California Speedway Added to IRL Schedule

The Indy Racing League joined California Speedway’s growing number of major racing events Thursday with the announcement that Tony George’s open-wheel circuit will compete there March 24 in a 400-mile race.

This will be the first West Coast appearance of the IRL and is expected to make the Fontana facility the only track hosting both rival open-wheel circuits, the IRL and CART, which traditionally concludes its season on the two-mile superspeedway. This year’s CART race, the Marlboro 500, is scheduled Nov. 4.

Texas Motor Speedway was to have hosted both circuits this year, but the CART race was canceled when drivers said it was too dangerous to run on the high banks there. The IRL will run its 2001 finale there Sunday.

“The Los Angeles market is very important to our league from a corporate sponsorship and media awareness standpoint,” George said in a conference call.

The California Speedway race will be the third in an expanded 15-event IRL schedule, highlighted by the 86th running of the Indianapolis 500 on May 26.

“Our teams are looking forward to racing in Fontana because it gives them a superspeedway race in advance of Indy,” said Brian Barnhart, IRL vice president. “The race has been packaged with the March 17 race at Phoenix so teams can get the maximum out of their West Coast swing. We expect to have some IRL cars out here in the next three weeks to check out tires and our wing package. We’re looking for speeds in the mid-220 range.”

The race gives Southern California fans a bonanza of spring events. The CART-sanctioned Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach is scheduled April 14 and the NASCAR Winston Cup race at California Speedway is set for April 28.

Also scheduled for the IRL weekend is a 400-mile sports car race on Fontana’s new road course. It will be part of the Grand American Road Racing Assn. schedule, which kicks off with the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona in February. The race, featuring sports-racing prototypes and GT cars, will be run March 23.

The IRL schedule: March 2--Homestead-Miami, Fla.; March 17--Phoenix; March 24--California Speedway; April 21--Nazareth, Pa.; May 26--Indianapolis; June 8, Texas Motor Speedway (night); June 16--Pikes Peak, Colo.; June 29--Richmond, Va. (night); July 7--Kansas Speedway; July 20--Nashville, Tenn.(night); July 28--Michigan International Speedway; Aug. 11 Kentucky Speedway; Aug. 25--St. Louis; Sept. 8--Joliet, Ill.; Sept. 15--Texas Motor Speedway.