The on-off Grand Prix of America, to be held on the streets of New Jersey, has reportedly secured a 15-year contract to host Formula 1.
The event, which was supposed to take place in a few weeks, was postponed by a year after running into both financial and planning issues.
That led to their pre-race contract being torn up by Bernie Ecclestone and Formula One Management because they had failed to meet the necessary requirements, according to organiser Leo Hindery.
“Bernie was 100 per cent correct in that we hadn’t satisfied his demands and we didn’t have a binding contract in place, and he had every right to question our ability to get it done,” he told NJ.com.
“We told Govenor [Chris] Christie, we were going to do it without any money from the state or the towns, and that made it very difficult. And it took us longer,” he admitted.
However with things now ironed out and construction having begun once again, Hindery says the race will go ahead in June of 2014 after securing a new long-term 15-year contract with FOM.
“We’re going to go racing sometime in June 2014, when Bernie Ecclestone and NBC Sports tell me to,” he added.
In addition to the contract, he also confirmed during the phone interview that all necessary local permits had been signed off and a new senior manager had joined the GP America team in the form of Marty Hunt.
“As we continue to get ready for 2014, I am pleased to welcome Marty Hunt as our newest senior executive,” he said. “Few people in our sport are as accomplished as Marty Hunt in getting the cars to the starting grid and giving the fans an exciting, safe race.”
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