The Indy Racing League (IRL) is hitting Times Square on Monday for an event to raise awareness of its flagship race, the Indianapolis 500.
The racecar of Tony Kanaan, who has the pole position for the race, will be in Times Square, as will the race’s pace car. At the actual race, former Secretary of State Colin Powell is scheduled to drive the pace car, but IRL spokesperson Tom Savage said it is uncertain if Powell will be available for Monday’s event.
Savage, whose office is handling the event, said IRL’s goal is to raise public and media awareness of the racing league in the largest media market. The IRL chose New York over Los Angeles because of its population, its proximity to Indianapolis (a 90-minute flight) and because of the cooperation of the New York Sports Commission, which helped the IRL get the necessary permits to shut down Times Square.
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| Tony Kanaan and his Indy racecar will be in Times Square on Monday |
All 33 drivers who will race in the Indy 500, scheduled for May 29 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, will be dressed in their racing suits and helmets and line up for a group photo on Times Square’s Military Island.
“New York is definitely a market we are keying on,” Savage said. “We figure that if we can move the needle in New York, we can move the needle anywhere.”
The IRL will be the second motorsports league to use Times Square to raise awareness of its brand in the past six months. In December, the NASCAR New York City Victory Lap, a police-escorted procession of the Top 10 Nextel Cup series racers and cars that drove through the streets of New York, stopped traffic with a roar down Broadway.
That event and the accompanying NASCAR NYC Pit Stop Tour, which had race fans search for racecars at several New York landmarks and collect prizes for seeing each one, earned Grand Central Marketing the 2005 EMMA Award for Sports Marketing.
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