Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

Here’s how IndyCar can keep Danica Patrick

Honda Canada threw a dinner for some of us in the media last night with Paul Tracy as the special guest and a major topic of conversation was Danica Patrick – will she or won’t she leave IndyCar racing in favour of NASCAR in 2012?

It’s pretty amazing when Tracy himself stands up to say a few words and asks the question that’s on everybody’s mind: does anybody know what Danica’s going to do?

The reason, of course, is that Danica Patrick is a celebrity, a lightning rod of conversation and controversy, and just about the only true star the IZOD IndyCar Series has.

Now, everybody knows who Paul Tracy is, and Dario Franchitti, and Marco Andretti – don’t they?

Ask my 94-year-old Aunt Jean. She doesn’t know who those guys are but she sure knows the name Danica Patrick.

When I was in Indianapolis this year for qualifying, Patrick had a tough time making the field and had to finally squeeze in on the last day. There were other great stories at Indy that weekend, but the next morning on my way out of town, I listened to the disc jockeys and all they talked about – to a man and woman – was Danica.

"Thank goodness she made it in," said one. "It wouldn’t be the Indy 500 without her," said another.

Patrick is in the second year of a part-time schedule in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Last Friday night at Daytona, she took the lead late in a race and the 60,000 fans in the grandstands were on their feet, screaming, when it happened.

So IndyCar will let her go at their peril. They have a hard enough time attracting people to some of their races, and their TV contract with the little-watched Versus network in the U.S. is an Albatross. In short, they need all the help they can get. (They do fine in Canada; TSN reports solid numbers, but the States are what count.)

So how do you keep her in IndyCar and yet satisfy her (and her sponsor GoDaddy’s) obvious urge to go NASCAR racing ?

I suggest that IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard convince Roger Penske to hire her. She can then drive for the best team in IndyCar, which means she would have a solid shot at winning the Indy 500 (which she wants), and on the weekends she isn’t racing an Indy car, she can drive for Penske’s team in the Nationwide Series.

Penske, of course, would get the GoDaddy sponsorship money that would enable him to provide her with first-class equipment in both leagues. And Penske on several occasions has said on TV in post-race interviews that she had impressed him with her ability and desire, two traits he considers extremely important.

GoDaddy would get more exposure – as many as 30-plus races in total – which is one of the reasons the Internet domain company has been after her to make the move to NASCAR, which races 35 or 36 times a year as compared to IndyCar’s less than 20.

And it would be the best of both worlds for Dancia Patrick, who is probably terribly conflicted by this whole business. Yes, she probably wants to go to NASCAR (likely with JR Motorsports or Rick Hendrick's organization) but she’s not ready for Cup (she’d be eaten alive) and Nationwide is the minors as compared to the major league that is IndyCar.

Oh, and it would likely mean giving up racing in the Indy 500 if she made such a move.

But if she moved to Penske, it would be a win-win-win for The Captain, Go-Daddy and Danica Patrick.

And when that happens, who knows? Maybe we’ll all get to talk about something else.

No admission Friday for Honda Indy; NASCAR to Mosport?

Okay, just a reminder that there is no admission for the Honda Indy practice and autograph sessions tomorrow (Friday).

Anybody who goes down to the CNE will be allowed in free, compliments of the Honda Dealers of Ontario, who are picking up the tab.

You will be asked to make a donation to Make-A-Wish Canada, which I urge everybody to do because every dollar donated will be matched by Honda Canada.

But the key thing is that teens,  moms and dads with kids, seniors, etc., can get into the Ex for free and sit where they want and see all the stars and cars on track, including Danica Patrick, Paul Tracy, Simona De Silvestro, James Hinchcliffe, Ana Beatriz, Alex Tagliani and NASCAR Canadian Tire Series stars Robin Buck and Scott Steckly.

And some incredible drivers and driving from the Castrol Canadian Touring C ar Series and the Ferrari Challenge.

Now, if you’re in the mood to get an early jump, you can go down to the Ex tonight and join in the Run, Walk N’Wheelathon to raise funds for spinal cure research in support of the Canadian Spinal Research Organization’s Shoot For A Cure Moto-Sport Campaign and the Sam Schmidt Paralysis Foundation. 

Schmidt, a promising Indy car racer, was paralyzed as the result of a practice accident at the Walt Disney World Speedway in Florida but hasn’t let that slow him down. He owns a team in the Firestone Indy Lights Series and owns the team that Canada’s Tagliani drives for the IZOD IndyCar Series.

The event starts tonight at the Honda Indy start/finish line at 6 p.m. For more info, go to their web site.

Okay, moving right along:

You will recall earlier this week that I suggested Francois Dumontier of Octane Management, which owns the rights to promote the Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal, should start looking around Toronto for a place to run the F1 race because, except for taxpayer money, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of corporate support for the event that’s run on the Expo islands every June.

Well, the second annual race at the circuit on Ilse Notre-Dame, the NASCAR Nationwide Series race in August, is apparently in the same boat.

According to news reports, the Quebec government has rejected Dumontier's request for $1 million in government assistance, half each from Quebec and Ottawa, to help offset the NASCAR event’s anticipated $1.6 million deficit.

An AP story quoted Isabelle Lord, a spokeswoman for Tourism Minister Nicole Menard, as saying: "The developer (Dumontier) has not satisfactorily proven to the Department of Tourism that it would be profitable for them to invest in the event.”

This funding shortfall likely means August's Nationwide Series race will be the end of NASCAR racing in Montreal. The city of Montreal's contract with International Speedway Corp. and its promoter expired June 30.

The mayor of Montreal, Gerald Tremblay, didn’t seem fazed by the possible loss of the NASCAR race.

"Efforts were made (to keep it)," Tremblay said. "It's unfortunate, but maybe there will be other events in the future."

Okay, two things:

“Other events” could mean an IZOD IndyCar Series race. Champ Car did well in Montreal earlier this century and, at the end of the day, Montreal is an open wheel town. IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard said he’d be discussing another race in Canada at the end of the current season and if Montreal is available, it would be a no-brainer.

Second, I would suggest that the new owners of Mosport — Ron Fellows, et al — will be talking soon to NASCAR about moving that Nationwide race to Canada’s most famous road-racing circuit north of Bowmanville in 2012.

As they say, stay tuned.

Finally, I really try to keep up with Canadian racers who are doing the country proud, far and wide. But sometimes I slip up.

Kyle Marcelli of Barrie won his class in the Le Mans Series/ Intercontinental Le Mans Cup race at Imola, Italy, last weekend and I didn't report it. I am now.

This is big stuff.

While in the middle of a break in the American Le Mans Series schedule, Marcelli was recruited to drive alongside American Chapman Ducote and Frenchman Nicolas Marroc at Imola. Marcelli drove the last stint and was second with 22 minutes to go in the race. He overhauled the leader and went on to win, setting the fastest lap of the race in the process.

Fabulous!

Marcelli returns to the ALMS this weekend for the race at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut and then will head to Mosport in two weeks with the rest of the ALMS series for the Grand Prix of Mosport.

Oh, almost forgot. There’s a Grand Prix on in Britain this weekend. Qualifying Saturday at 7:55 a.m. on TSN; race Sunday, same time, same channel.

Prediction: Sebastien Vettel. Who else?

Help Tracy raise money for dreams; Dale Jr. sounds off (and other news)

Paul Tracy, as well as being a great racing driver, is a good guy to have around when you’re trying to raise money for charity.

At recent Honda Indys, he's supported the Wounded Warriors organization and the last two years in Toronto and Edmonton he's been the spokesman for Make-A-Wish Canada.

A couple of his supporters/fans — the folks at Toronto Motorsports out in Scarborough (that shop has been “Paul Tracy Central” for years) and Tracy fans Mike Cockrall and Matt Elpern — have come up with a couple of special Paul Tracy-Make-A-Wish tees and polo shirts that they hope you (which means, you) will purchase.

The Toronto Motorsports tee is a limited edition “Thrilla” Character. The Cockrall/Elpern tee and polo shirt is focused more on the Make-A-Wish connection.

In any event, every cent goes to Make-A-Wish Canada, a charity dedicated to granting wishes for children with life-threatening illnesses. And every penny raised is matched by Honda Canada.

Please go to either Paul-Tracy-Shirts or Toronto Motorsports and buy one. Or two.

Nobody's in competition here; everybody's got the same goal — to raise as much money for this worthwhile charity as is possible.

I'll give you an example of how hard Cockrall works on these projects. Last year, he bought up every PT tee available on the Internet, had Paul sign every one and throughout the Edmonton race weekend he gave away the shirts for every $20 donation to Make-A-Wish.

That's dedication. I salute Mike, Matt, Derrick Kostka at Toronto Motorsports, Paul Tracy and everybody else connected with this project.

The Jayski Internet site, quoting the Daytona Beach News Journal, reports that Dale Earnhardt Jr. is not happy at all with the Siamese-twins-type racing the Cup drivers are forced to do at the Daytona Speedway these days. Said the Jayski rewrite:

#88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. was not happy after he finished 18th in Saturday's 400. NASCAR's most popular driver does not like tandem racing, not one bit.

"It is weird racing," Earnhardt said. Last week, Earnhardt said he didn't like the fact he had to depend on another driver in order to be competitive at Daytona. He would rather have his destiny in his own hands.

"What kind of move can you make?" Earnhardt groused. "I mean, man. What kind of move can you make in racing like this? There ain't no move you can make. You just hold it on the mat and try not to wreck into each other. You see how good we are at that."

The more questions he was asked about tandem-style racing, the more aggravated Earnhardt became.

"I don't know what to say," he said. "I don't know. You guys need to get your own opinions and write what you all think about it. I think it is probably pretty damn close to mine.

“Stop putting my damn mouth with y'all and getting my (butt) in trouble. Y'all write what y'all think, man. Come on, y'all are good. Y'all have an opinion about it. I read y'all's stuff. You put us in the damn crow's nest."

For what it’s worth, I don’t expect NASCAR will pay any heed to Earnhardt’s protestations, or anybody else’s, for that matter.

Only when a star gets killed, or there’s a disaster like a car going into the grandstands, will the powers-that-be take another look at that nonsense.

I mean, the driver of the second car, the pusher, is driving 200 miles an hour blind. How stupid is that?

Sad news this week from old friend Nate Salter (author of the Golden Years of Stock Car Racing in Toronto):

"Doug Warnes wife Diane died of cancer this past Tuesday in Lindsay. Doug and Diane were a central part of the Ontario racing scene for many years and she will be missed. Services were private.

If you wish to send condolences:

Doug Warnes

91  St. Patrick St.

Lindsay, Ontario

K9V 1R7

I remember watching Doug and Don Biederman and all those guys at Pinecrest Speedway back in the early Seventies.

Karl Thomson of Toronto is movin' on up. His Compass360 Racing Team has snagged a superstar. Writes Karl:

Compass360 Racing will welcome another top driver to their ranks this coming weekend at Laguna Seca. ALMS LMP1 Prototype Champion Simon Pagenaud will co-drive the team's #75 Skunk2/HPD/Racing4Research Honda Civic Si with championship contender Ryan Eversley.

"We're really thrilled to add another great shoe to our driver roster," said Karl. "Simon's a Honda Factory pilot and we know he'll be a great asset as we work to win a third straight Grand-Am championship.”

Pagenaud comes to the team with an impressive history in road racing, having won the ALMS top-class LMP1 championship with Highcroft Racing in 2009. He's been a member of Peugeot's LMP1 program as well in recent years.

One of my favourite guys in racing, Pierre Bourque, has an announcement.

He'll begin his summer racing schedule at this weekend's Honda Indy Toronto with backing again from long time partners Aaron’s, Telus and Mahindra Tractors. Bourque will again drive a DJK Racing-prepared race car in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series feature race on Saturday. 

The team is approaching the Toronto event with some unresolved business from last year. 

“We had some ignition problems during qualifying last year and it put us at the back of the field to start,” explained Bourque.  “I learned an awful lot during the race watching and following the top competitors that I’ll be able to use in the race this weekend. 

“The whole DJK Racing team has been working really hard to prepare the  #00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Dodge and we’re all really excited and expecting a good showing,” he said.   

Practice and qualifying for the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race at the CNE takes place on Friday and the race is Saturday afternoon. There is no admission on Free Friday so I’m urging everybody to turn out to watch Bourque and the rest of the Canadian Tire boys and girl practice and qualify.

Oh, yeah. The Indy cars will make an appearance, too.

And, finally, if you can't make it down to the Honda Indy on Sunday but are hankerin' for some motorsports all the same, there's something on TV I think you might enjoy.

Robb Wells and J.P. Tremblay, who play Ricky and Julian on the Trailer Park Boys TV series, drove a Porsche Cayman S in the last Targa Newfoundland Rally, which covered more than 2,200 kilometers through the streets and country roads of Newfoundland.

The popular Canadian automotive series Motoring has produced Motoring Targa Newfoundland, a special one-hour documentary that will premiere on TSN on Sunday at 11 a.m. ET.

Motoring has been featured on TSN for 24 years. It's produced by Toronto-based Bradford Productions (and if you’re lucky, you can see Wheels’ own Jim Kenzie on it).

"The Motoring team is always pushing boundaries in their automotive coverage," said Dave Capling, programming manager, TSN, in a release. "We are looking forward to seeing how Robb and JP fair in the Targa Newfoundland Rally."

Are today's Formula One drivers scared? Part I

Moving right along from Monday’s entry, in which I suggested that if the promoters of the Canadian Grand Prix want to keep the race in this country, they should consider moving it to Toronto, it’s time to chat about something else related to Formula One and that is:

Are today’s F1 drivers a less-than-brave bunch?

You’ll recall that it was raining at the start of our national Grand Prix in early June and the cars and drivers all started the race behind the safety car, which led them around for some laps before race officials decided it was okay to actually start racing.

My reaction? This is Formula One! These are supposed to be the greatest drivers in the world! The most skilled on the planet. The bravest of the brave. Multimillionaires who are paid, and paid very well, to take chances. So what’s a little rain?

They eventually stopped the race because of standing water and so on and so forth and then once it got going again, several hours later, it turned into one of the most exciting Grands Prix in years.

Be that as it may, what was with the safety car at the beginning? What was with the red flag?

As ex-F1 driver, now BBC presenter, Martin Brundle said: “You adjust your driving to the conditions.”

Back in the good old days, when F1 was F1 and men were men (okay, I’m getting carried away here, but you know what I mean), the drivers of the day raced through monsoons.

Case in point: the first F1 Canadian Grand Prix in 1967.

It was a crappy day at Mosport. It was raining, and when it wasn’t raining, it was pouring. It was misty. There wasn’t just standing water, there were rivers running across the circuit in some sections. If it was 2011, they probably wouldn’t have even started behind the safety car. They might have even called the whole thing off.

But they didn’t. The drivers moved up from the false grid to the starting grid, Wallie Branston waved the Maple Leaf flag to start the race and off they went down toward turn one in what looked like a maelstrom of rain and spray.

But then, guess what? They all let off, and tip-toed through turn one and danced gingerly up the hill toward turn two. They might all have been going 45 or 50 miles an hour at that point, instead of the 80 mph to 100 mph they might have been going if it was dry. They were, as Brundle said, “driving to the conditions.”

Shortly after the start, it started to teem and although some of the drivers were adapting – Dan Gurney, Denny Hulme and Jack Brabham, to name a few – others were having a terrible time of it. Ferrari’s designer and tech chief, Mauro Forghieri, was taking great delight in running out to the armco barrier to point and laugh as his driver, Chris Amon, would nearly spin, time and again, trying to accelerate out of corner 10. Jackie Stewart went off and retired with sand in his engine's intake valves. Graham Hill went off, got out of the car, pushed it back onto the tarmac, jumped in (Stewart was the only one wearing safety harness in F1 in '67), pushed the starter and set off again.

Afterward, I asked Jim Clark how he'd navigated his way around the course. "Turn left and count to six, then turn right," was the way he described going from turn two to turn three.

But nobody quit because of the conditions. Nobody said "it's too wet," or "I can't see," or whatever.

Take a look at what it was like that day by clicking on this video link. Then decide.

It’s time for F1 to scope out Toronto

The news last week that Austin (Tex.) City Council had voted 5-2 to support the 2012 U.S. Grand Prix is good news for Formula One and the race’s promoters but maybe not so good for the Canadian Grand Prix.

For weeks leading up to last Wednesday’s vote, opponents of the race had focused on the payment of a $25-million sanctioning fee to F1, which has now been approved.

Although the race is scheduled for next June, a week after Montreal, there is already talk that it would be better to hold it later in the year when it wouldn’t be so warm (June can be boiling in Austin).

The suggestion is that the U.S. race could then be "twinned" with the race in Brazil in November, thus saving money. Twinning to save money is one reason the Austin race was initially pencilled in after Canada.

F1 returned to Canada in 2010 for $15 million (all either supplied by taxpayers or tourism groups), which is significantly less than the going rate for an F1 race these days. This followed a year when – because of a disagreement over money – there was no F1 race in Montreal, meaning F1 did not have a presence in North America.

But it now has that North American presence – in spades. It’s getting $10 million more from Austin than it’s getting from Montreal, for starters, and if the race is moved to the fall and twinned with Brazil, Montreal could suddenly find itself marginalized.

Now, a year ago Grand Prix weekend, I presented a case in Toronto Star Wheels that because the Canadian Grand Prix is taxpayer-supported, it should be moved around from time to time to other parts of the country, much like the taxpayer-supported Canadian Open golf tournament. I suggested several years in Montreal be followed by a year in Toronto, or Vancouver, and so-on.

I am now going a step further. I would suggest that because of what happened in Austin last week, and what might happen the next time the Canadian Grand Prix comes up for renewal, that Francois DuMontier, the president of Octane Racing Group, which promotes the Canadian Grand Prix, start actively investigating moving the race permanently to Toronto.

There are many reasons why he should do this.

– Unless I missed something, I didn’t see any signage at this year’s Grand Prix advertising anything "Canadian" (other than government). The Grand Prix does not have a title sponsor, nor many visible associate sponsors. And why is that? Because most of the head offices of all the large Canadian corporations, including the banks, are in Toronto.

Ergo, moving the race to Toronto would substantially increase the potential for serious Canadian corporate support.

– Some of the moneyed gentry may have been at the Grand Prix in Montreal but except for Rihanna (who was doing a concert there), there were few "beautiful people" in attendance. Why? Because when they do come to Canada, those folks all come to Toronto. There are more celebrities and singers and actresses on the streets of Yorkville on a given Saturday than are ever in Montreal for the Grand Prix.

Move the race to Toronto and the F1 crowd will be smack-dab in the middle of the celebrity driven culture it covets.

– I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of the same old TV shot of that geodesic dome on Ilse Notre-Dame that was a holdover from Expo 67. It was intriguing then but boring now. What the Grand Prix of Canada needs as a backdrop is the skyline of Toronto, the Big Smoke, the financial centre of the country and among the greatest of North American cities, complete with the tallest free-standing structure on the continent, the CN Tower.

– Pan those TV cameras around and show the world Ontario Place, Lake Ontario, the Toronto Islands, the ferries in the harbour, the street life, the patios – many of the things Montreal just doesn’t have. Toronto is a big, happy, prosperous, multicultural city on the move with fine hotels and marvelous restaurants and ready for Formula One to introduce it to the world.

– Do you want me to go on? Everybody in Little Italy would be cheering for Ferrari, which means thousands of people all wearing red shirts. Hell, there’s an airport right downtown where Bernie and the rest of them could park their private jets.

Remember, Toronto was the original choice of then-sponsor Labatt to move the Grand Prix away from Mosport back in 1977. The city council of the day rejected the idea one day and Montreal city council endorsed it the next.

And that was probably the best thing at the time. Montreal was ready for the Grand Prix; Toronto wasn’t.

But that was then and this is now. Times have changed – and are about to change again.

Yes, it would take the city of Toronto, the province and the feds, and the country’s corporate giants to pull it off. It won’t happen immediately, but bears discussing. No one should reject this suggestion out of hand.

Toronto wanted the Olympics and fell just short. Except for the Olympics and the World Cup, more people watch and follow F1 racing than any other sport in the world and you can’t buy exposure like that.

On the flip side, Montreal is a very European city and has done a good job with the Grand Prix since the first one in 1978. But her day is done. The people who run F1 and are involved in it want business-to-business and the big money, the big movers and the big shakers are all in Toronto. This is where the action is.

You know what? The guy who found the site for the Grand Prix, and roughed out the course on the Expo Islands way back in 1977, lives not in Montreal, Que., but in Mississauga, Ont.

I bet Roger Peart would be very intrigued if Francois DuMontier called him up and asked him to nose around Toronto for places to stage the Grand Prix.

Who knows? Maybe he already has.

If you like wrecks, NASCAR’s got plenty for you

Here are a couple of things to chew on after a less-than-stellar weekend of NASCAR racing:

1. The reason that demolition derbies have fallen out of favour at speedways and county fairs is because there is now at least one in every NASCAR race you watch.

The Nationwide race Friday night at Daytona featured a dandy seconds after winner Joey Logano crossed the finish line and the Coke Zero 400 Sprint Cup race on Saturday night featured not one but two at the end. 

I swear that winner David Ragan was driving the only undamaged racing car in the place when he pulled into Victory Lane after the 400.

2. If there was ever any doubt, Danica Patrick’s performance in the Nationwide race Friday night sealed the deal. She will leave IndyCar at the end of this season to go racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

With less than 10 laps to go, she’d teamed up with fellow J.R. Motorsports driver Aric Almirola. He pushed her to the front, a move that had 60,000 fans on their feet, cheering. She also took a turn pushing and had Almirola moving through the pack like a freight train.

She’s smelling victory in NASCAR. The only spanner that could possibly gum up the works is the sale last Friday of her primary sponsor, GoDaddy, to an investment company. Although everybody is quick to say that GoDaddy’s marketing philosophy won’t change, there are no guarantees and whether the new owners will continue with the current level of investment in auto racing remains to be seen.

After Logano, Jason Leffler was second in the Nationwide race, Reed Sorenson was third, Kyle Busch was fourth and Justin Allgaier was fifth. Patrick was tenth after being caught up in the last lap Big One.

After Ragan in the Sprint Cup race came Matt Kenseth, who pushed the winner across the line in true Siamese-twin style (that’s how they race at Daytona now – one car pushes another), Logano, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch.

There were 57 lead changes among 25 drivers. The first Big One happened during the first attempt at a green-white-checkers finish and the second ka-boomer took place behind him as Ragan was pushed past the checkers by Kenseth.

I got an email letter from a gentleman who turns 84 next Thursday and says he's been watching auto racing since he was 16. He says what happened at Daytona Saturday night ain't racin'.

I tell you that for what it's worth.

Kevin Harvick is now leading the Sprint Cup standings with nine races left in the regular season. Harvick has the most wins this year – three. Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth and Jeff Gordon all have two.

Carl Edwards is now second in the standings, followed by Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Kenseth, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Ryan Newman, Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart.

The Sprint Cup cars race again next Saturday night. More bad news for the short tracks.

NEWS: Tony Pedregon, Bruno Spengler, Wickens, L’Estage

It was great fun at Toronto Motorsports Park at the weekend with three special match races featured as part of the 2011 Canadian Nitro Nationals.

NHRA Funny Car brother-act stars Cruz and Tony Pedregon of Brownsburg, Ind., took to the Cayuga-area dragstrip for a special joust and Tony Pedregon won with a time of 4.615 seconds as compared to Cruz’s 5.788.

The battle of the Top Fuel monsters saw Highland Creek-born, U.S. resident Fred Farndon red light (he left before he was suppposed to), so the victory went to Ike Maier of Schomberg in the Paton Family Dragster. His time was 4.227 seconds but he wasn’t pushing it.

The best race of the three specials pitted American Funny Car stars Jack Wyatt and Dale Creasy Jr. against each other and Wyatt won with a time of 4.324 vs. Creasy’s 4.345. Now, that's close. The times translate into just under 300 mph, if you’re wondering.

I’ve often said that the so-called glamour puss Formula One, IndyCar, NASCAR stuff is okay but if you really want to experience a thrill, then top-notch drag racing, World of Outlaws sprint cars and/or winged supermodifieds will leave you absolutely breathless.

In the case of the drag racers, you’re talking 8,000-plus horsepower and if you’re standing anywhere near the brutes when they’re unleashed, your senses can become disoriented. Your knees go weak and the ground moves. It truly feels like an earthquake has hit.

Bruno Spengler of St. Hippolyte, Que., won the rain-shortened German Touring Car Series race Sunday at the Norisring (I like that place). His second win of the DTM season puts him back on top in the championship.

Spengler was in front the whole race and it was partly because of his complaining that it was stopped. He’d told his team that standing water on the main straight made it too dangerous to continue racing, so the safety car was sent out. With no end of the rain in sight, the race was called 19 laps short of its scheduled distance.

Ralf Schumacher finished sixth, David Coulthard was eighth and Mike Rockenfeller, who survived that enormous mid-night crash on the Mulsanne straight at Le Mans last month, was 14^th.

Great Canadian F1 hope Robert Wickens of Guelph and Toronto didn’t have a great weekend at the Hungaroring in the Renault Formula 3.5 Series and lost his championship lead to his teammate, Jean-Eric Vergne of France.

Engine problems on Friday restricted his track time and he was only able to qualify 11th for the first race of the scheduled double-header, eventually finishing fifth. He started ninth in Sunday’s second race and was third at the checkers but a penalty for leaving his pit too early during the mandatory mid-race pit stop dropped him to seventh.

Unfortunately, it was a bit of a comedown for the Canadian, who nearly swept the last race weekend with two poles, a first and a second.

Recently named reserve driver by the Marussia Virgin Racing F1 team, Wickens also got to drive exhibition laps at the Hungaroring in a Renault F1 car, a reward for leading the championship at the halfway point.

He’ll be in the Virgin pits at Silverstone next weekend for the British Grand Prix before returning there for the next round of the World Series by Renault championship.

F1 is so near for Wickens – and yet so far. Clearly marvelously talented, he must win the F-3.5 championship if he wants to make it all the way to the top. Another weekend like this one will not be beneficial.

Antoine L'Estage of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., and co-driver Nathalie Richard of Halifax won the Rallye Baie Des Chaleurs at the weekend, their sixth Canadian Rally Championship victory in a row.

Pat Richard of Squamish, B.C. and Leanne Junnila of Calgary were second while Leo Urlichich of Toronto and Martin Brady of Meath, Ireland, finished third.

Both L'Estage and Patrick Richard nearly retired twice because of mechanical difficulties.

"The crew are the ones who made us win this event," said L'Estage. "On Friday they had to rebuild the differentials and then, today they replaced the transmission in record time – just 40 minutes. There's no way we'd be here without their work."

Said Richard: "We lost boost and damaged our lights on Friday and then today, broken suspension, damaged differentials. . . This is what happens though when you're trying to fight for a win. Things break."

L’Estage and Nathalie Richard can wrap up the 2011 national championship at the next event, the Rallye Defi at Ste Agathe, Que., in September.

Back to Toronto Motorsports Park, a.k.a. Cayuga Dragway, for a report on other weekend drag racing action, courtesy of Bruce Mehlenbacher and Tim Miller:

Round three in the Pro Modified Racing Association, the Quick 32 Sportsman Series, and the Pro Bike & Sled Series was completed Sunday and each of the drag racing series produced new event winners.

 

Winning his first PMRA race was Kenny Lang. It was also the first PMRA race for the team from Grande Pointe, Man. Lang, driving the Summit Racing Equipment 1969 Camaro, qualified fourth in the field, and bested Derek Hawker of Corbyville, Ont., in his Corvette in the final for the win. Lang recorded a 6.035-second, 239.57-mph winning pass over Hawker.

 

Semi-finalists for the PMRA race were Bruce Boland of Hamilton and No. 1 qualifier Vito Montesano of Maple.

Winning his first Quick 32 Sportsman Series presented by NAPA Auto Parts event was Bob Bauer Jr of Elma, N.Y. The Top Sportsman driver, who competes in his big-block powered 2007 Pontiac GTO, won in the final over Billy White of Gadshill, Ont., in his RE/MAX White & Wild Top Dragster entry.

This series is comprised of 16 Top Sportsman cars and 16 Top Dragster cars, which compete in their respective divisions, and the top eliminator in each division goes into the final to determine an event champion.

 

The final round was the best showing for White so far this season, but he broke at the line (red-lighted), giving Bauer the victory. Bauer had qualified 11th in the Top Sportsman field, while White qualified his small-block supercharger Chevy dragster in fourth.

Bauer eliminated Rob Gray of Ingersoll in the Top Sportsman final, while White won over Jamie Bridge of Napanee in the Top Dragster final.

 

In the PBSS presented by Wiseco, Pro Bike racer Mike Konopacki rode his Kawasaki to a PBSS win over the Yamaha Pro Sled of James Miller of Orillia. Konopacki, of Hampton, Ont., qualified fifth in the Pro Bike field and Miller qualified fifth as well on the Pro Sled side. Konopacki ran an 8.547-second, 144.49-mph final for his win.

 

The PBSS is structured similarly to the Quick 32 Sportsman Series, as each division runs its own set of eliminations, and the top from each division is pitted against each other for an event title.

 

Placing second on the Top Bike side was No. 2 Dan Cryderman of Thamesville while Dave Marshall of Prescott, who qualified second, was runner-up to Miller on the Pro Sled side.

 

The fourth of six events in the PMRA, the Quick 32 Sportsman Series, and the PBSS will be the Stratford Spectacular Hot August Nationals presented by Ideal Supply & NAPA Auto Parts Aug. 5-7 at the Grand Bend Motorplex in Grand Bend.