IndyCar Series’ Edmonton race back on?

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. is reporting that the Edmonton city council has approved plans to raise the extra $3 million necessary to restore the IZOD IndyCar Series race at the Canadian city for 2011.

Edmonton officials had announced earlier this month that it could not reach a deal with race promoter Octane Motorsports for the $3 million plus needed to repave a section of the track that had to be relocated due to the closure of one of the runways at the airport circuit, and the event was canceled.

However, the CBC says a city report now says $1 million could come from unidentified private sponsors and $2 million would be raised from a new 1,000-stall parking lot to be built near the track.

“What it means is that 10 months out of the year when we are not running the race, we would actually let parking happen on the paddock and the off-track areas that will be paid for the race,” Lorna Rosen, Edmonton's chief financial officer, told the CBC.

IndyCar Series officials haven’t uncorked a bottle of bubbly just yet. An amended deal has yet to be signed with race promoter Octane Motorsports. Rosen told CBC that she hopes that will happen this week.