IRL to join ALMS at Mid-Ohio
10/05/06 After losing the Montreal race, which they thought they had in the bag (we hear Brian Barnhart is still fuming over that one) and with a hole to fill in their schedule around the August 5th weekend rumors say to look for an announcement that they will join the ALMS at Mid-Ohio the weekend of July 21-22, 2007. July 22nd would have been the traditional Michigan race for the IRL and MIS does not want the IRL on August 5th because it's too close to their August 19th NASCAR race, and the IRL is leery about two races in Michigan 4 weeks apart. August 5th was already booked at Mid-Ohio, so July 22nd fit as long as ALMS said yes, which we hear they will. That might mean the IRL won't be back at MIS in 2007 as rumored elsewhere on these pages. With 16,000 employees in Ohio, Honda gets to bring them all to the races to see their Acuras race on Saturday and their Honda powered Indy Cars on Sunday. The IRL has already announced that they are racing with ALMS at St. Petersburg and Belle Isle in Detroit.