HUDSON COUNTY – The chief promoter of the Grand Prix of America, a Formula 1 auto race on the Hudson County waterfront that has been in limbo for the past two years, signed a 15-year contract with the international racing circuit’s CEO this week, according to multiple reports. The contract all but solidifies that the race will take place, though a timeline has not been set.
Originally, the race was set to occur this summer in West New York and Weehawken. Now it may occur next summer.
Wayne Hasenbalg, the CEO of Sports & Exposition Authority, told NJ Biz that the race could potentially be run within a year.
Financial, construction and infrastructural setbacks caused the race to be postponed indefinitely in October, despite the fact that Sebastian Vettel, F1’s current world champion, test drove the course and called it one of the best he’d ever experienced. After the news of the postponement, the race’s financial backers became worried it would never take place.
However, the news of the deal signed by Bernie Ecclestone, the head of F1, and Leo Hindrey, Jr., the race’s promoter and CEO of the New York City-based media company InterMedia Partners, lessened their investors’ worries.
Hasenbalg said that the various bodies which had been set up to bring the race to New Jersey would now be reconvened after an indefinite hiatus.
He said he would be “reconnecting people who had already been involved and getting them engaged again.”
One major aspect of the event will be figuring out how to get spectators from New York City to Weehawken and West New York, where the race is set to be run.
“Just like the Super Bowl, there’s going to be a huge mass transit planning component to this,” Hasenbalg told NJ Biz.
The original race, which was supposed to be run this month, was expected to draw around 100,000 visitors to Hudson County. – Dean DeChiaro