IndyCar loses Edmonton race for 2013

City of Edmonton chief financial officer Lorna Rosen said Octane Motorsports felt the race could not be financially viable.

"It was a fabulous event to go to and it created a lot of buzz and excitement, but it is an eight-year run whose time is up," Rosen was quoted as saying by the Edmonton Journal.

"We tried everything we can think of to make it a success, and the races were good, but the profitability as a business venture just wasn't there [for the promoter]."

Edmonton held a Champ Car event from 2005 to '07, then became a fixture on the merged IndyCar Series calendar.

IndyCar chief Randy Bernard said: "When we finalised our schedule for the upcoming 2013 season, it unfortunately did not include Edmonton.

"We thank the city of Edmonton and all the fans for their support of the event over the last eight years."

Bernard insisted that the loss of Edmonton did not dent IndyCar's plan for calendar expansion in 2013. He intimated that Toronto would be the sole Canadian round next season but was sure that would be rectified for 2014.

"More importantly this has not affected our plans for a minimum of 19 races next season, and we remain optimistic that we will return to having two races in Canada as early as 2014," said Bernard.

"We anticipate announcing our full 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series schedule [in] the first week of October."