Curt Cavin

IndyStar

As much as it pains IndyCar to lose its inaugural Labor Day event in Boston, maybe healing comes in the form of a holiday weekend at home.

Sanctioning body officials haven’t commented on possible replacements – Hulman & Company CEO Mark Miles recently asked for “a little time to sort this out” — but it seems no clear Plan B exists for the first weekend in September.

>> A new street-circuit race in Providence, R.I., figures to take too long to prepare.

>> Watkins Glen International’s calendar is booked.

>> Sonoma Raceway isn’t interested in having another event in the San Francisco market in the same month, which effectively rules out Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca.

>> Gateway Motorsports Park will be focusing on its biggest event of the season, NHRA’s Midwest Nationals, set for Sept. 23-25.

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And it seems no other alternative has emerged since John Casey, the president of the Grand Prix of Boston, called Miles on Friday with his decision to pull the plug on the Sept. 2-4 event amid a variety of local hurdles that still had to be cleared.

Neither Casey nor Miles could be reached Tuesday for an update.

One of IndyCar’s first calls was to Michael Printup, the Watkins Glen president. Printup is known to be one of IndyCar’s biggest fans, but he told series President Jay Frye the track’s schedule wouldn’t permit an event on such short notice.

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“Every day is booked (as) we have five events plus track rentals,” Printup told IndyStar on Tuesday. “I told Jay we have one day available, and it’s a Monday.”

Printup said the upstate New York road course which last held an IndyCar race in 2010 has signed three-year contracts with its partners. While that provides continuity, it also reduces flexibility.

Sonoma Raceway president Steve Page said he understands IndyCar’s predicament, and the track’s staff is willing to do almost anything to grow U.S. open-wheel racing. But he said placing a race 150 miles away at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca doesn’t make sense due to the financial fragility of Sonoma’s season-ending event Sept. 16-18.

A race at Laguna Seca, which last hosted IndyCar in 2004, “would not do us a lot of good,” Page told IndyStar.

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Additionally, it’s believed Sonoma has an exclusivity clause that would prevent IndyCar from racing at Laguna Seca on those dates without permission.

IndyCar has targeted the Gateway oval as a possible venue for 2017, but Miles said he is reluctant to jump into a market too quickly for fear of spoiling it for the future.

As it stands, IndyCar’s season has 15 races, its fewest since 2012. More problematic is that there are only two races after July 31 and geographically there is only one event east of Toronto (that’s Pocono Raceway on Aug. 21).

Follow IndyStar reporter Curt Cavin on Facebook and Twitter: @curtcavin.

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