The 2019 racing season is over at Iowa Speedway. A new IndyCar Iowa 300 race event sponsor has got to be found.
IndyCar Series 300 at Iowa Speedway on Saturday July 20, ended in an unexpected way; at 1:14 a.m. on Sunday morning. Heavy rain is great for corn, not race cars. Green flag finally dropped at 11:45 p.m. Saturday night, after storms stopped rolling through and track dryers finished. Mercifully, Josef Newgarden hurried his Penske racer to a fast first place finish so everyone could go home before the sun came up on Sunday morning. At about 3 a.m. after the media center conference was over, my wife and I jumped into our F150 and headed back to the hotel, with breakfast just a short time away.
Jeanine and I love this track. Iowa Speedway is a very unique place, in the middle of corn fields race cars go up to 180-mph on “The Fastest Short Track On The Planet” as the track’s official slogan states. NASCAR owns the track and distance around is 0.875 of a mile, so just round it off to a mile. Wife and I took a pre-race walk around this track on Friday the 19th, during a heat index of 110-degress and lots of sun, and along the way up and down the steep banked turns I explained my perceptions regarding Iowa Speedway’s future. The track is a huge money generator for the Newton area. Let me share with you ideas to keep this wealth sustainable and larger than it’s ever been before.
Of immediate importance is keeping the NTT IndyCar Series Iowa 300 sponsored by agricultural industries. Iowa Speedway is the only NTT IndyCar Series race track that has a major national industry located right next to it’s property; corn agriculture. Iowa Corn Promotion Board ended their title sponsorship of the IndyCar Series Iowa 300 after last year.
“Nationally, we’ve had the second longest run as a sponsor with IndyCar and it’s been a great way to promote the power and performance of ethanol,” said Iowa Corn Promotion Board President Duane Aistrope, in August, after the 2018 race and 12 years of continuous sponsorship. It was a perfect match of sponsor and event, as IndyCar race engines use E85 fuel. That’s 85 percent ethanol from corn.
BRING ON THE TRACTORS! Manufacturers such as Kubota or John Deere would be a perfect fit for a new era of Iowa 300 sponsorship. Events such as new tractor and implement products on display, and demonstration tractor drives around the Iowa Speedway track would inspire young fans to pursue interest in agricultural sciences, corn cultivation geography, seed development, horticultural ecology and of course the advancement of corn ethanol as a world-wide motor fuel as just a few subjects of many.
BRING ON THE NEW TRACK PAVEMENT! During practice, qualifications and the race itself many IndyCar drivers were not happy with bumps around the track. Mill and overlay. That’s grinding off the old surface and applying new race formula asphalt. Use high-precision land survey vertical and horizontal measurements as the new surface is installed with special race track grip ingredients and you’ll have a gorgeous fast mile that will permit IndyCar speeds up to 200-mph. On a surface that’s smooth as glass.
BRING ON A NASCAR CUP RACE! By 2021 race season the top competition of NASCAR, during the same week as the IndyCar Iowa 300 would double or triple fan attendance guaranteed.
In the movie, “Field Of Dreams,” about a baseball diamond cut out of a Iowa farmer’s corn, there is that famous line, “if you build it they will come,” same thing for Iowa Speedway, a race track surrounded by corn. If you build this event as I have pictured, they will come.
William Hume writes nationally about motor racing, agriculture, transportation and infrastructure. Email him at humewilliam@hotmail.com.