Indy Racing League teams headed for Australia’s Gold Coast will be using the not for points Surfers Paradise street race to make a serious start on season 2009.

Panther racing have announced their signing for 2009 Dan Wheldon is definitely on the way in his return to the team after racing this past season with Chip Ganassi. Wheldon’s spot in the Ganassi team will be taken by the 1999 Gold coast winner Dario Franchitti. 

The Scotsman is making a return to open-wheel competition after several years of NASCAR racing and his return will be viewed with considerable interest by his competitors, media and the fans.

Franchitti is certainly looking forward to his comeback to open wheel racing and the streets of the Gold Coast. “I think it (the 1999 win) was one of my best ever drives,” said Franchitti, “Australia is a fantastic race. The way they go about there before the race, the atmosphere – from the very first time I went down there in ’97 I’ve always loved it.”

Bruno Junquiera, one of five former Gold Coast Champs to return: Pic Chris Jones

Franchitti will be one of five former winners of the event to make the trip “down under” with Ryan Hunter-Reay and Bruno Junqueira both returning and Jimmy Vasser & Michael Andretti heading down as team co-owners.

Franchitti will team up with 2008 Champion New Zealand’s Scott Dixon. Dixon has obtained substantial support from his home country and organisers are expecting a large Kiwi attendance at the race.  Dixon also has a local connection having been born in nearby Brisbane but the Kiwi is very keen to down play the Aussie connection remaining staunchly patriotic to the land of the long white cloud.

The race could also be the end of an era in many respects with possibly the final appearance of the cars at Surfers and the last appearance for Craig Gore’s Team Australia. Gore has left IRL organisers in no doubt that his continued sponsorship of the Team PKV car for Will Power is fully dependent on the race continuing to be a part of the series.

The IRL have demanded an earlier date for the event, preferably in September which would place the race smack bang in the middle of the major football league finals and the already busy School Holiday period. The race would also be way too close to the Bathurst 1000, Australia’s most popular domestic motorsport event which would mean no appearance from the hugely popular Aussie V8 Supercars.

Queensland State Premier Anna Bligh has already committed to the events future but only on the proviso that it continues to have a substantial international component, It is believed that talks have already taken place between the event and organisers of the A1GP series that previously raced at Sydney’s Eastern Creek circuit. However with the well known antipathy between V8 Supercar boss Tony Cochrane and the A1 organisers it’s hard to see how those two categories could co-exsist. God knows it was hard enough for any workable relationship between the V8s and Champ Car.

The question is of course can the right formula be found to keep the IRL at Surfers, or will this be their first and last hurrah? And  what should replace the IRL on the streets of Surfers Paradise if that was to happen? 

You can have your say with the In Pit Lane Peoples Poll. Just scroll down to the lower right hand corner of the site and you can vote for your choice to replace the Indy Cars from 2009. Click on the ‘VIEW” button to check out the poll so far and leave your comments if you wish. We’ll read out the best ones on the In Pit Lane TV show next Tuesday night at 9.30pm when we’ll preview the 2008 Australian MotoGP with Aussie 125 Wildcard rider Jed Metcher and bring you some great Karting action from the City of Melbourne titles at VACC Park in Melbourne.