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As of 2013, Formula One will have a race in New Jersey. Organisers have today officially confirmed that Weehawkan will see F1 cars race on the shoreline of the Hudson river, minutes away from New York City.
Associated Press
WEEKHAWKEN, N.J. — A Formula One race in New Jersey with the Manhattan skyline as a backdrop is now officially on the calendar for June 2013.
The inaugural Grand Prix of America at Port Imperial is set for June 16. New Jersey race promoter Leo Hindery Jr. says the date was announced Friday by the FIA as part of a 20-race schedule in 19 countries.
The 3.2-mile Grand Prix of America will run along the Hudson River through the towns of Weehawken and West New York, N.J. — at speeds estimated to reach up to 200 mph on straightaways.
Race organizers say it will be the first Formula One race in the New York-New Jersey area in the 63-year history of the FIA Formula One World Championship.
While Austin is preparing itself to host its first grand prix, the New Jersey race organisers are finding
themselves subject to the same contract-shredding treatment from Bernie Ecclestone that the Texans
experienced last year.
With bills not being paid as quickly as Ecclestone would like, the F1 supremo this week said that he had torn up the New Jersey race contract, and that the grand prix was in trouble.
Ecclestone was quoted in the Guardian as saying that the New Jersey race organisers “have not complied with
the terms and conditions of the contract which is now gone anyway. They don't have a contract.”
It is a familiar refrain to fans of Formula One, who have seen the F1 boss threaten an end to contract after contract as a means of prompting recalcitrant race organisers to pay their debts.
Ecclestone is too wily a negotiator ever to close the door entirely. Instead, he piles on the public pressure as a view to achieving his ends, this week reminding the New Jersey race organisers that last week’s meeting of the World Motor Sport Council could see the event struck off the calendar completely.
“We are pretty close to the final deadline,” Ecclestone told the Guardian. “We have a world council meeting coming up. I think if somebody got behind them it could happen in 2013 because they have come a long way with the circuit.”
Ecclestone appears to be rather nonchalant about the prospect of losing the race which will provide him with the longed-for backdrop of the Manhattan skyline, and his attitude has led to all manner of rumours in the paddock, the latest of which sees Formula One setting up camp in Long Beach under a long-term contract to be announced in the not-too-distant future.
The current list of incoming races is a long one, with Russia set to join the calendar in 2014, and Mexico, South Africa, Argentina, Thailand and France all reportedly under consideration.
Reports are surfacing that New Jersey’s Formula One Grand Prix, scheduled for 2013, will be postponed.
The American-Statesman contacted a spokesman for the race Thursday afternoon and was told there would be a press release early Friday.
The spokesman would not confirm that the race was being postponed, but did not deny it.
In the stop-and-start saga of the Grand Prix of America, it now appears Formula 1 race cars will not be roaring through the streets of Weehawken and West New York after all, at least not in 2013.
An official announcement is expected today, but sources told The Star Ledger Thursday the race, tentatively scheduled for June, has been postponed because local organizers haven’t raised enough sponsorship money and are behind in obtaining permits needed to alter local streets that will make up the 3.2-mile race course.
"Some of it is construction issues," said one source who asked not to be named because he was not at liberty to discuss the matter publicly. The sponsors are still hoping to stage the event sometime in 2014, the source said.
F1 events cost can cost $100 million or more to stage, including franchise fees, construction work and other costs.
The New Jersey race, formally known as the Grand Prix of America at Port Imperial, was tentatively scheduled for June 16 and was one of 20 races on tap for next year.
The race’s local sponsor is a consortium headed by former YES Network CEO and retired part-time racer Leo Hindery Jr.
Steve Sigmund, a spokesman for Hindery’s team, would not discuss whether the race has been postponed.
"We’ll have a statement on it tomorrow," Sigmund said yesterday.
Word that the race would not take place in June, as scheduled, was first reported Thursday by the Jersey Journal and posted on nj.com, the online home for both the Jersey Journal and The Star-Ledger.
Neither Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner nor West New York Mayor Felix Roque returned calls from The Star-Ledger.
Hindery and Gov. Chris Christie announced last October that the race would be run along a 3.2-mile circuit through Weehawken and West New York, with the Manhattan skyline as a backdrop. F1’s biggest star, two-time reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel of Germany, helped fuel excitement when made several test runs along the course. F1 racing involves low-slung, single-occupant, ultra-sophisticated cars traveling at over 200 mph.
Concerns over whether the race would actually happen began to surface last month when the head of Formula One, British billionaire Bernie Ecclestone, told a racing journalist that Hindery’s team had missed several deadlines and no longer had a franchise agreement to run the New Jersey race.
But Hindery’s team played up news that the New Jersey race had been included on the Formula One 2013 calendar as ratified by the World Motor Sport Council, F1’s sanctioning body. Doubts remained, however, because Grand Prix of America was the only race among the scheduled events for 2013 to be accompanied by an asterisk, indicating it was yet to be confirmed.
Christian Sylt, author of the F1 trade guide Formula Money, told The Star-Ledger in an email yesterday that Ecclestone had expressed doubts about the race’s prospects as recently as this week.
"I had lunch with Ecclestone on Tuesday," Sylt said, referring to a signing ceremony for his latest book, "Though the Eyes of Formula 1." "And the topic of New Jersey came up. He confirmed that the organizers are well behind schedule but said that it is still theoretically possible for the race to take place in 2013 if they get an investor.
"The crucial point to make here is that, from Ecclestone’s comments, it is clear that the organizers do not have enough funding to complete the project, which would directly contradict the statements from them and Governor Christie," Sylt wrote.
When Gov. Chris Christie announced news of the Formula One race last October, he said the economic impact would be akin to the towns hosting the Super Bowl. Officials expected the three-day event to attract 100,000 visitors and generate $100 million in economic activity.
The local sponsors went to great lengths promoting the event, including making promotional videos.
Earlier this month, Christie said Hindery had assured him the race was "absolutely happening." Christie’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday's developments.
mx_tifoso wrote:Pup and Strad, can you please share your sources? Tyia
Pup wrote:I guess we'll know Jersey's fate in just a few hours...
Reports are surfacing that New Jersey’s Formula One Grand Prix, scheduled for 2013, will be postponed.
The American-Statesman contacted a spokesman for the race Thursday afternoon and was told there would be a press release early Friday.
The spokesman would not confirm that the race was being postponed, but did not deny it.