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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndianapolis Motor Speedway and Indy Racing League corporate partners are wondering what the future holds after Tony George suddenly vacated his roles as boss of both of those organizations yesterday.
IMS and IRL officials were working the phones this morning to reach out to constituencies and allay fears about massive changes, said Speedway spokesman Fred Nation. Sources close to sponsors said there was concern about the operations’ directions.
IMS leaders still support the IRL and the events currently held at the Speedway, Nation emphasized.
“The board is supportive of the current direction,” Nation said.
A management team comprising veteran IMS executives W. Curtis Brighton and Jeffrey G. Belskus will head the Hulman-George companies effective today, replacing George.
“Any time there is change, there’s a natural element of suspense, anxiety,” said Zak Brown, CEO of Just Marketing International, a locally based firm that represents some of the biggest sponsors in motorsports.
But Brown said that, since the IMS’ and IRL’s new leaders come from within, that has helped allay some sponsors’ fears.
“It’s not exactly business as usual, but neither is the IMS world turned completely upside down,” Brown added.
Brighton, who was IMS executive vice president and chief legal counsel, will become president and CEO of Hulman & Co. Belskus, who was executive vice president and chief financial officer, will become president and CEO of Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corp.
George’s tenure as the leader of U.S. open-wheel racing and its biggest stage, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, was marked by tumultuous changes. Now George himself is being replaced – at the behest of a board led by his mother.
“These changes underscore our family’s commitment going forward to all of our companies, especially our commitment to the growth of the Indy Racing League and the sport of open-wheel racing,” Mari Hulman George, IMS chairwoman said in a statement. “We believe the Hulman-George family’s long stewardship of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, beginning in 1945, and our significant investment in the Speedway and in the IRL demonstrate that we have full confidence in all of our companies and that we intend to grow them in the future.”
According to a person familiar with the league’s inner workings, George was offered the chance to remain CEO of the Indy Racing League but declined. The person spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the negotiations were private.
In an e-mail to the AP, George declined to comment, saying he would release a statement next week.
Mari Hulman George said it is in the best interests of everyone that her son concentrate his efforts on the IRL – primarily, she said, as a team owner.
“We are pleased that he will continue to be an important part of the Indy Racing League as a team owner and as a member of our board of directors, and we wish him every success,” she said in a statement.
The Hulman-George family has run the Speedway, home of the Indianapolis 500, for six decades and also owns the IRL and Clabber Girl, a baking-powder company based in Terre Haute.
“Our board had asked Tony to structure our executive staff to create efficiencies in our business structure and to concentrate his leadership efforts in the Indy Racing League,” Mari Hulman George said. “He has decided that, with the recent unification of open-wheel racing and the experienced management team IMS has cultivated over the years, now would be the time for him to concentrate on his team ownership of Vision Racing with his family and other personal business interests he and his family share.”
George reportedly was asked by the family-dominated board of directors to step down in May, the week after the Indianapolis 500. But, he said at the time, “Contrary to published reports, I continue to serve as CEO of IMS.”
The reprieve was short-lived.
George has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in the past 13 years to make track renovations and keep the IRL, originally founded as an oval track-based rival to the open-wheel CART series, afloat.
The statement indicated the family businesses are not in trouble, but the Speedway and IndyCar series have been cutting back. Over the past six months, about 60 staff jobs were eliminated, and George’s wife, Laura, who co-owns Vision Racing with her husband and actor Patrick Dempsey, lost her job as an adviser.
Construction for a road course, new press tower and new pagoda cost about $100 million. Those facilities were built for a Formula One race that is no longer held in Indianapolis.
He also broke with tradition by bringing NASCAR and Grand Prix motorcycle racing to a track that had hosted only one race each year, the Indianapolis 500, until 1994.
But the cost to keep the track in good condition can be astronomical.
“This place wakes up every morning and eats money,” George said in May. “We spend a lot of money keeping it in the condition we do. Certainly the Indy Racing League has in the past required a lot of capital to keep it going when there was two competing series – and a lot of money was spent last year trying to unify.”
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