“It's been a great event for the Gold Coast for 18 years and I'm sure it will continue to be. It's one of the biggest motor racing festivals in the world. We agreed with the IRL a number of months ago to put on hold our negotiations going forward until this weekend. We wanted to let them bed down their new series, to come here and continue our negotiations,” insisted event chairman Terry Mackenroth.
The circuit has been a regular stop in the defunct Champ Car Series championship for the past decades. It was part of the championship's history, as no driver except 4-time champion Sebastien Bourdais had ever succeeded in winning 2 races in Australia.
“As we said when we unified open-wheel racing this year it brought both opportunities and challenges. You can image when you're trying to blend two racing series and make one better series it really does bring challenges, and this has been one. We think it's one that can be one that we can overcome, embrace and make work. I think both sides enter in with a great spirit of cooperation to get this worked out,” said Angstadt concerning future talks to host an Indy event in Australia.
The championship officials have already agreed on making a single western Pacific Ocean trip during 2009 season, with the race at Twin Ring Motegi scheduled in September. Next season's finale will get under way – as currently planned – at Homestead-Miami, on October 10th.
Being a part-public project between Queensland government and IMG global company, the Nikon Indy 300 would benefit in the near future from a series of investments in circuit's infrastructure and plenty of enthusiasm from fans all over Australia. Most of the IRL drivers have been busy promoting the new series along the Gold Coast for the past week, including IRL champion and local favorite Scott Dixon.
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