Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

'Jerk' Busch puts on a driving exhibition

Moments after Kyle Busch won the Budweiser Shootout on Saturday night, a friend of mine sent me this message:

“How can such a jerk be such a great racing driver?”

I’ve wondered myself. I have other friends who have questioned their Christian faith as a result of watching Kyle and his brother Kurt behave like nincompoops one minute and then put on an amazing display of race driving the next.

The problem is that when talent is mixed with a sense of entitlement brought on by an already inflated ego, you have volatility. It can be a pretty dangerous combination.

Kyle’s brother, Kurt, has said he’s working with a sports psychologist in an effort to get his temper — and behaviour, generally — under more control. This was as a result of being fired by Roger Penske last fall after a season in which he harangued his pit crew in public and wound up insulting a TV reporter.

I’m convinced Kyle Busch had already been doing that. Seeing a counsellor, that is. After several years of behaving apparently irrationally and abnormally (and also winning races left, right and centre), Kyle B. spent most of the 2011 season being anything but rude and nasty. In fact, he was a total gentleman — until just before the end of the season when he drove Ron Hornaday truck-first into a wall in a fit of rage that’s generally not seen at that level of the sport.

He came very close to being dismissed — and maybe he should have been. There is a school of thought out there that says the only way anybody ever learns from their mistakes is if there are consequences. While Kurt Busch might eventually be brought to heel, as a result of his firing (his second from a top team, by the way) the jury will always be out on Kyle because he has not yet had to endure that kind of humiliation for actions that were every bit as reprehensible as his brother’s.

I watched a fascinating interview years ago between TSN’s Michael Landsberg and Linda McMahon, wife of  the WWE’s Vince McMahon. She was talking about how their company employed full-time psychologists and psychiatrists to work with “the talent” to keep their egos in check.

This is a paraphrase, but she said something like this:

“When you can make 15,000 people either cheer with delight or boo you unmercifully just by cocking your finger a certain way, that kind of power can go to your head pretty quickly. The line between the ring and real life can sometimes get blurred and we have counselors on staff to meet regularly with these people to help them differentiate between the part they play and reality. It’s for their good and for ours that we do this.”

The last thing the WWE needed was for a Hulk Hogan or a Randy Savage to go around pissing people off in the real world. As a company, then, they acted to make sure it didn’t happen.

NASCAR is different. All of the drivers in NASCAR are “independent contractors” and that’s why there  isn’t league-supplied medical or life insurance and there isn’t a pension plan and so-on. So NASCAR can't be as proactive in the same way the WWE could.

But that doesn’t mean the team owners can’t be. Penske reached a point where he was not going to allow the antics of a racing driver, regardless of how talented and popular he was, reflect badly on his organization. Joe Gibbs, who employs Kyle Busch, is a devout Christian and opted to stand with his driver. We will have to wait to see whether this was the correct course.

Meantime, Kyle Busch put on a driving exhibition Saturday night that you would have to see to believe. Words, for once, cannot do justice.

Not once, but twice, he was out of control in a stock car going 185 miles an hour on the high banks of the Daytona International Speedway and both times he managed to get it under control and to keep racing. Not for him a long slide through the infield grass before rejoining; he regained control both times by using his steering wheel, the throttle and the brake to straighten out his race car before it left the racing surface.

It was a work of art, both times.

And then, at the end of the 75-lap shootout, he timed his move on the high side to pass Tony Stewart just at the finish line to win the first race of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season by inches.

Marcos Ambrose finished third. Brad Keselowski was fourth and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five.

Twenty five cars started the exhibition race and 12 went off on the hook (which does not bode well for the Daytona 500, if Saturday night's wreckfest is any indication of things to come).

There were several serious accidents — Jeff Gordon was upside down in one — that were as a result of NASCAR’s recreation of “pack racing” that had gone away in 2011 because of aerodynamic changes to the cars then. Those changes have since been negated and we’re back to 20 to 25 cars running three wide and nose-to-tail and one bobble can take out half a dozen cars, as was seen Saturday night.

Carl Edwards could do no better than ninth on Saturday night but went out Sunday afternoon and won the pole for next Sunday’s "Great American Race" (FOX and TSN2 at noon). Greg Biffle finished second. The rest of the 43-car field will be set on Thursday when two qualifying races will be held (TSN2 at 2 p.m.)

For what it’s worth, Danica Patrick turned the 30^th best time of the 49 drivers who went out to qualify. Her time around the 2.5- mile Daytona race track was 46.939 seconds, as compared to Edwards’ 46.212.

And, by the way, the entry list for next year's Shootout will revert to what it was originally - a special race for pole winners in 2012 and previous Daytona winners who try to make at least one qualifying attempt during the 2012 season.

This year's race allowed the top 25 in points to enter.

Here's why Carl Edwards won't win NASCAR title

JOHN McLEAN OF MISSISSAUGA HOLDS A FIRESUIT ONCE WORN  BY JACKIE STEWART

(PHOTO FOR THE TORONTO STAR BY GARY GRANT)

Last weekend at the Canadian Motorsports Expo, I asked NASCAR star Carl Edwards — who was charming, by the way — whether, looking back, he would have done anything differently that might have made a difference in his maybe winning the 2011 Sprint Cup championship.

Edwards finished last season tied with Tony Stewart. But he lost the title to “Smoke,” who had more wins.

I was really surprised when Edwards replied that his team had conducted a review and, at end of day, decided they wouldn’t have changed a thing.

One reporter who was there wrote that Edwards “scoffed” at the idea that they might have done something different or would plan to do something different in 2012. I didn’t think he’d gone that far but by using the word “scoffed,” my friend at the other paper actually underlined the fact that Edwards really does plan to stand pat.

Which is not good for Edwards fans because, by standing still like that, Edwards will probably not win that championship he says he wants so badly.

Why? Here’s why.

Jimmie Johnson won five consecutive Sprint Cup titles. Five straight. That he didn’t win a sixth has browned him right off and he’s spent the winter trying to figure out where his 2011 season went wrong.

Unlike Edwards, Johnson has left no stone unturned in his look back at the season in which he lost the title for the first time since 2005.

In a recent interview at Daytona, he talked about attending meetings “all off-season, making lists of what we can do better.”

And where, exactly, he’d lost his title.

"Give me another restart at Dover and Martinsville," he said. "Give me a half gallon of gas at Chicago or a few more feet of room at Charlotte. Or let me drop the hammer a little sooner at Talladega. Those are things I could've done differently."

And that is why, ladies and gentlemen, Jimmie Johnson will likely be a contender for the Sprint Cup at the end of the 2012 season and Carl Edwards will not.

Good news near for Canadian racing drivers

Robert Wickens of Guelph and Toronto is frustrated that he’s not in a racing car these days. The Canadian driver, who’s this close to a Formula One ride, is awaiting word of his 2012 employment and I suggest it could be an official test role with, I think, Marussia.

And, if that’s the case, he could wind up in a seat because one of that team’s drivers, Charles Pic, is reportedly having money trouble. If he flames out, Wickens might get a shot.

Somebody’s who’s getting a shot, for sure, is J.R. Fitzpatrick of Cambridge, who will be a busy boy this summer. He’s on the cusp of signing for a full-time ride in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the team he’ll race with will give him a Sprint Cup start at Watkins Glen in August.

As well, he’ll also be racing in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series. Good for him — he’s worked hard.

Uniform, helmet collection a great hobby

So I’m walking along at the Motorsports Expo last Saturday and I see a whole bunch of racing uniforms just hanging there.

Now, I’ve seen autographed race-worn uniforms at specialty shops before but never so many in one place at the same time.

More than 200 of them, to be exact.

Most come with a history, and the signature of the driver who wore it.

So I’m looking at a Dale Earnhardt Jr. U.S. National Guard suit and a NASCAR M&Ms one worn once by Elliott Sadler and I hear a voice say: “May I help you?”

It turns out to be the guy who owns this amazing collection of firesuits, John McLean of Mississauga, who’s a retired teacher (Toronto’s Central Tech.)

“I got my first Pinecrest Speedway shirt in 1973,” he said. “It was a Junior Hanley, No. 72. That’s how it started.”

McLean, who raced Formula Fords at Mosport and Shannonville for a few years in the early 1970s, said that at the moment, he has 270 uniforms that he buys, or trades for, then sells. “I have a Jackie Stewart suit that he wore at the Indy 500 (he was in the race in 1966 and ’67), I have an Evel Knievel jumpsuit. I have a Sebastien Vettel, two Mark Webbers, a Scott Speed. I have the uniform David Coulthard wore for his last F1 race. It’s worth about $4,000."

He kind of whispered that last bit, about the price.

“We have closet collectors who don’t want their wives to know how much they paid for them,” he said.

McLean says he has four he won’t part with.

"I have a Michael Schumacher, a Vettel, a Paul Tracy when he raced at Team Kool Green and I have a Jacques Villeneuve Indy 500 Player’s uniform.”

He has a Mario Andretti helmet that the great American driver wore during his final season in 1994 — “that’s worth $5,000 to $6,000.”

And he has a black felt hat that Dale Earnhardt Sr. once wore.

“It’s a hobby,” he said, “but you can make a good buck, too.”

TSN to carry all F1, NASCAR races

BUT DID INDYCAR LEAVE IT TOO LATE TO GET A CANADIAN TV PARTNER?

Big news today on the TV racing front.

For all the F1 fans out there, TSN will once again provide coverage of all 20 rounds of the 2012 World Championship. Included in the coverage will be – as has been the case previously – all final qualifying sessions.

All races will be on the main TSN channel with the exception of the June 10 Canadian Grand Prix (I suspect it will be televised on the parent CTV main channel) and the Grands Prix of Germany and Hungary in late July.

The Hungarian and German GPs will be carried on TSN2 because the 2012 Summer Olympics, being held in London, will be being televised on the main TSN Channel.

So the good news is that TSN is providing the coverage. Exactly who will be providing the coverage is still a question.

As most of you know, F1 (meaning Bernie Ecclestone) made a deal with the Sky pay-TV satellite channel in the U.K. to televise races in 2012 and also with the BBC, which will televise 10 of the 20. No word, as yet, who TSN has got a deal with, but in the end it doesn’t matter a whole lot to me because seeing the races is the most important thing.

First telecast of the season will be on March 17 at 1:55 a.m. when final qualifying from Australia will be shown. The Australian Grand Prix will be shown live on March 18 at 12:55 a.m.

Moving right along, it was announced Monday that the ABC television network has selected the Honda Indy Toronto as one of the six IZOD IndyCar Series races it will televise live in 2012.

As expected, ABC will show the Indianapolis 500 for the – can you believe this – 48^th consecutive year, going back to the days of same-day-tape-delay.

In addition to Indy and Toronto – and, by the way, Toronto’s own Scott Goodyear will be returning to the booth as analyst and colour commentator – ABC will also cover the season-opener in St. Petersburg as well as the stops in Milwaukee, Detroit and Mid-Ohio.

You will note that three of the six races scheduled for ABC (St. Pete, Toronto and Mid-Ohio) are owned and promoted by a company owned by Kevin Savoree and Kim Green. And a former partner of Savoree and Green, Michael Andretti, is promoting the Milwaukee race. This probably means nothing, but it’s interesting all the same.

All other races in the IZOD series, including the stop in Edmonton two weeks after Toronto in July, will be televised in the U.S. by NBC Sports Network, which used to be called Versus.

Although there has been no announcement, it is hoped that some kind of a deal can be made that would see most – if not all – of the IndyCar series races shown on TSN or TSN2. However, as IndyCar was so late in nailing down its final schedule - it only confirmed the Milwaukee race late last week - it might have created a scheduling problem for prospective TV partners in countries other than the U.S.

Finally, TSN announced Monday that every single NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series race, starting with the Daytona 500 a week from next Sunday (Feb. 26), will be televised this year on either TSN or TSN2.

The first race to hit the airwaves, the Budweiser Shootout, will be televised this coming Saturday night at 8 p.m. on TSN2 (as mentioned in the item above). The two qualifying races that set the field for the 500, called the Gatorade Duel at Daytona, will go to air a week from Thursday (Feb. 23) at 2 in the afternoon.

(A little editorial comment here: once upon a time those qualifying races meant something. That was when qualifying at Daytona was straight up, when some weekend racer from Wisconsin could beat a Cup regular to a starting position – before nonsense like the top 35 cars in the points standings automatically being locked into the starting field and points being bought and so-on. The two races are mildly entertaining, but that’s about it now.)

Oh, the Nationwide Series stop at Montreal on Aug, 18 will be televised at 2 p.m. on TSN.

Danica can win in NASCAR, Randy LaJoie says

The sixth Canadian Motorsports Expo, held at Mississauga's International Centre over the weekend, has come and gone for another year and here are several of the highlights:

Retired racer Randy LaJoie (he was a Connecticut modified champion who "went south" in the early 1980s in search of fame and fortune in NASCAR and carved out a pretty good career for himself in the second tier Busch Series, where he won two titles) says he thinks it’s very possible Danica Patrick will win a race this year.

"I like Danica, I’ve known her and her family for years," said LaJoie, in conversation, talking about the move to NASCAR by the former Indy car superstar.

"She’s gonna do okay. I don’t know if she’s gonna win a (Sprint Cup) race. It’s pretty tough. I mean, there’s guys gonna start the Daytona 500 and some of them are zero for 300 (wins vs. starts).

"But she could win a Nationwide race. She ran real good at Daytona last July. You have to remember, though, that the team she’s driving for (JR Motorsports) hasn’t won a race in two years, other than in restrictor plates. She’s only as good as what she’s sitting in."

LaJoie also had thoughts on Dale Earnhardt Jr., who hasn’t won a Sprint Cup race in more than three years:

"His problem is between his ears. You don’t win 18 races (Cup career) and then stop. I’ve raced against him and he’s as good as anybody I’ve ever seen when his head’s in the game. We’ve seen Tony Stewart finally get his head in the game in the last 10 races (and he won half of them). If Junior could ever get like that, he’d be like that.

"It’s between his ears. His confidence level is beat up and I don’t know if he’ll ever get it back. He’s a darn good racer. You don’t win 18 Cup races and not be any good."

Sprint Cup star Carl Edwards was the big NASCAR guest who flew in on Saturday for a few hours and was utterly charming. He was terrific with fans and answered the usual questions from the media with patience and sincerity.

Edwards and Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart were tied at the end of the final race of the season at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida last November but Stewart won the title because he won more races.

Edwards suggested that when his team conducted a post-season review, they decided they wouldn’t have done anything differently.

But in the next breath he acknowledged that there will be major difference in 2012: he’ll drive exclusively in the Sprint Cup and won’t also be racing in the Nationwide Series.

(If that isn't doing things differently, I don't know what is . . .)

"There were times when I had to leave the Cup team to fly off to do a Nationwide race," he said. "I had a lot of fun but I think I will be doing myself a service to drive just the Cup car and I think being this close last season kind of galvanized that I was doing the right thing to focus on just the Cup car."

Edwards said he can hardly wait to get behind the wheel of the 2013 Ford Fusion.

"We got a glimpse of it last summer, " he said. "I couldn’t believe it. I got interest in racing because I like fast cars, I like cool cars, and that 2013 car is going to be spectacular."

We’ll revisit the Expo over the next days or weeks because lots went on and there were many people there who had all sorts of good things to say.

Meantime:

– The Bud Shootout goes to the post next Saturday night in Daytona and that race will be telecast live on TSN2 at 8 p.m. The Daytona 500 is just two weeks away and it’s about time we got racing again, I say.

– The IndyCar "Leader Circle" program, in which the series doles out $1.3 million in subsidies to some teams, but not all, has left a bad taste in some mouths but you have to wonder why.

The IZOD IndyCar Series is that – a series. Not one race, or a few races, but all of them. Only those teams that ran the entire series last season should have been included in the first place. So why Michael Shank Racing, which has run exactly zero races, or Rahal-Letterman (ditto) or Bryan Herta Motorsports (a couple) expected to be subsidized, is puzzling.

If anybody got screwed here, it was Eric Bachelart’s team. Conquest Racing ran the whole season last year (as it did for many years) and should have been on the list before any part-time or starter team was included.

Of course, nobody should be subsidized. When Tony George started the IRL, half the teams couldn’t afford it so the subsidy was invented. It’s a carryover from those days and has no place in the "new and improved" IndyCar series.

Oh, and to the people who ask why Chip Ganassi and/or Roger Penske are included on the subsidy list, the answer is simple: they are as entitled as anybody else to that money. There is no means test. It’s a vote of confidence in loyalty and commitment and when it comes to those qualities, Ganassi and Penske have them in spades.

- There are those who seem to think that Paul Tracy's season depended on that $1.3 million subsidy from IndyCar but, as a Tracy confidente told me at the Expo on Sunday, it was over a long time ago. "It's done," he said. "Go back a year and the tweets then are the same as now - 'negotiating, really close, gonna sign soon, etc.' Didn't happen then, won't happen now."

– Laugh of the week:

Headline on autosport.com last Monday – "Kimi fastest on Day One of Jerez test."

Sure. Right.

Oh, I know: Kimi was on a flyer and the others were out on reconnaisance laps.

Yup. That explains it.

- Second best laugh of the week.

Headline on autosport.com this weekend - "Trulli hails best-ever first test."

He'll still finish 20th or worse.

Canadian Tire gets naming rights to Mosport

It's finally happened.

After years of corporations purchasing "naming rights" to virtually all of the NHL arenas and major league baseball and football stadiums in existence (Air Canada Centre, BMO Field, Lucas Oil Stadium, etc.), it was announced this morning that Mosport International Raceway (a.k.a. Mosport Park) will now be known as Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

The announcement of a long-term partnership between the iconic Canadian brand and the legendary circuit north of Bowmanville was made the morning of the opening of the sixth annual Canadian Motorsports Expo being held over the weekend at the International Centre in Mississauga.

While efforts have been made by corporations over the years to purchase naming rights to famous facilities like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Daytona International Speedway, they have been rebuffed. The Charlotte Motor Speedway was named Lowes Motor Speedway for a few years but, so far as anyone knows, that was the only time a major speedway was known by other than its geographic location.

Road racing circuits are another matter. Although Laguna Seca and Sears Point in California now have corporate names (Mazda, Infineon), most of the iconic locations - Sebring, Road America, Road Atlanta, Le Circuit-Mont Tremblant, Mosport - have retained their original designations (Mosport being a contraction of two words: Motor and Sport).

“As Canada’s largest automotive retailer, Canadian Tire has a long tradition of supporting auto racing and motorsports in Canada,” said Allan MacDonald, Senior Vice President, Automotive, in a release. “Canadian Tire is excited to give back to the racing community by working with Mosport International Raceway to improve this racing landmark in Canada and create an enhanced experience for both drivers and fans.”

“We are thrilled to partner with Canadian Tire, an important supporter of Mosport and auto racing fans for many years," said Myles Brandt, president and general manager of Mosport, in a release.

"Together we’re building a world-class facility that will draw racing enthusiasts and grow our fanbase, which continues to evolve year over year.”

Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is home to some of the biggest races in Canada, hosting the only Canadian stop for North America’s premiere sports car championship, the American Le Mans Series.  The facility will also host two races in the 2012 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, one on the road track and one on the speedway.

Canadian racing champion Ron Fellows, one of the three new owners of Mosport, is expected to outline some long-range plans for the facility when he speaks Saturday at the Expo.

High on everyone's mind is whether a round of the NASCAR Nationwide (stock car) Series or Camping World (truck) Series is in the cards for 2013.

Canadian Motorsports Expo on this weekend

Carl Edwards, Robert Yates, Randy Lajoie, James Hinchcliffe and Ron Fellows are just some of the many racing greats who will be in attendance at this weekend’s sixth annual Canadian Motorsports Expo at the International Centre in Mississauga.

Adjacent to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, the Expo, now presented by Inside Track Motorsport News, will kick off Friday at 1 p.m. and continue through until Sunday afternoon at 5 p.m.

Doors open Saturday and Sunday at 10 a.m.

The action will be just about non-stop throughout the weekend.

The Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship is planning a major announcement shortly after the show opens Friday. And the Honda Indy Toronto display — and it’s nice to see that event involved with the Expo — will unveil one of the new-for-2012 Dallara DW12 Indy cars that will be in action at the CNE in July.

Friday evening, the Inside Track Readers’ Choice Awards will be presented, as well as Spencer Lewis’ Ontario Asphalt Power Rankings Top 10 Awards. Special guest will be former NASCAR racer Lajoie.

Saturday at noon, sharp, NASCAR superstar Carl Edwards will take Centre Stage for a question-and-answer period followed by an autograph session. But listen up: if you want an autograph, you will have to get to the Expo early in order to get one of the 150 autograph “badges” that will be handed out. The rules are too complicated to go into completely here, but don’t say you weren’t warned. For complete details of the Edwards appearance, which is being timed to the minute, go to the show’s website.

After the Edwards riot — I mean, appearance — the annual media panel discussion will take place. This is when Toronto's racing reporters try not to insult each other too much. In my case, I really try to look as if I know what I’m talking about, which - as anybody who knows me knows - can sometimes be difficult. Thank goodness F1 expert Gerald Donaldson, Toronto Sun reporter Dean McNulty and Jeff Pappone of the Globe and Mail will be there to add some dignity (and legitimacy) to the proceedings.

At some point on Saturday afternoon, Fellows — one of three people who purchased Mosport International Raceway last summer — will discuss plans that he and his partners have for the legendary circuit north of Bowmanville. There has been all sorts of speculation as to what’s going to happen there, so just about everybody will be keen to hear what he has to say.

Sunday, IndyCar rookie of the year Hinchcliffe, of Oakville, will be the special guest. As well, a reunion of CASCAR officials, racers, crew and fans is planned for 3 p.m. following a NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Q & A and autograph session. CASCAR founder Tony Novotny, five-time national champion Don Thomson Jr., Dan Shirtliff, Alex Nagy and Kelly Williams are among the former racers who’ve confirmed their attendance.

Also on tap:

— Legendary NASCAR engine builder Robert Yates will be at the Canadian Tire booth and on the Mazda Stage Saturday.

— Seminars, from “how to get involved in karting” to expert technical seminars featuring guys like Darrick Dong, Performance Friction Brakes’ Director of Motorsports, will be held.

—   Sunday morning, a technical forum will be held on stage with Grand Am racing star Scott Maxwell and several other experts discussing what it takes to do a fast lap around Mosport, considering the balance you need to strike between the tires, chassis, suspensions, brakes, driver feedback, etc. Steve Scala will moderate, and participants will include Dong, Larry Holt of Multimatic Motorsports, Ian Willis of AIM Autosport and others.

- Mazda Canada will unveil details of a Canadian grassroots contingency program for Canadian road racers. They’re also putting on a sponsorship and marketing seminar.

- And a little bird told me that up-and-coming Canadian Formula One driver Robert Wickens might drop in on Saturday.

Wow. See you there!

No snow prompted Quebec racers to build Le Circuit

We are now into February, which is the heart of the winter, and there is no snow in Toronto – or any throughout the GTA, for that matter.

Yes, somewhere in the land there is snow, but not around here.

Although people are scratching their heads and the usual climate change/global warming theories are springing forth, this sort of thing is not that unusual.

In fact, the construction in 1964 of the famous Quebec sports car racing circuit, Le Circuit-Mont Tremblant, came about precisely because, for two consecutive winters, there was so little snow in the Laurentian Mountains north of Montreal that it just about killed the tourist industry.

Here’s what happened (some of which has been related in two books on Canadian racing, Challenge by the late Len Coates and The Chequered Past by New Brunswick university professor David A. Charters).

First, Quebec is a place where la neige is the culture. The words to Mon Pays, the anthem of 1960s Quebec nationalists, talk about la neige (snow), la glace (ice) et du froid (the cold). It's what makes Quebec, well, Quebec.

Mont Tremblant was discovered and initially opened up in the early 1930s by a Norwegian named Herman "Jackrabbit" Smith-Johannsen. Shortly after World War II broke out, Joseph Ryan, a Philadelphia millionaire and father of the ill-fated Canadian racer Peter Ryan, partnered with Smith-Johannsen to build the famous Mont Tremblant resort and to open up the area for other skiing and skiing-related businesses.

It goes without saying that the owners of hotels, lodges, guest houses and restaurants in the nearby village of St. Jovitte made money like bandits. They worked non-stop from mid-October to late April but then closed up shop for the summer and went to Europe on vacation. Life was good.

(We interrupt this narrative to direct your attention to the image at right of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso at the unveiling in Maranello, Italy, last Friday of the 2012 Ferrari. As you can see, all the snow that isn't in Toronto is in Italy. We now return you to our regularly scheduled column.)

 

But then came the winter of 1961-62 and there was no snow in the Laurentian Mountains. It was cold, and there was a dusting on occasion, but nothing substantial to attract skiers (it would be another decade before snowmaking came into vogue).

It was during the spring of ‘62 that a local innkeeper, Leo Samson, who – like all the other business people in the area – had lost a lot of money because there had been no winter, started to talk about building something that would attract people to the area in the summertime. If winter was really over, Samson figured, then money had to be made in the summer or else they should all pack up and pack it in.

He got the idea of a race course after going to the circuit at Watkins Glen, N.Y., with Peter Ryan in 1961 for the U.S. Grand Prix. He'd come away impressed.

When the winter of ‘62-63 was not much better than the year previous, Samson appealed to the other locals about the importance of building a racing-car circuit. Although there was enthusiasm, few were sufficiently convinced that they actually offered up money, so Samson went it alone.

He bought land and then approached Quebec racer Jacques Duval who, in turn, took the idea to the Montreal MG Car Club (Ross de St. Croix, president), which had already been talking about building a track in Quebec to rival Ontario’s Mosport, and the rest is history.

With the participation, guidance and drive of individuals like Duval, de St. Croix, John Ross and Norm Namerow, among many others, Le Circuit-Mont Tremblant opened for business in August, 1964.

Le Circuit has since had a rocky existence. Home to Can-Am, Indy and Formula One races from the mid-1960s until 1970, it fell on hard times and has opened and closed sporadically pretty much ever since.

Incidentally, I consider Mont Tremblant - now owned by moneyed Montreal interests and in business once again - to be the most glorious natural setting for a car-racing circuit in the world, particularly in the autumn. 

With the sky a deep blue, and the riotous fall colours everywhere on the surrounding mountains, it is breathtaking being there.

That was then and this is now, though, and - unlike those two years in the early Sixties - they actually did have snow in Quebec last weekend.

Antoine L'Estage of St-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, Que., and co-driver Nathalie Richard of Halifax opened the 2012 Canadian Rally Championship season by winning the Rallye Perce-Neige in Maniwaki, Que., in a Mitsubishi Lancer Évo.10.

(Those two always win, by the way.)

Second place overall went to Leo (Crazy Leo) Urlichich of Toronto and co-driver Carl Williamson of Swansea, England, in a Subaru Impreza WRX, followed by Sylvain and Simon Vincent of Terrebonne, Que., who finished third overall, also in a Subaru Impreza.

The Canadian Rally Championship is made up of six events held nationwide in a season that extends from February to November. The series is presented by Subaru Canada, supported by Yokohama Tire Canada and features contingency programs from Subaru Canada and Mitsubishi Canada.

Next up is the Rocky Mountain Rally in May.

The Canadian Association of Rallysport (CARS) is the official sanctioning body for rallying in Canada.

Indy's not a racing town anymore, it's all football

As the Super Bowl was played in Indianapolis (Giants Win! Giants Win!), and Indianapolis always billed itself as the World Capital of Motor Racing, here are some thoughts about that city:

- When I wrote above that it was the capital of motor racing (past tense), that’s true. it really isn’t any more. The Formula One race has gone off to what it thinks are greener pastures and although the Indianapolis 500 seems – seems – to be recovering its former glory, interest in the NASCAR Sprint Cup race has fallen off dramatically.

But Indianapolis cleaned up real good, and put on its best bib and tucker, and produced a Super Bowl celebration (never mind the great game) that was smashing by all accounts.

Which means that while they can continue to call the 500 "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing," from now on Indy will be known as Super Bowl City.

The reason they got the Super Bowl in the first place is because it’s officially a football town. It’s an Indy 500 town for the month of May and there’s still interest in basketball (primarily at the high school and college level throughout the state) but as IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe of Oakville, who lives there now, told me last summer:

"Eleven months of the year, this is a Colts town. It’s Colts, Colts and more Colts."

Football City, U.S.A.

- When I first made the trek to Indianapolis in 1967, it felt like a holy pilgrimage. My heart started beating faster the moment – the moment – I first caught a glimpse of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a place I’d seen in photos and in the movies and on TV.

It was two days before the 500 and I was with friends and we drove over and parked the car about a mile away because you couldn’t get near the place. If they thought there were crowds in downtown Indy the last few nights, they should have been outside the Indianapolis Speedway the first day I was there because – although you could move – you were nearly always bumping into somebody.

Sixteenth St. was closed, as was Georgetown Rd. (for anyone not familiar with the place, the Speedway is at that intersection) and all you could see were people.

It was glorious.

- Some things never change.

I do have to say that they gouge the hell out of you in that town. With the exception of Montreal at Grand Prix time, I have never seen a place so nastily expensive as Indianapolis for the 500.

When we first went, we had to take a room for three nights at about double the regular rate. That was situation normal until the late 1990s when, because of the IRL/CART split, people pretty much stopped travelling to Indy for the race.

So, for a few years there, they couldn’t give hotel rooms away. Not only did they scrap the minimum stay, the hotels and motels were undercutting each other to get people to register.

But now that the race is regaining its lustre (and with the arrival of ex-F1 stars like Rubens Barrichello ratcheting up the talent level, it should start attracting the Europeans again), they’ll soon be up to their old tricks and will start gouging again. You watch.

I say this because of what happened for the Super Bowl. As Andrew Brandt wrote for the Huffington Post:

"The one complaint appears to be with the scarcity of hotel rooms, especially downtown. Less exclusive hotels with rooms still available (nearly an hour away from the city) require 4-night minimums and are charging premiums upwards of seven times typical rates."

What? $500 a night for a Super 8 room in Anderson, Ind.? I’d sleep in my car first.

- That, of course, is the rub. Indianapolis is not a big city. It doesn’t have that many good hotels downtown. And it’s not a particularly healthy place economically. The suburbs might be okay - Carmel, and the like - but the city itself is suffering.

Yes, it has a mammoth – and extremely well-to-do – medical research facility (Methodist Hospital) and several large universities (Purdue, Butler) but the manufacturing is mostly gone and large parts of the near-downtown are places where, frankly, you don’t feel all that comfortable.

In fact, when there isn’t football on, the area around Lucas Oil Stadium is not someplace you could describe as tourist-friendly at certain times of the day.

Having said that (and yes, there are places in every big city – including Toronto – where you’re not going to go unless you absolutely have to), Indy still has a big pull for me.

It’s breathtaking to walk into the State Capitol building. Ditto the five-block area around the national headquarters of the American Legion, which is called the Indiana War Memorial Plaza. The Soldiers and Sailors Monument is a wonderful place to visit. (The international pharmaceutical company we all know as Eli Lilly was started by a young soldier, a Civil War veteran and pharmacist named – you guessed it – Eli Lilly, who worked in a small drug store. His story is on display in that monument). And the White River Canal Park is close to downtown and a delightful place to go for a walk.

Of course, I always have to drive around to see where Jim Hurtubise’s speed shop was located on Sixteenth St. (the building is still there) and where the legendary White Front tavern stood (I parked behind it once, after it closed, and walked over to the Speedway), the addresses in the city where Johnny White and Bob Sweikert lived decades ago when they were both alive and racing and, yes, several times to Crown Hill Cemetary to visit the graves of Ronnie Duman (one of my all-time favourite racers) and Chuck Rodee (I met him when he raced a midget at the CNE back in the Sixties).

But no, I have not been to the grave of John Dillinger, which is at Crown Hill, nor to those of Benjamin Harrison (he was once President) or James Whitcomb Riley (although it’s kind of hard to miss his) but I have been to Tony Bettenhausen Jr.’s and Cannonball Baker’s and that’s good enough for me.

- Talking about the name Bettenhausen, on the second day of that first trip way back in 1967, on the day before the 500, we noticed a large crowd gathered in a circle around something near the back of a parking lot at a Holiday Inn that used to be across the street from the Speedway. (Much of the land is vacant there; properties have been bought up over the years by the Speedway and the buildings demolished. There is constant talk about high-end condominiums and/or a high end hotel but that’s all it’s ever been: talk.)

In any event, my buddy Rick Clare and I wandered over to see what was up and it was a young Gary Bettenhausen and a friend finishing loading his racing car onto an open trailer behind his pickup truck. They were getting ready to head out to the nearby Indianapolis Raceway Park for the Night Before the 500 USAC midget races, which continue as a tradition to this very day.

But here’s the reason I remember those few moments so vividly. Back then, racers really were Gods. There must have been 50 to 60 people standing around that race car and those two boys and nobody - nobody - said a thing. We just all stood there and looked at Gary Bettenhausen and his racing car.

In awe.

- Okay, I’ll wind this up with one of my favourite Indy stories.

Years ago – not my first trip to Indy but my second or third – I discovered the famous St. Elmo Steak House in downtown Indianapolis. It is, without doubt, one of the finest steak houses you will find anywhere. You can cut the filet mignon in that place with the side of your fork, it’s usually that tender.

Five or six years ago, on the eve of qualifying weekend, my sweetheart and I and a great racing reporter named Tim Tuttle went there for dinner. Michael Andretti brought his team in for a private party (Dan Wheldon, Tony Kanaan) and a few other IRL personalities joined them, notably Dario Franchitti and his wife, Ashley Judd.

Now, here’s the thing about actors (not original thought on my part, by the way; I am just repeating what others have said): they want to be somebody else, which is why they are actors. And if you’ve ever spent any time with actors (as I have, although not recently), they are always, and mostly, on stage. In short, they are usually playing some kind of a role.

Anyway, at a certain point in the evening (the Andretti party was downstairs in the restaurant), Ashley Judd came up to use the washroom. As she passed our table, she was limping – noticeably. My wife saw this and wondered what she’d done to herself.

Five minutes later, she passed by our table on her way back to the party. My wife tapped my elbow, interrupting a conversation I was having with Tuttle.

"I just noticed something," she said.

"What’s that?" I replied.

"Ashley’s still limping," she said.

"So?" I said.

"She’s limping on the other foot," she said.

‘Racer’ to jail headline caught my attention

The headline in the Mississauga News stopped me cold:

“Racer sentenced to nine months in jail,” it said.

“Shut the front door,” I said to myself, as I searched for the name of the race car driver who’d been sent to jail for — what?

It turned out not be someone who races at Mosport or Toronto Motorsports Park or any of the many southern Ontario speedways where real racers race.

It was a report about a street race in which the defendant, who was charged with dangerous driving causing death, was sentenced to nine months but, with time served, will be back on the street in a little over six.

The original charge was criminal negligence causing death but it was dropped to driving dangerous on a plea bargain.

Nine months for racing on the street? An illegal act, in which a 20-year-old guy was killed, and probably many more people scared out of their wits at the sight of this happening?

How about 10 years?

I don’t care, as the story said, if the accused pulled out of the race early, and tried to help the mortally wounded fellow (how nice of him). Racing on a public highway is the height of selfishness, irresponsible and illegal, and somebody is dead and that is worth a lot more than nine months in my book.

Of course, I’m talking to the wind here. People are appointed to the bench in this country and then they get sent to Judge School where the emphasis in sentencing is on rehabilitation rather than revenge. Some judge somewhere along the line determined that nine months for a death caused by street racing is an appropriate penalty, and this precedent thus became the norm.

So, if some brave judge somewhere in Canada actually sentenced somebody to 10 years for committing this heinous act, it would be overturned on appeal because the law of the land says a life lost as the result of street racing isn’t worth more than nine months.

Only when an influential cabinet minister, or a member of the judiciary, loses a loved one like this will anything ever change.

Meantime, the guilty man — who, according to his lawyer, is now very involved with his church (care to bet how long that will last?) — won’t be allowed to drive legally for the next two years.

That won’t mean he won’t drive, of course. He didn’t care about the law this time; who’s to say he’ll care about it in the future?