Formula E is considering expanding its footprint in North America. The series’ first foray into racing on a full permanent race circuit in Portland last month also marked the first event where new CEO Jeff Dodds had his boots on the ground since he assumed leadership June 5. The welcome, both for Dodds and the fans, made a lasting impression.
“(Portland International Raceway), for us, was a bit of an unknown,” Dodds said ahead of this weekend’s season finale in London. “We know that IndyCar’s there, we know NASCAR has been there. We weren’t sure what it would be like to go to a permanent track.
“I have to say — not just from me, but from a lot of the people that are longer in the tooth around Formula E — they were very, very pleasantly surprised by what happened in Portland. I had the opportunity to talk to a lot of the fans. (They) were queuing to get in, which I loved. That’s not typical of turning up to a Formula 1 or Formula E event in the same way, but it would be typical of IndyCar or NASCAR. We had a lot of IndyCar fans come to see what this was all about.
“The second thing is they were very complimentary that, when we turned up, we kind of built the circus. So all of a sudden there was infrastructure built and we put on a bit of a broader event. There’s music playing, things that they might not necessarily see at the (Portland) IndyCar race.
“The third thing that really surprised them was the competitive nature and the speed of the racing. We actually recorded our fastest ever speed in a Formula E race — I think it was 184-185mph, something like that…
“I also was there spending a bit of time with Michael Andretti — obviously three-time winner on that circuit — and he took the car out, was driving around and was raving about how well the electric cars perform on that track. So we were all surprised how well that worked and also how well we were embraced by the Portland race community.”
Formula E’s calendar for season 10 hasn’t been finalized yet, with three spots left to fill. While China is being looked at, Dodds has his sights set on at least one more race to feed the burgeoning market across North America.
“There are live conversations with multiple venues around the world to look at where we would fill those slots from — pre-existing venues where we’ve raced before, but also venues in mainland China and also other venues in North America,” he said. “That’s pretty exciting.
“We have Portland in the calendar for next year, but for me, North America is big enough to have more than one race in the series. I believe there are other, what I would call ‘tier one’ cities in the U.S. — whether it’s New York, Los Angeles, Vegas, Miami, Atlanta, wherever it might be –where there’s room to bring another North American race to the calendar. The market is big enough. We know from our manufacturer partners, the two biggest markets they would talk about candidly would be mainland China and North America. Therefore, we feel we have an obligation to race in the places that our biggest supporters and investors want us to race in.”
It remains to be seen where and exactly when the U.S. will see another round confirmed, but odds are that announcement won’t be too far off.
“There’s a window for us to conclude negotiations and lock those three venues down,” Dodds said. “By October, you’ll know for season 10. If one of those three isn’t another North American venue for season 10 — I won’t guarantee it — but I would be very confident that there’s other North American venues announced for season 11.”