Kyle Kirkwood of the United States races past the Princes鈥 Gates during a practice session at the Ontario Honda Area Dealers Indy on the Canadian National Exhibition Grounds in 色色啦 on July 19.聽
Kyle Kirkwood of the United States races past the Princes鈥 Gates during a practice session at the Ontario Honda Area Dealers Indy on the Canadian National Exhibition Grounds in 色色啦 on July 19.聽
The Honda Indy that has raced around Exhibition Place for 40 years will move in 2026 to Markham under a five-year agreement 鈥 a change sparked by scheduling conflicts with the FIFA World Cup but one that could see 色色啦 lose the race for decades to come.
The move, announced Wednesday morning, means 色色啦 will lose part of the $50 million the race added to Ontario鈥檚 economy and the 150,000 fans it attracted in 2024.
The race has been hosted at Exhibition Place since 1986 and is the second-longest running IndyCar street race. It had been operating on one-year contracts with the city the past two years.
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“There’s a lot of cities lining up right now to be an NTT IndyCar Series host,” said Jeff Atkinson, president of the race. “If we took a year off from Exhibition Place and Ontario, this event may never come back. So we did not want to be on a series of one-year revolving contracts.”
FIFA’s contract with Exhibition Place for the World Cup stretches to the end of July 2026, conflicting with the Honda Indy’s normal schedule of mid-to-late July, according to Don Boyle, CEO of Exhibition Place. With the CNE starting up on the grounds in mid-August, “there wasn’t another weekend we could move it to.”
The 2025 Honda Indy was the most successful ever held at Exhibition Place, Boyle said, with record suite sales and attendance.
Boyle said it is “definitely a concern” the race will never return, but it will have minimal financial impact. Exhibition Place will lose roughly $650,000 from the move, which Boyle believes it can make up through other events, potentially a Formula E race.
In Markham, the new temporary track will be built near the downtown core, between Kennedy Road, Enterprise Boulevard, Unionville GO tracks and Highway 407. The pit lane will be housed in the GO station parking lot and the track will snake around the Markham YMCA, York University’s Markham campus and the Markham Pan Am Centre.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not gonna be here for one year, we鈥檙e not gonna be here for five years,” said Bud Denker, president of the Penske Corporation, which owns IndyCar. “We鈥檙e gonna be here for decades in this marketplace.鈥
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The blueprint for Canada's newest race is here.
Are you ready for the ultimate duel, Markham? 馃槒
鈥 NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar)
The circuit will run 3.52 kilometres and feature “a double-sided pit lane, thrilling straightaways and technically challenging sectors,” a press release said. Markham has already begun early work on the track and festival site.
Frank Scarpitti, mayor of Markham, said the race will “transform the streets of our city into a car racing crucible, testing the limits of some of the world’s fastest car drivers and welcoming the world to watch it all unfold.”
The race weekend will run from Aug. 14 to 16.
Green Savoree, the company that organizes and promotes the race, cited the significant growth in the York region and its 鈥渆xcellent regional access鈥 via two 400-series highways, the VIVA transit system and Unionville GO station.
More to come
Mark Colley is a 色色啦-based general assignment reporter for
the Star. Reach him via email: mcolley@thestar.ca
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