TMS waiting on IRL date
IRL founder Tony George, who also is president/CEO of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, is busy hosting Formula One for the seventh annual United States Grand Prix. The contract for that event expires with Sunday's race, and George will be negotiating with Bernie Ecclestone, CEO of Formula One Management, to the last moment. Meanwhile, IRL officials are busy with the Kansas Lottery Indy 300 at Kansas Speedway, also on Sunday.
"We don't have an agreement with them," said Gossage, who wants to return the Bombardier Learjet 500 night race to its former slot as the first event after the Indianapolis 500, two weeks after the big race. "Negotiations…we're really not negotiating. They seem quite busy with what they have on their plate. But they're well aware of our needs. I have every reason to believe they will be racing at Texas Motor Speedway for an 11th straight year [in 2007]."
Gossage outlined his proposal to have the event at TMS in primetime on ABC in high-definition in a letter delivered to George during the Bombardier Learjet 500 weekend. Star-Telegram
[Editor's Note: If indeed a merger is in the works for Champ Car and the IRL for 2008, it will be interesting to see how flexible the two groups are with their schedules such that they both don't race on the same weekend in 2007 whenever humanly possible. If there is an air of cooperation, and the desire to work together, then perhaps we will only see them racing on the same weekend when they race together at places such as St. Pete and Long Beach. Brian Barnhart was quoted as saying he is developing the 2007 IRL schedule with flexibility in mind, supposedly to accommodate joint race weekends.]