{"id":804,"date":"2006-08-24T21:08:48","date_gmt":"2006-08-25T02:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2006\/08\/grand-prix-preview\/"},"modified":"2006-08-24T21:08:48","modified_gmt":"2006-08-25T02:08:48","slug":"grand-prix-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2006\/08\/grand-prix-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"Grand Prix Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- Begin  News Code --><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wagerweb.com\/affiliatesred\/AF3376\/23\/\/ww3.wagerweb.com\/join.htm\">WagerWeb <\/a><br \/>\n<!-- End  News Code --><\/p>\n<p><strong>Grand Prix to Return to Indy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>By Sean Toth<br \/>\n<!-- Begin  News Code --><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wagerweb.com\/affiliatesred\/AF3376\/23\/\/ww3.wagerweb.com\/join.htm\">WagerWeb <\/a><br \/>\n<!-- End  News Code --><br \/>\nContributing  Writer<\/p>\n<p>Indianapolis  Motor Speedway recently announced that it signed a one-year contract  extension with Formula One to again host the U.S. Grand Prix in 2007. <\/p>\n<p>Tony George,  IMS CEO, signed the contract with top Grand Prix officials on Aug. 15.<\/p>\n<p>A one-year  deal was signed because the sport&#8217;s organizational structure, known as the Concorde Agreement, is good only through  next year. No definitive date for the 2007 U.S. Grand Prix has been announced,  but IMS officials said they are shooting for early-to-mid June. The date will  be decided upon when the F1 sanctioning body approves next year&#8217;s schedule.<\/p>\n<p>Although the  contract was for only one year, George said that he hopes to have a long-term  commitment to F1 racing.<\/p>\n<p>This year&#8217;s  Grand Prix was very controversial when 14 of the 20 drivers pulled their cars  off the track before the start because of concerns over Michelin&#8217;s tires.  Only six cars, all with Bridgestone tires, completed the race. The incident  made the relationship between the IMS and USGP uncertain, and that is said to  be another factor in the short-term contract. Michelin helped the situation by  purchasing 20,000 tickets to fans that renewed their orders. But Michelin will  not be participating in next year&#8217;s F1 events. <\/p>\n<p>A plan for  purchasing tickets will be announced to the public next week.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It  seemed appropriate to see how things shake out and see what the lay of the land  is,&#8221; George said of F1&#8217;s instability. &#8220;There are too many unanswered  questions to commit any longer than that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Of the three  major events at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (The Indy 500, Grand Prix and  the Brickyard 400) the F1 race is thought to be the most financially beneficial  for the area because a higher percentage of the race attendees are from out of  town, giving more of a demand for businesses such as hotels and restaurants.  And the teams and sponsors have larger financial backing than the other two  races. This year&#8217;s race had an approximate attendance of 100,000 people.<\/p>\n<p>No other  details, including how much the Speedway will pay F1, were revealed.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll keep you  up to date on any more relevant information concerning this event and situation  when it&#8217;s released!<\/p>\n<p><!-- Begin  News Code --><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wagerweb.com\/affiliatesred\/AF3376\/23\/\/ww3.wagerweb.com\/join.htm\">WagerWeb <\/a><br \/>\n<!-- End  News Code --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WagerWeb Grand Prix to Return to Indy By Sean Toth WagerWeb Contributing Writer Indianapolis Motor Speedway recently announced that it signed a one-year contract extension with Formula One to again host the U.S. Grand Prix in 2007. Tony George, IMS CEO, signed the contract with top Grand Prix officials on Aug. 15. A one-year deal &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/2006\/08\/grand-prix-preview\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Grand Prix Preview<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press_releases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeduffy.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}