With every race but Belle Isle being outstanding and a season that has seen six different winners from four different teams so far, IndyCar has to look at the remaining six (maybe seven) races and feel a little uncomfortable about what they are seeing. They shouldn't feel uncomfortable about the races themselves; those look pretty good. Last year Toronto was not bad and with the racing we saw at St. Pete, Barber and Long Beach, Toronto and the other non-permanent circuits in Edmonton and Baltimore should be decent races. Mid-Ohio and Sonoma have been duds but as I said before, if the racing can be that good at Barber, then Mid-Ohio may put on a good show and as for Sonoma, if you look at past race results you will see a fair amount of movement in the middle of the field but not a lot up front. Hopefully the series makes the decision to change the layout IndyCar runs on from the motorcycle circuit to the sportscar circuit that uses the hairpin. But what IndyCar should really notice in the remaining races is the lack of title sponsorships.
As of today, only two of the remaining six scheduled race have title sponsors. Those races are Toronto and Mid-Ohio and both are sponsored by Honda. Over the years, Honda has done a great job stepping up and sponsoring races and sponsored St. Pete and Barber at the beginning of this season, but with the fate of four of these races uncertain, a title sponsor would help ease any tension over the future. Sonoma is in the final year of it's contract, and while the racing has not been great, the crowd has been improving since reunification in 2008. The circuit itself is only located about an hour from downtown San Francisco and the Bay Area, the 11th largest market in the United States, much closer than Laguna Seca which is a little more than two hours away. Edmonton is only on the schedule until 2013 and it appears that may be the final year for the race, at least at City Centre Airport as the city of Edmonton is redeveloping it. Baltimore is on the fence after the debacle with the previous promoter. Michael Andretti stepped up to take over this race at the last minute but with ticket sales starting at the end of May and not a lot of support from the city, another street race could be gone before you know it. After seeing what Michael Andretti did with Milwaukee and the fact they found a title sponsor in XYQ for that race in the 11th hour, I have some faith that Andretti could find something for the Baltimore race. That leads us to Fontana. What once drew great crowds for CART saw poorly attended IRL races before it was remove from the schedule after the 2005 season. It is looking for this year's race to be a hit but the race is only set for 2012.
IndyCar is not necessarily responsible for the title sponsorship of a race. That is usually the tracks job, but with this appearing trend, one has to think that IndyCar has to start taking this situation into their own hands. Title sponsors, for the most part, are guaranteed money. They can pay off sanctioning fees, promotion expenses and make it possible for the track to be financially in the green before tickets are even sold. Finding title sponsors would take some pressure off IndyCar, their sanctioning fee and a major sponsor could get IndyCar more exposure through TV and Internet advertisements. Not to forget mentioning it will help keep IndyCar in good terms with these race tracks moving forward. While it may be too late to get major title sponsors for these four races, anyone that is willing to pay sponsorship dollars for these races is a start in the right direction for 2013.
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