Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

Wickens to race in GP3; Tagliani returns a favour

Good news today involving a couple of good-guy Canadian drivers.

First, Robert Wickens of Guelph and Toronto, who finished second last year in the FIA European Formula 2 Series and then was cut adrift by Red Bull (I'd initially said BMW; my mistake) who’d supported him for four years, will drive this season in the European GP3 Series for the Canadian-owned Status Grand Prix team.

The GP3 Series is brand-new for 2010 and has been described as a feeder series for GP2 and then F1. Wickens hopes to be able to make the jump directly from GP3 to the big time.

"GP3 is a very good fit for me because we’re at F1 grands prix and it’ll be a great way to highlight myself and show I’m ready to step into F1 in 2011," Wickens told correspondent Matt Beer of autosport.com.

"Having driven the GP3 car with Status (in testing), it made me even more eager to find the necessary funding to participate. It’s been a big effort by many people in Canada, and I’m also very grateful to Status GP for showing faith in me. Together we’re targeting nothing less than the championship.

"It’s nice to see familiar faces from Team Canada - we’ve won together before (in the now-defunct A1GP series) and we can repeat that success."

Status Grand Prix is owned by Teddy Yip Jr., of Vancouver.

Status GP has Russian driver Ivan Lukashevich under contract (Wickens beat him in the F2 points race last year) and is still looking at Markham’s Daniel Morad for a seat in its third car (all GP3 teams must commit to run three cars in each race before being issued an entry).

The GP3 season will start as support races at the Grand Prix of Spain in May.

Meantime, one good turn deserves another and Canadian Alex Tagliani returned a huge favour yesterday when it was announced that Brazilian Bruno Junqueira would drive the Fazzt Race Team’s second car at Indianapolis in May.

Tags was Conquest Racing’s primary driver last year and qualified for the Indy 500. Conquest then hired Junqueira to get its second car into the field.

But Tagliani was bumped from the 33-car starting field at the last minute so Conquest asked Junqueira to step aside. Not only did Tagliani race, but he finished ninth and was named rookie-of-the-year.

Tags is now part-owner of the Fazzt team and was delighted to be able to offer Junqueira the ride.

"Because we have enough sponsorship to run a second car at Indianapolis, we felt it important to give that chance to Bruno," Tagliani said in a release.

Mopar to support Ron Beauchamp again in 2010

The opening race of the 2010 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series will be held June 5 at Delaware Speedway near London, Ont., and Windsor’s Ron Beauchamp Jr. will be back on track with long-time sponsors Mopar Parts, Mobil 1 and Exide Batteries supporting him.

When the green flag flies on that Saturday evening, Beauchamp will once again pilot the No. 60 Mopar Parts Dodge in search of Victory Lane. Last season, the Windsor veteran ran consistently near the front of the field and scored eight top-five finishes and eleven top-tens in the series' 13 races.

He stood on the podium three times and ended the season tied for second in the overall points race.

The only thing that eluded the team last year was a race victory but Beauchamp plans to change that this season. “We had a really good season and were in position to win a number of races,” the driver said. "But unfortunately, we just seemed to miss out for one reason or another. We’re determined to get to the top step of the podium in 2010, though.”

National champion Andrew Ranger of Roxton Pond, Que., is expected back to defend his title. Other top runners, including 2008 champion Scott Steckly, Mark Dilley, Kerry Micks and Don Thompson Jr. are also expected to be at Delaware.

Meantime, Chrysler Canada has announced an enhanced 2010 program to support Dodge Avenger race cars in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series in which nearly $90,000 in contingency award money will be up for grabs.

The "Dodge-Mopar Fast Five" award will see the top-finishing Dodge team receive a $2,000 bonus, with the second through fifth highest-finishing Dodge teams earning $1,500, $1,000, $750 and $500, regardless of their overall finish in the race.

All 13 races in the Canadian Tire series, which is Canada’s only national racing series with events stretching from Nova Scotia to British Columbia, will be broadcast on TSN again in 2010.

For more information on the series, go to nascar.ca.

How come the F1 drivers stopped passing in Australia?

Yes, everybody was saying after this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix that it was an exciting race – and yes, it was at times – but my question a day later is this:

If the drivers were able to pass pretty much with abandon during the first 38 laps of the race, how come hardly anybody could pass in the last 20 laps?

For the first two-thirds of the race – it was wet for the start but then it dried up – guys were literally passing each other left, right and centre. It was tremendously exciting and great fun to watch.

But then, from lap 38 on, when eventual winner Jenson Button was so far ahead in his McLaren that he was out of sight and the second-place through sixth cars (Robert Kubica - Renault, Felipe Massa - Ferrari, Fernando Alonso - Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton - McLaren and Mark Webber - Red Bull) were running nose-to-tail, nobody appeared able to do anything.

Lap after lap, you expected somebody to have a go but they didn’t and the announcers kept talking about "turbulence" being a problem and I kept thinking to myself, "Wasn’t there turbulence earlier? How come it’s a problem now when it wasn’t then?"

What made this parade even more curious was that Alonso had only made one stop and was running late in the race on worn tires while Hamilton and Webber had both stopped twice and were racing on relatively better rubber.

You would think Alonso would have been a sitting duck for Hamilton and Webber but they just couldn’t get the job done for whatever reason.

With two laps to go and Hamilton alongside Alonso (he’d either been alongside, or just about alongside, several times previously), Webber forgot that he was going to have to brake for somebody going into Turn 13 and when Hamilton backed off he hit him and knocked them both off the circuit.

The race ended with Button on the top step of the podium, with Kubica second and Massa and Alonso third and fourth. Nico Rosberg finished fifth in his Mercedes and Hamilton recovered for sixth.

Antonio Luizzi was seventh in a Force India, Rubens Barrichello was eighth in a Williams, Webber limped home ninth (teammate Sebastien Vettel was winning the Grand Prix – again – in his Red Bull when he went off course because of a mechanical problem) and Michael Schumacher was tenth in his Mercedes.

Here is the Australian Grand Prix as seen through jottings in my notebook.

– As my colleague Gerald Donaldson (don’t forget our pre-race podcasts at wheels.ca before every Grand Prix) said in our Aussie GP preview (you can listen to it here), Albert Park in Melbourne is much like the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal in that it’s green and right near the centre of the city.

As a result, they attracted the biggest crowd to the race in five years – 120,000 people – and they even had to build an extra grandstand. Let’s see if Canada can beat that this year!

– It was raining and the field started on intermediate wet tires. At the first corner, eventual winner Button ran into Alonso and spun him right around, with Alonso’s Ferrari collecting Schumacher’s Mercedes in the process. Alonso’s drive from dead last to fourth was one of the highlights of the race.

Now, when analyzing the replay, BBC commentator Martin Brundle said that Button had "zero responsibility" for hitting Alonso. I don’t know about that.

You can’t be involved in a collision, regardless of the circumstances, without having some responsibility. At a certain point, race drivers going from a standing start to the first corner know that only three or four cars are going to be able to negotiate that turn at the same time (primarily because there isn’t room for any more) and somebody is either going to have to back off to avoid crunching somebody or getting crunched themselves.

Button was behind Alonso going into the corner, so when the Ferrari driver turned in the collision took place. Zero responsibility? I’d say half his fault, wouldn’t you?

– Just so people don’t think I take every opportunity I can to slag Jenson Button, that was his only mistake the whole race (and, again, he was only half responsible for that coming-together). His decision to pit for slicks was brilliant (he stopped two laps before about everybody else) and this gave him the jump he needed to walk away with the race. He did everything right from then on and managed the race with the skill of the world champion he is. Good for him.

– Question: Is it better to be a losing, uncompetitive driver in Formula One or to be fighting for race victories and possibly the championship one level down? I’m thinking here of Bruno Senna, who’s Hispania Racing team is hopeless. He finished second in the GP2 series last year, winning two races and three poles. Is he helping his career by doing what he’s doing? Or hurting it?

– Question: Is it better for Formula One, as a series, to have 24 cars on the grid – six of which are uncompetitive – or to have only 18 cars but all of them capable of winning? Just wondering . . .

– By Lap 20, Alonso had gone from 24^th to seventh. Question: Is he that good a driver, and the Ferrari that good a car, or is the rest of the field so bad?

– Martin Brundle said Mark Webber calls Nico Rosberg "Britney Spears." What is that about?

– Lewis Hamilton, in the thick of his battle with Alonso, started complaining to his team over the pits-to-car radio about the wisdom of the second stop for tires. It turned out later that Robert Kubica had been ordered in for tires and had refused. He, of course, finished second.

Question: Instead of blaming the team, why didn’t Hamilton stay out?

– We only have a week until the Grand Prix of Malaysia. As next Friday is Good Friday, I will record the Malaysia Grand Prix preview podcast with Gerald Donaldson earlier than usual and it will be posted on wheels.ca by noon on Thursday. Don’t forget to listen, as "Gerry" has some wonderful insights.

Rain, rain go away

The other two major races of the weekend – the NASCAR race at Martinsville and the IZOD IndyCar Series race at St. Petersburg, Fla. – were rained out and will be run today.

The Indy car race, which – like F1 – is capable of racing in the rain, was postponed primarily because of thunder and lightning storms. The circuit was flooded and the lightning was sufficiently frequent that it was too dangerous for the drivers to race.

The only open-wheel race of consequence was the Indy Lights feature in St. Pete. It was won by rookie J.K. Vernay. James Hinchcliffe of Oakville won the pole but was taken out at the first corner by fellow Canadian Philip Major of Ottawa who admitted to the mistake.

"I outbraked myself going into (turn) 1 and I’m sorry it turned out the way it did," Major said.

　

　

What’s with these F1 pilots driving NASCAR trucks?

Just a couple of quick notes before we get to the headline:

– Don’t forget that I do a podcast preview of every Grand Prix with Canadian Formula One expert Gerald Donaldson. Be sure to listen to our pre-race discussion about what to look for in next weekend’s Grand Prix of Malaysia, which will be posted to wheels.ca by noon on Thursday (a day earlier because of Good Friday).

In fact, this will be the headline: Malaysia GP Preview: Listen now

– Gerald also files a report from every Grand Prix (the lucky fellow gets to go to them all) and here’s a link to his story following this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix. I, of course, kick off Mondays with my review of all the weekend’s racing and that can be found at wheels.ca, thestar.blogs.com/autoracing and thestar.com/sports/autoracing

Hint: What did I think of the Aussie GP. Exciting – but not that exciting . . .

Okay, there’s something going on in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series that I find intriguing.

For the second time this season, an ex- Formula One driver has entered a race – and hasn’t done all that badly.

You will recall that Nelson Piquet Jr. entered the first truck race of the season at Daytona and finished a most respectable fifth. This was after extensive testing in the truck as well as in ARCA and Nationwide stock cars at that track but it was an excellent result all the same for an oval-track newbie.

Now, this weekend at the Martinsville, Va., half-mile "paper clip" short oval, none other than Indian F1 driver Narain Karthikeyan entered and finished 13^th after starting 11^th and I find this result even more astounding for a first-timer than I did Piquet’s.

The race on Saturday, incidentally, was won by Kevin Harvick – his second truck series victory this season. Ron Hornaday finished second and Brian Ickler was third.

Canadian D.J. Kennington of St. Thomas finished 17^th after starting 35^th, which was a great result for him as well. So far as I know, it was Kennington’s first crack at the trucks, after acquitting himself pretty well in recent years in the Nationwide Series, thanks to help from sponsor Northern Provincial Pipelines of Alberta.

But back to Kathikeyan for a moment. I don’t know if this guy had even seen an oval track before this weekend, never mind one like Martinsville where the straights are long and the corners are as tight as, well, a paper clip.

Qualifying was rained out and owner points set the field, which was a break for this guy because, as mentioned he started 11^th. But he sure got the hang of NASCAR short-oval racing quickly because not only did he finish 13^th but he was on the same lap as the winner and only 15 of the 36 starters managed to do that.

Karthikeyan previously drove in F1 for Jordan (in 2005) and was a test driver with Williams in 2006 and ‘07. He also drove for India in the A1GP series and did some sports car racing.

The fact that ex-F1 drivers like Piquet and Karthikeyan can do as well in NASCAR in so short a time shows two things: a) F1 drivers – even the second-tier guys – probably are the best drivers in the world. b) the times, they are a-changin’ and more and more "offshore" drivers are going to be attracted to NASCAR and that, in itself, signals interesting times ahead.

Is Lewis Hamilton's love life hurting his driving?

To be a world champion Formula One racing driver, you need total focus.

So my question today is: Is Lewis Hamilton’s love life getting in the way of his race-driving?

Hamilton missed making it into final qualifying at the Australian Grand Prix today while his McLaren teammate, Jenson Button, wound up fourth behind front-row Red Bull starters Sebastien Vettel (pole) and Mark Webber, and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton will start 11th in Sunday's GP, which is not a good performance, at all, for a man who was world champion just two years ago.

What happened?

People will point to the absence of his father, Anthony, who – much like Tiger Woods’s father trained him to be a golfer from the moment he was born – was the driving force (and calming influence) behind Lewis’s success in auto racing up till this year. (They decided to go their separate ways following the '09 season.)

Others will say Lewis’s obvious immaturity is catching up with him. (He’s 25 years old and a Formula One driver and he still tries to attract attention to himself by squealing tires on the public roads, as was the case the other night when the police impounded his multi-million-dollar Mercedes road car after they caught him layin’ rubber as he left the Grand Prix circuit in Melbourne.)

But I would suggest it’s none of the above.

I think his rekindled relationship with Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger has left him all tuckered out. No, not that way; this way.

Since they decided early in the new year that they were in love forever and ever, Hamilton has made six round trips to Los Angeles to visit his sweetheart. Uusually, she follows him around to the various Grands Prix, but this year she’s busy with the TV show Dancing With The Stars (Helio won that a few year ago, remember?) and has been in training and rehearsals for several months.

Ergo, to keep the fires burning, he’s had to go to her.

Dancing With The Stars made its season debut last Monday night and Lewis was in the audience to cheer on his beloved (who finished the evening in first place with her dance partner, Derek Hough). Then there were the parties afterward because – after all – it’s Hollywood.

So Lewis wouldn’t have left L.A. for Australia till some time on Tuesday and, as a result, didn’t get to Oz till a couple of days before practice while all the other drivers had been Down Under since at least last weekend.

If Nicole goes all the way to the finals, Lewis is going to have a real grind of flying back-and-forth because you just know she’s going to want him there to cheer her on a good amount of the time, just as he’s wanted her at his races.

The jet lag's going to be crushing. 

Perhaps Ron Dennis (he’s still around, and very much a father-figure to Lewis) should have a sit-down with the young lovers and explain a few things ("absence makes the heart grow fonder," "parting is such sweet sorrow" – and so-on).

Why? Because even when you have all the talent in the world, the negatives can quickly start to outgrow the positives when your personal life gets in the way of your professional responsibilities.

Lewis Hamilton has been the golden boy of F1 up till now. But his place at the top of the perch is now officially precarious. Whether he stays there is completely up to him.

Gerald Donaldson F1 podcast on wheels.ca now

Just a shorty:

Don’t forget to listen to my podcast preview interview of the Australian Grand Prix with Canadian F1 expert Gerald Donaldson. It's on wheels. ca now.

I talked with him by phone at 7:30 this morning. I was just out of bed and he was just getting to bed (it was 10:30 p.m. Down Under), as there is a 15-hour time difference.

“Gerry” has some interesting things to say about Fernando Alonso’s assertion that if you find F1 racing boring then you should go watch another sport. (Shades of Max Mosley and the F1-as-chess analogy!)

Go to the Donaldson podcast at wheels.ca and have a listen.

"Gerry," incidentally, picks Lewis Hamilton to win the GP. I'm going with Mark Webber.

Honda Canada to sponsor Edmonton Indy car race

Honda Canada is now the sponsor of two Indy car races in Canada, not just one.

At a media conference today in Edmonton, Honda Canada executive vice-president Jerry Chenkin announced that his company would sponsor this year’s Indy Edmonton and that the arrangement would be for more than one year.

Honda, of course, sponsored the Toronto Indy last year when big-league open-wheel racing returned to the Canadian National Exhibition grounds following a one-year absence. The company will continue as title sponsor of the Toronto event this year and again in 2011.

The announcement in Edmonton was made by Chenkin, Ken Knowles of race promoter Northlands and Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel

Said Chenkin: “We will be working closely with Northlands and the event sponsors to ensure the Honda Indy Edmonton remains as the largest motorsports event in Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest for this year and beyond.”

The Edmonton Indy has had several title sponsors over the years. The first race, in 2005, was sponsored by the West Edmonton Mall. The Brick was then title sponsor for a year, followed by Rexall-Pharma Plus.

The Honda Edmonton Indy will be held July 23-25, a week after the Honda Indy Toronto (July 16-18). As well as a big deal in both big cities, the week between is an unofficial racing event for the truck drivers employed by teams in the IZOD IndyCar Series.

When the racing drivers get out of the cars in Toronto on July 18, the cross-continent race to be the first team truck to Edmonton will start.

The prize? Bragging rights only, of course.

Watkins to speak, O'Donnell honoured by Hall of Fame

In a couple of weeks, I’m going to sit down and interview a man I’ve known about and admired for years. 

His name is James F. (Jim) O’Donnell and if it wasn’t for him – and I’m not exaggerating when I say this – it’s quite likely that the legendary racing careers of Ron Fellows and Scott Goodyear flat out wouldn’t have happened.

O’Donnell was in charge of MacKenzie Financial Corp. when both young Canadian drivers – as well as Ludwig Heimrath Jr. – were struggling to make names for themselves. O’Donnell literally took all of them under his wing and the rest, as they say, is history.

The reason I’m talking about O’Donnell today is because on Sat., April 17, at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, he will be inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame during a black-tie gala celebration.

It should be a swell evening – and I urge everyone reading this to attend – because not only will Jim O’Donnell be inducted but so too will a dozen other individuals and organizations (the Canadian Race Communications Association, for instance).

Guest speaker will be none other than Prof. Sid Watkins, the legendary on-track Grand Prix surgeon who devoted his life to improving safety measures and medical support at racing circuits around the world. He will be introduced by his best friend, Canada’s own Dr. Hugh Scully, to whom Watkins dedicated his book, Life At The Limit: Triumph and Tragedy in Formula One.

That speech, ladies and gentleman, will be worth the price of admission all by itself.

But road racer Bill Adam will be inducted, as will the late Wayne Kelly who was a genius when it came to modifying existing chassis and making them his own. Many people still speak in awe of Kelly when discussing his Kelly Vees and Kelly Porsches.

My friend Norm Mackereth will be inducted and I am really looking forward to his acceptance speech because when "Stormin’ Norman" gets up a head of steam, it’s awful hard to get him to slow down!

And noted racer and car builder F.J. (Fred) Smith of Cayuga, Ont., one of Canada’s top drag racers, will also be inducted. Most recently, he's been the driving force behind the Can-Am Stock/Super Stock racing series that shares centre stage on many summer weekends with the Pro Modified Racing Association and the Quick 32 Sportsman Series.

It will be a night to remember. Trust me. And the Hall of Fame needs everybody’s help. Halls of Fame don’t just happen – they need the dedication and commitment of volunteers, sponsors and you. If you love motor racing, please plan to attend.

For more information, email info@cmhf.ca

To book tickets, go to www.cmhf.ca and on the left side heading south you’ll find a link to an order form.

See you there!

Time for NASCAR to put a bounty on Jimmie Johnson

Jimmie Johnson – who else? – won the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee yesterday. It was his third victory in just five Cup races this season.

He’s well on his way to winning his fifth consecutive NASCAR Cup championship – he hasn’t lost the heavyweight title since 2006 – and I really think this is doing serious damage to the sport.

How else to explain the fact that the grandstands at Bristol were half-empty yesterday? (Okay, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but between a third and a half of the 160,000 seats at that speedway didn’t have butts in them and that adds up to an awful lot.)

Bristol has two Cup races each year – in the spring and fall – and both are "must-see, must-attend" events. The place is always packed.

In fact, Bristol is "so NASCAR" that the opening scene of the cartoon movie "Cars" is set there. Every vantage point is occupied by a "car" (in the movie) and the flashbulbs are popping and the noise of the "crowd" can be heard above the roar of the race cars. The opening of that movie is exactly the way it usually is at Bristol.

Now, it can be argued that the late-winter/early spring weather just to the south of the Mason-Dixon Line has been chilly and that nobody wanted to sit outside yesterday and freeze their keesters off watching a car race.

Fine. But that didn’t stop people last year or the year before from bundling up and going. Besides, it’s always cold outside in March once you get north of Florida.

Another explanation could be that while the recession seems to have pulled in its horns in Canada and some of the wealthier American states, there are still some areas of the U.S. that are hurting and the hill country of southern Virginia and northern Tennessee (Bristol is right on the border) is still in negative territory and so that, surely, must be having an effect on NASCAR attendance.

But, again, that was the case a year ago and the crowd was still way better than it was yesterday.

So it’s got to be boredom – with Johnson winning all the time. (Before anybody jumps in here and says, ‘Hey, what about Michael Schumacher’s five straight championships in Formula One?" I just want to say that F1 fans are exactly the same as Toronto Maple Leaf fans – they’ll show up at the races (arena) or else watch on TV regardless of the product on display and it would take the work of a team of sociologists to explain why.)

So what can NASCAR do about this?

Exactly what the promoters at short oval speedways in Canada and the United States have been doing for years: put a bounty on his head.

What this means is that at the next race – Martinsville, Va., by the way – the promoter (or NASCAR, whichever) announces in advance that if anybody beats Johnson, then he’ll be paid double the winner’s purse or some similar bonus-type award.

It would all be symbolic, of course, so far as the other drivers are concerned (they’re all millionaires as the result of owner and sponsor contracts, so a few more dollars in the kitty won’t be all that much of an incentive), but it would create interest among the fans and that’s the result NASCAR would be seeking.

The TV ratings are still off and there are more and more empty seats (witness Bristol).

Bounties have always been good attention-getters on the short tracks so it’s time the big leagues gave them a try.

It sure wouldn’t hurt – and it might even help.

Meantime, the race itself at Bristol sure didn’t live up to advance billing. Everybody was on their very best behaviour (did NASCAR have a quiet word with everyone following the very public woodshed session with Brad Keselowski and Carl Edwards and their owners, Jack Roush and Roger Penske?) and other than a few  incidental comings-together, the Food City 500 went off without a hitch.

Tony Stewart followed Johnson home in second, with Kurt Busch third (he led the most laps, but for naught), Greg Biffle fourth and Matt Kenseth fifth.

It was Johnson’s 50^th Cup victory and his first at Bristol. He just keeps getting better and better.

NASCAR Notes:

Justin Allgaier won the Nationwide Series race on Saturday at Bristol. Brad Keselowski was second and both talked glowingly afterward about how there had been no trouble between them at all and it was just good clean racing that saw them finish that way on the speedway.

Give me a break. Both drive for Roger Penske and if one had taken the other out (as Keselowski surely would have done if he was on a different team), they would have incurred the Captain’s wrath and, trust me, that’s something no driver ever wants to happen. Kyle Busch was third, with Carl Edwards fourth and Kevin Harvick fifth. Harvick had no qualms about taking out Joey Logano with a tap to the rear bumper coming out of four late in the race. Who wants to bet that the payback comes next weekend at Martinsville? . . . The trucks haven’t been in action since Atlanta but will be front-and-centre at Martinsville next weekend. The good news today is that D.J. Kennington of St. Thomas, a class act in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series national stock car championship, will be making his first start in the Camping World Series in the No. 6 Northern Provincial Pipelines-sponsored truck out of the Rick Ware Racing stable. You can watch Kennington in action next Saturday at 2 p.m. on Speed TV.

Formula One: Australian Grand Prix

Don’t forget my pre-Grand Prix podcast with Canadian F1 expert Gerald Donaldson. Because of the time difference (Australia’s on another planet . . .), I have no idea when we’ll record the interview but, one way or another, it will be available on wheels.ca by noon on Friday.

Now, here are the TV times. Qualifying can be seen on TSN Saturday morning at 1:55 a.m. and the race can be seen live on TSN Sunday morning, also starting at 1:55 a.m. (Just think, if we all lived in Vancouver, we’d be able to watch at the civilized hour of 10:55 p.m. But we don’t.)

Okay, so how can we watch any of this stuff at a civilized hour here in the Eastern time zone? To do that, you must have TSN2 (unless Speed isn’t blacked out, but don’t count on that). TSN2 will show qualifying on tape-delay Saturday morning at 8 a.m. and will show the tape of the race at 8 a.m. Sunday morning. I think there might be repeats of qualifying and the race later Saturday and Sunday, but please check Star Week for the exact times.

In any event, here is what F1 is up against. Regardless of what the hard-core fans will do or not do, F1 has to be concerned about the casual fan and future fans.

After the first race of the season in Bahrain, a guy I work with walked up to me and this is exactly what he said:

"My wife (a dentist, by the way) used to be a huge F1 fan but she gave it up a couple of years ago when the racing got boring. But she read your piece on Saturday (the F1 season preview I did with Donaldson, which is here) and decided to give it another chance.

"So she got me up early on Sunday morning – normally I could care less but she wanted me to watch with her — and we were both numb by the time the race was half over. If that one driver (Sebastien Vettel) didn’t have engine trouble, there would have been no passing whatsoever.

"That wasn’t racing, that was driving. How can that sport be so popular and yet be so boring?"

So I told him about Maple Leaf fans (see above). Then I told him the Max Mosely story about comparing F1 racing to a chess game.

He rolled his eyes at that one.

Memo to Bernie: You’ve lost The Dentist again, which is not a hopeful sign for the future because there are many more like her.

12 Hours of Sebring

If I was at Sebring, and accredited as a journalist, the person I would have sought out immediately after the race was the marshal who took a fire extinguisher and single-handedly put out the fire that was rapidy engulfing Scott Sharp’s Ferrari.

The guy was brave, the guy was prepared and the guy (jeesh, maybe it was a woman . . . ) knew exactly what to do when Sharp pulled up beside the barrier and parked the fireball right beside the marshal station.

And why would I have built my story around that person? Because the story wasn’t that Peugeot and its stable of ex-F1 racers won the race – I mean, who did they have to beat? – and it wasn’t the crash of one Corvette into the side of another in the pits – these things happen and nobody was hurt and both cars went on to finish the race – and it sure wasn’t much else because not much else was compelling about this particular 12 hours.

But the work of the marshal was interesting and unique and illustrated perfectly one more time the dedication and bravery of this unsung group of people.

I mean, think about this for a moment.

The 12 Hours of Sebring is a multi-million-dollar motorsport event. Everybody in that race is either rich (as in, wealthy) or close to it. The purse is healthy. The TV broadcast costs a lot of money to produce and the announcers and commentators are all very well paid.

I would suspect everybody involved in this race – everybody - was on expenses, one way or another.

Except for the marshals and/or corner workers like our hero who saved Scott Sharp (owner of the team that fielded the Ferrari) a tonne of money by putting out that fire.

The marshals are not paid, which I find scandalous. They are "volunteers" who pay their own way to get to the events and their reward for a day in the hot sun or the pouring rain is a box lunch and maybe a beer bash at the end of the day.

Now, nobody’s forcing these folks to do those jobs. But if it wasn’t for them there would be no road racing. (Or, heaven forbid, the tracks or the sanctioning bodies would have to go out and recruit people, and train them and then pay them for being there. Couldn’t let that happen now, could we?)

Remember that when you watch the Formula One Grand Prix of Canada in June. Or the Grand Prix of Monaco.

Multi-billionaire sportman Michael Schumacher, who’s probably being paid a million dollars (at a minimum) cash money for three days of work, plus expenses, will be putting his life and his property (his car) in the hands of somebody working for a ham sandwich.

How ludicrous is that when you think about it . . . ?

Alexander Wurz of Austria, Marc Gene of Aprin and Anthony Davidson of Great Britain won the 12 Hours in their Peugeot 908 HDI FAP diesel. They travelled 367 laps of the Sebring course in finishing first.

Sebastien Bourdais of France, Nicolas Minassian of England and Pedro Lamy of Portugal were second in the sister Peugeot and on the same lap as the winners.

Adrien Fernandez of Mexico, Stefan Mucke of Germany and Harold Primat of Switzerland were third in a Lola B09 60, three laps behind.

See post below for the Canadian content.

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Toronto’s Wilkins wins 12 Hours of Sebring class

Professional race car driver Mark Wilkins of Toronto is now officially a winner in North America’s two top sports car racing series.

Wilkins, who normally drives a Ford-Riley Daytona Prototype entered by AIM Autosport of Woodbridge in the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series, entered the American Le Mans Series-sanctioned 12 Hours of Sebring today and came away a winner the first time out.

He shared a drive in the new Le Mans Prototype Challenge class with team owner Scott Tucker of Leawood, Kan., and Christophe Bouchutt of France and they brought an Oreca FLM09 car home first in class.

Wilkins, who told a television interviewer that he was thrilled the team had done so well the first time out, said that at the moment, there are no plans in place to continue in the ALMS this season.

"I’d like to do some more races, though," he said.

Meantime, he’ll return with partner Burt Friselle to Grand Am in a few weeks – a series in which they’ve scored two overall victories.

The 58^th Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida was won by Alexander Wurtz, Marc Gene and Anthony Davidson driving a diesel-powered Peugeot 908.

Two other Canadians entered in the classic – Tony Burgess of Toronto and Kyle Marcelli of Barrie – didn’t fare as well as Wilkins.

Burgess’s P1 Autocon Motorsports Lola B06 10 never made it to the start and Marcelli’s Oreca FLM09, with co-driver Joel Feinberg of Fort Lauderdale, finished fifth in the LMPC class.

More on Sebring in my Monday morning racing roundup.