A street race in Rio de Janeiro will open next year's IndyCar Series schedule, and will be the first of four consecutive road/street events to start the 2010 season, according to Robin Miller of SpeedTV.com. After round two in St. Petersburg, the series' other new venue – Barber Motorsports Park – will host the inaugural Indy Grand Prix of Alabama on April 9-11.
The oldest active circuit in the world, the Milwaukee Mile, has been dropped for now, but could reappear should an event promoter emerge. In that event, it will fill its traditional date on the weekend after the Indy 500. With Richmond International Raceway being cut, too, that creates a 17-race schedule of which eight are ovals.
Toronto and Edmonton are expected to be on back to back weekends for the Canadian double-header, and it's notable that one of the teams' complaints this year – the expense of switching the cars back and forth between oval and road/street setups – has been addressed. The schedule has four road/street courses followed by four ovals, five road/street courses, and four ovals. Dates will be revealed tomorrow, but the order is as follows:
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
St. Petersburg, Florida
Birmingham, Alabama
Long Beach, California
Kansas City, Kansas
Indianapolis, Indiana
Fort Worth, Texas
Newton, Iowa
Watkins Glen, New York
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Lexington, Mid-Ohio
Sonoma, California
Chicago, Illinois
Sparta, Kentucky
Motegi, Japan
Homestead, Florida