Randy Bernard, the IndyCar CEO, said that he’s listening to proposals to add Quebec City to the schedule sometime in the future. That would be a third Canadian event after Toronto and Edmonton.
Standing on the grid of the Honda Indy Toronto on Sunday Bernard told auto123.com “they are very interested and we’re very interested because the one thing we won’t do is turn anybody down until they put together a complete plan.”
Randy Bernard said the series has open ears “we want to listen. If anyone take the time to put time in to make a proposal for us we’ll listen intently. If we can make sense of this we’re darn sure we’d do it.”
Adding races to Canada is one thing but adding more international races is, likewise, a possibility recalling the now-defunct CART series threat to Formula.
Currently the IndyCar series goes to Japan because it’s the home of Honda which supplies all the engines and to Brazil because of the Apex-Brazil fuel sponsorship.
Still the series is primarily US-based as are the teams.
Don’t expect any immediate announcements. Looking long-term Bernard explained “I think what we need to do is layout a strategy of how many events every year for the next four or five years. If we want to say we’ll go to 24 (events) by five years part of that will be an international play.”
The needs of individual teams are a key factor, but not the only one.
“How many can we afford to do depends on how much can we pay team owners. Because a lot of team owners, or sponsors don’t want international; they don’t focus on international,” he added.
On the other hand Randy Bernard is looking overseas when he said “I think international play is important to us.”
Standing on the grid of the Honda Indy Toronto on Sunday Bernard told auto123.com “they are very interested and we’re very interested because the one thing we won’t do is turn anybody down until they put together a complete plan.”
Randy Bernard said the series has open ears “we want to listen. If anyone take the time to put time in to make a proposal for us we’ll listen intently. If we can make sense of this we’re darn sure we’d do it.”
Adding races to Canada is one thing but adding more international races is, likewise, a possibility recalling the now-defunct CART series threat to Formula.
Currently the IndyCar series goes to Japan because it’s the home of Honda which supplies all the engines and to Brazil because of the Apex-Brazil fuel sponsorship.
Still the series is primarily US-based as are the teams.
Don’t expect any immediate announcements. Looking long-term Bernard explained “I think what we need to do is layout a strategy of how many events every year for the next four or five years. If we want to say we’ll go to 24 (events) by five years part of that will be an international play.”
The needs of individual teams are a key factor, but not the only one.
“How many can we afford to do depends on how much can we pay team owners. Because a lot of team owners, or sponsors don’t want international; they don’t focus on international,” he added.
On the other hand Randy Bernard is looking overseas when he said “I think international play is important to us.”