Canadian GP eyes fall rescheduling

On the heels of the Indianapolis 500 shifting gears from May 24 to Aug 23, the Canadian Grand Prix is the latest major auto race to be impacted by the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The Indy 500 had been positioned as the middle jewel of a Triple Crown in May, sandwiched between Formula One’s Grand Prix of Monaco and NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600.

The Brickyard race now falls outside of May for the first time in its 104-year history, with organizers hopeful it could take place in the fall of 2020 instead.

“With a number of postponed sporting events being rescheduled in the summer and early fall, it’s frankly very difficult to find three consecutive weekends as we traditionally have in May,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said in announcing the schedule change.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Grand Prix was scheduled to take place in Montreal on June 12-14 but was “indefinitely postponed” by race officials this week.

A media release said organizers were “saddened” to postpone the event. “This postponement was not a decision that was taken lightly or easily,” the statement said.

The grand prix historically attracts one of the largest crowds in Canadian sports, with last year’s three-day event drawing 307,000 spectators.

Canadian Grand Prix president and CEO Francois Dumontier said government decisions to shut down non-essential businesses and keep the Canada-US border closed left them with no choice but to postpone the race.

“The deadline for making our decision coincided with the day we were supposed to start preparing the track. Before incurring costs, preparing the track, we had to be certain that we were going to have the race,” Dumontier told Canadian Press.

“The majority of businesses who work with us are non-essential. That would’ve put in peril our chances to hold the race if it happened on June 14.”

Montreal was originally scheduled to be the eighth race on the F1 schedule, with the first seven previously postponed or canceled.

“The calendar will be turned upside down,” Dumontier said. “We’re used to starting the summer with the race in June. We’ve had it in June since 1982. We’ll have to make some concessions to show we are flexible. Maybe we will have to have it in the fall, but it will be colder.”

F1 says it is working with promoters on a revised 2020 schedule.