» IndyCars: New layout for Edmonton

Officials for the Edmonton IndyCar Series race have unveiled the new circuit layout to be used when the championship hits the city in the Northern Hemisphere summer.

The event had initially been dropped from the 2011 season calendar due to a disagreement over changes in funding for the event, when the promoter (Octane Management) and the city council were at loggerheads over who should pay for revisions to the circuit, which is run on the city airport’s runways.

But an agreement had recently been sought to allow for a resolution to be negotiated, with the organisers revealing a 2.256-mile, 13-turn, anticlockwise circuit built around the airport’s eastern runway.

One of the criticisms of the original layout was that its high-speed layout made overtaking difficult, but the new configuration presents three potential passing opportunities around the lap.

“One of the big things we needed to focus on with this course was how to make the show better, and I think we’ve achieved that,” said Tony Cotman, one of the design consultants on the project.

“There were restrictions [in the design] relating to the airport, but I think we can create a much better actual race track for racing on – and obviously that’s what people come to see. It will be better.”