IndyCar is racing outside the United States for the only time this season with this weekend’s Honda Indy Toronto. Although the contract for the event is set to expire this year, recent signs point toward a new deal that will keep Toronto on the NTT IndyCar Series calendar — which is just fine with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Christian Lundgaard, who also says he’d like to see IndyCar expand its footprint further outside the USA.
“I do think it’s important. Not necessarily just Toronto or Canada, but in my opinion, we need to go to South America,” said Lungaard. “We need to go more international. We need to do more fly-away races because that’s what we see in F1 right now — moving more and more over here and there. They’re sort of exploding because of that, just because there’s more people around that are aware. That’s a problem with this racing series being a national racing series. But at the same time, we do have the best racing product in the world.
“Obviously, not having raced an IndyCar before last year, every track was new. I had to understand the history of the races, the history of the circuits and all these kinds of things. I’m still trying to catch up on all of that but, after having done Toronto last year, it’s a beautiful city — I really enjoy going there. My best friend will be there for the race as well. He kept asking me which races should he come to, and I picked out a few that were better than others.
“I think that’s why it’s great that it’s on the calendar, and I actually didn’t know the contract was going to be up at the end of this year. I definitely hope they figure something out. If we need to go somewhere else in Toronto, move the track, I think I’ll be up for that as well, but [the current circuit] is a cool track for sure.
Where else would he like the series to go? The Dane admits that, selfishly, he’d love to see a Scandinavian IndyCar race.
“I definitely think we should,” he said. “There’s me and Benjamin [Pedersen]. We’ve actually got Josef [Newgarden] as well, who’s a half-Dane. We’ve got two Swedes. So I think we’ll have to fight over where it’s going to be!
“I know there were plans of actually building a proper racetrack in Denmark. I don’t know what’s happened to it but that would definitely be something that I would be up for and would definitely push for it.”
In the nearer term though, Lundgaard sees South America is a more realistic option for international expansion.
“Right now I don’t think it’s the right time for the series to move to Europe,” he said. “Obviously now with [Agustin] Canapino, I don’t think know if they’re looking for a race in Argentina or not. That would be a starting point. We’ll take it slow, but I do think we definitely need to move somewhere as well.”
More international drivers obviously help drive the push for international races for IndyCar, but Lundgaard feels the rationale goes deeper than that. Motorsport Images
IndyCar’s international contingent will be further bolstered at Toronto with New Zealand-based, Britain-born Swede Tom Blomqvist making his debut for Meyer Shank Racing, filling in for Simon Pagenaud. Lundgaard reckons the Canadian street circuit is a good place for an IndyCar premiere, especially for someone with Blomqvist’s racing résumé.
“With his experience in the [IMSA] LMDh car, they do run Long Beach and run the faster racetracks and longer racetracks as well. I think with his experience, he’ll be fine,” Lundgaard said. “I think he’ll be as competitive as the car will be. I do think it’s a tough track, but he has the experience and the talent to execute with his opportunity.”
Rather than a new circuit, the Dane thinks tires will be the biggest challenge for Blomqvist to overcome.
“I think it’s the difference in compounds,” he said. “We all hear that when you come into a racing series that has different compounds. It’s always difficult to know what extra you’ve got, when you put a softer compound on.
“I think he’ll do well, but it is a tough championship to just jump into and be competitive — even though I feel like the guys that are here now that have [had] a one-off race were all very competitive in their first race.”
While there are obviously special circumstances surrounding Blomqvist’s appearance — one Meyer Shank driver replacing another — the trend of young European racers looking at a future in IndyCar continues to gather steam. Lundgaard thinks it’s a natural word-of-mouth process.
“When I spoke to Callum [Ilott], after I did my first [IndyCar] race in 2021 and I came back to finish my season in F2, I said I just really liked the environment of the series and everything that the series does for the sport. It’s just fun. It reminds me a lot of go-karts. It’s a fun racing series, where I do feel like some of the racing series in Europe can be very political. You get to the point where you’re like, ‘OK, am I really enjoying this? Is this what I really want to do?’ I’m not going to say that you’re doubting yourself, but I think when I came here, I kind of got the spark for the sport again and it made racing fun. I would only say this series has become more competitive since then, so it’s only more fun now.”