Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

Raikkonen comment suggests Ferrari has quit trying

Much like Honda did during the 2008 season, when it gave up mid-way through the year to start work on its 2009 racer, Ferrari appears to have thrown in the towel on its disastrous ‘09 campaign.

Following today’s European Grand Prix at Valencia, Spain, which was won by a delighted (and delightful) Rubens Barrichello in a Brawn-Mercedes, Ferrari star Kimi Raikkonen said he was pleased to have finished third behind McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton because that was absolutely the best he could do under the circumstances.

Raikkonen said he was very satisfied with his third-place finish because "the team is not bringing new parts for the car any more."

He went on to say that with some luck, he might be able to fight for a better position – a victory – but that would depend more on the hard luck of others than on any improvement in his car.

Raikkonen’s reference to the team not working to improve the car might also explain Ferrari’s commitment to keeping test driver Luca Badoer (49 Grands Prix and still not a world championship point) as Felipe Massa’s replacement through at least the next race in Belgium.

In short: they’ve written off the season and think it’s more important to show loyalty to the injured Massa and to reward faithful-servant Badoer than to defend the reputation and honour of the legendary Italian marque.

The Old Man must be rolling over in his grave.

To give him some credit, Badoer – who qualified last in the 20-car field in his first F1 race in 10 years – had a dynamite start and was passing other cars and mixing it up on the first lap.

But an eventual 17^th-place finish after two spins and a drive-through penalty imposed when he drove over the blend line on his way out of the pits (I mean, how do you do that?) serves to illustrate yet again that he is in over his head.

I will have other observations on today’s Grand Prix, plus comments on this weekend’s NASCAR and Indy car races, in my weekly Monday Morning Racing Roundup.

Why is Badoer, the turtle, doing at Ferrari when hare Bourdais is available?

When Formula One driver Piers Courage was killed in a car entered in the 1970 world championship by Frank Williams, driver Tim Schenken waited until after the funeral to call and ask for the ride.

He was lucky he got it because you can bet Williams received calls from other drivers looking for work even before Courage’s body was cold.

That’s racing: a beautiful sport that can also be the most cruel.

Which makes Ferrari’s decision to replace the injured Felipe Massa with Grand Prix veteran and Ferrari test driver (and slow as molasses) Luca Badoer very puzzling. Yes, it’s commendable that Ferrari is saying to Massa, "Your seat is safe, take all the time you need to recover."

But what about the millions of fans? What about Ferrari’s reputation as a front-runner in the sport’s most demanding class?

A week ago, I officially launched this blog by naming my personal Top Ten drivers of all time. No. 1 on my list was Mario Andretti. In the course of discussing why I picked him, I told the story of 1982, when Ferrari needed a driver to replace the injured Didier Pironi. Il Commendatore, Enzo Ferrari, didn’t muck around. He went looking for the most talented driver available, someone who could get the job done and defend the honour of Ferrari. That man was Andretti, who went out and won the pole at the Italian Grand Prix.

So what’s happening at Valencia this weekend – Badoer is 20^th on the 20-car grid – is an embarrassment. He is even behind two rookies, including Renault new boy Romain Grosjean (six positions ahead) who had never driven an F1 car other than in a straight line until yesterday. This is clearly unacceptable.

Sebastien Bourdais is available and sufficiently talented to fill in positively at Ferrari until Massa returns. Ferrari should put him in the car at the next race, Spa.

Formula One's game of musical chairs is not over yet

When they start the European Grand Prix at Valencia on Sunday, you’re going to need a program to tell all the players.

Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but there are going to be some new faces so here’s a primer.

Romain Grosjean will replace Nelson Piquet Jr. at Renault behind team leader Fernando Alonso. Piquet was handed the pink slip after Hungary but the writing had been on the wall almost since the start of the season. Grosjean is French and it has been a number of years since the French "national team" has had a French driver. Grosjean is yet another rookie who has never driven an F1 car in other than a straight line.

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AP FILE PHOTO

Luca Badoer gunning for his first career championship point.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that veteran Ferrari test driver Luca Badoer will drive in place of the injured Felipe Massa this weekend. All eyes will be on him, because he will be aboard a rocket ship. Without a doubt, it will be the best Grand Prix car he’s ever been given to drive.

The fact that he has raced in 48 Grands Prix previously and has yet to score his first world championship point should not be a distraction.

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Although it has not been officially announced that he’ll be through after this race, McLaren has made it very clear that anything less than a podium result by Heikki Kovalainen will see them pull the plug on Lewis Hamilton’s teammate.

The Finn has scored only nine points so far this season and is 12th in the standings. He’s really on the bubble.

A driver change could see Nick Heidfeld move across from BMW-Sauber.

Whether it is sooner – as in, this season – or later, depends on Heikki. Heidfeld’s loyalty to BMW pretty much ended when it announced it's pulling out of F1 at the end of this season, so he could make the jump at any time.

Forget where Danica's going, Helio's moving too

Helio Castroneves of Team Penske and Danica Patrick of Andretti-Green are fourth and fifth in the Indy Racing League points standings and it looks like both drivers will be employed elsewhere in 2010.

Why?

First, Castroneves has not had a good year (other than his win in the Indianapolis 500) and Will Power is chomping on the bit to take his place on the Captain's team.

Second, it’s possible – possible – that while the employer stood solidly behind Helio during his trial for income-tax evasion, in which he was acquitted of all charges, those difficulties still shone what some might argue was a negative light on his employer by association and said employer might just as soon not have him around anymore, particularly when a driver of the calibre of Power is available.

Team Penske has almost always been a two-car team and 2010 won’t be any different - Power and Ryan Briscoe. Yes, Castroneves is under contract but Penske has been known to "farm out" drivers before. He tried it with Paul Tracy and he did it with Emerson Fittipaldi.

And where would Helio land? Fellow Brazilian Gil de Ferran is starting an Indy car team and is looking for drivers, so . . .

Meantime, Danica’s contract with Andretti-Green Racing is up at the end of 2009 and speculation on where she will land for 2010 has been rampant all year.

Yesterday's announcement that the three partners - Michael Andretti, Kim Green and Kevin Savoree - are terminating their arrangement means she's probably going to move on for sure.

NASCAR? Maybe.

But more likely Chip Ganassi.

Mark Martin won't win a NASCAR Championship this year, either

Mark Martin will make his 1,000th NASCAR career start on Saturday night at Bristol. It will be his 746th Sprint Cup start (nee Nextel, nee Winston) to go along with 231 Nationwide (nee Busch) and 23 Camping World Truck (nee Craftsman) starts.

Martin is a great guy with the sponsors and is an inspiration to old guys everywhere (he’s 50 and looks it). But he’s never won a big-league championship because he doesn’t have the killer instinct. You have to go for the jugular and Martin can’t do it. He can’t close the deal. . .

Elsewhere, Brian Vickers wins one race and Red Bull signs him to a long-term contract.

Give me a break.

Michael Andretti, others announce breakup of partnership

Michael Andretti is breaking up with Kevin Savoree and Kim Green, his partners in Andretti-Green Racing.

In a news release late this afternoon, it was announced that Andretti, Savoree and Green have executed a letter of intent to split off Andretti Green Promotions and Andretti Green Toronto into a separate company from Andretti Green Racing.

When all is said and done, Michael Andretti will be the sole owner of Andretti-Green Racing and Savoree and Green will own A-G Promotions and A-G Toronto.

Andretti-Green Racing entered four cars in this year’s Indy Racing League championship for Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick, Tony Kanaan and Hideki Mutoh.

It has been rumoured that Patrick, whose contract ends at the conclusion of the 2009 season, would leave the team either to race in NASCAR or to stay in Indy car, likely with Chip Ganassi Racing.

Today's events may accelerate her decision.

Andretti-Green Promotions has promoted the successful Indy car race in St. Petersburg, Fla., for a number of years. Andretti-Green Toronto promoted the Toronto street race in July after a year’s absence.

Although the company pronounced the event a success, seasoned race-watchers in Toronto were less enthusiastic and will be eager for information on how today’s developments will affect the race going forward.

Michael Andretti, although the “face” of the Toronto race, acknowledged in an interview with me in late June that he did not have “that much to do” with the actual preparation and presentation of what was called the Honda Indy Toronto.

Savoree was the front-man for Toronto and the future of the race would appear to be in his hands.

In a statement that is short and to the point, Andretti, Savoree and Green said this today:

"Since becoming partners in 2002, we have been fortunate to see our companies expand and diversify quickly and successfully. All of us believe that this decision will maximize the potential of both companies in the future."

It will take awhile for the dust to settle on what’s happened today.

This could be very good news for the Honda Indy Toronto, or not-so-good.

We can only wait and see.

David Greenblatt, Canadian motor racing pioneer, dies

David Greenblatt, who died on Sunday, was a Canadian motor racing original. He not only raced himself in the late 1950s and 1960s – and quite successfully, I might add – but he designed and built (with others) his own racing cars.

Not too many people had the vision and determination to do that. Bill Sadler, Wayne Kelly and Doug Duncan are three others who come to mind. In any case, there weren’t many in those early years and Greenblatt was arguably the most successful.

In late 1961, Greenblatt – who had been road racing for three years and had just come off a championship season in Quebec – teamed up with Luigi Cassiani (a former Alfa Romeo technician) and Montreal  fabricator Mike Saggers to build the first of what they called Dailu race cars (Dai is welsh for David and Lu was for Luigi Cassiani).

That first car, the Dailu Mk I (which was sponsored by Bardahl and called the Dailu Bardahl Special) was driven to its first victory at the 1962 Indian Summer Trophy Races at Mosport by John Cannon (who went on to become the first – and only –Canadian to win a race in the original Can-Am Series).

It marked the first time a Canadian-built car had won a race at Canada’s premier sports car racing circuit.

Jeremy Sale is the Editor of The Vintage Racer (www.varac.ca) and interviewed Greenblatt about that great day at the Indian Summer races:

“In all my years of racing from the fall of 1957 to end of 1969, over 200 races, there is one day which will always stand out,” Greenblatt told Sale.

“The BEMC, Indian Summer Trophy Races, 1962. There was no greater excitement and overwhelming feeling of achievement which I experienced that day.

“It was John Cannon’s first major event in the Dailu. We were the dark horse. The Miss Whiz Lotus 19, was the car to beat (Francis Bradley aboard) and Heimrath in his RS60 Porsche, the Sadler MK Vs amongst others.

“I had tried to get tires from Dunlop while at the track. But they informed me that they only had their racing tires available for certain select top teams, of which we were NOT one!

“Being unhappy with the performance of our Firestones, we switched to Goodyears which were only a slight improvement. I desperately wanted the-then awesomely good Dunlop tire but it was not to be.

“Even on the false grid, the top teams made fun of our home-made Dailu Bardahl Special. I’ll always remember the crew from the Miss Whiz Lotus offering me some of their car wax products to make our car go faster. I accepted a bottle from them and on the false grid waxed the Dailu as they laughed.

“In the preliminary race, Cannon passed everyone going into turn one, and led from wire to wire.

“Then came the feature race and I remember Chuck Rathgeb, head of Comstock Racing, with the Sadler Mk Vs, saying to me that our win was sheer luck and the feature race will really tell the story.

“Again, Cannon led from start to finish, the first car and driver to ever defeat the famed Lotus 19 at Mosport and the first Canadian-built car to win a feature race at Mosport.

“I always remember the crowd at the start/finish climbing over the fences swarming the track as Cannon arrived to pick up the checkered flag for his lap of honour, and a jubilant Heimrath running up and congratulating Cannon in his winner’s traditional Indian Summer war bonnet, with me sitting in the car grinning from ear to ear, a photo which appeared in major sports pages.”

I don’t know about you, but I can feel Greenblatt’s excitement by just reading those words.

Cannon qualified the car fifth for the 1962 Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport (an international field of drivers and sports racing cars participated) and led the opening lap. The crowd, as you can expect, went nuts over that.

That winter, Cannon qualified the car on the front row for a heat race at the Nassau Speed Weeks, alongside Masten Gregory in a Ferrari and Hap Sharp in a Chapparel. The kicker? He left them in his dust.

Unfortunately, in the 250-mile feature that followed, a spark from the car bottoming out (it had 286 litres of gasoline on board) ignited fumes from the overflow vent and the car caught fire. Cannon escaped, but the Dailu was gutted.

The Greenblatt-Cassiani-Saggers team then built the Dailu Mk II in 1963 and it was raced by both Cannon and Peter Lerch (who set a lap record in it at the St. Eugene circuit).

Dailu Mks III, IV and V followed, with the last being built in 1965. It’s believed that most of the cars are still around, owned by collectors.

Greenblatt was inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 1998. As his plaque reads:

“The Dailu . . . was exceptionally fast, if not always entirely reliable. But when it was running (powered by a series of monster V8 engines), it was the match of anything on the race track including Lotuses, Ferraris, Porsches and Chaparrals.”

Greenblatt’s old friend, Ross de St. Croix, the 1967 Canadian Driving Champion and a force behind the Hall of Fame in its early days, knew “Greenie” from their time together in Montreal (they both eventually moved to the Toronto area). Talking about a day they spent together recently, St. Croix wrote:

“What a time – to think back at those great memories we had at the beginning of the renewal of motorsport in Quebec. Ours was car club meetings, driving skill tests, hill climbs and rallying. A start with old airport surfaces, hay bales and really keen spectators. Then came St. Eugene, St. Jovite, Mosport and road racing.

“David was there in a "race what you brung" sort of way until he really caught the bug. Whether it was an early Jag XKE, a Ferrari, a real Corvette or one of his lightweight versions, you could expect a lot of noise, power and a lot of excitement from David and his group.

“On to the Dailu days, and five cars were built and raced with great success for a young man with no formal automotive training  but lots of enthusiasm.

“As we all got older, David didn’t change much as he was always full of fun and laughter and – unlike some of us – still looked like good old Dave.

“I’ll miss his calls, his emails and, specially, his kind and encouraging words about life.”

In 2004 at the Vintage Auto Racing Festival at Mosport, Greenblatt drove the restored Dailu Mk 1 for a few laps. It was the last time they were together on track.

In case you missed it, here is the obituary that appeared this week in the Montreal Gazette:

GREENBLATT, David Gabriel Louis (Greenie) After a valiant battle with cancer, David died peacefully at Sunnybrook Hospital, Toronto, on August 16, 2009.

Beloved partner and soulmate of Suzan Lazanik (Alper). Loving son of the late Bessie and the late Michael Greenblatt, Montreal. Dearest brother and brother-in-law of the late Judith Baron Cohen (Vivian), London, England and Mackie (the late George Balcan), Montreal. Father of Melissa and Lianne. Uncle to several nieces and nephews and very special friend to many.

At David’s request, there will be no shiva observed. A private service was held.

In his memory, donations may be made to The Temmy Latner Centre for Palliative Care, 60 Murray Street, 4th floor, Box #13, Toronto, M5T 3L9, 416-586-4800, local 7884.

With warm gratitude to Dr. Russell Goldman, Heather Waylen, Marue and Sharon for their unwavering devotion to David’s comfort and well-being.

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If anyone wishes to recognize David Greenblatt’s motorsport career, please paste this link into your browser:

http://www.legacy.com/can-montreal/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=131522271

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First Canadian Grand Prix winner Jack Brabham is ailing

A little over a week from now – Thursday, Aug. 27, to be exact – will be the 42nd anniversary of the first Formula One Grand Prix of Canada at Mosport, so I thought I’d bring you up to date on the guy who won that inaugural event, Jack Brabham of Australia.

The news is not the greatest.

Now 83 years old, Sir Jack (he was knighted in 1979) is undergoing dialysis treatment after suffering kidney failure.

As reported by Agence France-Presse, Brabham goes into hospital three days a week since his kidneys started to fail two years ago.

“Unfortunately, I don’t get the time to do the things I want any more," Brabham – who was a three-time world champion (1959, ’60 and ’66) – told The Daily Telegraph in a subsequent interview.

"I really only get two days a week where I can do anything,” said the man who started the rear-engine revolution at Indianapolis in 1961 when he went there with his little green Cooper racing car that had the Climax engine in the back.

“I am a dialysis patient and it takes five hours, three days a week. I have really had my wings clipped," said Brabham, who is still the only driver to win the world championship in a car of his own design.

In the Daily Telegraph interview, Brabham – who drove in 126 Grand Prix races from 1955 to 1970 – said he has had to make some adjustments as a result of his illness.

"The last Formula One event I went to was in Melbourne a couple of years ago," he said. "I used to go every year, but unfortunately my condition doesn’t let me. But I am not complaining. Aside from my kidneys, I am in good health.

"I had ambitions to keep on achieving things in my life, but I am resigned to the fact I have to be in hospital three days a week. I can’t rush out and do things anymore, but I have accepted that."

Brabham finished first on that miserable Sunday at Mosport, when it rained, then dried up a bit, then poured down again. His Brabham teammate Denny Hulme was second and Dan Gurney was third (a lap behind!).

Of course, all the romantic Grand Prix stars of the day were here in Canada: Graham Hill (who finished fourth in the big race – two laps down), Mike Spence and Chris Amon (fifth and sixth, three laps behind), Bruce McLaren (seventh, four laps back); Jo Bonnier and David Hobbs (eighth and ninth, five laps down), and Dickie Attwood (10th, six back).

The great Jim Clark didn’t finish because his ignition got wet and his Ford engine conked out; Jackie Stewart’s throttle jammed open so he called it a day; Chris Irwin spun off after 18 laps and couldn’t get his BRM going again, and Jochen Rindt only lasted four laps before his ignition gave up the ghost.

Jo Siffert didn’t get to start. He qualified 13th but his starter motor broke and that was that.

Canadian content was provided by Eppie Wietzes, who was disqualified when he stopped by the pits and one of the Lotus mechanics touched his car (a no-no), and Al Pease who was so far back he wasn’t classified.

(Pease maintains to this day that he was horribly embarrassed by the whole thing but he shouldn’t be. His battery went flat on the mock grid and he was pushed into the pits. The race started and he was still in there.

(Later, after he got going, the battery expired for good so he walked/ran all the way back to the pits from the neighbourhood of Moss Corner to get a new one and then walked/ran all the way back to his car to install it himself.

(That he actually completed 47 of the 90 laps is commendable, considering he wasn’t actually driving in the race all that much.)

There were two other drivers who showed up for that race – Mike Fisher and Tom Jones, both Americans.

A Californian, Fisher had purchased an old chassis from Team Lotus and rented an engine from BRM. He finished the race nine laps behind.

(An aside: the car was painted British racing green and Fisher left it that way. Lotus owner Colin Chapman was not amused because the car looked the same as the official team cars driven by Clark, Hill and Wietzes and I heard him tell one of his mechanics that it was not to happen again.

(“Paint it white before you let it out of the factory,” he said.)

The other Yank was Tom Jones from Cleveland who had an old Cooper-Climax. The stewards wouldn’t let him start because they said he was too slow.

The last time I saw Sir Jack Brabham in the flesh was at the 1996 Grand Prix in Montreal, just as the government was starting to crack down on cigarette advertising.

The reception we were at was put on by Player's - the very cigarette company that sponsored the Grand Prix he won in 1967 - and I asked him what he thought of what some people saw as interference in the marketplace.

His eyes flashed with anger.

"They're meddlers," he said. "It's none of their business and they should keep their noses out of it."

He still had it - the passion of a champion.

Alex Tagliani buys two racing teams in one week

It’s been a busy seven days for Canadian racer Alex Tagliani.

As reported on this blog last Thursday, Tagliani has partnered up with Ohio woman Sonja Stockton to establish – with two others – a team to race in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series.

(An aside: “Tags” went out at Trois-Rivieres on the weekend and not only won the pole for the Canadian Tire race there but set a track record in the process. Not bad, eh?)

Now it’s been revealed that Tagliani has teamed up with two U.S. businessmen/racers to purchase Marty Roth’s equipment to go racing in the Indy Racing League.

Roth, a Toronto racing driver and owner of two IRL cars “ready to go racing,” denied the sale was final when I talked to him this morning – but that’s just splitting hairs. It would appear to be pretty much a done deal.

“Yes, I have accepted a deposit,” Roth said, “but there are still stages to go through. The deal has not closed.”

But Roth said Tagliani, a veteran racer relegated to a part-time Indy car role this year, Jim Fruedenberg of Chicago and a third party (identified by SpeedTV as ex-Derrick Walker engineer and team manager Rob Edwards) have “formed a company and tied it (the cars and equipment) up.”

“As a result, I have taken that stuff off the market,” Roth said, but added there is another party hovering about – just in case something goes wrong and the transaction isn’t completed.

“But I don’t want to say much more,” Roth said. “I don’t want to steal their thunder. It’s not really my announcement to make anyway. It’s not my story – it’s their story.”

Roth said this unidentified “other party” has been trying to purchase his equipment – two cars, pit equipment, transporter and a building/garage in Indianapolis – since last year.

“We were so close to a deal that I entered the two cars for this year’s Indy 500,” Roth said. “I was to be the second driver, but it didn’t work out in  the end – although that party is still around in case there’s a problem  with this deal later.”

Roth said that once the sale to Tagliani, et al, closes, he’s finished with Indy car racing forever.

“I’m done, I’m out,” he said, suggesting he might eventually feed his need for speed – he was a professional motorcycle racer before going into Indy Lights and then the Indy cars – with a fast-as-lightning speedboat.

Meantime, it’s apparent that Tagliani – unlike a lot of other drivers having trouble picking up rides later in their careers – is not sitting around waiting for the phone to ring.

He is now part-owner of two racing teams and who knows what might be around the next corner?

Arter all, he has always been a self-promoter. If you go to Montreal for the Formula One Grand Prix of Canada, and take a walk along Ste. Catherine St., you will always find a storfront full of Alex Tagliani memorabilia – caps, sunglasses, T-shirts.

I asked him about this once. Did he have a business manager, or advisor, or what?

“It’s me, Norris,” he said. “It’s all me. If I didn’t do it, who would?”

NASCAR fuel-economy runs are getting tiresome

Brian Vickers won the NASCAR Sprint Cup race yesterday at Michigan because Jimmie Johnson ran out of fuel and that is not the way people should win races.

The reason I tend to prefer short-track speedway racing to the big-league stuff is that fuel is never an issue.

Supermodifieds? Sprint cars? They can use all the fuel they need.

But NASCAR and the IRL place restrictions on the amount of fuel a car can use over the course of a race. Cars are supposed to get "x" number of miles-per-gallon.

I say, who cares?

If you want to have a fuel-economy run, fine. The environmentalists will love you. But it’s not racing.

Remember back in the Nineties, when the Indy car races would come on, and CART was at the top of its game, and play-by-play announcer Paul Page (what a great voice. . .) would throw to Jon Beekhuis for a little pre-race analysis? And the first thing Jon would say, literally every time, was:

"Paul, everybody’s worried about fuel, they might not have enough. . . "

and I’d say: " I’m supposed to get excited about that?"

I think there could be a correlation between the emphasis on fuel economy and the decline in popularity of Indy car racing.

And that’s what’s happening with NASCAR. Just about all of the superspeedway races now come down to "fuel strategy." And when the announcers start talking about that, I guarantee you that eyes are glazing over and channels are being changed.

Is it any wonder there are empty seats in the grandstands and fewer people are watching on television when it's touch-and-go that a driver will be able to make it to the finish when he should be duking it out with the other drivers?

When you have to conserve fuel, you are not racing. It is as simple as that.

Memo to NASCAR, the IRL and all other racing organizations that consider themselves to be in the entertainment business: Give the racers all the fuel they need or want. Let ‘em race.

Jeff Gordon finished second at Michigan yesterday. (Get this: as he went flying into turn one, he’d shut off the engine. When he got to the apex, he’d fire it up again in time to accelerate onto the backstretch. He’d do that again going into turn three. "I shut the engine off so much I think I got us (stretched the fuel for) six laps," Gordon said afterward. Which is nuts.)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was third – one of his best runs in ages.

Yesterday’s victory was Vickers’ second in Sprint Cup competition and moved him into 13^th place in the standings, a dozen points out of the 12^th and final Chase for the Championship (playoff) spot with three races left – all in prime time: Bristol next Sat. night at 6:30, Atlanta the Sunday night of Labour Day weekend, at 7, and then the Chevy Rock ‘n Roll 400 at Richmond on Sat., Sept. 12, also at 7.

NASCAR NOTES:

– Jerry Punch, a medical doctor, started out announcing NASCAR and IRL races as a pit reporter. An articulate man, I admired Punch for his use of the language, particularly his diction. Now he is the play-by-play announcer and he seems to be picking up some bad habits. He seems to be "channeling" Larry McReynolds when he uses certain words. So attention, Dr. Punch: the word "caution," as in "caution flag," is pronounced "caw-shun," not "cow-shun." There is no saving Mr. McReynolds, but you can do better. . .

– Maybe the people who run NASCAR shouldn’t be so knee-jerk reactionary when someone like Dale Jr. makes some suggestions. Earnhardt II said on Friday – in so many words – that the Car of Tomorrow is junk and should be . . . junked. President Mike Helton then held his own news conference to say not a chance and seemed to suggest that maybe if Junior was doing a little better in the standings that he might not be so critical. That’s not the point, Mr. Helton. NASCAR Sprint Cup has lost some of its zip and maybe, just maybe, the car might have something to do with it. Suggestion: chew on things for awhile before spitting them out. There might be some flavour in there. . .

– Although there were a few empty seats, yesterday’s Cup race at Michigan was very well attended. But did you see the turnout for Saturday’s Nationwide race? I mean, there was nobody there. And this is the series that packs ‘em in at Montreal? I still don’t get it.

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Brockville driver injured

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I was hanging around my old summertime stomping grounds on Sat. night – the Oswego Speedway in New York state (about 35 miles across Lake Ontario south of Kingston) – and heard some bad news.

Craig Rayvals of Brockville, a talented driver speedway announcer Roy Sova calls "Hollywood" because of his good looks, was badly injured Friday night at Lee U.S.A. Speedway in New Hampshire when his throttle stuck open and he went full-tilt into the retaining wall.

Rayvals reportedly has a badly broken right leg, a broken collarbone and several broken ribs.

This is the third really bad accident this season in the supermodified class. Ex-NASCAR star Johnny Benson was banged up earlier this year at a race in Michigan, as was local Oswego driver Shawn Muldoon, who’s still at home recovering.

The "supers’ can bite if you’re not careful.

On the positive side, Joey (the Jersey Jet) Payne won his first Oswego supermodified feature Saturday night. It was also the first feature win for car owners Pat and Terry Strong.

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Weekend racing results:

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Andrew Ranger, the Quebec driver who spent two years in the Champ Car World Series before finding himself on the outside looking in, is on a tear in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series this season.

Yesterday, at Trois-Rivieres, he drove his No. 27 WalMart/Tide Ford to his fifth victory of the season and, in doing so, just about put a stranglehold on the championship.

Ranger, of Roxton Pond, Que., held off Anthony Simone of Holland Landing, Ont., in a green-white-checkers finish. D. J. Kennington of St. Thomas, Ont., was third, Jacques Villeneuve (yes, that Jacques Villeneuve) of Montreal was fourth and Ron Beauchamp Jr. of Windsor was fifth.

Montreal Canadiens defenceman Patrice Brisebois (of Westmount, Que.) was 17^th in the 29-car field (it was his first professional series start after driving in the non-professional Ferrari Challenge series for the past five years), pole-winner Alex Tagliani (Lachenaie, Que.) finished 22^nd after his engine let go, Pierre Bourque of Ottawa lost his transmission and finished 24^th but donated his winnings to the Military Families Fund (more about him – and that – in a future blog), and defending national champion Scott Steckly of Milverton, Ont., was 27^th after he, too, lost his transmission.

The Canadian Tires Series racers will next see action a week from next Sunday at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal as part of the NASCAR Nationwide weekend. . .

– Swiss driver Simona de Silvestro became the winningest woman driver in Formula Atlantic history yesterday at Trois-Rivieres when she nipped John Edwards by 0.886 seconds. Jonathan Summerton finished third.

De Silvestro broke a tie with Katherine Legge by winning her fourth race. She also has scored the most pole positions by a woman and is the female lap leader.

Eric Jensen of Toronto finished eighth.

The Atlantics will race next at Mosport in two weeks as part of the American Le Mans Series weekend. . .

– Speaking of the American LeMans Series, David Brabham and Scott Sharp won the ALMS race at Road America yesterday and were first in the LMP1 class. Adrien Fernandez and Louis Diaz were first in LMP2 and Bill Auberlen and Joey Hand won the GT2 class. . .

– Robert Wickens of Toronto had two miserable races in the new FIA Formula 2 series at the weekend. He dropped out of both with engine problems, although he’s still second in the standings. But the championship doesn’t look good. . .

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