Indy car drivers James Hinchcliffe and Alex Tagliani flew into Toronto on Monday, a day after final qualifying at Indianapolis (James 9th; Tag 11th), to talk about next weekend’s Indy 500 and to beat the drums for the Honda Indy Toronto scheduled July 12-14 at Exhibition Place.
That they are both optimistic about doing well in the 97th Greatest Spectacle In Racing, let there be no doubt. That they are both apprehensive about this year's Honda Indy, ditto.
The reason? This July’s Indy will be unlike any other in the 27-year-history of the event that started life in 1986 as the Molson Indy. There will not be one feature race through the streets of the CNE that weekend, but two complete rounds of the 19-race championship.
This has never been done before, despite what some of the IZOD IndyCar Series’ drum beaters would have you believe.
Yes, previously there were a few race weekends that featured "twin" events. That means, instead of one 250-lap race, they would throw the checkered flag after the first 125 laps and let everybody have a rest and maybe change the oil in the cars and then they’d roll them out again and have another 125-lap race.
But this is different. Totally different.
On Saturday of race weekend, the cars will line up in their qualifying order (time trials will be held on Fri., July 12, which will continue to be a no-admission Fan Day) and be flagged off for an 85-lap race around the 2.824-kilometre (1.755-mile) street circuit.
After the checkers, the winner will be interviewed on TV and the trophies presented to the first three finishers. Usually, at this point, the cars would be loaded onto transporters and driven off to the site of the next race.
But not this time.
The next day, Sun., July 14, they will do it all over again. A complete race program will be run off, with winners and losers and points awarded and the whole shebang.
Said Tagliani: "The two Toronto races are gonna be really, really hard. The crew guys, they work all weekend long, the car has to be repaired, be rebuilt, you have to look at the gearbox, the drive shaft. I mean that’s a lot of s--t to do.
"When you have, like 12 hours to do all that, that’s even worse. You don’t have a week to get it ready for the next race.
"It’s going to be very demanding for the drivers. James, he has blisters on his hands on Monday (after a ‘normal’ race). Now you wake up Sunday after a complete race Saturday, how you gonna feel about driving with blisters on Sunday?
"I’m preparing myself. I have a buddy that imports hyperbaric chambers and I’m
going to get in for an hour every night and replenish my body with oxygen. I want to try everything I can so that when I wake up Sunday morning, I’m going to feel like it is Saturday morning."
Hinchcliffe was a little more philosophical about the whole business. After all, Toronto is the second "two-race" weekend, with Detroit being the first. And the first of those two races in the Motor City is only six days after the Indy 500.
"Whether you want it or not, it’s coming," said the winner of two of the four IndyCar races to date. "It’s the situation we’re in.
"The first one (Detroit) comes right after the month of May, which is difficult because you can’t train correctly; you’re in the car every day (in Indianapolis in May).
"It’s going to be a huge, huge challenge but, ultimately, I’ll be totally okay with it if it’s a good show and the fans of Toronto enjoy it because that’s what we’re here for: the fans."
One individual pumped up about the two races is event president and general manager, Charlie Johnstone.
"We have practicing and qualifying on Friday; how dynamic is that?" he said. "And we have a full race on Saturday and a full race on Sunday. From an operations standpoint, it’s the same but now we have a bigger show.
"With the support races (Firestone Indy Lights, Star Mazda Series, etc.) and the Indy car races, the on-track action will be non-stop from 8 in the morning till 5:30 or 6 in the afternoon."
Johnstone said there will be a change in the approach to what previously was known as Free Friday.
"We still won’t be charging admission for Friday," he said, "but the aim of Free Friday was to raise money, as well as awareness, for the Children’s Wish Foundation. Previously, if you wanted to make a donation, it was voluntary; now, if you want to come in on Friday you will have to make a donation.
"There’s value in what we’re putting on the track, particularly now with the qualifying on Friday. Honda and the Honda Dealers of Ontario are going to match dollar for dollar what’s raised at the gate so it’s good all the way around."
Johnstone said ticket prices have been lowered this year but real value will come from the purchase of a two-day weekend pass or seat.
"For Saturday and Sunday, a General Admission ticket of $50 gets you in both days. We’ve moved around some grandstands so we’ve opened up some new General Admission viewing areas.
"And there’s all sorts of stuff going on, There’s a craft beer festival and a food festival, there’s music and all sorts of interactive displays going on and there’s going to be some pretty incredible car racing going on out on the track, too."
I asked Johnston if he thought the general public knows there are two complete races this year and not just the usual one?
"No, not yet," he said. "But all of our marketing and communications is only set to start after the Indianapolis 500. The motorsport fans know, the motorsport community knows but we have to reach out to the general public."
With help from Hinchcliffe and Tagliani, that "reaching out" got a kick start on Monday.
In warm sunshine and in front of a monster crowd, Louise-Phillipe Dumoulin of Trois-Rivieres, Que., won the Vortex Brake Pads 200 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Sunday.
Jeff Lapcevich of Grimsby was second and Jason Hathaway of Dutton, Ont., was third in the opening race of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series stock car racing season.
Defending champion D.J. Kennington of St. Thomas finished fourth and Robin Buck of Campbellville was fifth. The rest of the Top Ten: Kerry Micks of Mt. Albert, Ty Dillon of Charlotte, N.C. (a Camping World Truck Series regular doing reconnaisance for the truck race at CTMP on Labour Day weekend), Noel Dowler of Sherwood Park, Alta., Trevor Seibert of Williams Lake, B.C., and Brad Graham of Glencoe, Ont.
It was the first NASCAR Canada victory for Dumoulin, who also races sports cars (ALMS and Rolex Grand Am).
Two of the race favourites were eliminated early in the race. Pole-sitter J.R. Fitzpatrick of Cambridge dropped out with a broken drive shaft and two-time Canadian Tire champion Scott Steckly of Milverton crashed. He wasn't injured but his trip into the tire wall in Turn Three was spectacular.
Steckly said he might have hit some oil, he wasn't sure, but that "I lost the front" end and couldn't help hitting the tires.
"It's awful (the crash)," he said. "I feel badly for my crew, who worked so hard, and for all my sponsors, particularly Canadian Tire."
Dumoulin, a driving coach in his "off hours," said he was delighted to have won. He finished fifth a year ago in this race.
"The sponsors gave us a great program over the winter," he said, adding he likes racing at Old Mosport and has wonderful memories of competing at the Bowmanville-area circuit years ago when he raced in Formula 1600.
He said his plan was to save his car - prepared for him by Steckly, by the way - for the end of the race, to save his brakes and to keep calm.
Asked about the calibre of competition in the Canadian Tire series, Dumoulin said it was second to none, pointing out that "ex-F1 guys" (Max Papis) and "old IRL guys" (Alex Tagliani) have raced in the series and haven't dominated.
Lapcevich said he'd wanted to do well to honour the memory of his father, Joe Lapcevich, who died recently. "The support of family, friends and sponsors" was amazing, he said.
He said he'd tried to rattle Dumoulin in the last few laps but had wound up rattling himself instead. "I overshot Turn One," and by the time he regained controlf of his car, Dumoulin was too far in front to catch.
Hathaway, who has entered all 76 races since NASCAR purchased the old CASCAR series from founder Tony Novotny and rebranded it the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, scored his best career finish. He was eighth here a year ago.
Oh, by the way, just to get all of the proper sponsor plugs in: the name of the race, the series and the locale, officially, is:
The Pinty’s presents the Vortex Brake Pads 200; the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series presented by Mobil 1; Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
OTHER RACING
The Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Michelin held its second race of the weekend. David Ostella of Maple, who raced in Indy Lights in recent years, took the checkered flag in Platinum Cup over Saturday’s race winner Spencer Pigot. For the second straight day, Tim Sanderson was the victor in Gold Cup.
Sunday's racing action also saw the Canadian Touring Car Championship complete their weekend doubleheader. Scott Nichol took the win in Super Touring over Benjamin Distaulo. Michel Sallenbach was first in the Touring Class and Karl Wittmer took the victory in B-Spec.
In Canadian Supercar, Frank Fusillo went to the top step of the podium in the S1 class over Guy Leclerc. Simon Dion-Viens was first in S2.
The final race of the weekend saw Florida native Doug Peterson win the SCCCA Trans-Am Series race over defending Series champion Tony Ave.
Jimmie Johnson won the NASCAR All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway Saturday night, or Sunday morning - I'm not sure which. It was the witching hour, in any event. Johnson, who won the non-points, gimmicky event for the fourth time, took home a cheque totalling more than $1 million.
Meantime, at Brands Hatch in England, Canadian driver Robbie Wickens finished a career-best third in the German Touring Car Series (DTM) race there. Wickens joined another Canadian, Quebec driver Bruno Spengler, on the podium. Spengler finished second behind winner Mike Rockenfeller. Wickens was in a Mercedes, Spengler in a BMW and Rockenfeller in an Audi. Watch the video here.
Said Wickens: "This is my first podium in the DTM and, what's more, it comes after starting from 13th on the grid at Brands Hatch where overtaking is notoriously difficult. I certainly wasn't counting on that before the race. My target was just to finish in the points.
"To make that happen, I knew I would have to get off to a good start and overtake the drivers on the prime tires. This strategy worked well. I was pleasantly surprised by my race pace and I was even able to go past drivers on options when I was on primes. The middle stint went perfectly for me. I had two excellent pit stops and was able to control my part of the race right through to the end.
"Afterwards, I was in the middle of an interview when I was told to hurry along to the podium. So after a physically draining 98-lap race, I had to run the full length of the pit lane to the podium ceremony. But it was well worthwhile. It was a great feeling to taste champagne for the first time in my DTM career."
So you leave Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, and you go out for dinner and then you stop off with the Designated Driver and have a little party with friends and you arrive home to find out that there is a surprise driver on pole at Indianapolis and half of the race fans in Toronto are browned off at Sportsnet.
Let's begin with Indy qualifying.
Ed Carpenter, stepson of Indy Racing League founder Tony George and a racer who came up the old-fashioned way through midgets, sprint cars and the Silver Crown dirt champ cars, won the pole Saturday for next weekend's 97th Indianapolis 500.
Will Power and Ryan Hunter-Reay, who had pretty much set the pace leading up to today's Fast Nine final qualifying sprint, wound up sixth and seventh, respectively.
Canadians James Hinchcliffe of Oakville and Alex Tagliani of Montreal qualified ninth and 11th.
Rookie Carlos Munoz, an Indy Lights racer who brought the money for a crack at Indianapolis, will start second while his teammate, Marco Andretti will go off third. E.J. Viso is fourth (Munoz, Andretti, Viso, Hunter-Reay and Hinchcliffe all race for Andretti Motorsport, meaning all of the team's cars made it into final qualifying) and A.J. Allmendinger was fifth and fastest of the Team Penske cars.
Twenty-four cars qualified. Ten drivers will try Sunday for the remaining nine places.
By the way, the first 10 cars were powered by Chevrolet. Tagliani was the fastest Honda car in 11th.
As mentioned, Sportsnet - apparently - dropped the ball big-time. It took over televising the IZOD IndyCar Series this season from TSN. Although I missed the frustration, I heard from a bunch of my readers who were not happy that there was no coverage of the run for the pole late in the day.
Wrote one: "I have no idea if the final shootout for pole was even televised. And if so, why Sportsnet failed to show it, as promised. I channel surfed all the Rogers channels between 6 and 7 p.m. In fact they didn’t say anything at all, and not a peep on any of their ‘tickers.’ Not that it was further postponed due to rain, or who actually won. Nothing."
Wrote another: "Early coverage was on The Score. But nothing in the late afternoon or early evening. NBC also broke away for Preakness coverage and only showed final few of top 9. IndyCar switched to live streaming on top 9 but couldn't get their act together to in time to show Hinch. There is no excuse for no Canadian coverage. Twitter is lit up with angry viewers on both sides of the border about what happened today."
I, personally, have never been in favour of protectionism of any kind. Keeping ESPN and the NBC Sports Network and other U.S. all-sports channels out of Canada in order to protect TSN and Sportsnet results in nonsense like this.
I've said it time and again, they wouldn't dare do this to baseball fans, or hockey fans, or any kind of fans other than race fans.
Race fans battled back, of course, in the good old days of grey market satellite television where a post office box address in Niagara Falls, N.Y., got you direct access to complete coverage of things like Indy 500 time trials on American stations.
I'm afraid as long as racing sells itself to TV networks, we'll just have to continue putting up with the insults. But if they live-stream all of Indy - practice and qualifying from the first moment each day to the last, even for a fee - I, for one, would say sayonara to television.
EARLIER
J.R. Fitzpatrick today stormed to pole position for Sunday's NASCAR Canadian Tire Series' Pinty's presents the Vortex Brake Pads 200, the opening race of the 2013 season and the feature event of the annual Victoria Day Weekend Speedfest.
And with a time of one minute, 23.286 seconds, the Cambridge speedster set a new track record for stock cars at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, formerly Mosport, north of Bowmanville.
Louis-Phillippe Dumoulin of Trois-Rivieres, Que., will start second on Sunday and Scott Steckly of Milverton, a former series champion, will start third.
Nearly 30 cars from across the country will take the green flag in the race scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Sunday. The race will be telecast by CTV.
In other racing, Guy Leclerc won the opening race of the Supercar season, Scott Nicol was first in the opening race of the Canadian Touring Car Series season and Spencer Pigot won the first race of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada series.
In SCCA Pro Racing Trans-Am, Simon Gregg won the pole and set a new track record with a time of 1:15.614. Defending Series champion Tony Ave was second.
EARLIER
Pole day qualifying is now under way at Indianapolis with Will Power of Team Penske in first place at the moment. His lap of 228.844 miles an hour just nipped defending series champion Ryan Hunter-Reay's 228.282 mph.
Others quick out of the box today - qualifying was held up by rain - were Indy Lights driver Carlos Munoz (third) and oval specialist Ed Carpenter (fifth). Canadians James Hinchcliffe of Oakville and Alex Tagliani of Montreal were both in the top ten.
Once upon a time, the fastest driver on the first day of time trials won the pole with the field filled up and bumping taking place on other qualifying days. Nowadays, there are eliminations and fasts nines and fast sixes and it's all very confusing. Sometime around 7 o'clock tonight, the pole winner will be decided and the world will know - unless the world will have moved on, it being 7 o'clock on Saturday night and all.
Two observations. The Indy 500 might continue to be the Greatest Spectacle in Racing but no longer can they say the 33 best racing drivers in the world are in the race. Why?
The fact that Munoz is third fastest means that just about anybody can drive these cars. Maybe not race them, but certainly drive them. That he is doing this as a rookie, in his first IZOD IndyCar Series race that also happens to be the Indy 500, the world's most famous race, is close to being ridiculous. Mario Andretti, or A.J. Foyt, or Ayrton Senna, this kid is not.
And Katherine Legge has now purchased herself a seat in another one of the cars entered by Sam Schmidt (those cars all go to the highest bidder). I have said all I will ever say about Katherine Legge, so let's leave it at this: I'm less than impressed.
EARLIER
Pole day qualifying at Indianapolis is on hold as there is rain in the area.
And the track at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is quiet because everybody is eating lunch.
Except some of us.
When something happens somewhere, you'll read about it here.
Meantime, Donnie Schatz passed Greg Hodnett on the last lap at Pennsylvania's Williams Grove Speedway Friday night to win the World of Outlaws sprint car feature. The Outlaws, of course, will make a Canadian swing in July and race at Ohsweken Speedway near Brantford and Cornwall Speedway as well as at tracks in Quebec and Alberta. . . .Dale Darland won the USAC Sprint Car Series' Larry Rice Classic at Bloomington Speedway Friday night. Many of the USAC stars will be in action at O'Reilly Raceway Park outside Indianapolis tonight (Saturday) for a Champ Car Silver Crown event, weather permitting. It's also USAC Hall of Fame weekend and a bunch of oldies but goodies guys like Bobby Unser and Jack Hewitt will be enshrined. For those who's forgotten, or are too young to remember, the U.S. Auto Club used to be the big dog of sanctioning bodies and ran racing, including the Indy 500, with an iron fist. . . . At Brands Hatch in England, where the German Touring Car Series (DTM) is running this weekend, Robert Wickens of Guelph and Toronto qualified 14th for Sunday's feature event. Defending champion Bruno Spengler of Quebec will go off fifth. . . . At Old Mosport, the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series cars are on track. Lunch is over. Time to go.
EARLIER
It’s Pole Day at Indianapolis, and the Victoria Day Weekend Speedfest is in full swing at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (hey – 28 entries in the Trans-Am! Big Iron is back!).
So let’s get caught up before all hell breaks loose on Saturday.
– Talking about hell breaking loose, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series owner/driver Jennifer Joe Cobb (pictured) has accused her former Nationwide Series team manager Mike Harmon of stealing her nearly $300,000 transporter. Cobb is also involved in litigation with her former business partner, David Novak, over who really owns most of the equipment Cobb uses to race.
It is a tangled web.
– Meantime, Kyle Busch started the NASCAR All-Star Weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway off with a bang Friday night by winning the Camping World Truck Series’ North Carolina Education Lottery 200 (talk about a mouthful!).
Brendan Gaughan finished second and Max Gresham was third.
Three of the Camping World series regulars who visited CTMP recently for a one-truck test conducted by driver Nelson Piquet Jr. were in that race Friday night. Defending champion James Beushcher was sixth, Miguel Paludo – who led for a good stretch – finished seventh and Jeb Burton was 13th.
Burton, incidentally, is the son of retired NASCAR Cup star, and Daytona 500 winner, Ward Burton. Jeb started from pole Friday night – his third in five starts this season – but didn’t have the horses to stay there.
The Camping Wordl Truck series will be featured at Old Mosport on Labour Day weekend, with the Chevrolet Silverado 250 scheduled for Sun., Sept. 1.
– Carl Edwards won the pole at Charlotte for Saturday night’s All-Star Race. NASCAR relaxed all the rules for this session and qualifying consisted of three flying laps and a no-speed-limit-on-pit-lane stop for four tires. Total times for the laps and pit stop were added up to set the field.
Not wanting to appear terribly negative about this (ED NOTE: Ho, ho ho), the reason there is a speed limit in pit lanes in every major form of motorsport in the world is because drivers can sometimes lose control of race cars at speed and unprotected people – i.e. pit crew members changing tires on cars – can be hit and be hurt, as a result.
So although some marketing genius thought it would be a scream to put away the radar guns and let the boys "have at it" along pit road at 155 mph, it is just as easy to have a bad accident at an exhbition race like the All-Star as it is at a "regular" race and it is sincerely hoped that they don’t do anything stupid like this again because Edwards called his run "petrifying."
Dale Earnhardt Jr. was second-fastest but the tire stop was botched and he was penalized five seconds, dropping him to 15th. Kurt Busch, who qualified third, will go off second, as a result.
– Mensa membership candidate Kimi Raikkonen says the key to winning the Grand Prix of Monaco is to qualify well.
– Scott Dixon is scheduled to be the first driver to take time when qualifying for the 97th Indianapolis 500 gets under way on Saturday.
Actually, car No. 40 is supposed to go out first, but since no driver is currently in the car it’s expected that Dixon will be the first to take a crack at the pole.
Like many things in 2013, qualifying at Indianapolis is terribly complicated and gimmicky and I’m not going to waste my time trying to explain it. I much preferred the old way of doing it, which was the driver with the fastest time on the first day of qualifying won the pole. Straight up, simple and to the point and I’m like that about everything in life.
James Hinchcliffe of Oakville is scheduled to go off 14th Saturday and Alex Tagliani of Montreal, the other Canadian who’s a previous pole winner at Indy, is down in 37th position.
Hinchcliffe was fastest of 32 drivers who went out to practice on Tuesday and his teammates, E.J. Viso and Marco Andretti, were first and second fastest on what’s commonly called "Fast Friday."
Said Hinchcliffe: "I think the weird thing about Indy is we have 10 times more practice time than anywhere else, yet you always wish you had a little bit more to make it that little bit better.
"I think it's just a function of a bunch of drivers and a bunch of engineers who are perfectionists and are always striving to make it a little better. But I think we can be pretty pleased with how things have gone.
"Obviously, having team cars up there all but one day bodes well. Qualifying is definitely going to be tough. There's a lot of quick cars. Finding that right level of downforce that takes enough drag off but doesn't leave you sliding all over the place and scrubbing speed is going to be key, and it would have been nice to have a run or two more to really nail that down.
"As a team, I think we're confident and it's going be tough because, like I said, there's a lot of fast cars that are going to be going for that Fast Nine. Hopefully we can get there and get the GoDaddy car in a good position for the start of the race."
(About the importance of starting position versus the quality of the race car):
"It's Sunday that everybody cares about. Dario (Franchitti) proved last year that qualifying is not the be-and all-end – he qualified 17th (and won). He even got hit in pit lane and fell right to the back, but he had a good race car and got his way back up to the front. So it's definitely important to focus on the race car.
"What's so tricky about (IMS) is it's so sensitive to different weather conditions. So if you're working on your race car throughout the entire week and you actually see a variety of different conditions, that's good. Whatever comes around on Race Day, you'll at least have a little bit of an understanding of what the car and track might do."
– At Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, practice and qualifying will take place Saturday for the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, the Trans Am, Formula 1600, the Porsche GT3 Challenge Cup Canada and the Canadian Touring Car Championship, as well as the Supercars.
There will be a few races but the headline events are scheduled for Sunday.
If you haven’t been out to the new and improved Old Mosport in awhile, why not drop by? You won’t believe the improvements that have been made.
Everybody knows it’s better to see anything live and in colour, as it happens.
You can sit in a movie theatre in Toronto and watch the Met’s production of Aida
in New York, but you miss out on the fun and excitement of getting to
the legendary Opera House at Lincoln Square on the Upper West Side.
It’s
all very well to sit through a travelogue on Ireland in the great room
of a central Toronto country club but you’re not feeling the heat of the
summer or breathing in the smell of the Irish air. And, yes, it was fun
being outside the Air Canada Centre when the Leafs were playing Boston
but wouldn’t it have been better on the inside?
Having said all that, you sometimes just can’t get somewhere, and that’s when TV steps in.
In
a blockbuster announcement this week, CTV and NASCAR said two of this
season’s major stock car races from Canadian Tire Motorsport Park will
be televised live across Canada.
Coverage this coming Sunday of
the first race of the 12-race 2013 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series season
will begin at 1 p.m. EDT on CTV.
And on Sunday, Sept. 1, TSN plans
to televise the Canadian Tire Series race
that will be part of the
NASCAR Camping World Series truck race weekend. That program is
scheduled to start at 11 a.m.
Barrie Speedway announcer Dave
Bradley will handle the play-by-play duties while Billy Rowse Jr. and
Adam Ross will provide the colour. They will be joined by pit reporters
Todd Lewis and Spencer Lewis.
Long-time TSN auto racing host Vic Rauter will join the team for the live telecasts.
The
live broadcasts will highlight the 2013 television schedule. The 10
remaining Canadian Tire Series events will be tape-delayed and shown on
TSN as one-hour specials, with the exception of the final race Sept. 21
at Kawartha Speedway, which will be turned into a 90-minute special.
Additionally,
TSN — which has been the television home for the series since NASCAR
took over from CASCAR in 2007 — will air a season-in-review show on Nov.
30.
Great stuff.
Now, as the opening examples illustrate,
it’s always better to be somewhere — whether it’s for a hockey game, or a
Broadway show, or a Rolling Stones concert (I hear that tour’s being
sponsored by Depends).
But if you can’t make it out to Old
Mosport (north of Bowmanville, by the way) for the annual Victoria Day
Weekend Speedfest, then be sure to tune in to CTV at 1 o’clock Sunday
afternoon and enjoy the headline event of the weekend.
Now,
Canadian Tire Series races at the Honda Indy Toronto and Montreal's
Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve have been covered live previously by TSN.
And
other races - American Le Mans Series sports car races, for instance -
have been televised live from Old Mosport by NBC and the SPEED Channel.
But this will be a first time the first race of the NASCAR Canada season will be a live, coast-to-coast, event.
The rest of the lineup:
2013 NASCAR CANADIAN TIRE SERIES BROADCAST SCHEDULE ON TSN
Race Date
Venue
TSN/TSN2 Premiere
May 19
Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (road course)
Sun., May 19, 1 p.m. *
June 15
Delaware Speedway
Sun., June 23, 1 p.m.
June 22
Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (speedway)
Sun., June 30, 1 p.m.
July 7
Circuit ICAR
Sun., July 14, 11 a.m.
July 13
Motoplex Speedway
Sun., July 21, 1:30 p.m.
July 17
Auto Clearing Motor Speedway
Sun., July 28, 11 a.m.
July 27
Autodrome St. Eustache
Sun., Aug. 4, 11 a.m.
Aug. 11
Circuit de Trois-Rivieres
Sun.., Aug. 18, 11 a.m.
Aug. 17
Riverside International Speedway
Sun., Aug. 25, 1 p.m.
Sept. 1
Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (road course)
Sun., Sept. 1, 11 a.m. ‡
Sept. 7
Barrie Speedway
Sat., Sept. 14, 2 p.m.
Sept. 21
Kawartha Speedway
Sun., Oct. 6, 5:30 p.m. ^
2013 Year In Review
Sat., Nov. 30, 1 p.m.
All races subject to change. Check local listings for updated broadcast times. All times ET.
* Scheduled live telecast on CTV
‡ Scheduled live telecast on TSN
^ Telecast on TSN2
.
SAD NEWS: Late Thursday afternoon, the news arrived that Dick Trickle, a midwest stock car driver who won the NASCAR Winston Cup Rookie of the Year award when he was 48 years old, had taken his own life at the age of 71.
Here's a link to the tribute (click here) but I can tell you that my favourite Dick Trickle line was at that year's NASCAR banquet in New York. As he accepted the award, he thanked Winston cigarettes for sponsoring the series so "young guys like me can make a name for themselves."
There's a video clip on the Internet that was sent to me today by my friend John Bassett that shows Trickle lighting up a cigarette at Talladega during a caution period. All those old-time racers smoked during races.
I can remember the glory days of the NASCAR modified series, the days when Richie Evans, George Kent, Jerry Cook, Reggie Rugierro, Maynard Troyer and all those guys would race and the moment - the moment - there was a red flag, the flashes from the cigarette lighters in the cockpits as the boys would light up could be seen from all around the speedway.
- Everything old is new again.
Honda, which powered McLaren to 44 Grand Prix victories and several world championships between 1988 and 1992, announced
today it would partner again with the legendary British marque, starting
in 2015.
Of course, the previous run of success was due, in large
part, to the driver lineup McLaren boasted in the late 1980s: Ayrton
Senna and Alain Prost. In fact, in 1988, those two between them
won 15
of the 16 GP races that year. Whether Jenson Button (who called the
team's performance so far in 2013 "embarrassing," just the other day)
and Sergio Perez can ever deliver the same results is debatable and you
have to wonder whether a pilot shakeup might be in the cards as well.
Honda
has been in and out of the sport over the years, leaving the last time
after the 2008 season. For automakers, racing has always been about ROI
(return on investment) and whether or not participation makes economic
sense, even at the best of times. Five years ago there was an economic
meltdown and Honda, as well as Toyota, decided to fold cards and wait
for a better day.
In a release issued today, Honda said that
beginning next year, "new F1 regulations require the introduction of a
1.6 litre direct injection turbocharged V6 engine with energy recovery
systems. The opportunity to further develop these powertrain
technologies through the challenge of racing is central to Honda’s
decision to participate in F1.
"Throughout its history, Honda has
passionately pursued improvements in the efficiency of the internal
combustion engine and in more recent years, the development of
pioneering energy management technologies such as hybrid systems.
Participation in Formula 1 under these new regulations will encourage
even further technological progress in both these areas."
The
announcement means there will be no renewal of the contract McLaren has
had with engine supplier Mercedes that goes back to 1995. It has not
exactly been a fruitful partnership, with only one constructor's
championship to the team's credit (and there are certainly no driver's
or constructor's titles looming on the horizon this year).
Said
McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh, at a media conference in Tokyo:
"Honda has an unrivalled pedigree as a manufacturer of turbocharged
engines, making it the perfect engine partner for McLaren as we strive
to deliver future success in F1."
As mentioned, Honda has
participated in F1 several times over the years, starting in 1964 when
it designed and developed both the race car and the engine. That
experiment ended in 1968. Starting in 1983, it supplied engines to
Lotus, Williams and Tyrrell before settling in at McLaren in 1988,
dropping out of the sport again after 1991.
Jacques Villeneuve's
manager Craig Pollock talked Honda into returning to F1 in 2000 to
supply engines to BAR and Jordan and then in 2004 the Japanese
manufacturer bought the team. From then until 2008, it ran the team, as it had in the beginning back in the 1960s, as an "all Honda" operation.
- Twenty-nine drivers flashed around the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway Wednesday in a time somewhere between 40 and 41 seconds. That’s how close the competition is this year.
Dario
Franchitti was fastest at 40:1363 seconds while 29th-fastest was Pippa
Mann at 40:9476. Franchitti’s speed, incidentally, translates into
224.236 miles an hour while Mann went 219.793 mph.
Other notables:
Townsend Bell, an Indy-only racer, was second fastest at 40:2295
seconds. Helio Castroneves was third quickest at 40:2327. Alex Tagliani
of Montreal was fastest Canadian and eighth on the totem pole with a lap
of 40:4768. The other Canuck, James Hinchcliffe of Oakville, who was
fastest Tuesday, slipped to 13th at 40:6009. Simona de Silvestro was fastest woman at 40:9353, just pipping Pippa’s 9476.
Michel Jourdain Jr. was the slowest of the 32 who practiced, turning a lap of 41:2774 (218:037 mph).
- Speaking of the Indy 500,
check George’s TV Listings for Race Fans at wheels.ca for times of the
Sportsnet coverage of time trials this Saturday and Sunday as well as
for the race itself a week Sunday. And if you can’t get to a TV, and
have satellite radio, Sirius XM (Channel 211) will be carrying most of
the action as well, starting at 11 a.m. Saturday.
- The Grand Prix of Canada
is fast approaching. As anybody who goes knows, there is more to watch
on track at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve than the F1 cars. This week,
organizers announced that the Ferrari Challenge, Porsche GT3 Cup
Challenge Canada, the Canadian Touring Car Championship and the Formula
Tour 1600 will each run two races on Friday and Saturday, June 7 and 8.
The Grand Prix itself, of course, goes to the post on Sunday, June 9.
- Speaking of the Porsche GT3 Cup,
the Canadian Touring Cars and Formula 1600, they all will be in action
this coming weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park as the annual
Victoria Day Weekend Speedfest takes to the track north of Bowmanville.
The
headline event will be the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series stockers and
D.J. Kennington, J.R. Fitzpatrick, Scott Steckly and the rest of the
trans-Canada chargers — oops, better not forget Andrew Ranger — will be
out to start their national series season off with a bang.
Touring
car drivers looking to get rolling early include Benjamin Distaulo, Bob
Attrell, Remy Audette, Nick Wittmer, Roger Ledoux, Damon Sharpe, Frank
Blanchet and Michel Sallenbach.
Also on the card at Old Mosport will be the Trans-Am big iron thunder cars and the new Canadian Supercar Series.
- Speaking of touring cars
(not really, but I’m looking for a segway), the German Touring Car
Series (DTM) will be at Brands Hatch in England this weekend and
Canadian Robert Wickens is hoping for a better result than two weeks ago
at the opener in Germany when a mechanical problem forced him out after
he qualified better than he has in his DTM career — fourth on the grid.
Said
Wickens, in a release: “After not finishing at the start of the season,
I'm itching to get back in my STIHL Mercedes AMG C-Coupé at Brands
Hatch (Norris note: I bet he said that . . .) to prove that a top-notch
result would have been possible in Hockenheim. With P4 on the grid, I've
shown the kind of speed I can produce. The adrenaline rush of being in
the shoot-out for pole position in Q4 for the first time was enormous - I
could easily get used to that in the future. While a sketch map of
Brands Hatch may look quite simple, it's a real driver's circuit that
demands the utmost concentration over 98 laps. One single error and the
race is as good as lost."
Good luck, Robert.
- Everybody seems to be excited that Derrick Walker has been signed by IndyCar to be president, operations and competition.
So?
The
competition is already pretty good. So what is this going to do so far
as bums in the seats and eyeballs on race telecasts are concerned,
which to my mind are IndyCar’s two biggest challenges.
Once again,
we have a top dog at that organization listening to two or three Indy
car journalists who think moves like this are swell.
Marketing is where this organization needs help. And in public relations.
Not media relations, public relations.
- Finally, the Brantford-area Ohsweken Speedway's
18th annual Opening Night will take the green flag on Friday at 7:30pm,
and large fields are expected in all of the regular Friday night
divisions.
The opening event of Ohsweken's season will include the
Corr/Pak Merchandising Sprint Cars, Affordable Towing & Recovery
Thunder Stocks, HRW Automotive Mini Stocks, and Gale’s Auto Aftermarket
Bombers, with extra-distance features on tap for each.
It might not mean a whole lot at this stage of the game, but the fact that Oakville’s James Hinchcliffe set the fastest time during practice Tuesday for next weekend’s Indianapolis 500 time trials means Indy car racing’s hottest driver is settling nicely into a groove for a run at pole position.
Hinchcliffe, the 26-year-old super nova who’s won two of the four IZOD IndyCar Series races to date, put the hammer down at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and turned a speed of 224.210 miles an hour (40:1410 seconds around the 2.5-mile oval race track), albeit while driving teammate Marco Andretti’s car to exchange notes.
Andretti, meantime, drove Hinchcliffe’s GoDaddy-sponsored Green Machine to the third-fastest time of the day, going 223.570 mph. The Andretti Autosport teammates were split by second-fastest driver J.R. Hildebrand, who went 223.652 mph.
In all, 34 driver-car combinations turned time while preparing for Saturday’s time trials that will determine who will start first and so on back to 33 and last when the 97th 500-mile race goes to the post on Sunday, May 26th.
Said Hinchcliffe: "Marco (Andretti) is pretty angry with me now. Not only did I rock a big tow, which he is famous for, but I did it in his car, so "Marco Tow-dretti" is pretty upset with me now.
"It's good to be up there, but at the end of the day, those numbers don't mean a lot right now. It's about the work you do on the race car and making sure the No. 27 GoDaddy car is going to be good not only on one lap, but over 200 (laps)."
Asked why he’d traded cars with Andretti and if he learned anything, Hinchcliffe added: "I get to see how good I look in red and blue (the colours of Marco’s car). There are some things we wanted to see and suss out, and that's the way to do it.
"It's (trading cars) not uncommon. Guys have done it in the past – especially this team. I think TK (Tony Kanaan) drove every single car on the team at some point during the month (when he was an Andretti driver). It's standard procedure to feel a couple of things out."
Practice will continue through Friday and then qualifying time trials will be held Saturday, with bump day (in which faster cars "bump" slower cars out of the field) scheduled for Sunday.
I said in the beginning that fast times don’t mean a lot and that’s because both engine suppliers, Chevrolet and Honda, will be fitting qualifying motors into all (or most) cars toward the end of the week and a horsepower boost will be allowed for time trials.
Horsepower will be dialed back, however, for the race itself.
Social note: Dario Franchitti, who’s won the Indy 500 three times and is the defending champion, will turn 40 on Sunday.
When I heard of the arrest that was made in the mysterious disappearance of Tim Bosma – the Ancaster fellow who advertised his truck on Kijiji and went off for a test drive with two men last Monday night and then disappeared, apparently, from the face of the Earth – I thought of the six degrees of separation.
That’s the theory in which every body and every thing in the world can be connected one way or another in six steps or less.
The fellow under arrest is Dellen Millard, grandson of the founder of the Millard Air company, Carl Millard, and the son of the pilot Wayne Millard, who flew me to Indianapolis in 1969 so I could cover my first Indianapolis 500.
Maybe not six degrees, but a couple for sure.
Here’s the story.
I was at home on the afternoon of May 29th, a Thursday, which was the day before the 53rd annual 500-Mile International Sweepstakes, which was the official name for the race that was always held on May 30 in those days.
On my own time, I’d been at Indy two weeks previously for the first weekend of time trials – which had been rained out. There were no plans in place for me to return to cover the race for the Globe and Mail, where I was employed at the time.
Just before 3 p.m., the phone rang and it was the late Jim Vipond, the legendary sports editor of the Globe. "How would you like to go to Indianapolis tomorrow?" he asked.
I could barely contain myself.
Was he kidding? Of course I’d like to go to Indianapolis. I’d been listening to Sid Collins announce the race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network since I was a kid. I’d seen my first 500 on closed-circuit TV at the Glendale Theatre on Avenue Rd., just north of Lawrence, in 1965. I’d gone to Indy for the first time in 1967 and sat in the grandstands just before Turn Two and loved – loved – every second. Was he crazy? Wild horses couldn't keep me away.
"Sure," I replied, somewhat nonchalantly. "You’ll want me to file, right?"
"Yes, take your typewriter," he said. "Write your story and phone it in. I’ll need it no later than an hour after the race finishes. We have an early deadline Friday because the Saturday paper is a giant."
My heart was beating so quickly I was in danger of hyperventilating, but I had to ask.
"So," I said again, somewhat casually, "do you want me drive down, or what?"
"No," he said. "By 7 tomorrow morning, be at the Millard Air hangar at Malton (now Pearson International Airport). Ask for Wayne Millard. He’s going to fly you down."
Wow, I thought. This is incredible. Not only am I going to cover the Indianapolis 500 for the Globe and Mail but they’re flying me to the race!
Now, I could write another couple of thousand words about the flight to Indy, and how Frank Orr of the Toronto Star was on the same plane, and how, except for the two of us and another couple of people, there was nobody else aboard the Millard Air DC-3 and how we flew right over downtown Indianapolis on our way to land at what was then Weir Cook Municipal Airport and how the taxi we were taking to the track was pulled over for speeding before we got off the airport property and . . . but I won’t.
What I will tell you, though, is that Mario Andretti won his one and only Indy 500 that day, which made for a great story, particularly when his car owner, Andy Granatelli, got so excited that he kissed him on the cheek in Victory Lane.
Now, I was feeling top of the world, Ma, at this point. It had been a great day, a great race, the driving had been spectacular, the drivers had all been the Gods I expected them to be, I had written and phoned in my story on time, I had a girl in Montreal I was going to see the next day and – well – everything was as perfect as perfect could be.
So I went back to Weir Cook Airport, only to discover that a whole bunch of people I didn’t know, or recognize, all of whom had a couple of tons of luggage, were waiting to get onto my plane.
It turned out that those folks, most of whom were friends of Toronto department store heir George Eaton, who was also a racing driver, had been in Indianapolis all month and had chartered the plane to take them home.
Wayne Millard knew Vipond and, in conversation, mentioned he was going to Indy to pick up this mob and that he had a couple of seats open and that’s how Frank Orr and I got a free ride to cover the world’s most famous car race.
Now, the flight to Indy had been terrific. Four or five passengers, max., on a plane that could carry up to 30. Lots of space to stretch out your arms and legs. The return flight, though, was an entirely different matter.
We were packed in like sardines. Those folks had 30 days’ worth of luggage with them, some of which wouldn't fit in the hold and was sitting in the aisle (no overhead bins on DC3s). I did a quick calculation and reckoned we were probably pretty close to the limit as far as weight was concerned and I got this really strange feeling in the pit of my stomach.
Maybe I should take a bus back to Toronto, I thought. Or a train. Are there trains between Indianapolis and T.O.? And then I thought of that sweetheart in Montreal and realized that if I was going to keep our date the next day, Saturday, I was going to have to suck it up and stay on that plane.
So Frank Orr and I are sitting beside each other and I have the window. I’m telling him I’m not so sure the old crate is going to make it off the ground. Frank, who’s wonderful company, starts telling jokes to take my mind – and his – off the fact that the plane might crash and we might die.
So we taxi out and, after what seems like an eternity, we start lumbering along the runway and I’m looking out the window and we don’t seem to be going very fast and there is this line of trees way off in the distance and they’re coming closer, and closer, and closer, and we’re still on the ground and we’re still not going very fast and then, ever so slowly, this bucket of bolts starts to bounce off the ground and those trees are getting really close by now and this plane is kinda shuddering but I still have my eyes open and, at what seemed to be the very last second, damned if we didn’t clear the tops of those trees by that much or else I wouldn’t be here today telling you all this.
But it was close. Too close for comfort, in fact.
I turned my head to smile at my friend, the Toronto Star’s auto racing writer and my very best friend in the world at that moment, to acknowledge that we indeed were still alive and well and everything was turning out to be all right, and it was then that I realized that Frank Orr and I were holding hands.
For those of you who emailed wondering where I was, my real newspaper job sometimes gets in the way of my fun newspaper job and the fun newspaper job (this) has to take a back seat.
So, after a week’s absence, here are some random thoughts about the state of the sport following a weekend of ho-hum racing (at least the offerings on television).
1. The people who run Formula One have outsmarted themselves once again. To make the sport more exciting – they didn’t really have to do this; it was exciting enough – they ordered the one tire supplier, Pirelli, to build degradation into the product so the drivers would have to make more pit stops.
Now, everybody is either up in arms (if you’re a fan) or "concerned" (if you’re one of the people in F1 who thought this stuff up) because the tires are coming apart faster than anybody expected.
Most teams had to make four (count ‘em, four) pit stops during Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix (click here for story and results) and critics (including 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve) were making fun of the spectacle rather than marvelling at the skill of the pit crews in getting the tires changed so quickly.
Said Villeneuve: "At this rate, F1 is going to become a pit-stop contest with a few race laps thrown in."
Every time anybody in any sport starts monkeying around with the thing to make it more "appealing" or more "exciting," they are just inviting trouble. Has baseball gone to four strikes to enable more hitters to reach base? Or moved the mound back a foot? Has hockey gone to four quarters instead of three periods? Of course not.
But F1 now has tires that disintegrate and drag reduction systems and kinetic energy recovery systems and, as a result, except for the opening laps there is very little racing going on any more.
Memo to F1: Stop this.
2. See second last paragraph above. The first lap of Sunday’s Spanish GP was edge-of-your-seat stuff with everybody reacting so quickly to lights out that analyst David Coulthard suggested at least one driver had jumped the start.
And although Mercedes pole-sitter Nico Rosberg held the lead to the conclusion of that first lap, everybody else was either charging to the front or sliding back.
Eventual race winner Fernando Alonso went from fifth to third in his Ferrari and passed two cars on the outside of one corner. Lewis Hamilton, who started second for Mercedes, dropped to fourth. Kimi Raikkonen, who went off third for Lotus-Renault, dropped to fifth. Three-time world champion Sebastian Vettel moved from third to second in his Red Bull-Renault and Felipe Massa went from ninth to sixth in his Ferrari. But the best of all was Adrien Sutil rocketing from 13th place to eighth in his Force India-Ferrari and that, ladies and gentlemen, was an incredible example of car control and balls.
Oh, before I forget, Mark Webber had his usual crappy start and dropped out of the top ten from his seventh starting position and – I ask you – why should we be surprised? I suggest they put Webber in the simulator for a week and not let him out until he can make flying starts in his sleep.
3. In winning the Grand Prix, Alonso joined Vettel as two-time winners this season. Raikkonen is the only other winner, scoring his victory at Australia. Rosberg has now won two poles on the year but both times, in Bahrain and again at Spain, he faded out of the top five. He finished fifth in Spain and ninth at Bahrain.
And Esteban Gutierrez was the best of this year’s rookie crop, finishing in 11th position for Sauber-Ferrari and beating his more experienced teammate, Nico Hulkenburg, who was 15th. More impressive was the fact that Gutierrez qualified 16th but was penalized three places for blocking Raikkonen during qualifying. Racing from 19th starting position to 11th earns him the McDonald "Hard Charger Award."
Elsewhere this weekend, Carlos Muniz – an Indy Lights driver – was fastest of the IZOD IndyCar Series drivers who went out to practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as the track opened for practice and qualifying leading up to the 97th Indy 500 in two weeks.
Muniz recorded a speed of 223.023 miles an hour Sunday (it took him 40.3545 seconds to drive a lap of the 2.5-mile speedway; click here for details). James Hinchcliffe of Oakville was sixth fastest of the 23 drivers who turned time, recording a lap of 220.907 mph. Qualifying and bumping (if any) is scheduled for next weekend.
Speaking of Hinchcliffe, I was pleasantly surprised last Monday afternoon when, while driving home, I heard everybody’s favourite afternoon drive sports talk radio show host Bob McCown wax eloquently about James’ victory the previous afternoon in Brazil (which he won on the last corner of the last lap).
I haven’t heard McCown talk about car racing before, although I’m sure he has at one time or another. He simply said he’d tuned in the race to check it out with 15 or so laps to go and Hinchcliffe was running fifth and that he "had a feeling" and stayed till the end.
He went so far as to call the finish one of the most exciting moments in recent live sports television history (or words to that effect).
He brought it up with a couple of his guests – neither had been watching, by the way – and opined that he would be keeping an eye on young Mr. Hinchcliffe, whom he later interviewed (although I didn’t hear that).
Now, I realize that Bob McCown works for Sportsnet, and that Sportsnet is televising this year’s IZOD IndyCar Series races as well as the Indianapolis 500 and some "cross-promotion" is to be expected.
But I honestly think McCown was impressed with the finish (who wouldn’t have been!) and saw the potential that Indy car racing and Hinchcliffe both have. Good stuff.
One last thing: he said he didn’t like cars racing on ovals because ovals are for horses. Then he hesitated, and mused: "I wonder how horses would do on a road course?"
1. That Matt Kenseth won was the perfect revenge for Joe Gibbs Racing, which had been put through the wringer in recent weeks by NASCAR over nothing. I hope Kenseth wins every race between now and the end of the year and that Joe Gibbs rubs NASCAR’s nose in it when he stands up to accept accolades at the season-ending banquet.
Joe Gibbs is a religious, God-fearing man. NASCAR, which cast the first stone, should brace itself for what’s coming.
2. NASCAR loves to go around penalizing and fining drivers and teams enormous amounts of money in order to show them who’s boss. I think it’s time Kyle Busch was fined something like – oh, off the top, I‘d say – $200,000 for having a snit yet again because he didn’t win a race.
All the others losers of the Southern 500 – all 41 others – made themselves available to TV and other reporters after the race because that’s what they’re supposed to do as representatives of the sport of stock car automobile racing.
They are on the top of the mountain and they owe it to their fans and sponsors to address the media after the races, win or lose. Kenseth won the race but Jimmie Johnson went on TV, as did Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick and a couple of the others.
But not Kyle, because he was off somewhere having a hissy fit. He was only too happy to talk on Friday night, after he won the Nationwide Series race, but not Saturday because he lost.
I can remember several years ago everybody making great fun of Danica Patrick stamping her feet in anger after being edged out of a win in the Indy car series. But after she did what competitive people do - which is to work out their frustrations and then take a deep breath and calm down - she went to the post-race press conference and answered questions like a true professional.
But not Kyle and I think it’s time NASCAR brought him to heel. Every professional sport demands its performers be accountable to the media. Win or lose, the hockey players and coaches have to talk to reporters. Baseball managers and players are contractually obligated, and so on.
The next time Kyle Busch doesn’t win and then pulls one of his disappearing acts, he should be hit in the pocketbook.
And told to grow up.
Other racing: Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf won the American Le Mans Series race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on Saturday. Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia were first in GT, with Marino Franchitti and Scott Tucker first in P2. Mike Guasch and Luis Diaz won the Prototype Challenge race while Nick Tandy and Henrique Cisneros were first in GT Challenge.
Ryan Briscoe finished fourth overall and second in P2 before heading off the Indianapolis where he is among the favourites to win this year’s Indy 500. Townsend Bell also raced in ALMS before flying to Indy.
Kyle Marcelli of Barrie was eighth overall and fourth in PC. Kuno Wittmer of Montreal didn’t do all that well this weekend and was well back.
Okay, I have to say it: sometimes sports car racing doesn’t make any sense. We all know that all the classes – five of them this season – all go out and race together. And that the first three finishers in every class make it onto the podium, which means 15 or more drivers can sometimes be on the podium in a sports car race.
Saturday evening, I got an email that trumpeted "Delta Wing car on podium in ALMS race in California." Hey, I thought. That’s damn fine. And Katherine Legge, who’s been run out of Indy car, must be feeling pretty good about making it onto the podium in her first ALMS race.
Then I looked at the results. There were 36 cars in total in that race Saturday and the Delta Wing finished 32nd. I don't care about rules or tradition. That is not a podium.
The Southern Ontario Sprints will start their 18th season next Saturday night at Brighton Speedway. Lee Ladouceur of Alexandria will try for his third consecutive championship this season. Other top runners expected to be on hand include Glenn Styers, Keith Dempster, Chris Jones, Adam West and Warren Mahoney. I betcha Warren's Dad, Dick Mahoney, will be out there too.
Indy car driver and partner in the Schmidt-Petersen Indy car team, Davey Hamilton, won the supermodified feature at Oswego Speedway on Saturday night. At Merrittville Speedway outside Thorold, Erick Rudolph and Kevin Knapp scored their first 2013 wins in the Bobcat of Hamilton 358 Modified and Hoosier Stock Divisions respectively. In Lucas Oil Weekly Racing Series action, Kyle Pelrine, Josh Sliter and Brad Rouse won in the Turn 4 Collision 4 Cylinder, J&S Heating and Air Conditioning Modified Lites and the Rick’s Delivery Sportsman Features.
Most southern Ontario oval facilities will be in action next weekend and the Victoria Day Speedfest is on tap at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park but that’s not all. Attention all you drag racing fans out there. Toronto Motorsports Park near Cayuga has got a monster lineup scheduled with 300 mph jet dragsters, the Pro Modified Racing Association, the Quick 32 top dragsters and sportsman plus pro bikes and sleds. They get going out there on Friday night and plan to blast all the way through till Sunday. Go to torontomotorsportpark.com for more info.
Speaking of "most southern Ontario oval facilities," if you head on out to Peterborough Speedway, it won’t cost you anything to sit in the grandstand. Country 105 radio station is picking up the tab for the season-opener. For info, go to peterboroughspeedway.com.
We all, or many of us, have our memories of this day 31 years ago when Canada and the world lost Gilles Villeneuve.
It was May 8, 1982, and Gilles – still seething with anger at the double cross performed by Ferrari teammate Didier Pironi at the previous Grand Prix at Imola – was on it, as he always was, in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder when he collided with Jochen Mass’s car.
And then it was over.
I can still hear my wife, a few moments after 5 o’clock that Saturday afternoon, yell these words down the stairs to where I was in the cellar: "Villeneuve! Fighting for his life."
She’d heard the news on the radio but there were no other details. No Internet in those days, we had to wait till 6 o’clock for the next CBC Radio news update and I couldn’t believe that the accident wasn’t the first item. (Some things never change.)
By 11 p.m., he was dead and it led the TV news. And then his story dominated the airwaves and the front pages of the newspapers until his funeral in the week that followed (click here).
I was crushed when I heard those five horrible words that my wife had called out to me, for several reasons. I’d been in my rec room that day, going over a checklist in anticipation of my debut the following weekend as a driver of supermodified racing cars at New York’s Oswego Speedway. I’d had some experience in less-powerful oval race cars, and had done a season of formula car racing, but I’d never been pushed off in as powerful a racing machine as a supermodified and I was apprehensive.
So, as well as being destroyed by the initial news that my hero had been grievously injured, my faith in my own existence was shaken. I started wondering if I was doing the right thing.
All weekend and into the week of the funeral, I was thinking (and you’ve heard this sort of thing from professional drivers after someone of the talent and stature of, say, a Jim Clark or an Ayrton Senna dies by racing accident), "If it can happen to Gilles, it can happen to anybody."
I thought about that, a lot.
But I’d pushed those thoughts aside by the time the following Saturday arrived. It was May 15. I was in the pits at Oswego and just about ready to strap into the car for my first warmup session when the late Mike Stone, a race driver from Toronto, walked up to me and said these words:
"Gordon Smiley just hit the wall at Indy. He never had a chance."
Smiley was trying to qualify for his third Indianapolis 500 that day and had overcorrected going into Turn 3, sending the car straight into the concrete at 200 miles an hour, destroying it and himself.
I still went out to race, but Gilles Villeneuve and Gordon Smiley were heavy on my mind and I just couldn’t bring myself to put my foot down all the way – that night, or ever.
