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AVONDALE, La. (April 12, 2015) – The rains have persisted this weekend at NOLA Motorsports Park, but that hasn’t dampened the enthusiasm INDYCAR has for the future of the Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana.
Hours before the scheduled start of the inaugural Verizon IndyCar Series event at NOLA, Mark Miles, CEO of Hulman and Company, the parent of INDYCAR and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, gave the track’s staff “very high marks” for getting the facility race ready and continually addressing the changing conditions this weekend.
“The track itself has done a great job,” Miles said. “It’s a big deal to move from a club course to an Indy car track. I think they’ve done just about everything we could expect of them.”
NOLA Motorsports Park opened in 2012 as a local auto enthusiast facility with big dreams. The Verizon IndyCar Series event for 2015 was announced in August 2014. Extensive upgrades have occurred since, including the addition of grandstands and numerous track safety upgrades. Miles said it has shown worthy of hosting a series event, even if the weather hasn’t cooperated.
“The facility itself has never really been used like this and, unfortunately because of the rain, is probably not being tested for how it would work when you have a full house,” he said. “I think it looks great; I think everybody is pleased.”
Miles admitted the weather will likely affect walk-up ticket sales for the race, but that INDYCAR and track officials can look at this year’s event as a “soft opening” to work out bugs and make improvements for the 2016 race weekend. NOLA Motorsports Park has a three-year contract with INDYCAR.
Discussion is already under way about next year’s race date. This weekend’s race conflicts with the popular French Quarter Festival in downtown New Orleans and, while inroads have been made in making the community aware of the race – “they’ve penetrated the psyche of the community,” Miles said – a more fortuitous date could be a win-win situation. He still firmly believes the NOLA race can become a “destination” event for the Verizon IndyCar Series, comparable with the Long Beach and Sonoma races in California and St. Petersburg, Fla.
“The perfect scenario locally and therefore for us would be if we can find a weekend when the weather’s good and we don’t have another major local event to compete with,” Miles added.
Morning Warm-up Washed Out
Heavy morning rains forced cancellation of the scheduled 30-minute warm-up session, the final Verizon IndyCar Series practice before the race. That left teams without the all-important last session to sort out their cars prior to the 75-lap race on the 2.74-mile permanent road course. It poses many unknowns for drivers and teams.
“If it's dry, we're going to go with this and we're going to try to run here, here and here,” said Juan Pablo Montoya, starting on pole in the No. 2 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet by virtue of entrant points after Saturday’s qualifying was rained out. “And if it's wet, then you've just got to wait to see what the weather does. … The hard thing is we keep going every time back to a green racetrack. Every time we've run (this weekend), there is a green racetrack. So the track hasn't really (rubbered in). So the question is, OK, we kind of know what it's going to do from testing, but is it going to really evolve enough? We have a lot of entry issues with my car, for example, that we know when it rubbers up, they're going to go away. But every time we go out there, the first time we're like hanging on for dear life.”
The green flag for today’s race is scheduled for 2:45 p.m. ET (NBCSN).