In accordance to the words of Curt Cavin in today's IndyCar Notebook in the Star, changes are coming to the IndyCar schedule -- for better or worse, depending on who you talk to.
For those too lazy to click the preceding link, here's the gist: there will likely be 18 races next year, with exactly half only having left turns and the other half including turns that go the other way. A little bit of funny math will tell you that adds two road courses and subtracts one oval from the schedule.
As far as the road courses that are to be added, it's pretty easy to figure out. Apex Brazil is putting a bunch of money into the series so it can have a race in the company's home nation (as well as that of several drivers). There is a question of where the track will be, but it's looking like the streets of Brasilia might be the early favorite.
Road course number two is likely to be Barber Motorsports Park near Birmingham, Alabama. The track has already had its shakedown, hosting a test session before the season got underway and hosting a huge number of spectators for said event. If George Barber gets off his butt and actually commits to improvements he says he'll make for the Indy Cars, the track will absolutely have a race.
The major question is which oval is going to disappear, and I think Mr. Cavin's answer to that question might set off more than a few fans of IndyCar's past. He says that, because of legal issues involving the former promoter and the State of Wisconsin, Milwaukee may find its way off the IRL schedule. Of course, this would be a complete disaster because Milwaukee is...y'know...unique and historic. When you have Chicagoland, Kentucky, and Kansas, three tracks of nearly the exact same configuration, on the schedule and you don't have the oldest operational racetrack on the planet on there, there's a problem. Let Wisconsin and the former promoter deal with their thing; there's a new boss at the Mile and the race is always well-attended. Keep the Mile on the schedule and throw out one of the soulless ISC tracks that don't value the series to begin with.
MEANWHILE!
Racetrack shenanigans are making their way (as I predicted) into the FIA/FOTA conflagration across the pond. First off, Monaco's promoters have stated in very plain English that they will not run a race that doesn't include a red car featuring a prancing horse. This sentiment is beginning to be echoed in many circles of race promotion.
The Guardian in Britain has found out that some journalist in Europe has found a provisional calendar for a 2010 FOTA championship. This calendar includes Silverstone (which Bernie Ecclestone unceremoniously dumped for 2010), Buenos Aires (same story, but in the late '90s), Imola (there's a trend here...), Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montréal, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. New to the circus, should this championship go off, would be the Lausitzring in Germany and a street race in Helsinki, chief city in a country that has produced a couple of F1's best drivers ever.
The FIA seems to know it's losing steam in this battle and Max Mosely has backed off a little bit and might be looking to compromise. More to come on this for sure.
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