With rumours swirling that the Honda Indy Toronto could be driven to Bowmanville because of the Pan Am Games next summer, a top City of Toronto official says he’s hopeful the IndyCar race will stay in town.

“We love events that take up hotel space and bring out-of-town guests, and we know that lots of people come in from out of town to watch the Honda Indy,” said Harold Mah, events support manager at the City of Toronto.

Mah said the city and race organizers are negotiating a three-year agreement that would see the Indy stay at its current Exhibition Place home. The most recent three-year deal expired after this past July’s race.

The Pan Am Games run next summer from July 10 to 26, the range of dates when the Indy is usually held. The Indy track — which includes a stretch of Lake Shore Blvd. W. — couldn’t be built at Exhibition Place, which is hosting the Pan Am rugby sevens competition and the Pan Am press centre, Mah said.

“It just wouldn’t happen. They wouldn’t be able to hold the Indy at the same time as the Pan Ams. There’s just so much . . . going into Exhibition Place, you can’t build the race course. It just wouldn’t work,” said Mah.

While a U.S. report said Honda Indy organizers had been offered a June 8 race date by the city, Mah said race officials originally asked about an early June date, but are now looking at a range of options from the end of May to the end of June.

“They actually did send the date to Exhibition Place for June 4-7 and then the board of directors . . . approved it, but now the Indy’s come back to the city and they’ve asked us and Exhibition Place to consider some other dates,” said Mah.

The U.S. report suggested the IndyCar circuit is likely handing that weekend to a Houston race instead. If Toronto can’t find an alternate date, the report suggested the Hondy Indy could instead take place at the Canadian Tire Motor Sports Park in Bowmanville. A spokesman for the Bowmanville facility wasn’t certain how long it would take for the 3.9-kilometre track to be renovated to modern Indy standards. It last hosted an IndyCar-style race in 1978.

“There’s no way to know. There would need to be a full report (from Honda Indy officials), and that’s certainly something we haven’t seen,” said spokesperson Ryan Chalmers, who dismissed much of the article.

“A lot of that was pure speculation,” said Chalmers.

Neither Honda Indy president Charlie Johnstone nor Kevin Savoree, a principal of Savoree Green Racing Promotions company — which owns the race — would comment.