Photo Credit: Shawn Gritzmacher/IndyCar
IndyCar announced Friday they will be going back to Watkins Glen International to race this year and Scott Dixon couldn’t be more delighted about it.
“You know, definitely excited,” he said. “I think I anybody asked me any event after the first time going to the Glen what my favorite track was, Indianapolis was a given one for the oval, but always referred to Watkins Glen.”
The New Zealander is a three-time winner at the historic permanent road course in upstate New York at the tip of the scenic Seneca Lake, with the last victoryV coming in 2007.
“Yes, we’ve had a lot of success there, I think quite a few podiums, three wins, and I think I should have had a fourth there if I wasn’t so silly and spun out under caution one year there,” he said. “But yeah, I love these old-school road courses that America has, and that is at the top of the list,” he said. “I know not just myself but everybody amongst the drivers has been talking about it. They can’t wait to get back there.”
The Glen will be the 15th race on the schedule, which was originally scheduled to be the Grand Prix of Boston, but the promoter pulled out at the end of April leaving a gap in the IndyCar schedule.
“I think everybody – well, I’ve probably been a little more happy than some of the others about it, but yeah, you know, I think none of us wanted to see it happen, but I think this it the best outcome,” he said. “It’s all very positive. It’s a place that IndyCar were obviously talking about going back to, a market that I think is an area that we need to be in, and we know that there’s great fans in upstate New York.”
Watkins Glen was just repaved this past year which could bring many unknown factors and excitement on race weekend.
“They can’t wait to hopefully schedule a test if we have any test days left to make it back to the Glen,” he said. “But very excited across the board, and I hope the fans are, especially in their part of the world, and hopefully we’re going to have a great showing, obviously good weather, and put on a fantastic show as I think with the repaving will definitely add to that.”
The race weekend will be September 1st to September 4th when the race will run to commence the weekend.
