The A1GP series has approached organisers of the Gold Coast Indy car race expressing an interest in replacing  the Indy cars should they decide not to return next year.

Speaking to the local newspaper “The Sunday Mail”, former World Formula One Champion and A1GP team franchise holder Alan Jones said that the self proclaimed World Cup of Motorsport was eager to fill the breach should the American based Indy series pull out.

“I have made no secret of the fact that we would love to take their place,“ said Jones. “Our cars lap three to four seconds quicker than the IRL cars going around the Gold Coast this weekend, We have 25 countries competing,… and many of the countries are in the preferred trading area for Australia – Asia and the Middle East.“

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has said that an International Openwheel event was crucial to the events future but few International series of any note have shown interest in the Australian market with the exception of A1GP.

The two Australian A1GP races held so far were less than a huge success but Jones, like V8 Supercar boss Tony Cochrane blames the much maligned Eastern Creek venue for the failure.

With a new street race in Indonesia scheduled for this current season a race on the Gold Coast would be both feasible and sensible.

The series is no doubt struggling but the new Ferrari cars look and sound the part and with the participation of so many teams from the Asia Pacific region involved interest from the global motorsport media would be  a good deal more widespread than the increasingly insular all the way with USA Indy Cars.