With only one race remaining on the 2014 IndyCar calendar, the series schedule for next season is getting much scrutiny and nearly as much speculation.
There is a general idea of what the 2015 race schedule might look like, but it’s yet to be confirmed by the series, which is not good. In the past, the schedule has been released before the last week of the season, but this year’s campaign ends earlier. That, along with some date issues, is part of the reason it’s being held up.
Here are some changes we might see: A tentative plan to race in New Orleans early in the season appears ready to happen and it looks like the Houston double-header might not return. But of even more interest to Canadian race fans, the Toronto event is still in a state of flux because of another sporting event taking place in the city.
The Honda Indy Toronto event can’t be raced at Exhibition Place in July because of the Pan Am Games (July 10-26 in Toronto), and it won’t be easy to push back because of the Canadian National Exhibition taking over the grounds in August. One idea that has been floating around is to move the Indy next year to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ont. However, if it moves, then I’d consider it gone from the waterfront forever. We saw what a devastating impact going dark for one year in the middle of the last decade had on the race. If it’s moved again, even under the guise of being temporary, I’d be surprised if it ever came back into the city.
Speaking of next season …
Driver Josef Newgarden has signed a new deal for next year to remain with his current team, Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing, which will merge with Ed Carpenter Racing in 2015. Still to be determined is his teammate(s) and which engine the teams will run. Newgarden currently pilots a Honda, and Carpenter’s team is a Chevrolet outfit.
An eventful weekend in California
It is safe to say that this past weekend’s IndyCar event in Sonoma had it all.
We saw the championship leader, who was poised to take a stranglehold on the title race, spin out when his teammate and closest rival in the standings was having a bad day. A sure podium finish was taken away from another driver who ran out of fuel heading for the checkered flag. A first-lap incident knocked other drivers to the back of the field and they rallied for great finishes. And let’s not forget that race day was rocked by a 6.0 earthquake at 3:20 a.m. local time, causing some drivers to scramble for alternate sleeping arrangements.
It was quite the Sunday at Sonoma Raceway in Northern California during the second-last race of the IndyCar season. Despite the mid-race gaffe by championship leader Will Power, he still has a good chance to become a first-time series champion after the final race next weekend. That result would once again leave Helio Castroneves as a disappointed runner-up.
Kudos to Sonoma Raceway staff for being on top of the earthquake situation and quickly assessing the roads into the facility and determining that they were fine, as was the track. It was the right call to run the race as scheduled.
Simon Pagenaud is the third driver still mathematically alive in the title chase, due to a tremendous in-race charge from 15th place at the start, to a third-place finish. An assist goes to his teammate Mikhail Aleshin, whose race setup was thrown onto Pagenaud’s car after the morning warm up.
There was more terrible luck for Canadian James Hinchcliffe. After he was ousted from his hotel due to the earthquake, he was clobbered from behind in Turn 2 on the opening lap and relegated to a 12th-place result. Still, no further word on the Oakville native’s prospects for next season; he and the team want to continue the partnership, but sponsorship remains unsettled.