IndyCar will have a new championship race for 2024, and it’s a race that was won by reigning champion Alex Palou last year.
Featuring as a non-championship event for 2023, the $1 Million Challenge was a 30-lap race which didn’t quite deliver the excitement expected.
However, it’s back to replace one of the Milwaukee Mile races for next year, and it doesn’t target the sort of audience that most races do.
The circuit is aiming to sell just 5000 tickets for the race, which would make it sort of an exclusive event by IndyCar standards.
Thermal Club aiming for ‘different vibe’ with IndyCar race
There has been much talk lately about how IndyCar needs to expand its audience and become better at marketing.
The Grand Prix of Arlington in Dallas appears to be an appropriate step toward that, however, the Thermal Club has a different approach, as General Manager Nicholas Rhoades told RACER.
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“IndyCar has been great to deal with and work with, so they’ve been really helpful with Jay Frye and his whole team.
“We’re excited to be able to bring in a lot more spectators in next year. We learned a lot from things to make it work efficiently, so we’re gonna build off of that, try to bring in quite a few more spectators and make it make sense for us and hopefully fun for everybody.
“I think everybody last season really enjoyed it, the people that were here. We’re a little bit of a different vibe than your normal IndyCar weekend with more intimate settings. We’re not going to have Long Beach-size crowds.”
Will Thermal Club’s ‘different’ approach work?
The track claims to be working with the series to deliver a different experience to fans, but with tickets priced at $450 each, will it work?
Last year, the admission price started at $2000 before it was slashed to $500 and fans were refunded who had already purchased tickets.
That won’t have done the event any favours, and the circuit looked embarrassingly deserted throughout the weekend.
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That’s not to say that they can’t be a success next time around, but a drastically different approach will be required to deliver the desired results.
The 1.7-mile circuit has all the tangibles to deliver a thrilling race, so it’s over to the drivers to produce a spectacle for those at home.