IndyCar race proposal for Calgary sparks interest on city council

Several members of city council say they want to know more about Calgary potentially hosting an IndyCar race event.

Canada's only IndyCar driver,James Hinchcliffe,and his sponsor, Calgary entrepreneur,Ric Peterson, arecampaigning to bring the race to Calgary in 2017 or later.

Coun. Evan Woolley says it's an idea worth considering.

"We're really good at these big events. We know how to put them on," he said.

"I think any opportunity for exciting big events like this we've never had before are well worth... well worth looking at."

The annual IndyCar race in Toronto has been the only one in Canada since the last race was held in Edmonton in 2012.

Coun. Shane Keating says big cities should strive to have everything from opera to motor-sports for people to choose from.

He says he would like to know what would be expected from the city to make such an event work.

"Montreal used to have one, Edmonton used to have one and they were cancelled because it got to a state where they were asking for too much input from the municipality to make it run," he said.

"So we wouldn't do these for the sake of doing them unless they paid for themselves."