Indy CEO Tony George refutes report of ouster

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INDIANAPOLIS — Tony George denied a report Wednesday that he has been ousted from his key role at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, saying he still holds all leadership positions associated with the family-owned business.

Indianapolis to host round of MotoGP championship

Indianapolis will host a round of the MotoGP world championship next year, bringing motorcycle racing back to The Brickyard for the first time in nearly a century, organisers said on Monday.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) said in a statement that they and Dorna, commercial rights holder for MotoGP, had reached a multi-year agreement starting with the Indianapolis Grand Prix on Sept. 14 next year.

The race will be the second U.S. round of the MotoGP championship, with the U.S. Grand Prix held at Laguna Seca in California.

The 2.5 mile oval, home of the Indy 500 and NASCAR's Brickyard 400, last hosted a motorcycle event on Aug. 14, 1909.

Monday's announcement followed confirmation last week that Formula One would not return to Indianapolis for the U.S. Grand Prix next year.

The MotoGP circuit at the Speedway will be a new 16-turn 4.1km road course, with riders racing in an anti-clockwise direction.

"The very first motorised race at IMS was on two wheels, so it's only fitting that motorcycles are returning as we approach the 100th anniversary of the track," said IMS president and chief executive Joie Chitwood in a statement.

MotoGP's current world champion is American, Honda's Kentucky-born Nicky Hayden.

"The United States is obviously a very important market to us, and when we returned to Laguna Seca a couple of years ago for the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix, it was an instant success," said Dorna chief executive Carmelo Ezpeleta.

"Now to be able to say we have two MotoGP events in the United States shows just how far our sport has come in recent years," he added.

(Source: Reuters)

No U.S. Grand Prix in 2008

There will be no United States Grand Prix at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2008. The eight year run of F1 races at the historic oval raceway in Indianapolis has come to a screeching halt due to disagreement over a sanctioning fee between IMS chairman Tony George and F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone.

The Indianapolis Star reports that the relationship between the sanctioning body, F1, and the track deteriorated after the '05 running of the race due to tire problems with Michelin. George didn't rule out the possibility of F1 returning to IMS in the future. Attendance at the last few U.S. Grand Prixs was low, although the race was still one of the higher-attended events on the circuit.

The paper reports that representatives from Ferrari, BMW, Toyota and Honda all consider the U.S. race to be important to their companies and that they were frustrated with Eccelstone and F1.