Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

Thomson wins NASCAR Canada race at Barrie

Although Andrew Ranger of Roxton Pond, Que., didn’t clinch this season’s NASCAR Canadian Tire Series national championship at Barrie Speedway last night, he did extend his lead over second-place D.J. Kennington of St. Thomas, albeit only slightly.

In a race that was won by veteran Canadian stock car driver (and winner of five straight CASCAR championships) Don Thomson Jr. of Hamilton, Ranger finished ninth in a Wal-Mart Ford and Kennington was tenth in his Castrol Dodge.

So going into next Saturday night’s race at Riverside Speedway near New Glasgow, N.S., Ranger now leads Kennington by 138 points – as compared to 134 points going in. Ron Beauchamp Jr. of Windsor (Dodge) remains in third place – he finished 11^th last night – while defending champion Scott Steckly of Milverton is still in fourth place in the standings after a third-place finish last night in his Canadian Tire Dodge.

Thomson, driving his Home Hardware Chevrolet, led 106 circuits of the 300-lap Torbram Electric 300 presented by The Source in front of a capacity crowd. He beat the Dodge driven by Mark Dilley of Barrie to the checkers by .180 seconds. Brad Graham of Glencoe, Ont., (Dodge) was fourth and Jason Hathaway of Appin, Ont., (ditto) finished fifth.

Twenty cars started the feature and there were 16 lead changes involving eight drivers. There were eight yellow flags (a total of 83 laps were run under caution) and one red flag (no one was injured).

The victory was a breakthrough, of sorts, for Thomson. Although it was his fifth NASCAR Canada win, he hadn’t visited Victory Lane since last September.

Following next weekend’s visit to Nova Scotia, the Canadian Tire series will finish its third season with a race at Kawartha Speedway near Peterborough a week later.

The day the TV screen told me a lie

So I woke up this morning and turned on TSN to watch the qualifying for tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix and it was all very exciting (Lewis Hamilton on pole for McLaren, Adrian Sutil second in a Force India (!) and Kimi Raikkonen third in a Ferrari) and then, just as the cars pulled into parc ferme and the post-qualifying interviews were to begin – WHAP!! – TSN was out of there and right into the 500^th rerun of last night’s Sportscentre.

So I turned over to the Speed Channel, which covers F1 properly but we can’t watch it because of TSN-imposed blackouts. I figured – fool that I am – that since TSN had stopped showing the racing program that maybe – maybe – the blackout had been lifted on Speed.

It wasn’t – c’est la vie – but this is what made me really angry and prompted me to write this. This is what the writing on the blank screen said:

THIS PROGRAMMING IS AVAILABLE ON ANOTHER CHANNEL IN YOUR AREA

And I yelled right back at that stupid television set:

NO IT’S NOT!!!

If the sign had said:

GO BACK TO SLEEP YOU NITWIT, TSN DOESN’T WANT YOU TO SEE THIS, then I might have felt better.

I’ve said this before – but not on this blog – so I’ll say it again: I can hardly wait for the day I can buy F1 races directly from the source and watch them on my big-screen TV hooked up to my computer. Then I won’t be at the mercy of commercial television stations that go to all the trouble of tying up the rights to a sport and then treat it, and its fans, with disrespect.

All eyes on Ranger as Canadian Tire Series runs at Barrie tonight

Although all the stars will have to be aligned, and the moon will have to be big and bright in the sky for it to happen, it’s possible - possible - that Quebec’s Andrew Ranger might wrap up his second NASCAR Canadian Tire Series championship tonight at Barrie Speedway.

Having said that, it probably won’t happen.

Ranger, of Roxton Pond, Que., and a veteran of Formula Atlantic and two seasons of the Champ Car World Series, is leading CASCAR and Canadian Tire series veteran D.J. Kennington of St. Thomas by 134 points (1,724 to 1,590) going into tonight’s Torbram Electric 300 presented by The Source, which is scheduled to be flagged off at 8 o’clock.

Ron Beauchamp Jr. of Windsor is holding down third place in the standings, 27 points behind Kennington.

NASCAR Canada race points are awarded just like they are in the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Champing World series: 185 for winning, five bonus points for leading a lap and five bonus for leading the most laps.

So the likelihood of Ranger winning every point possible and Kennington and Beauchamp being shut out entirely is pretty unrealistic – but, as they say, anything’s possible and it could happen.

There are two more races remaining after tonight’s – at Riverside Speedway in Nova Scotia next Saturday night and at Kawartha Speedway near Peterborough in two weeks.

Ranger won the first Canadian Tire Series title in 2007, while Scott Steckly of Milverton, Ont., won it last year. Steckly, who won both NCTS races at Barrie Speedway last season, is currently in fourth place in the standings and looking to move up.

Start planning now for next weekend’s drag racing finale

Bruce F. Mehlenbacher is a PR man’s PR man (or person). He comes from a racing family and is truly passionate about the sport. He does a great job keeping the media informed about what’s happening in his corner of it, which is primarily drag racing at the moment but he’s also done good work over the years for the race tracks and oval racing drivers he’s represented.

His email to me today pointed out that it’s quickly coming down to the final weekend of racing for competitors in the Pro Modified Racing Association and the Quick 32 Sportsman Series presented by NAPA Auto Parts.

This will happen next Saturday and Sunday – a week this weekend – at Toronto Motorsports Park in Cayuga, south of Hamilton.

While Bruce Boland of Hamilton leads the PMRA points standings, Mark Nielsen, Jeff Roth, Dave Earhart, Jason Kalso and Eric Latino take up the other places in the Top Six and hope to keep the pressure on Boland, who will likely secure his third consecutive PMRA Championship during qualifying on the Saturday.

In Quick 32 Sportsman Series action, it’s not as clear-cut. A number of teams have an opportunity to win the championship. In fact, the top 14 teams all have a mathematical chance of surpassing the current leaders.

Jamie Bridge from Napanee leads the Quick 32 standings with 783. Next is Darrin Grubb of Pine River, with 762. Mitch Elliott of Woodstock is third with 757. Kevin Wicke of Stratford is fourth with 756 and fifth is Michael Kalin of Youngstown, N.Y.

Next Saturday’s racing will feature three PMRA qualifying sessions and round one of the Quick 32 Sportsman eliminations.  Sunday will see the eight quickest PMRA Pro Modified teams return for the championship eliminations as well as round two of the Quick 32.

For information about Toronto Motorsports Park, call 905-772-0303 or visit online at www.torontomotorsportspark.com

For more information about the PMRA and the Quick 32 series, contact Bruce Mehlenbacher at Bruce@PMRA.ca

New Ferrari sponsor means Alonso will drive for the Scuderia

Grupo Santander, one of the biggest banks in Spain, announced today a five-year contract to sponsor Scuderia Ferrari.

Can the announcement that two-time world champion Fernando Alonso will leave Renault and drive for Ferrari be far behind?

And will the announcement that Renault will leave Formula 1 at the end of the season be far behind that (see item below)?

This weekend at Monza could be just full of surprises.

F1: ‘Whenever there’s big money involved, you can bet the fix is in’

When I was a poor student living in Montreal in the mid-1960s, I stayed for a year with family friends. He was a vice-president of Canadian National Railway and very politically connected; she enjoyed English society and supported the arts.

One evening at dinner, the subject turned to hockey and the third-period collapse the previous Saturday night of the Boston Bruins, who had been leading 4-1 when the period started and wound up losing to the Canadiens, 5-4.

I thought it had been an extraordinary sporting comeback, and said so. I was shocked to the core when the gentleman looked at me and said: “It was fixed.”

“What?” I stammered.

“It was fixed. All sports are fixed – one way or another. Whenever there’s big money involved, you can bet the fix is in.”

I didn’t believe him then and I don’t think I believe him now. But his words keep coming back to me every time I read or hear about what’s going on in Formula 1.

To review: Nelson Piquet Sr. and Jr. have reportedly told the FIA that Junior was ordered to crash on purpose at last year’s Grand Prix of Singapore on a particular lap (shortly after his teammate, Fernando Alonso, pitted) and at a particular part of the street course (where there weren’t any cranes, thus guaranteeing a safety car).

Piquet Jr. wasn’t hurt in the ensuing accident; Alonso wound up in first place when the safety car was deployed and went on to win the race.

The allegations have been taken seriously. The FIA is investigating and the matter will come before the World Motorsport Council in the coming weeks.

Renault has not responded to the allegations. Team principal Flavio Briatore and engineer Pat Symonds have reportedly acknowledged meeting with Piquet and discussing the accident scenario but Symonds said it was Piquet’s idea, not theirs.

(Is this professional wrestling, or what?)

The thing about F1 in this high-tech age is that hardly anybody can get away with anything any more. A driver, for instance, can’t say it’s the car’s fault if he spins because the team has the telemetry and can tell if the driver stayed too long on the throttle, or hit the brake too hard, or whatever.

And all of this material – telemetry, radio transmissions between driver and team, and so-on – is copied and sent to the FIA after every race. So when the FIA investigation of the Piquet incident gets down to the nitty-gritty, and all of this evidence is examined, it could be pretty clear who’s telling the truth.

And although Briatore is pointing fingers and claiming it’s a shakedown orchestrated by the Piquets as the result of his letting Junior go in mid-season, where there’s smoke there’s usually fire and the words of that CN executive in Montreal back in the 1960s keep popping back into my head:

“Whenever there’s big money involved, you can bet the fix is in.”

Time's running out for Canada's Wickens in Formula 2

Robbie Wickens, from Guelph and Toronto, lost some ground again during last weekend’s Formula 2 meeting at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben in Germany when he finished eighth in the weekend’s first race and fourth in the second.

The Canadian started the F2 season – designated by the FIA as the official feeder series for Formula 1 – with two victories. Since then, he’s steadily lost ground to leader Andy Soucek of Spain and, in fact, is now third in the standings. And the winner of last weekend’s second race, Russian Mikhail Aleshin (second in the standings), is – like Wickens – a Red Bull-backed driver so the pressure is really on.

Racing in Europe is cutthroat to the extreme, as is the business of racing. You win – or else. And a podium finish is the minimum expected.

Every time I’ve talked to Wickens, going back three years, he’s always been upbeat and optimistic. Not exactly happy-go-lucky, but satisfied with his performance and confident of his future.

I had a chat with him a week ago Sunday at Mosport during the American Le Mans Series weekend – he was making a guest appearance in the Formula Atlantic Series race, in which he finished fourth – and he was far from being a happy camper.

“Things are going okay,” he said, “but they could be better. I’m not leading the championship by a considerable margin and, in fact, I’m not leading the championship at all any more.

“Having said that, I can’t control mechanical failures (of which there’s been a bunch). I’m driving better than I have in my whole life (he’s 20) and it’s just frustrating when you don’t have a reliable car under you.

“But – that’s motorsport. Hopefully, my string of bad luck is over and done with and I can carry on with the championship. It’s not over yet.”

But it soon will be. There are only four races remaining and time’s running out.

I still think Wickens is Canada’s best hope to next carry our colours into Formula One. Let’s cross our fingers that things improve.

Hinchcliffe, Bridgestone school team up to help young karters

James Hinchcliffe of Oakville, a veteran of Formula Atlantic racing who’s currently sitting fifth in the Firestone Indy Lights series with one race to go, has teamed up with Mosport’s Bridgestone Racing Academy to find a young karter with promise and help him or her start to climb the racing ladder.

Hinchcliffe will select eight go-karters for a private running of the Bridgestone Racing Academy's "Thrill of a Lifetime 3+" racing school at Mosport next Tuesday.

Hinchcliffe, along with Brett Goodman of the Bridgestone school and Tony Ventresca of Autosports Media Group, will judge the drivers' on-track performance.

And Hinchcliffe, who’s very well-versed in self-promotion and public relations – which is just as important in this day and age as the ability to go fast – will also monitor the drivers' off-track personas.

"Not only is this shootout going to test their on-track ability," Hinchcliffe said. "But some of the other judging criteria will introduce some of them to the pressures of the off-track side of racing, which is so important in the future when dealing with sponsors or media."

Following the completion of the one-day school, the panel will select one driver to participate in a fully paid, three-day "Wheel to Wheel" race licensing course at the Bridgestone academy next year.

"Canada has one of the best karting communities in the world and that's why we produce a high number of top-class racing drivers for the size of our population,” Hinchcliffe said in a release.

“I spent many years running karts all over Canada and those are some of my favorite memories from racing. The ‘Hinchtown.com Canadian Karting Award' is just a way for me to give something back to the community that really sparked my passion for racing."

Harvick's second-place NASCAR finish all right with Ricky Carmichael

DAVE MARTIN/AP

Harvick's crew buzzing away during a pit stop on Sunday.

Motocross champion-turned potential stock car champion Ricky Carmichael must have been hoping his boss, Kevin Harvick, wouldn’t win Sunday night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Atlanta because if he did, Carmichael was going to lose his hair.

Harvick had won the Nationwide Series race on Friday night and if he won the Sprint Cup race Sunday, Carmichael would have to get his head shaved.

(Don't ask. Car racers do all sorts of silly things. This is just another.)

It turned out to be a close shave for Ricky: Harvick finished second Sunday night to winner Kasey Kahne, with Juan Montoya third.

Carmichael has raced for Harvick in the Camping World Truck Series this season as well as selected ARCA races. The plan is to try to turn the world’s most successful motocross star into a take-no-prisoners auto racer.

In the Sprint Cup race, all eyes were on the drivers trying either to solidify their holds on a place in the 12-driver Chase for the Championship or get themselves in a position to drive their way in next Saturday night during the last race of the "regular season," the Chevy Rock ‘n Roll 400 at Richmond, Va.

Matt Kenseth, who finished 12th at Atlanta, looks vulnerable. He’s only 20 points up on the 13^th-place (and hard-charging) Brian Vickers.

Maybe Kenseth’s heart isn’t in it while Vickers’ very much is. Kenseth’s long-time sponsor, DeWalt Tools, is leaving at the end of the season, which has got to be a bit of a downer. Vickers, on the other hand, just signed a new, long-term contract to drive for Team Red Bull.

So there’s one guy maybe a little down in the mouth and another guy who smells blood and has the bit in his teeth. Look for Vickers to seal the deal at Richmond, and leave Kenseth on the outside looking in for the first time since NASCAR invented the playoff system.

Kyle Busch didn’t do his cause to make the chase any good with a 13^th-place finish at Atlanta. But Busch the younger is a tiger and he could yet squeak in.

Here’s a rundown of other racing results and news from the holiday weekend:

– Tony Schumacher won the Top Fuel class at the Mac Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis. In so doing, he tied the record of Don (Big Daddy) Garlits of eight U.S. Nationals titles. Schumacher beat Larry Dixon in the final showdown, 3.861 seconds (314.17 miles an hour) to 4.20 seconds (228.5 mph). Other winners: Ashley Force Hood in Funny Car, Jeg Coughlin in Pro Stock and Hector Arana in Pro Stock Motorcycle.

– De Ferran Motorsports announced that Indy car star Scott Dixon will share the driving of an Acura ARX-02A with Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud in the Petit Le Mans race at Road Atlanta on Saturday, Sept. 25.

– Ryan Hunsinger of Brantford won the Southern Ontario Sprints Labour Day Classic at Brighton Speedway. Justin Martin of Shedden clinched the SOS championship with an eighth-place finish. Tyler Rand of Consecon is rookie of the year. Glenn Styres of Ohsweken won the first SOS race of the weekend, which was a warmup for the Classic. Although the SOS season is officially over, club members will be participants in the Canadian Sprint Car Nationals at Ohsweken Speedway Sept. 17-18-19.

– Jeff Roth of Baden held off Bruce Boland of Hamilton to win his first PMRA Pro Modified drag race at the Grand Bend Motorplex. Don Aitken Jr. of Belle River won the NAPA Quick 32 Sportsman Series race.

– Although Brantford motorcycle road racer Jordan Szoke lost the battle, he won the war. Szoke claimed his record fourth straight Parts Canada Superbike Championship and his sixth in total by finishing second to Saskatoon’s Brett McCormick in the season finale at Shannonville Motorsport Park. McCormick, 18, finished second to the 30-year-old Szoke in the title chase.

– It’s in the genes. Scott and Leslie Goodyear’s son Michael started karting last year. Last weekend, he won the Manufacturer’s Cup in the 100 cc Yamaha Class at the World Karting Association Race at the Newcastle Motorsport Park just outside Indianapolis.

Sitterly wins at Oswego but race was hardly a 'Classic'

High-speed racing cars on a "short track" (speedways less than a mile in length) can often be recipes not necessarily for disaster but close to it.

Sunday’s 53^rd renewal of the Budweiser International Classic 200 for supermodified racing cars at the paved, 5/8-mile, Oswego Speedway in New York had a load of action but much of it was of the wrong kind.

Instead of lots of passing and the cut-and-thrust of racing excellence, there were yellow flags followed by yellow flags – more than a dozen, in total. One driver lost control and spun six times.

Compared to Classics past, it was not a great show.

In the end, Otto Sitterly of Canajoharie, N.Y., won the marathon, with Doug Didero of Dundas, Ont. (now racing out of Mooresville, N.C.) second and Ray Graham Jr. of Ankeny, Iowa, third.

Dave McKnight Jr. of Brampton finished fourth and Pat Lavery of Oswego was fifth.

Now, this does not mean that the Classic didn’t have its moments.

Didero, for instance, who won last year’s big race, started from pole and was intent on matching the late Jim Shampine’s 1980 Classic performance by leading all 200 laps.

It was not to be.

Didero led the race for 160 laps but he was forced to travel faster than he’d planned by eventual winner Sitterly, who started from the outside of the front row and tucked into second place, right on Didero’s tail.

"I saw he had a spotter who kept motioning to him how close behind him I was," Sitterly said after the race. "So I stayed right with him, pushing him all the way, and I could see his tires were going off. He was starting to slide in the turns so when I saw an opening to pass him, I took it."

Indy 500 veteran Davey Hamilton of Boise, Idaho, spent most of the race running in third place. A teammate of Sitterly’s, he stayed a respectable distance behind but when Didero dropped back to second, Hamilton turned on the afterburner.

The two were having a great joust – Hamilton, the mongoose, just waiting to pounce while Didero, the cobra, was bobbing and weaving his way past lapped traffic to stay in front of his attacker.

With fewer than 10 laps to go, Hamilton made his move going into Turn Three. Didero was on the outside, passing a slower car, and Hamilton saw a chance to pass the same car on the inside. He appeared to emerge slightly in front of Didero but the Canadian, a three-time Oswego track champion and two-time Classic winner, was having none of that and moved down on Hamilton, forcing the Indy veteran to brake to avoid a collision.

Hamilton then sought to hunt down Didero and caught him going into Turn One on the 199^th and next-to-last lap. He went to dive inside Didero but the Canadian moved down again and Hamilton’s right-front wheel collided with Didero’s left rear.

While Hamilton’s car wound up crumpled against the inside hub rail (he eventually was classified 10^th) Didero managed to keep control of his and continued on in second place.

While Didero was almost nonchalant later, Hamilton was clearly upset.

"All I ask is that guys I race against race fair," said Hamilton. "And that wasn’t fair."

Because of the late-race yellow, and Oswego’s policy of a green-white-checker finish to the Classic, the Classic 200 actually went 207 laps before Sitterly got his victory.

A three-time track champion, it was his first Classic win.

There was only one serious accident. Stephen Gioia III of Oswego (his mother and father are co-owners of the speedway) spun early in the race and his car came to rest sideways in Turn One. He was then hit a crushing blow by Jeff Abold of Baldwinsville, N.Y.

The race was stopped for close to 45 minutes. Gioia was removed from the car, medicated for pain (he suffered injuries to both legs) and transported to an air ambulance that flew him to University Hospital in Syracuse.

Only 10 cars of the 34 that started were running at the finish.

Other Canadians: Gary Morton of Stouffville was classified 15^th and Mike Lichty of Kitchener was 16^th.

And Indy 500 veteran Bentley Warren, 69, who started his 35^th Classic on Sunday and won the first of his six 40 years ago in 1969, spun on lap 34 bringing out the second of the many yellows of the day.