Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

IndyCar CEO: I’ll quit if TV ratings low for Vegas race.

When Randy Bernard was hired to run the IZOD IndyCar Series early last year, he enjoyed a wonderful honeymoon period. Everything he said or did was met with near-universal approval.

But that was then and this is now. So far in 2011, he’s been on the receiving end of near-universal disapproval of everything from instituting double-file restarts during races to determining the starting order of a recent race in Texas by lottery draw.

He expects the criticism to continue and to grow ever louder as the last race of the season at Las Vegas Motor Speedway approaches. Why? Because he wants to add five non-regular-season drivers to the starting field.

He agrees the idea’s going to open a hornet’s nest among other drivers in the race but vows that if it doesn’t drastically improve TV ratings in the United States, he’ll quit his job on the spot.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Star prior to a business luncheon Wednesday in which he planned to promote this year’s Honda Indy Toronto (a week from this weekend) and to discuss the future of IndyCar racing in general, Bernard also said that he expects star driver Danica Patrick to leave for a career in NASCAR at the end of the season, that the reason Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon doesn’t have a full-time ride is because there’s concern about how well he would do racing on road and street courses, and that he’ll discuss with his two Canadian promoters the possibility of more races in Canada going forward.

Bernard was CEO of Professional Bull Riders before being hired as CEO of IndyCar, taking over from Indy Racing League founder Tony George. His major accomplishment to date has been the selection of a new engine and chassis package for the 2012 season, which will include the return of Chevrolet to the series. Honda has been the sole engine supplier in recent years and will continue with some teams.

Bernard acknowledged some justification on the part of drivers who didn’t like determining the starting lineup for a race by lottery and said that when the series returns to Texas Motor Speedway for a double-header again in 2012 that he’ll simply invert the field rather than mixing it up.

And although he said double-file restarts also resulted in criticism from drivers, they’ve proved to be popular among fans so will continue.

But he admits to having his head down as the IndyCar season finale at Las Vegas on Oct. 16 approaches.

“I’m sure that you’ve just hit the next hornet’s nest,” he laughed. I think “you just took a bat to that hornet’s nest and stirred things up. Because I think that it will. I’m confident that they’re (the series’ regular drivers) going to be upset.

“But here’s the deal with it. Last year’s best-kept secret was the Homestead race (the season-ender at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida). It was a fantastic race and it got a .3 rating (on the U.S. cable channel Versus, which works out to fewer than 350,000 viewers. A 1.0 cable rating equals about 1 million U.S. households).

“If we do a .3 rating on this, I’ll quit. Right there on the spot. I’ll literally quit on the spot. If we do a .8 rating, I will quit. On the spot.

“I think we have to do something big. I definitely hope we can attract somebody like a Travis Pastrana (a motorcycle racer and X-Games competitor) or a Kasey Kahne (a NASCAR driver who started his career in open-wheel midgets) or someone to that capacity.

“There are famous drivers that are willing. We say we have the best drivers in the world, now we’re willing to put up $5 million (a bonus if a non-series regular wins the race) to prove we have the best drivers in the world. If you think you’re better, come beat us.

“I’ve had some F1 drivers call but they couldn’t figure out a way to get to Las Vegas from Korea, where they’re racing the same weekend. If they could have figured out how to get from Korea, I think they would have been willing to try it.

“There’s definitely a couple of NASCAR drivers who are interested. Kasey Kahne has expressed a lot of interest. I think it’s (the success of the promotion) going to be determined by who and how. Can you imagine if  Kyle Busch would come? He’d be fantastic.”

.Other points:

—   Bernard said he’ll sit down at the end of the season with Toronto race owners Kevin Savoree and Kim Green as well as Edmonton promoter Octane Management of Montreal to determine if there’s interest in another Canadian race.

“I’d like to use the promoters we have because they’re doing a good job,” he said. “Toronto this year is going to be off the charts, I’m hearing.”

—   On Wheldon, who’s been doing TV commentating since winning the Indy 500: “My first instinct is that I have to get him into a car. But then I think I can’t turn around and give money to drivers every time they win a race. The fact is, there’s concern about how Dan is on the road and street. It goes to show you how important your versatility in a race car is.”

— On criticsm following the second race at Texas Motor Speedway several weeks ago, in which the starting positions were determined by lottery.

"I like the criticism. I want them (the drivers) to speak their mind. I like controversy. I’ve told the drivers, ‘Say what you want. I don’t have a problem with that.”

— Danica Patrick. “I think she’ll go where her chequebook takes her. And yes, she’s done a lot for IndyCar. But I think her sponsor, GoDaddy, has done as much and I hope I can get them to stay.”

Ernie Irvan, Jimmy Spencer to race at Flamboro Friday

Everybody knows that the Pedregon brothers – Cruz and Tony – will be going head-to-head in a Funny Car match race at Toronto Motorsports Park near Cayuga on Saturday (you do, don’t you?) but how many others are aware that three of NASCAR’s legendary stock car stars will be at Flamboro Speedway near Hamilton on Frday, Canada Day, to take on some of the local regulars?

Ernie Irvan, Jimmy Spencer and Kenny Schrader will join some top Ontario talent in Friday’s Race of Champions event as part of Flamboro’s 50^th anniversary celebrations.

According to publicist Joshua Paxton, the afternoon program will begin at 1 p.m. with an autograph session featuring the three NASCAR Stars.  Writes Paxton, “Ernie Irvan is often recognized as ‘Swervin’ Irvan’ and is best known for his 1991 Daytona 500 victory and personal recovery and return to racing after a vicious accident at Michigan International Speedway.  Ken Schrader and Jimmy Spencer are widely recognized TV personalities as well as for their colourful careers in NASCAR and other racing series."

Two-time Daytona 500 champion Sterling Marlin was originally scheduled to participate but had to bow out.

None of the three NASCAR stars has been to the third-mile asphalt oval previously, leaving them only the Friday afternoon to scope out the place and take a few practice laps.  By the time the main event takes the green flag, the stars will have likely have less than 50 laps experience. 

As Paxton puts it, their professional skill and wide range of racing knowledge will be put to the test against the best grassroots drivers from Ontario.

The race will feature 8-cylinder stock cars from across the province, recognized at Flamboro as Freedom Village Thunder Cars.  Similar division titles include Street Stocks and Super Stocks. 

Admission is $35 and fans will also be treated to an intermission interview with the NASCAR stars moderated by Race Time Radio host Smokin’ Joe Chisholm.

Injured Mosport driver Jantzi vows to race again

FORMULA FORD DRIVER HURT HAVING 'BEST RACE' OF HIS LIFE

Shane Jantzi, the Formula Ford driver from Ayr who was involved in a mighty crash on the last lap of the Can Am Cup Challenge race at Mosport on Sunday, is back home today with a king-size headache as well as a badly wrecked race car but the desire to keep racing appears to be burning as strongly as ever.

“I’ve got a big concussion,” said Jantzi, who crashed  while trying to win the  Can Am trophy for the sixth straight time.

“Thank goodness we put in a new seat over the winter, and I was wearing my HANS device, or I would have broken my neck” he said about the accident in which his Formula Ford race car flew backwards off the track in Mosport’s Turn One and ploughed straight into a tire wall at just about full speed (the F-Fords average about 100 mph around Mosport).

Track safety officials and medical personnel took between 15 and 20 minutes to get Jantzi out of his car and onto a backboard before taking him to the Control Tower medical centre for evaluation.

“My head really hurt and I was dizzy so they took me to the hospital in Bowmanville where I had an MRI,” he said. “The doctor there told me I had a big concussion but that there wasn’t any swelling, so that was good news.”

Now that he’s on the road to recovery – and he’s got some time for that because he’s on parental leave from his job until Labour Day – Jantzi is disappointed he didn’t win the Cup again and critical of race officials who, he says, may have contributed to his accident.

First, the competition.

Six years ago, EFormulaCarNews.com put up a trophy – the Can Am Cup – for a special, once-a-year, Formula Ford shootout race open to anyone with a race-legal Formula Ford 1600 car and Jantzi won that first race going away. Nobody else has ever won it; he’s successfully defended it ever since.

Sunday at Mosport, Jantzi was aiming to make it six straight. At the beginning of the last lap, and running second at the time, Jantzi went to pass eventual winner Mathew DiLeo of Innisfil, only to have his car clipped by a spinning backmarker.

Said Jantzi: “I really wanted to win that Cup. Somebody else could have it after I retired; that’s how I felt.

“So I went to pass the backmarker who was also being passed by Mathew. Mathew was on the inside and was as close to the pit wall (that runs down through Turn One) as he could be because the fellow kept moving down on him.

“Suddenly, there was a puff of smoke, because their cars touched. The backmarker started to spin. I thought I’d cleared him but the back of his car just touched mine and that spun me around.

“I hit the wall a ton and I knew I was hurt. I thought right away that this wasn’t good. It was the hardest thing I’ve hit in my life. I blacked out for a second but otherwise I was aware of everything going on. I’ve been hurt before, so I didn’t move because I didn’t want to maybe aggravate something.

“I wasn’t sure exactly where on the track I was and the safety people took away my glasses. I can’t see a thing without my glasses so I couldn’t tell where I was.

“It’s a real bummer because I was having the best race of my life. I started seventh and I know I could have passed Mathew on that last lap and kept the Cup.”

Now the criticism: Jantzi, a veteran racer, is concerned that no blue passing flags were apparently waved.

“I didn’t see any blue flags,” he said, “and I’ve asked some of the other people involved and they didn’t see any either. It wasn’t the backmarker’s fault (Jantzi never identified the third driver) because I’m not sure he knew he was about to be lapped. That's what the blue flags are for - to tell people they're about to be passed.

“I know there was no blue flag shown at the start/finish line and nobody can remember seeing one at Turn One. What’s that all about? But, as Brian (Stewart) says, ‘it is what it is,’ I guess.”

Jantzi said because his racing is a hobby that involves his whole family, he has to talk to his parents about repairing the race car. As of last night, he wasn’t sure there would be money to race again this season.

But he said, one way or another, he'd return to race again.

He was also quick to quash a suggestion that he might be finished for the year.

“I’m really not sure about that,” he said. “We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Vettel wins F1 snoozer, Mosport racer injured

Vettel wins snoozer in Spain

While the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal two weeks ago was one of the most exciting Formula One races in years, Sunday’s Grand Prix of Europe in Valencia, Spain, was enough to put you to sleep.

In fact, if I hadn’t been heading out the door for Mosport (see NASCAR report below), I might have crawled back into the sack for another 40 winks after watching the first dozen laps or so.

The starting lights went out and Sebastien Vettel, the new Michael Schumacher (although a lot younger), took off for the first corner and the race, for all intents and purposes, was over.

Felipe Massa had a dynamite start for Ferrari and passed his teammate, Fernando Alonso, but instead of forcing the issue by going down the inside on Mark Webber and fighting for second place immediately, he backed off and that allowed Alonso to swing around the outside and slot into third behind Webber.

Alonso made it into second with a nifty pass of Webber on Lap 21 but that was pretty much all she wrote. Nobody ever got really close to Vettel and the 23-year-old German won his sixth race of eight so far this season.

Alonso and Webber arrived home in that order and they were followed by Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes), Felipe Massa (Ferrari) and Jenson Button (McLaren).

Since Vettel’d won the pole, as usual (his seventh of the season), and set fastest lap during the race, it was a perfect weekend for him and his Red Bull-Renault team.

The defending champion leads the World Championship with 186 points, 77 more than McLaren driver Button and Vettel’s teammate Webber, who are tied for second with 109 points.

Hamilton is fourth with  97, followed by Alonso, who has 87. The rest are way, way back.

The British Grand Prix is in two weeks. There are sugggestions that upcoming technical changes could shake up the order somewhat, but I wouldn’t count on it. Red Bull is too smart and Vettel is too good to be anything but No. 1 going forward.

Notebook Jottings:

– Jaime Alguersuari, the Spanish driver under threat at Scuderia Toro Rosso-Ferrari, responded to rumours of his imminent dismissal by finishing eighth after qualifying 18th. He drove a great race.

Meantime, his teammate, Sebastien Buemi, who’d outperformed Alguersuari previously, finished 13th and complained that his car seemed to be sluggish and that he just couldn’t get going.

Far be it from me to suggest that maybe the fix was in for Alguersuari this Spanish weekend. I’ll leave that to David Coulthard, who wondered aloud during the qualifying telecast on Saturday whether Mark Webber had everything available on his Red Bull that Sebastien Vettel has on his.

Just wondering, was the way Coulthard put it.

So, if there are questions surrounding fairness at the all-dominant Red Bull-Renault team, it’s quite possible that that sort of thing may go on from time to time at other teams.

– F1 races can’t be held without the help of dozens of volunteer marshals. They often risk life and limb in the performance of their duties.

During qualifying on Saturday, Pastor Maldonado’s Williams conked out halfway around the circuit. There was a fuel pickup problem, or something. In any event, the session was red-flagged.

So the red flag is out, and some marshals are waving white flags (the signal that a non-racing vehicle – in this case, a wrecker – was on the racing surface) while other marshals are out on the track attending to Maldonado’s racing car.

And my heart skipped a beat while I’m watching this because at least three F1 drivers literally flew past that little scene in their rush to get back to their comfy pits, missing those marshals by no more than a couple of feet.

What if one of those marshals had tripped and fallen, as happened to that guy in Montreal?

The FIA should have done something about those jerks. They fine them for speeding in pit lane, and for other somewhat inconsequential reasons, so why not for something like that?

How about a $25,000 fine for careless driving? That might get their attention.

– Okay, I‘ve got to say it: is everybody connected with Formula One racing skinny? Is there not one kinda chubby guy or gal among the beautiful people? (I’m not counting Flavio Briatore, because he’s not in F1 these days, is he?)

I don’t know how those folks can avoid packing on the pounds at a Grand Prix. I mean, at the start of the telecast Sunday, the camera went into the Paddock Club ($10,000 a head, minimum, for three days of hospitality) and showed half a dozen people sitting around a table drinking champagne.

There were six of them, and between them they might have weighed 200 pounds, total.

Now, I’ve enjoyed the Paddock Club experience. It was four or five years ago in Montreal, thanks to BMW. Let me tell you, it’s three days of non-stop eating and drinking. You can’t turn around in one of those suites without some man or woman wearing white gloves shoving a plateful of blueberry pancakes, or a café au lait, or a flûte of champagne, or pheasant under glass, or whatever, into your hands or your lap.

You eat from morning til late afternoon and then they take you back to the hotel so you can change clothes before they trot you out to some magnificent French-Canadian restaurant where the serving of more gourmet food and booze continues into the early morning hours.

I can proudly say I am among the 60 per cent of Canadians that the Heart & Stroke Foundation says are overweight and/or obese and I can add, with all honesty, that it is all the fault of the Formula One Paddock Club for exposing me to the joys of gastronomy.

So back to all those thin people in F1. What is their secret? I have to know.

Marco Andretti gets the bit in his teeth

It’s been five years since Marco Andretti, son of Michael and grandson of Mario, last won a race in what is now the IZOD IndyCar Series and that was on a road course in California.

Saturday night on a short oval in Iowa, Andretti blew past Tony Kanaan with 18 laps left in the Iowa Corn Indy 250 and held on for the victory. Scott Dixon was third, J.R. Hildebrand (he crashed on the last lap of the Indy 500, remember?) finished fourth and Dario Franchitti was fifth, despite leading 172 laps.

“We just didn’t get the job done tonight,” he said afterward.

James Hinchcliffe of Oakville finished ninth and Alex Tagliani of Montreal was 16th.

The Honda Indy Toronto is the next stop on the IndyCar calendar, in two weeks.

Notebook Jottings:

– There were five crashes into the outside wall of cars losing control exiting the second turn of the Iowa oval – James Jakes, Ana Beatriz (Mike Conway was caught up in her crash and crashed himself), Sebastien Saavedra, Will Power and Takuma Sato. All those cars spun around and went into the wall backwards (thank goodness for the SAFER barrier, or there could have been some serious back injuries).

Time and again, the TV announcers mentioned a “bump” in the track surface exiting that second turn. If true, it must be eliminated before the next IndyCar race there. A couple of crashes in the same place can be explained away. But five?

– Bob Jenkins is doing a better job of hosting these telecasts than was the case previously, but who is “J.R. Hinchcliffe?”

– Scott Dixon out-and-out blocked Danica Patrick on the last restart (or shortly after) and wasn’t called on it.

– The grandstands were packed Saturday night, which is very good news for IndyCar.

– The Penske team waved Power to leave after an early pit stop and he crashed into the side of a pitting Charlie Kimball. A wing was changed but there were other problems and he suggested to the TV cameras later that he’d been driving a dangerous car.

“(I) probably shouldn’t have been out there in a damaged car,” he said, explaining why he lost control and crashed coming out of turn two (see above).

He then suggested that something had to be done to eliminate the chaos of pit stops.

Good luck with that one.

Shane Jantzi injured in Can Am Cup FF race

Six years ago, when the editor and publisher of EFormulaCarNews.com put up a trophy – the Can Am Cup – for a special, once-a-year, Formula Ford shootout race open to anyone with a race-legal Formula Ford 1600 car, Shane Jantzi of Ayr won it for the first time.

And he defended it successfully for – are you ready for this? – four more years.

That’s correct: he won the Can Am Cup five years in a row.

Sunday at Mosport, Jantzi was aiming to make it six straight when disaster struck. At the beginning of the last lap, and running second at the time, Jantzi made an effort to pass eventual winner Mathew DiLeo of Innisfil going into Turn One and was clipped by a spinning backmarker.

The collison sent Jantzi’s car flying backwards into a tire wall at almost-full speed.

Safety crew and ambulance officials took 15-to-20 minutes to remove Jantzi from the car, which sustained serious damage to its back end.

The driver, strapped to a backboard, was taken to the Control Tower medical centre where his condition was evaluated.

At about the same time, a thrilled DiLeo was accepting the Can Am Cup.

The race was red-flagged immedately following the accident and the checkered flag came out soon after that. The official order of finish listed Janzi second.

A talented racer, Shane Jantzi is one of the nicest guys you would ever want to meet. We wish him a speedy recovery.

NASCAR: Kennington wins Mosport, Kurt Busch in Cup

Just about everybody competing in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series considers J.R. Fitzpatrick of Cambridge to be a nice guy and a clean racer.

IndyCar star Alex Tagliani, talking about racing against Fitzpatrick at Circuit ICAR three weeks ago, stressed again and again how much of a pleasure it was to do battle with him because he was always fair.

Sunday, at the conclusion of the Canadian Tire Series' Vortex Brake Pads 200 at Mosport, winner D.J. Kennington of St. Thomas went on and on about second-place finisher Fitzpatrick’s talent and good nature.

“I had a good run with J.R. and obviously he’s one of the best in Canada,” said Kennington. “He raced me clean. He could have moved me out of the way there at the end but he knows I’d do the same for him (hold off from hitting him).

“I don’t know how J.R. does it. He goes on the edge every lap. He never lifted once.”

Which is all very well and good, but you wonder if Fitzpatrick could win more if he, perhaps, wasn’t so nice.

For instance, he was furious at third-place finisher Robin Buck when he climbed out of his car at the end of the race but, after blowing off a little steam, he was his usual, philosophical, 23-year-old self.

“Everybody’s goin’ hard out there,” he said. “Everybody’s trying. He’s a part-timer and if he wants to try and wreck people who are going for the championship, well, that’s his business, I guess. Not much I can do about it.”

Fitzpatrick was more concerned about what he suspects might be differences in motors in the series.

“This is a spec motor series and we’re gettin’ killed," he said. "It’s ridiculous.”

It was a thrilling finish to what had not been a particularly good race. Kennington took the lead from Fitzpatrick on the second-to-last lap of the 51-lap contest, which was interrupted so often by yellow flags (six) that 21 laps were run under caution, and held it to the finish.

He crossed the finish line an eyelash in front of Fitzpatrick, who was a half-car length in front of Buck at the checkers.

Fitzpatrick led the race for 19 laps, while Buck was in front for 15. Kennington took the lead on lap 50 and was in front for the final two.

Fitzpatrick, who finished ninth in a NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisc., Saturday,  was racing on only two hours’ sleep, which might have explained some of his grumpiness.

He drove to Chicago from rural Wisconsin Saturday night, arriving near midnight, checked into a hotel, then was up at 3 a.m. to drive to O’Hare Airport for a 6 a.m. flight to Toronto. He arrived at Mosport at 10 a.m., with minutes to spare before the drivers’ meeting.

As a result, he was allowed to start third. Qualifying had been rained out on Saturday and the starting field was determined by points. There was some question that Fitzpatrick might have had to start at the back but, in the end, he went off third.

Buck made the biggest advance during the race, starting 22nd and finishing third.

Jeff Lapcevich of Grimsby was fourth, Scott Steckly of Milverton was fifth, Jason White of Sun Peaks, B.C.. finished sixth, Dexter Stacey of Kahnawake, Que., was seventh, Isabelle Tremblay of St. Hippolyte, Que., finished eighth, Howie Scannel Jr., of Milton, was ninth and Joey McColm of Ajax was tenth in the 26-car field.

Kennington last won a race on the road course at Mosport 10 years ago under the CASCAR sanction. One of the drivers he defeated was John Fitzpatrick, J.R.’s father.

The next Canadian Tire series race will be at the Honda Indy Toronto in two weeks.

Kurt Busch wins rough Sprint Cup race

If people who saw the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Road America on Saturday thought there was some rough racing in that one, it didn’t have anything on the shenanigans that went on in California Sunday.

When the smoke cleared at Infineon Raceway, Kurt Busch was the winner of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Toyota/Save Mart 350 with Jeff Gordon second and Carl Edwards third.

Clint Bowyer, Marcos Ambrose, Joey Logano (it’s about time he had a top ten finish), Jimmie Johnson, Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top ten.

But there was more than a little bashin’ and crashin’ going on out there and we’ll get to that in a moment.

Now, anybody who was paying attention knew the Nationwide Series race Saturday finished  under controversy (see post below explaining how Mississauga’s Ron Fellows was robbed of victory). What isn’t as well known is that there were threats of bodily harm levelled after that race against Canadian ex-Formula One World Champion Jacques Villeneuve, who ticked off more than a few other drivers.

On a late-race restart, Villeneuve somehow went off-track and onto the grass and, in trying to slip back into line, he managed to crash into at least three other cars, sending one being driven by Max Papis off course and into a tire wall.

“Congratulations, Jacques. Well done,” the sarcastic Papis said over the radio to his team.

Following the checkered flag (Villeneuve officially finished third in the race, behind the second-place Fellows; Reed Sorenson was declared the winner after a review), Papis stopped his car in the pits beside Villeneuve’s (which was already a little banged up as the result of salutes he received from other drivers on his way back to the pits) and exchanged pleasantries, including a suggestion that if he did something like that again, he would regret it.

Villeneuve remained in his car (smart lad) and refused to be drawn into a discussion, other than to suggest to reporters later that he’d been going so fast that he hadn’t noticed the track narrowing and that’s why he was on the grass and that’s why he lost control and that’s why he crashed into some of the cars that he hit.

Okay . . .

At Infineon, Juan Pablo Montoya was doing his usual imitation of a battering ram, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was caught up in more than a few “tradin’ paint” sessions. The most serious incident, or incidents,  however, involved a game of “take this” (Tony Stewart) and “take that” (Brian Vickers).

Stewart said Vickers was blocking him so he ran into the back of Vickers and turned him around. Awhile later, Vickers let Stewart pass him and then, catching up, rammed him into a tire wall.

Nothing subtle about that little bit of payback.

Both those guys should take a pill. Stewart is fighting to make the Chase and has to finish races, not get caught up in the nonsense. And Vickers will be out of a job at the end of the season if the Red Bull Cup team shuts down, as has been announced, so is auditioning for employment.

Car owners are not amused by people who lose their tempers. They like guys like Johnson, who’s won five straight championships and is easy on the equipment and doesn’t lose his cool.

Stewart and Johnson would both be wise to emulate Johnson, rather than some of the losers out there.

Other racing:

– Richard Boake of King City  won both rounds of the Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship at Mosport at the weekend. While Dean Fantin of Amherstburg was second in both races, Sasha Anis of Mississauga was third on Saturday while Arek Wojciechowski of Ottawa finished third Sunday. All were in the Super Touring Class. P.J. Groenke of Toronto won the Touring Class race both Saturday and Sunday. . .

– Memo Rojas and Scott Pruett won the Grand Am Rolex Series race at Road America. The AIM Autosport of Woodbridge entry of Mark Wilkins and Burt Frisselle finished well down the grid after qualifying fourth.

Mike Forest of Edmonton finished fourth, co-driving with Ryan Dalziel. Paul Dalla Lana of Toronto, with Bill Auberlen, was 18th driving in the GT class. . .

– Gord Bentley of Vancouver and Andrew Novich of Novato, Calif., driving for Karl Thomson of Toronto’s Compass 360 Racing Team, won the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge at Road America.

Dalla Lana of Toronto (driving again with Auberlen) was tenth while Scott Maxwell of Toronto and Joe Foster finished 11th driving for Multimatic Motorsports of Markham. Daniel DiLeo of Uxbridge finished 15th; Ashley McCalmont of Ancaster was 42nd.

Fellows robbed of NASCAR Nationwide victory

I said two posts below that the four Canadians in Saturday's Nationwide Series race at Road America were good enough to finish in the top ten and that's exactly what happened, with Ron Fellows of Mississauga finishing second behind Reed Sorenson, Jacques Villeneuve of Montreal third, Andrew Ranger of Roxton Pond, Que., sixth and J.R. Fitzpatrick ninth (I originally reported he was tenth but he tells me he was ninth and who am I to argue . . . )

You'll notice that I didn't preface Sorenson's name with the word "winner," because although NASCAR eventually ruled that he won the race, there is some doubt that he did.

The problem with many racing series today is that the sanctioning body tries to stage-manage excitement. Formula One, for instance, makes changes almost weekly in an attempt to make the races more exciting.

NASCAR has this green-white-checkers thingy where the field is lined up after a late-race caution and allowed to go balls-to-the-wall for two flying laps to determine the finishing order. Before the green-white-checkers was introduced, the race would finish under yellow, something purists consider to be more fair.

Anyway, they get three chances to do this. If there's a yellow after the green is thrown for the third time, the field is frozen and the race is over.

Or, it's supposed to be.

Saturday at Road America, Justin Allgaier was leading the race when the last yellow came out. The race was over at that point, or so many people thought, including Allgaier. But his car ran out of fuel and he couldn't complete the lap, handing the lead to . . . who?

Sorenson was behind Allgaier when the yellow came out. Although Allgaier kept going (he still had fuel at this point), Sorenson took his foot off the accelerator and slowed down. Fellows continued at the speed Allgaier was running and passed Sorenson. All sorts of other passing took place back in the pack after the yellow came out as some drivers slowed down and others didn't.

Fellows maintained a fast pace until he caught the pace car and he fell in behind it, with Sorenson following him and other cars falling into line. As the field approached the start/finish line, Allan Bestwick, the TV announcer, declared that NASCAR had ruled Fellows was the leader.

Only after the checkers was it announced that NASCAR was reviewing the situation, likely as the result of a protest, and eventually awarded the win to Sorenson, with Fellows second.

Although it was confusing, it was clear that Fellows won the race. It was pretty obvious that NASCAR opted to award the win to a series regular, rather than a part-timer - not the first time that this sort of thing has happened.

Think Paul Tracy and the 2002 Indianapolis 500.

Fellows was not happy, but adknowledged that there wasn't much he could do. "It is what it is," he said, although TV camera shots of him inside the car immediately following the race's conclusion showed him to be upset.

Later Saturday, Marco Andretti won the IZOD IndyCar Series race at Iowa Speedway, with Tony Kanaan second and Scott Dixon third. James Hinchcliffe of Oakville was ninth and Alex Tagliani of Montreal was 16th.  

Earlier Saturday, Germany's Sebastien Vettel won his seventh pole of the so-far eight-race 2011 Formula One season at Valencia, Spain, literally making mincemeat of everybody else in the field except his Red Bull-Renault teammate, Mark Webber.

In the closing moments of knockout qualifying, conducted under gorgeous sunny skies, Vettel went to the pits rather than complete his final lap. This followed by seconds the surprise surrender of his Ferrari rival, Fernando Alonso, who aborted his final flying run when he realized he was not going to be able to match Vettel's speed.

This, then, was Vettel's 22nd career pole and puts him in a good position for tomorrow's European Grand prix (TSN, 7:55 a.m.) So far this season, the defending World Champion has won five races.

The top ten starters for Sunday are: Vettel (1 minute, 36.975 seconds), Webber (1:37:163 on his final flying lap), Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes, 1:37:380), Alonso (1:37:454), Felipe Massa (Ferrari, 1:37:535), Jenson Button (McLaren, 1:37:645), Nico Rosbert (Mercedes, 1:38:231), Michael Schumacher (Mercedes, 1:38:240), Nick Heidfeld (Renault, no time), Adrian Sutil (Force India, no time).

Knockout qualifying seemed like a good idea at the time and works for the first two segments. Then we often get what happened in Valencia a few hours ago - two cars didn't go out at all (we don't stand a chance of improving our position, so why bother?) and two other cars, Rosberg and Schumacher, only went out for one lap (to scrub in tires and save a set for Sunday's race).

A Formula One Grand Prix is a show, and the actors have to play their parts. If the top ten format isn't working - and it isn't - go to a top six. People watching, particularly the fans on hand who've paid serious money to be there, deserve better.

By the way, in other open wheel qualifying, Takuma Sato won the first pole of his IZOD IndyCar Series career - on the oval in Iowa! To say he's excited about this would be an understatement.

Danica Patrick will start second and James Hinchcliffe of Oakville will start seventh - a dynamite result for the rookie. That race can be seen tonight at 9 on TSN2.

For a preview of all the other weekend's racing, please see post below.

 

Weekend racing: Who's been caught cheating?

That headline got your attention, didn't it?

But first . . .

Stock car racer J.R. Fitzpatrick of Cambridge plans to spend a lot of time on the road this weekend.

Saturday afternoon, he's entered in the 200-mile NASCAR Nartionwide Series race at Road America in Wisconsin. Then he'll drive nearly 500 miles overnight to Mosport International Raceway north of Bowmanville where he’ll race 125 miles in the Vortex Brake Pads 200 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race on Sunday afternoon.

It’s best to try that sort of thing when you’re young, which – at 23 – Fitzpatrick is.

This has been done before, of course.

Last May, Ron Fellows was in California on Saturday. He flew to Calgary, flew on to Toronto and then drove to Mosport for an SCCA Pro Racing World Challenge race on Sunday, which he won. And Kitzpatrick himself raced at Michigan Speedway in a Saturday Nationwide race in 2009 (he crashed) before driving overnight to Mosport for a NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race on Sunday, in which he finished third.

But it’s still a long haul from rural Wisconsin to semi-rural sout-eastern Ontario and it’s hoped that the talented Fitzpatrick will have someone along to spell him off from doing all the highway driving himself.

The Nationwide race at Road America Saturday (5 p.m., TSN2) will feature several of NASCAR’s hot shots. Carl Edwards (who won this race last year), Elliot Sadler and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will be out to defend America’s honour against four talented Canadian challengers — Fitzpatrick, Fellows of Mississauga, Andrew Ranger of Roxton Pond, Que., and Jacques Villeneuve of Montreal.

I would go so far as to suggest that all four Canadians stand an excellent chance of either winning the race, or finishing in the Top Ten.

Other weekend racing action, with TV times:

— The Grand Prix of Europe will be held in Valencia, Spain, on Sunday (7:55 a.m., TSN) and the big question will be whether Sebastien Vettel can regain his confidence after being forced into making a mistake by Jenson Button on the last lap at the Grand Prix of Canada in Montreal two weeks ago.

Qualifying will be held Saturday (also at 7:55 a.m. on TSN) and those results will be interesting, if second-practice times are any indication.

Fernando Alonso was fastest today, followed by Lewis Hamilton, Vettel, Michael Schumacher, Felipe Massa, Button and Mark Webber (who'd been fastest in first practice).

You know, Schumacher is getting faster and faster and I suspect a podium is not far off for him.

Before we leave F1, it looks like the U.S. GP at Austin, Tex., next June is toast. Austin city council had to approve the race last night in order for promoters to trigger access to public money to pay the sanctioning fee of $25 million (how does Ecclestone do it?). Anyway, that didn’t happen and the vote will now be held next Wednesday night after a new councilor, who holds the deciding vote and is against the race, will be sworn in.

— The IZOD IndyCar Series race this weekend is on the oval at Iowa and can be seen Saturday night under the lights on TSN2 at 9 p.m.

I wonder what the drivers will find to complain about this week? I can tell you one thing: there’s much talk in the garage area about Sam Schmidt Motorsport and cheating in the Indy Lights series, as well as the big league. One Lights team reportedly left the series because of this.

It didn’t help the rumour mill at all when it was announced Thursday that Indy Lights officials had penalized the No. 77 car of Sam Schmidt Motorsports for failing post-race inspection following last Sunday's race at The Milwaukee Mile.  The team has been docked points and fined.

IndyCar officials had previously insisted that no one was cheating.

Meantime, Will Power and Dario Franchitti are tied atop the IndyCar standings with 271 points. Oriol Servia is third, 73 points behind. Scott Dixon is three points behind Servia, followed by Graham Rahal (176), Tony Kanaan (171) Ryan Briscoe (165) and Alex Tagliani of Montreal (147). James  Hinchliffe of Oakville stands 16th, with 120 points.

The Iowa race is the last IndyCar race before Toronto. The Honda Indy Toronto is now only two weeks away.

— The NASCAR Sprint Cup race from California – a road race, at that, and they are always very exciting – can be seen on TSN2 at 2 p.m. Sunday. It will be preceded by a tape-delay at 1 p.m. of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race from Delaware.

Of course the Canadian Tire Series race Sunday at Mosport will be recorded for telecast at a later date but why not drive out to see it live and in person? As well as the stock cars on the road course, two races in the Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship are on offer as is open wheel action, with the Ontario Formula Ford Championship providing the entertainment.

The headline NASCAR Canada race goes at 1:30 Sunday afternoon, to be followed by the touring car and the Ford races.

Racing in trouble: Montreal NASCAR, Austin F1

I drove into Toronto along Lake Shore Blvd. this morning and, as happens every year, my heart started beating a little faster around the Ex at the sight of construction equipment building the track for the Honda Indy, which - as of this morning - is exactly 15 sleeps away.

That’s 15 sleeps until Free Friday; 17 until the day of the race, which is Sunday, July 10.

And the news yesterday that Dan Aykroyd will act as Grand Marshal is terrific and adds to the buildup toward the 25th anniversary event. Although the press releases all said he was an Ottawa native, let me tell you today that he’s now (as Don Cherry would say) a “good Kingston boy” and has been for years.

Anyway, my euphoria at seeing things taking shape in T.O. was tempered somewhat by the storm clouds I see gathering around two other major North American motorsport events, the NASCAR Nationwide Series race in Montreal at the end of August and the proposed 2012 U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, Tex., both of which today have their hands out.

Whether governments agree to pony up or not will determine their futures.

According to a story on the RDS web site, governments (both provincial and federal) have promised a response some time this week (possibly today) to a request from International Speedway Corp, promoters of the Nationwide race, for a contribution of either $500,000 or $1 million to help bring down a deficit that currently sits at or about $1.6 million.

The suggestion is that if the request is not met, the Aug. 20 event this year could be the last.

Ottawa’s contribution, according to the story, would depend on whether the province decides to kick something in.

As we all know, the federal and provincial governments and Montreal tourism organizations subsidize the Grand Prix of Canada in June every year to the tune of $15 million. Whether they will be interested in propping up the stock car races – and every seat that’s erected is sold, by the way, making it a very popular event – remains to be seen.

The contract between International Speedway Corp. and the city of Montreal expires June 30, hence the rush to judgment.

FYI: the Ontario government grants the Toronto Indy $1 million each year. Ottawa put up more than $700,000 this year in a matching grant for new walls for the event.

Meantime, the proposed F1 race in Texas is on shaky ground. All sorts of questions are being asked about public money going toward the event. Just yesterday, a lawsuit was filed to prevent the city from using any public funds for the race.

Wrote Autoweek F1 reporter Adam Cooper:

“The plaintiffs filed their case to prevent race promoters from using $25 million from the Texas Major Event Trust Fund to finance the inaugural event, scheduled for June 2012.

“The plaintiffs filed the suit one day before the Austin City Council is scheduled to vote (that’s tonight) on whether or not to officially endorse the race, something promoters need in order to have access to the state’s Major Event Trust Fund money. Promoters need that money to pay F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone’s estimated $25 million (or perhaps larger) fee Austin promoters are being charged to host the F1 event.

“The suit claims that it seeks to prevent "the unlawful plunder of public funds for promoters of a Formula One race at a time when the State of Texas claims it cannot afford to adequately fund essential services, such as its public education system."

“One of the plaintiffs is a teacher who lost her job in a recent round of budget cuts.

“Access to the $25 million has been a key element of the project from its beginning.”

With Bernie and F1, it’s all about the money. The spectacle and the sport be damned.

This race will undoubtedly fail because of things like this lawsuit. And even if it gets some sort of go-ahead, it will likely miss some deadline or another and the track won’t be finished and the race will have to be put off for a year and, etc., etc., etc., and it will be the U.S. F1 debacle all over again.

Time and again, F1 says it has to get back to the United States. Well, if it really wanted to, it could.

There’s a perfectly wonderful facility sitting in Indianapolis, Ind., that could host a U.S. Grand Prix tomorrow.

But F1 won’t go there because $25 million is too rich for Indy to cough up and the “beautiful people” of F1 consider Indianapolis to be a hick town.

F1 wants its cake and to eat it, too. But it can't have it both ways and until it comes to terms with that, it will never race in the U.S.

Castroneves upset by Franchitti’s remarks

HELIO TO DARIO: YOU KNOW MY PHONE NUMBER

You may recall that in my Monday morning blog entry, I mentioned that Milwaukee IndyCar winner Dario Franchitti had torn a strip off Helio Castroneves for what he said was blocking during the race.

I had a telephone chat with Castroneves earlier today (Tuesday) and he was not amused.

"He's a champion and he should act like a champion," snapped the three-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, suggesting that criticizing losing drivers after the fact might be a little much.

We were chatting about him racing in next month's 25th anniversary Honda Indy Toronto when the subject of Franchitti's criticism crept into the conversation, which was unfortunate, because the usually-always-cheerful Castroneves had been talking about how much he liked Toronto and how he's planning on bringing his girlfriend and new baby daughter to the city with him for the July 8-10 event.

The call-out by Franchitti was on live TV at the conclusion of the poorly attended Milwaukee race on Sunday afternoon. Said the Target Chip Ganassi driver, who’s won the IZOD IndyCar Series championship the last two years:

"Racing with Tony (Kanaan) is a pleasure. An absolute pleasure. Just inches apart, giving each other room and respect, and then Helio joins the party and does his usual blocking crap . . ."

Castroneves, of course, had a victory taken away from him at Edmonton last year when it was ruled that he’d blocked Will Power on a late-race restart and so the subject of blocking is a bit of a sore point. (I originally wrote that he'd blocked Scott Dixon. My bad.)

Asked how he felt being criticized by Franchitti for something that IndyCar officials had either missed or else didn’t consider serious, Castroneves – who’s finished second twice in the IndyCar championship, always for Team Penske, but has never won the title – replied:

"I’m very sorry he felt that way. I want to talk to him to understand why he’s thinking like that. The guy has had such great success, he should enjoy his victory.

"I don’t agree with what he said. If he has something to say, he knows my number. He knows where I am and I’m just one phone call away.

"Right now, winning the race as he did, he should look more to what happened in his race and he should be happy that he finished first. I feel very sorry about the way he felt. I don’t agree with it and I will have a discussion with him and ask him why he says that."

Castroneves, a.k.a. Spiderman because of his fence-climbing antics after he wins races, first came to Toronto in 1996 when he was racing in the Firestone Indy Lights Series. In 1997, he won the Lights race, which has turned out to be his only trip to a Toronto Victory Lane to date, something he wants to change in July.

His last two visits ended in crashes – first with Paul Tracy in 2009 and then with A.J. Foyt’s driver, Vitor Meira, last year.

When he and Tracy piled into each other in ‘09, Castroneves was booed by fans along the main pit straight.

"I certainly understood that (the booing)," he laughed. "A local hero, a Canadian in a Canadian race, you don’t want to tangle with a guy like him. He and I have a long history together, so its kind of funny that it happened that way.

"But last year, I noticed that people had kind of moved on and it was great."

He bemoaned the crash with Meira, however.

"We always start good in Toronto and then we make mistakes," he explained. "I was so excited about the car last year but I should be a better judge of some guys. I should have been able to make a better pass (in Turn 3 at the end of the Lake Shore Blvd. straight) and keep going to the front but when you try hard, sometimes you make mistakes and that’s what happened."

Castroneves thinks IndyCar’s mandated double-file restarts, which have been roundly criticized by some drivers, including Franchitti, will stand through Toronto but might be re-examined during the off-season.

"It’s great to try," he said, "but it’s already been proven that double-file restarts on road courses, or street courses, are very difficult. Street courses are very narrow and it’s difficult to avoid accidents.

"I don’t think they’re going to change (for Toronto), I think they’ll leave it the way it is, but for next year I hope they change it and leave it for the ovals and not have double-file restarts on the street courses so you can at least finish the race.

"At the very least, it’s going to be an interesting scenario. Of course, I’m going to try to be in front and that way we won’t have any issues . . ."

Speaking of issues, Castroneves’s familiar No. 3 car is no longer decked out in the traditional red, white and black colours of Team Penske and that’s created some problems for his team.

"Sometimes my guys, they look for me on the track and they say, ‘Hey, where are you?’ " Castroneves laughs. "They can’t find me because everybody’s so used to the one colour (which is now the yellow and orange of primary sponsor Shell)."

But Castroneves, as usual, always looks on the bright side. 

"It’s a great opportunity for new sponsors, new partners to be involved in the IndyCar series," he said. "Shell, AAA – for years they were in NASCAR but now they’re in IndyCar – it shows the great value of this series, particularly with an incredible organization like Team Penske."

Castroneves and his girlfriend, Adriana, have a daughter, Mikaela, who’s 1 and he says having her around has changed his life.

"So far, it’s been a difficult season and to be able to come back home and, before, I used to be very upset, not sleeping for two or three days, and now it’s just great therapy having her and you just forget about the trouble.

"It’s been an incredible experience."

Red Bull's NASCAR team in big trouble

In a shock announcement Monday afternoon, the Red Bull Racing Team, which employs Sprint Cup drivers Brian Vickers and Kasey Kahne, said it was seeking outside investors in order to keep its NASCAR operations going.

Analysts were quick to conclude that Red Bull is planning to deep six its NASCAR operations but I prefer to think it’s re-evaluating its position and will keep going if it can either find serious money from some associate sponsors or else sell the team and stay on as the primary sponsor.

Red Bull’s statement said it fully intends to support its NASCAR effort for the remainder of the 2011 season as "we fight for victories and a position in the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup."

Vickers would be the victim here as Kahne will be driving for Rick Hendrick in 2012 and is just marking time at Red Bull anyway. Of course, many people other than the drivers are under threat there and jobs in NASCAR are very scarce these days.

I’ve often wondered about the apparent millions and millions of dollars Red Bull spends on motorsport. The Formula One "A" team’s budget is undoubtedly over the moon and the "B" team Toro Rosso can’t be far behind. Two F1 teams? One is crazy; two is – well, you can use your own word.

Throw in a NASCAR team with two cars and sponsorship of hot air balloon races, aerobatic airplane races and so-on and the amount of money being spent on motorsport and the like is simply unimaginable.

Something had to give, and the NASCAR team would appear to be it.

Or, is it the first domino to fall?

We’ll soon see, won’t we?

Two other follow-ups to blog items I published Monday:

– McLaren is apparently gearing up to meet the challenge from Ferrari and offer Grand Prix of Canada winner Jenson Button a long-term contract for mucho moolah.

Well, that was kind of expected, wasn't it? Of course, we still await word from Button about all of this.

And the IZOD IndyCar Series’ return to Milwaukee may turn out to have been a one-off. CEO Randy Bernard is quoted by Speed TV reporter Robin Miller as saying he was pretty disappointed with the crowd (13,000 in a 40,000-seat facility) and won’t confirm that there will be a race there next year.

Status quo is great when times are good and things are humming. That was in the 1990s when Milwaukee and Elkhart Lake and Michigan International were all on the schedule and all jam-packed.

But status quo is not so good when something’s gummed up the works, which is the situation now. To explain the sorrry attendance at Milwaukke, people are suggesting the promoters were new and didn’t do a proper job and the race was at 3:30 because of TV and it rained in the morning and yada yada yada.

The reason only 13,000 people showed up at Milwaukee on Sunday is because that market, for whatever reason, doesn’t give a damn about Indy car racing anymore and no amount of promoting and/or sunny skies or a noon start (or an 8 p.m. start under the lights) is going to change that.

You can’t keep beating a dead horse.

USAC (the U.S. Auto Club) was in that rut back in the Seventies. They went to Milwaukee then – twice. And Phoenix twice and Trenton twice. Maybe the racing was good and the crowds were good but the sponsors couldn't have cared less. 

It was only after Dan Gurney, Pat Patrick, Jim Trueman and Roger Penske formed CART and started takin’ it to the streets of Long Beach, Detroit and Toronto that Indy car racing started to explode.

As I said Monday, there are plenty of markets in North America where IndyCar would be welcomed with open arms. It’s up to Bernard, et al, to go find them.