MOTORSPORT: Indy out, A1 in -- now the identity crisis

The cars change but the Indy name will be hard to shake

Indy's gone. At least the IndyCars are. And A1 GP is in at the Gold Coast from next October, sharing the bill with the V8 Supercars.

For months we've been saying here that Indy was no longer a goer on the Gold Coast and that A1 was the most likely replacement.

Our most recent substantial article on the Indy was here with links there to previous articles.

As we've been saying, A1 is a series -- for identical open-wheeler cars these days powered by Ferrari engines and with drivers now representing 20 countries and at times more -- that we've seen as having potential, although there are serious questions about whether it can survive financially.

This might be just the break that A1 GP needs to get some traction.

Whatever faults anyone can find with the Gold Coast event -- burning too much government money, too boganish, for starters -- it is a major, established international motor racing carnival that could now become A1's crown jewel.

And how it needs one. It has been described, in London's Financial Times we've been reminded today, as something like "an illiquid racing car series of questionable value".

The series' financial accounts have been horrific and it drew very modest crowds when staged at Sydney's Eastern Creek the past three years.

We'll be very interested to see how it goes on the streets of Surfers' Paradise, provided it lasts until next October.

Let's hope there's no repeat of the Gold Coast's sponsorship experience in the mid-1990s when, within weeks of signing, the company Sunline got into strife and didn't make it to the "starting grid".

One thing we can see happening on the Gold Coast is a massive identity crisis.

This event will forever be known as Indy.

That what's been for 18 years, when it began with teams and drivers that competed in a series built around the Indianapolis 500.

During the 12-year split in American open-wheeler racing the Gold Coast was a round of the series that didn't include the Indy 500 -- and was variously known as the Championship Auto Racing Teams World Series, CART and Champ Car -- but it remained "Indy".

Much as, to some of us, the main straight at Bathurst is still Conrod!

Only this year, once the rival championships in the US reunified, did the Gold Coast get back the real Indy series.

But only for one year. And as a non-championship round after the IndyCar series -- or Indy Racing League -- had finished in North America.

The supposed six-year contract that Queensland sports minister Judy Spence claimed early in the year had secured the Gold Coast event's future was nothing of the sort.

Under pressure came the admission that the "contract" was only a memorandum of understanding.

And that was worth nought -- then and when it came to talking serious turkey with the IRL the past couple of weeks.

A time on the calendar couldn't be found that suited both the IRL and the Gold Coast, but the problem that was never going to be solved was that the telecasts drew far too few viewers in the US -- only about 120,000 to 125,000 households on pay TV in recent years (although we're still awaiting the figure for the race 2½ weeks ago) -- and therefore did nothing for the sponsors of the series or the competitors.

While we're glad a replacement has been found -- and that it's the one we tipped because we couldn't see that GP2, international Formula 3 or any other possibilities were worth a cracker -- the A1 era has not got off to an auspicious or accurate start.

Already Queensland sports minister Spence -- she who told us months ago that the IndyCars would be coming back for another six years at least -- is claiming that the A1 GP series goes to 700 million households around the world.

Now this is something we've mentioned often here before -- the very big difference between the potential reach of a telecast and the actual audience.

Our information is that A1's actual audience is perhaps 2 per cent of Formula 1's.

That is, about 2 million viewers worldwide versus, on a very good day -- like the day of the recent Brazilian Grand Prix -- about 100 million for F1.

We'll take a look at the A1 and Indy landscapes in more detail in future -- and in the meantime perhaps Ms Spence could do some homework, starting by coming up with an independent, audited, verifiable report on the A1 GP television audience.

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