The inaugural Marlboro Challenge was held at Tamiami Park, and featured a field of race winners, pole position winners, and top drivers in the points standings from the 1987 season. Pennsylvania International Raceway (1990, 1992).The non-championship race will be the first open-wheel championship race in Riverside County, California since the 1983 Budweiser 500K at the former Riverside International Raceway, 75 miles northwest of The Thermal Club. The idea came after the NTT Ind圜ar Series in 2023 held its preseason open test at The Thermal Club. The event is scheduled for March 22-24, 2024. The winning team and assigned member will win $1,000,000. The top six finishers in each group participate in the Thermal $1,000,000 Challenge. The field will be determined by a heat race with each group. There will be a standard qualifying session, after which teams are separated into two groups. Each team will be drawn with a member of The Thermal Club at the draw party. The distance was typically one half the accompanying points-paying race distance (≈200 miles).Īll teams will participate, part of an Open Test in Thermal, California. The race distance each year was approximately 100 miles, which normally required one pit stop for fuel. In most years the event was held in conjunction with the final race weekend of the season, but in some years it was at the second-to-last race. If the field was still small, it could be filled out by top race finishers (most second places, third places, etc.) in the current season's standings. The selection criteria were as follows: all race winners and pole position winners since the previous year's Marlboro Challenge previous year's season champion and defending Indianapolis 500 winner. In the other editions, ten drivers were selected. Twelve drivers qualified for the 1987 race, although only ten started the race. Details were announced on Septemduring the INDYCAR Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey season finale. In the INDYCAR era, the race is scheduled to be conducted in 2024 as the INDYCAR Thermal $1,000,000 Challenge. After 1992, the race was discontinued, in part because Phillip Morris reorganized its race sponsorship after the Marlboro Grand Prix of New York fell through. In the CART era, the race was held from 1987–1992, sponsored by cigarette brand Marlboro as the Marlboro Challenge. In both eras, the race was considered a non-points exhibition race, and did not count towards championship standings or official statistics. The INDYCAR Thermal $1,000,000 Challenge is a non-championship all-star race in American Championship Car classes, held over two different eras, the CART PPG Cup (1979-2008) era and once in the INDYCAR era (2008-present) era.
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