– The dust from the success of the street circuit race in Washington D.C. has not yet settled, and the IndyCar series is already falling back into the realm of alleged races that may ultimately not materialize. Alejandro Char, mayor of the city of Barranquilla, announces a race in his city starting in 2028 in Colombian media. However, IndyCar downplays this.
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At the presentation of an infrastructure project on the Rio Magdalena river, Char announces according to a report by Revista Semana that the agreement for a race in the million-plus city is set for April 2028. The course is to run along the Gran Malecon waterfront promenade.
Char calls it a milestone for the region and emphasizes that the series would be racing outside North America for the first time since Sao Paulo 2013. The redevelopment of the former industrial area on the waterfront is intended to position the city as a destination for international tourism and major events.
However, the leadership of the IndyCar series immediately dampens expectations. In a statement to Motorsport.com USA, a sister edition of Motorsport-Total.com in the Motorsport Network, the series makes clear that reports of a finalized contract are completely premature.
They regularly receive inquiries for international appearances and have met with representatives from Barranquilla in Indianapolis, but have not yet visited the city itself. They are only at the beginning of a fundamental review and are still far from an agreement.
Repeated troubles with street races
Since the reunification in 2008, IndyCar has a long involuntary tradition of street races that could not secure a permanent spot on the calendar. The fact that the course in Markham was not even finished on the first day is a relatively minor story in comparison.
The current story strikingly resembles a failed race in Rio de Janeiro. Here too, the mayor announced a race in November 2018 that never took place.
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Earlier, in 2015, the IndyCar series was supposed to race in the Brazilian capital Brasilia. The race was planned as the season opener, was fixed on the calendar, and tickets were already sold before the race was canceled with only six weeks’ notice.
IndyCar also had no luck in 2012 with a street circuit race in Qingdao, China. The race around the Olympic sailing center was also on the IndyCar calendar but had to be canceled while the season was already underway.
In the same year, Michael Andretti tried to leverage Ryan Hunter-Reay’s title for a street race in his hometown of Fort Lauderdale. These plans fell through because no financing could be secured.
The most spectacular cancellation—and probably the biggest IndyCar scandal of recent times—was the Boston Grand Prix in 2016, where the promoter embezzled collected funds. IndyCar was involuntarily caught up in a criminal network. The cancellation of the race led to a six-year legal aftermath.
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The series invested around one million dollars out of its own pocket to compensate defrauded fans who still had to sue for financial losses—as well as other investors who had put money into the race. John F. Casey, who embezzled the funds as CFO, was sentenced in 2022 to four years in prison for fraud, identity theft, money laundering, and tax evasion.
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