If you're hopeful that the proposed USGP at Indianapolis Motor Speedway will happen next year then the last few weeks have been slightly disconcerting.

At one time it was well-known that IMS was days away from making an announcement about their MotoGP event, but something prevented it from happening.

Since then there has been little more than a stony silence on the Indy USGP front. And what little has been emanating from IMS hasn't been overwhelmingly optimistic about a motorcycle race there in '08, with Speedway President Joie Chitwood reportedly expressing doubts about the event.

...a report on Dave Despain's Wind Tunnel talk show Sunday evening had it that IMS President Joie Chitwood has had reservations about MotoGP at his facility for some time because of a fear of low ticket sales...

Indianapolis Speedway works on a scale unknown in motorcycle racing—their Brickyard 400 NASCAR event attracts over 400,000 spectators and the Indy 500 once brought in double that number, or more. Moreover, two of their three big events (NASCAR, Indy 500 and F1) happen within a short window of one another, so when insiders suggest one of the factors exacerbating a solid MotoGP plan is simply IMS's spring and summer schedule, it's entirely plausible that they've been too busy to pursue MotoGP.

Insiders say now that the IMS schedule is freeing up they will begin due diligence with Dorna and get a plan in place to modify the track so it can hold a MotoGP event.

However, a report on Dave Despain's Wind Tunnel talk show Sunday evening had it that IMS President Joie Chitwood has had reservations about MotoGP at his facility for some time because of a fear of low ticket sales (presumably on an Indy scale, not a motorcycle race scale).

It's well-known that Chitwood and his boss, IMS's Tony George, are currently negotiating with Berni Eccelstone regarding the future of F1 at Indy.

It's not hard to imagine that if IMS starts getting static from Dorna regarding the MotoGP event, that perhaps they'll just turn the switch off.