IRL sorry to lose Surfers Paradise

A1GP announced this morning that it would replace IndyCar at Surfers from 2009, with an initial five-year deal.

"We are disappointed that we could not find suitable solutions for both the IndyCar Series and Gold Coast Indy organisers, but it was not due to lack of effort," said IRL commercial boss Terry Angtsadt.

"Chairman Terry Mackenroth and general manager Greg Hooton rolled out the red carpet for the IndyCar Series last month and they are to be commended for their efforts in conjunction with the Queensland government.

"We appreciate the efforts and support of the organisers and the government to North American open-wheel racing dating back to its debut at Gold Coast in 1991, but we will move on, offering our competitors one of the most diverse and challenging schedules in all of motorsports."

The IRL had attempted to move the Surfers race from the late October slot it had occupied since 1998, as it wanted to conclude its 2009 championship at Homestead on 10 October and was keen to either return Surfers to its original early-season slot (where it ran from 1991 to 1997) or to pair it with the Motegi race in September.

However these options were not acceptable to the Surfers organisers due to clashes with other Australian events.

"They have an expanded series of events and our Indy clashes with the early part of the American football season," Queensland Minister of Sport Judy Spence said.

"Moving our race to March as they had requested was not an option due to the clash with the F1 Grand Prix in Melbourne and the Clipsal V8 race in Adelaide.

"In addition, a March race would have involved track construction right in the middle of January school holidays and we would not tolerate Gold Coast residents being inconvenienced."

Angstadt said that the loss of Surfers could prove to be a positive for the series, as it might allow some of the US venues left out following the Champ Car/IndyCar merger to return for 2010.

"We're happy with '09, but what it does do give us flexibility for 2010," Angstadt said. "A Cleveland, a Portland - some of these venues that have real historical significance on the Champ Car calendar - are very interested in holding a race."

Although IndyCar teams were concerned about the costs of the Australian trip and the fact that many of their sponsors did not operate in the Australian market, Surfers' race day crowd of 97,000 made it one of the IndyCar Series' largest events outside Indianapolis.

The loss of the race could also have implications for next season's car count, as KV Racing sponsor Craig Gore had previously indicated that he would end his Team Australia project - which makes up a large part of KV's budget and has funded leading driver Will Power's American career - if Surfers was not on the calendar.

Surfers hosted CART/Champ Car from 1991 to 2007, but could not be accommodated on the IndyCar championship schedule following the US open-wheel merger.

Instead it hosted a non-point race a fortnight ago which was attended by all series regulars and won by Penske's Australian driver Ryan Briscoe.