedule is just run the Indy 500 as a massive one-off with all the TEAM money going as purse for the one race combined with the purse for all the other races and the purse for the 500 as it is (but not equally distributed...you know, the winner gets more than the second place guy than the third place guy etc). Sell-out to title sponsorship (and I mean really sell out: the GoDaddy.com presents the IZOD Indianapolis 500 fueled by Sunoco) to add even more purse. Give the race not to the highest bidder, but to the best investor (the one who will put their top, recognizable sports personalities on the broadcast with knowledgeable racing people and really make it a fantastic show)...

And with that money, you can free up the regulations. If the regulations aren't about safety or a bit of equalization (you don't want a race that will bore the masses, otherwise, all the money going into it disappears; but remember that equalization is not standardization...it's taking completely different cars and outlining the rules such that they will have different advantages and disadvantages that equal out over the course of a race or even the course of a lap if that track has enough character). Hell, even pay a little bit out to the fastest five guys who fail to qualify to convince them to come...

I had calculated before and it came out to being able to pay $100,000 to the FTQs up to about $10 or $15 million to the winner. Not saying you could do that and still make a profit, but the money they spend now on TEAM, purse, etc. came out to that. I don't remember; was years ago.

But none of that would ever happen; I doubt the money would really work out and they'd have a hard time convincing title sponsors to get on board with the declining ratings for the 500 even with the "but this is a new, exciting formula" stuff. They'd have to take the hit for a few years to prove it was worth it, and by that time, the Speedway would just fold.

Oh well.

[daallo]

I don't know why the **** they don't come back to México City! Hands down it would be the 2nd most profitable and attended event of the year (it was the 2nd in CC just behind Australia) and it's a huge market they just let go. In its good times, some 15 million would watch Adrián Fernández race, and those are huge numbers...And at times there would be even up to 6 Mexican drivers out of a grid of 18, all backed by powerful Mexican sponsors and with ahuge fanbase behind. Hadn't it been for Méxicl Champ Cr would've not survived...