Video, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo Announces IndyCar Grand Prix Returns Labor Day Weekend and Commits to Watkins Glen International Through 2018

Thank you, thank you. First, Michael Printoff has done a magnificent job operating Watkins Glen. Let's give him a big round of applause. Jay Frye, the President of Indy, welcome back to New York. You're going to be in New York for a long, long time to come so we're pleased to be with you. Senator O'Mara is a great advocate for the Glen and for the track and for the entire district and he has been tremendously helpful in advocating to get these funds passed by the Legislature. We would not be here today without Senator O'Mara so let's give him a round of applause. I just want to correct one thing the Senator said for accuracy because the press is here. He said this was his car. That's not true. But Michael Printoff and Mr. Frye have donated this to the State of New York, this car. There is a condition. It is for the exclusive use of the Governor in commuting on official business. I will never be late again. The State Police wanted to know where they sit. I said they can follow, which is fine. It's a big state. I thought we needed to move around a little faster and this will do it. I think we will have the license plate be G1. I think that works.

This is -- we were talking about the State Fair and the great tradition of the State Fair and how you need to rebuild and renovate to stay with the times if you want to stay ahead of it. Watkins Glen is very much the same story. It is part of racing history. Part of racing nostalgia. All the greats have been there. It is a magnificent location, but you need to rebuild; you need to innovate if you want to stay current. That is exactly what Michael Printoff did with the track in resurfacing the track. The state was proud to partner in that. It was a $10 million effort to repave the track and the early reports are the repaving has been fantastic. People are talking about it, not just as a world class -- not just a national class, but a world class race track. Congratulations to, first of all Michael on the renovations. On the repaving. We were proud to be your partner and you did it right and the results show already. Congratulations on that.

With IndyCar coming back, Watkins Glen now has a major series in every division. You have a major IMSA race, a NASCAR race, and now an IndyCar race. This is going to be an agreement for at least two years that IndyCar is going to be there. We're going to participate in the promotion of IndyCar over the next two years and we believe it's going to be a relationship that is much longer than that. Mr. Will Power is here, however he has forfeited his right to the vehicle as I have claimed possession. Let's welcome Mr. Will Power. I will introduce you in a moment, Mr. Power, you still don't get the car that is the price of tardiness. We are very strict here at the state. We will participate in the advertising with Watkins Glen in this IndyCar series and we think it is going to do great things for the track, and again, for the entire region. What we are trying to do here is tourism is big business, bringing people to the state is big business, over $100 billion in economic development from tourism. So it's working. Our I LOVE NY campaign is working.

It's working especially well in upstate New York, and one thing we have learned about tourism is that people come to visit a region, they don't just come to visit a destination, so you want to have a diversity of activities in that region. Not everyone likes to do everything. So look at what we are talking about today in Central New York, you can come to the State Fair, you can see the symphony that is in the amphitheater right across from the State Fair, we have the Bass Pro fishing experts, national experts, coming on Labor Day. We have IndyCar at Watkins Glen on Labor Day. We have the best wine and craft brewery, arguably, in the nation in Central New York.

So the synergy among these activities, advertising for the State Fair, advertising for Watkins Glen, advertising for Bass Pro, there is an activity that then has an exponential effect and that is what we are starting to do. Watkins Glen in and of itself is a jewel for this state. It really is a championship racing track. I have raced on it, it is fun, it is exciting, it is fast. I would like to say I won but that would not be totally true, and my daughter is here and I try and set a good example, but I gave it my best, and they didn't tell me where the turns were. But again, I'll end where I started.

Michael, Mr. Frye congratulations. Senator O'Mara thank you for all your hard work, my colleagues in the legislature, thank you for making the investment. It's not an individual assemblyman or Senator's district, the entire region is going to benefit from this. That is the intelligence that we brought today. With that, we will turn it over to Will Power who is one of the really great drivers who is familiar with Watkins Glen, who's familiar with Watkins Glen now on this repaving on this racetrack is night and day, it's a totally new track once it is repaved. The configuration stays the same but the surface of the track, and it's adhesion for the tires is everything, and that's why I brought Mike on before these renovations and Mr. Power knows about that so let's give a big round of applause to Will Power, the IndyCar driver.

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