Fontana gets IRL date in 2002.

The Indy Racing League will compete at California Speedway for the first time next season, as the oval racing series expands its schedule to 15 events.

The Fontana race will take on Sunday 24 March - at the opposite end of the season to the traditional CART finale at the same track - and will be a 400-mile event over 200 laps. The California Speedway race is the third event on the schedule, highlighted by the 86th running of the Indianapolis 500 on 26 May.

"The Los Angeles market is very important to our league from a corporate sponsorship and media awareness standpoint," series founder, and IMS president, Tony George said, "In addition, we experienced an unprecedented amount of positive response to
our oval racing product from fans throughout the 2001 season.

"I am confident this enthusiasm will continue as we grow even more in 2002, especially when the great race fans in Southern California experience the Indy Racing League. I know our teams and drivers are looking forward to all that California Speedway and the community has to offer."

The 2002 Indy Racing Northern Light Series schedule grows to 15 events, the largest in the history of the series,

"California Speedway is proud to welcome the IRL to our family of events," circuit president Bill Miller added, "We have been saying for some time that we want to grow the number of events at the speedway, and adding the IRL to our traditional schedule that we've had for the last five years takes another step toward accomplishing that goal. We look forward to working with the IRL as the series ventures to the West Coast for the first time."

California Speedway, which is owned by International Speedway Corporation, joins seven of its 'sister' tracks owned or partially owned by ISC on the 2002 Indy Racing schedule. The others are Homestead-Miami, Phoenix, Nazareth, Richmond, Kansas City, Michigan and Joliet-Chicagoland.

"We appreciate the efforts of Tony George and the IRL staff in making this event at California Speedway a reality," said John Saunders, the ISC's senior vice-president of operations, "Adding the IRL at California Speedway continues our company's commitment to the Southern California marketplace in providing additional motorsports events at the speedway, as well as further expanding our overall oval strategy with the Indy Racing League."

Indy Racing League calendar 2002

March 2 Homestead-Miami Speedway
March 17 Phoenix International Raceway
March 24 California Speedway
April 21 Nazareth Speedway
May 26 Indianapolis Motor Speedway
June 8 Texas Motor Speedway*
June 16 Pikes Peak International Raceway
June 29 Richmond International Raceway*
July 7 Kansas Speedway
July 20 Nashville Superspeedway*
July 28 Michigan International Speedway
August 11 Kentucky Speedway
August 25 Gateway International Raceway
September 8 Chicagoland Speedway
September 15 Texas Motor Speedway

[* denotes night race]