IndyCar Series speaks on Markham embarrassment

There’s one well-known rule within Penske Entertainment, the IndyCar Series and all of the related businesses owned by its leader: Do not embarrass Roger Penske.

That cardinal rule was broken this week by one of IndyCar’s most established event suppliers as Green Savoree Race Promotions, the company responsible for the St. Petersburg, Mid-Ohio, and Portland races, failed to launch its newest venture, the Markham Grand Prix in greater Toronto, Canada. In doing so, they left Penske, the series’ teams, drivers, and manufacturers, and thousands of fans to waste an entire day at the track before pushing the event’s start to Saturday.

Announced at the beginning of September in 2025, GSRP had nearly one full year to adequately plan and prepare for going live as advertised on Friday morning.

“IndyCar is incredibly disappointed that our promoter was not able to complete the track build on time, despite significant support from our team on site,” said series president Doug Boles.

The reasons for the lack of readiness are many, starting with unfinished bridge construction, unfinished safety barriers, unfinished cabling, and an insufficient number of tire bales to line potential areas of impact around the 12-turn, 2.2-mile first-time street course. Staffing shortages to complete the work also contributed to the delays.

Those in attendance were left to wonder how the company owned by Kim Green and Kevin Savoree fell short in such a grand manner.

“Ontario has always been a magnificent market for our sport, and the number of spectators that attended today is a shining example of that. New events can always pose logistical challenges, and we join in the frustration of our loyal fans and apologize,” Boles said.

Provided Saturday’s plans are executed, cars from a range of series will run from 8am to 8pm ET.

“Once we hit the track, we believe the circuit will be spectacular,” Boles added. “We would like to thank the city of Markham for the major support it has made to provide IndyCar a layout, which is fast, technical and will put on a terrific show on Sunday.”