The first Chinese Indy Car Race which was scheduled to be held on August 19th in Qingdao, has been officially cancelled according to comments made by Indy Car CEO Randy Bernard. The race was initially going to be a street race that ran on the East side of the city running at the same time and along the same streets as Qingdao’s International Beer Festival.
Qingdao recently changed mayors and it seems the new mayor does not agree with running beer and cars events at the same time, according to Reuters reports Bernard had flown to China several times to try and rescue the race but the local government were not willing to bend the rules, leaving the local promoters no choice but to abandon the race as the Indy Car series has a tight schedule to keep another race slot could not be opened.
Indy Car has had racing events in Asia for ten years with the majority of races happening in Japan, the first foray into China announced in November last year but Chinese reports on the race were very few and far between, indicating that not all was well with the race series.
That’s a pity….., not good for the economy, not good for tourism, not good for aspiring Chinese competitors. Such racing is part of the car culture that China has chosen to embrace. Is this possibly a remnant of the old aversion to competition?
“running at the same time and along the same streets as Qingdao’s International Beer Festival” well surely that was just asking for trouble.
Perhaps, but think of the atmosphere if it was Indy Car + Beer Festival weekend at the same time. It would have been fantastic.
Seems like a perfect compliment to one another, both would benefit. The only reason this could have been cancelled (there was a signed contract in place) was if the track configuration would have impeded on the beer festivals area. I hope they can get this worked out for next year.