V8 Supercars still to race at the Gold Coast in 2009
September 17th 2008 23:50
Good news for V8 Supercar fans!
It has been announced by V8 Supercars Australia Chairman, Tony Cochrane, that the Gold Coast round of the 2009 championship will definitely be going ahead, despite problems with the IndyCar series leaving Surfers Paradise off next year’s provisional schedule.
The Gold Coast Indy is threatened due to disputes over scheduling between Indy organisers and the Queensland State Government, with Indy bosses insisting that the tournament will begin and finish in the US and didn’t want the finale to take place overseas.
The Queensland Government stubbornly supports the October schedule for the Gold Coast race, stating that it filled a gap where tourism in the Sunshine State is traditionally quiet despite the Indy organisers giving the State Government two other date options for the event in 2009.
Cochrane has suggested that one option is to replace the IndyCars with the Deutsche Touring Car Masters (DTM) German touring car championship, which runs V8 Mercedes Benz and Audi racing cars, stating that the date and cannot be changed.
“That date (October 22-25) is locked in,” Cochrane said in an interview with Bigpond Sport. “There is no question about that date and the Queensland Government has been running this event for a long, long time.
“When I was chief executive of the Gold Coast Indy I moved it from March to October 11 years ago mainly because of requests from Queensland tourism and hotel groups because late October was a particularly quiet time there.
“It’s run happily ever since.
“No-one in their right mind would move it to the two dates the IRL suggest and one is the Clipsal 500 weekend and the other is late September which runs into preliminary finals in the NRL and the AFL.
“I’m here to tell you the Queensland Government isn’t budging from that date.
“I think if the IRL are stupid enough to pass on that date then the Government will just pull in another international category and there are lots of them out there.”
Cochrane has ruled out the possibility of replacing the IndyCars with the A1 Grand Prix of Nations due to financial difficulties within the A1 GP series.
“The A1 GP is $320 million in the red and my personal thought is that the Government wouldn’t look at that championship.
“I doubt the government would jump out of the fat and into the fire.”
“I would personally see something like the DTM out here and make it the world’s greatest weekend of touring cars. We are the best two touring car championships in the world.
“How that would sit with their calendar, I don’t know but it’s certainly worth asking the question.”
And his view on the decision made by the Indycar organizers, the IRL?
“Maybe the IRL will wake up to themselves,” Cochrane says. “That’s the weekend we will be there, that’s the weekend Channel 7 will be there and that’s the weekend V8 Supercars TV will be there.
“The only question mark is, will the IRL be there?”
It has been announced by V8 Supercars Australia Chairman, Tony Cochrane, that the Gold Coast round of the 2009 championship will definitely be going ahead, despite problems with the IndyCar series leaving Surfers Paradise off next year’s provisional schedule.
The Gold Coast Indy is threatened due to disputes over scheduling between Indy organisers and the Queensland State Government, with Indy bosses insisting that the tournament will begin and finish in the US and didn’t want the finale to take place overseas.
The Queensland Government stubbornly supports the October schedule for the Gold Coast race, stating that it filled a gap where tourism in the Sunshine State is traditionally quiet despite the Indy organisers giving the State Government two other date options for the event in 2009.
The Surfers Paradise track
Cochrane has suggested that one option is to replace the IndyCars with the Deutsche Touring Car Masters (DTM) German touring car championship, which runs V8 Mercedes Benz and Audi racing cars, stating that the date and cannot be changed.
“That date (October 22-25) is locked in,” Cochrane said in an interview with Bigpond Sport. “There is no question about that date and the Queensland Government has been running this event for a long, long time.
“When I was chief executive of the Gold Coast Indy I moved it from March to October 11 years ago mainly because of requests from Queensland tourism and hotel groups because late October was a particularly quiet time there.
“It’s run happily ever since.
“No-one in their right mind would move it to the two dates the IRL suggest and one is the Clipsal 500 weekend and the other is late September which runs into preliminary finals in the NRL and the AFL.
“I’m here to tell you the Queensland Government isn’t budging from that date.
“I think if the IRL are stupid enough to pass on that date then the Government will just pull in another international category and there are lots of them out there.”
Cochrane has ruled out the possibility of replacing the IndyCars with the A1 Grand Prix of Nations due to financial difficulties within the A1 GP series.
“The A1 GP is $320 million in the red and my personal thought is that the Government wouldn’t look at that championship.
“I doubt the government would jump out of the fat and into the fire.”
“I would personally see something like the DTM out here and make it the world’s greatest weekend of touring cars. We are the best two touring car championships in the world.
“How that would sit with their calendar, I don’t know but it’s certainly worth asking the question.”
And his view on the decision made by the Indycar organizers, the IRL?
“Maybe the IRL will wake up to themselves,” Cochrane says. “That’s the weekend we will be there, that’s the weekend Channel 7 will be there and that’s the weekend V8 Supercars TV will be there.
“The only question mark is, will the IRL be there?”
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