Curt Cavin and Brant James

IndyStar

BOSTON – The Verizon IndyCar Series was surprised Friday night – and not in a good way.

The local promoter of the inaugural Grand Prix of Boston called off a scheduled Labor Day weekend race in the city’s Seaport District.

John Casey, president of the Grand Prix of Boston, informed Mark Miles, CEO of Hulman & Company, which owns IndyCar, of that decision Friday evening. Miles said he had no advance notice of the cancellation.

“We’re very disappointed,” Miles told the Indianapolis Star.

Organizers planned to construct a temporary street circuit around the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center for the Sept. 2-4 event, but the process has been filled with opposition of various degrees. Opponents have questioned the negative impact to the environment and the neighborhood, with concerns about taxpayer cost.

Plans scrapped for IndyCar race on streets of Boston

Miles said IndyCar needed “a little time to sort this out.” He confirmed the staff has been working on backup plans in the event this effort dissolved.

One of the cities that could play host could be Providence, R.I., which IndyCar considered before putting its focus on Boston.

“We have a couple of ideas,” Miles said. “We’re working hard to see if there’s a Plan B.”

Miles told USA TODAY Sports he planned to speak with city officials this weekend and while the series would not suffer a financial hit, ”this is less important than was our ambition to be in Boston.”

Boston’s cancellation leaves IndyCar with 15 races this season. Four have been held; next up is the Angie’s List Grand Prix of Indianapolis, a May 14 road race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The 100th Indianapolis 500 follows May 29.

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The Boston date was Sept. 4, two weeks before the season finale at Sonoma Raceway on Sept. 18.

This is not the first time IndyCar has struggled with scheduling issues. The series was planning to open in Mexico City this season, but Miles told USA TODAY Sports in October that concerns over proper promotion for the Mexico City race, IndyCar’s first junket outside of the United States or Canada since Sao Paolo, Brazil in 2013 – prompted the series to refocus on 2017.

“The process they needed to go through to get everything lined up has not really left a lot of time to be confident that everything can be done to properly promote the first race,” he said. “So I think the conversation is very much about ‘17. We just kind of ran out of time for ‘16.”

Races in Qingdao, China, and Brasilia, Brazil, also were on track before being scrapped locally.