Report suggests spending $3M to modify track for Indy

Council should approve spending an extra $3 million to prepare the track for the Edmonton Indy car race, using money from parking revenues and private partners, a city report says.

The report released Friday recommends putting in $2 million from parking revenues and $1 million from unidentified private partners, money needed to modify the track.

It will be used for hard surfacing required for the grandstand, public areas and paddock, the report says, adding annual parking revenues from the hard-surfaced site should reach $450,000.

City officials announced Nov. 3 that the 2011 race was cancelled because they couldn’t reach a deal with Montreal-based Octane Racing Group, which had agreed to run the event for the next three years.

The main obstacle was deciding how to cover the cost, mainly paving, of switching the track from the west to the east side of City Centre Airport so the facility can keep operating after one of the two runways was closed in August.

That expense was estimated at about $3 million.

The city has already decided to put in $5.5 million worth of sponsorship and $1.5 million worth of free police, transit and other services over three years.

The race has run up about $12 million in deficits paid by the city over the last three years.

The issue will be discussed by city council Friday afternoon.