Ruh Roh Shaggy…

I hope you weren’t looking forward to the Indy Car season opener in Brazil, because Thursday (1/29/14), Indy Car announced (announcement here) that the March 8 season opener in Brazil is cancelled. 

Fox Sports has a story (here) that discusses the race’s financial woes in more detail.  Long story short, Terracap, the government owned company that owns the track (which is still under construction) went to Indy Car and said “sorry folks, park’s closed.  The moose outside should have told you.”  Okay, maybe they didn’t use those exact words, but you get the idea.  According to a story on RACER’s website (IndyCar: Series Working on Contingency Plan After Brazil Cancellation), Indy Car is looking for a replacement venue, which (for reason’s I don’t fully understand) has the Circuit of the Americas fans screaming for a race in Austin.  My feelings about COTA are a topic for a different day though.

As an Indy Car fan, hearing that the season opener has been cancelled is disappointing.  More concerning is that Indy Car has a relatively short March to August schedule, and only planned on running 17 races before Brazil got canceled.  By comparison, Formula 1 runs from March to November and has 20 races.  NASCAR runs from February to November and has 36 races.  Tudor United Sports Cars only has 12 races, but runs from January to October. 

Before I completely wander off like an Alzheimer’s patient in the snow, let me explain where I’m going with this.  I love Indy Car racing, but some days I feel like all the Indy Car fans out there could watch the races in my living room.  With room to spare.  For my two cents, one of the reasons more people don’t watch Indy Car is because there simply isn’t that much Indy Car to watch.  They start their season later than the other guys, and end it before the other guys.  I’m no marketing expert, but I think if Indy Car wants people to watch their races, they’re going to need to have races, which is the exact opposite of what’s happening in Brazil.