Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

Committee approach is killing racing (and everything else)

The mediocrity of modern racing is a reflection of the mediocrity in society, don’t you think?

I ask the question because there is great gnashing of teeth and twisting of hands going on these days in NASCAR-land over how boring many of the races have become.

Except for bullrings like Bristol and road races like Watkins Glen, Sprint Cup races are often enough to put you to sleep. Why? Because the cars are all the same and the engines are all the same and the one-make tires are so good that when the races start the cars pretty much go round and round and round in the same order.

Yes, there will be the occasional pass but the races are frequently won in the pits and/or by the luck of the draw — i.e. accidents.

In Formula One and IndyCar, where the cars and engines are also all the same, the races are won (except for marathons like the Indianapolis 500) by the drivers who start at the front. Do well in qualifyhing, do well in the race. Ho-hum.

F1, in an effort to mix things up, instructed its tire manufacturer, Pirelli, to build some almost-instant obsolescence into the product that would force the drivers to make more pits stops. It took about a minute for the teams to solve that little problem and there don’t appear to be any more stops now than there were previously.

I’m sure the tall foreheads are scheming as we speak about the next step to take in artificially creating excitement.

That, of course, is the problem. Everything is done by committee these days. It doesn’t matter what it is — media, manufacturing, retail, sport, government — there are no powerful individuals standing up any more to steer the ships.

When you get committees, you get quicksand. Look at Toronto city council as an example. Nobody can agree on anything. The President of the United States was once all-powerful. Now he has an Executive Committee.

Once you had Big Bill France and then you had Bill France Jr. and NASCAR racing was great.

Then you got Brian France and Lisa France and Mike Helton and a bunch of other people and they all get to put in their two cents and now the racing is anything but great.

In F1, things started to get mucked up after Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenburger were killed at Imola. In the interests of driver safety, then-FIA president Max Mosley created a committee, the Advisory Expert Group, chaired by Prof. Sid Watkins. The introduction of the HANS device and other driver safety aids that resulted were welcome but before you knew it all sorts of extraneous regulations crept in, like less powerful engines and so-on, and you suddenly had a situation where, before you knew it, all the cars and engines were the same and how did that happen?

And the stage was set for artificial approaches like tire degradation in order to keep the races interesting.

There used to be giants in this world. I’m not talking about fame, which has been bastardized like just about everything else. I’m talking about giants who through personal magnetism and stature and strength and force of personalty took whatever it was that needed fixing, or built, and shook it by the neck. Or warned everybody to leave well enough alone before it was ruined.

Now we have studies.

This is about racing. Racing was best when there were few regulations and people like Colin Chapman could innovate and experiment and drivers like Junior Johnson and A.J. Foyt had a lead foot and were brave.

Not any more, boy. Not any more.

Norris new crew chief for Carl Edwards

I loved this headline when I saw it yesterday afternoon.

 

NORRIS NAMED CREW CHIEF FOR CARL EDWARDS

 

I would do a good job, too. Four tires, every stop. No exceptions.

 

But it's not me. It's Chad Norris, a veteran research-and-development guy at Roush-Fenway Racing who's been instrumental in developing the careers of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Trevor Bayne. He replaces Bob Osborne, who's worked with Edwards for the past nine years.

 

I wouldn't want the job anyway. When Edwards was here last winter visiting the Canadian Motorsport Expo, I asked him if he'd do anything different this season as compared to last when he'd lost the NASCAR Sprint Cup title by a whisker.

 

He said no, they had reviewed their season and wouldn't do a thing differently.

 

A don't like people who are rigid. If he'd won, maybe I could understand doing things the same going forward. But he'd lost, which meant he'd probably lose again if he diidn't embrance change.

 

And staying the course obviously wasn't the right approach, or else Edwards wouldn't be 11th in the standings at the moment and that team wouldn't have seen the need to hire another crew chief in mid-season.

 

I hate to say I told ya so - but I will.

 

Carl should know, though, that if this move doesn't work out, I am available - after I coach the Maple Leafs to the Stanley Cup. . .

 

After being MIA at the Honda Indy, Target has come out of the woodwork for the Edmonton Indy this weekend.

 

The Minneapolis-based department store organization, which is opening stores in Canada in the spring of 2013, is donating $5,000 to the Boys & Girls Clubs and the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Edmonton and Area on Thursday and inviting some of the children those organizations support to meet Target Chip Ganassi drivers Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon to talk about sportsmanship and being a team player.

 

Which is terrific and great to see. But it also makes Target's absence at the Honda Indy Toronto even more puzzling.

 

As well as Target, the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series was missing from Toronto as was the Canadian Touring Car Championship.

 

The fact that these all-Canadian series and their sponsors pay to race at events like the Honda Indy, as well as buying signage, renting corporate suites and buying tickets to give away to clients and customers, means somebody lost out on a lot of money.

 

Talking of sponsorships, NASCAR has joined the NFL, the NBA, the IndyCar Series and Major League Baseball in urging the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives to shelve an amendment to legislation that will be voted on today that would forbid all branches of the the U.S. military from involvement in sports sponsorships.

 

The National Guard sponsors cars in both NASCAR and IndyCar and other arms of the service do business with football, basketball and baseball teams.

 

There are concerns that the possibility of the amendment passing led to a decision by the U.S. Army to terminate sponsorship at the end of the 2012 season of a car entered in NASCAR by Tony Stewart (Ryan Newman aboard). The leagues want to stop this amendment from doing any more damage.

What was F1 driver who lost her eye even doing in the car?

Marussia F1 Racing’s news release - announcing that an internal review of the accident that saw test driver Maria de Villota lose an eye found nothing wrong with the race car - raises more questions than it answers.

You’ll recall that the Spanish driver had completed a straight-line test at an English airfield several weeks ago and was returning to a staging area when the car suddenly accelerated and crashed into the back and underside of a team transport truck.

De Villota suffered severe head and facial injuries in the incident and lost her right eye. Although still seriously injured, she is reportedly recovering in hospital.

There were initial suspicions that the car’s anti-stall device had kicked in and caused the acceleration but Marussia’s investigation seems to reject that (although a separate English Health and Safety Executive investigation has yet to report).

If that’s the case, and it turns out to have been driver error, the question has to be asked: why did that team allow someone as inexperienced as Maria de Villota to get into that racing car in the first place?

It’s been my understanding that modern F1 cars are so powerful that if someone who doesn't know what they're doing ever tries to drive one, they're going to immediately spin out.

De Villota, the daughter of an F1 driver from the 1970s named Emilio de Villota (I never heard of the guy; he had two starts), had raced in a number of series – Grand Am and Formula Palmer, etc. – but a close examination of her record indicates that she was very much like her father -- she entered races but actually only got into a couple of them.

And she had never driven anything that even approached the power of a Formula One Grand Prix car.

But she is very attractive. She is one of two good-looking woman who were signed to testing or development driver roles by F1 teams this season; Susie Wolff, under contract to Williams, being the other.

Did somebody get it into their head that a knockout female racing driver would prove to be more intriguing to prospective sponsors and other well-heeled guests than the eye-candy hostesses usually found around F1 paddocks?

If so, that idea backfired -- big time.

The FIA mandates that a driver must have a superlicence before being allowed to race an F1 car. If Maria de Villota had a superelicence, the FIA must investigate how she got one.

If she didn't, then it's time for the FIA to legislate that anybody who gets into an F1 car to race or to conduct any kind of test must have one, or there will be the risk that de Villota's accident won't be the last to happen but potentially the first. 

Harvick calls woman driver 'it' and should be fined

Before getting to the weekend’s results, the mess that A.J. Allmendinger’s in and some other good stuff, allow me to tear a strip off Kevin Harvick.

Harvick should be fined by NASCAR for comments he made about woman driver Amber Cope after the Nationwide Series race at New Hampshire on Saturday.

Harvick finished second in that race to Brad Keselowski and was steamed because Cope got in his way and the balk allowed Keselowski to make the pass for the lead.

He might have had good reason to be angry. Cope (that's her on the right with her sister Angela) was 33 laps down at the checkers and why NASCAR officials hadn’t black-flagged her earlier in the race is a question only they can answer.

But Harvick, in expressing his displeasure to reporters afterward, referred to Cope as "it."

He said he didn’t know what to call her. From then on, he called her "it."

First, Kevin Harvick wouldn’t have the guts to call a male driver "it" because he’d soon be eating a knuckle sandwich.

Second, although I’m sure he’d deny this, his use of the world "it" is an unimaginable slur intended to denigrate anyone who’s sexuality doesn’t fit into his definition of "normal."

NASCAR’s rule book includes a clause concerning actions detrimental to the sport of stock car racing and Harvick’s nastiness fits right into that category.

He should apologize to Amber Cope, at the minimum, and pay a hefty enough fine that he won’t ever do that again.

Moving right along, I will not be surprised if A.J. Allmendinger is finished at Penske Racing regardless of the results of his second drug test expected this week.

Penske, speaking to reporters and the TV cameras at New Hampshire this weekend, spoke glowingly about replacement driver Sam Hornish Jr. and made more than one reference to consulting with sponsors about the future before saying that if Allmendinger’s second test comes up negative he’ll be put right back into the No. 22 car.

That last bit was a pretty safe statement to make; it’s unlikely that since the first test came back positive the second test will be negative considering the second test will be from the same sample.

NASCAR was informed of the first test results at Daytona last weekkend and Allmendinger was pulled out of the car, literally at the last second. Hornish was called in as an emergency replacement and arrived in Florida from North Carolina with about 20 minutes to go before the start of the Coke 400.

Since then, Allmendinger has stayed silent on the controversy. His management company said the positive test was for a stimulant and the inference was that it came from over-the-counter medication.

Dick Pound of Montreal, Canada’s representative on the International Olympic Committee, has been at the forefront of the war on drugs in sport and created headlines in recent years by accusing NHL players of using drugs, something the league and the players' association denied vigorously.

But Pound was not talking about needle drugs, or recreational drugs like marijuana. He was talking about the use of certain cold medications containing ephedrine that, if taken at maximum dosage, can induce an energy high that lasts for several hours.

Street drugs like speed produce the same kind of high.

Anybody can buy cold medications – and millions of people do, regularly. If used properly, maybe they can alleviate some cold and flu symptoms. But like anything else, they can be abused and, unfortunately, what sometimes looks like an innocent mistake can, in fact, be anything but.

So, although he said all the right things ("My goal is that this thing goes in A.J.’s corner, that it’s just a speed bump and we can get him back in the car"), Penske indicated at New Hampshire that he's already looking ahead.

"This is a great chance for Sam to show us what he has," he said, referring to Hornish’s drive a week ago at Daytona and again this week at New Hampshire.

"He would be someone we would consider if the 22 seat was open for next year. But this can (also) give us a chance to potentially look at drivers that are out there that might be wanting a ride in the 22."

He wasn't specific but Joey Logano and Ryan Newman are two drivers expected to be at large by season’s end and who could probably fit the bill at Penske better than Hornish, who's yet another open wheel champion who's had difficulty adjusting to stock cars.

Penske, one of the most successful owners in U.S. auto racing history, has certainly had his crosses to bear over the years.

First, there was Paul Tracy, who managed to destroy millions of dollars of racing cars that would have gotten him fired by just about any other owner. Then there was Helio Castroneves, who ran afoul of American tax authorities. Kurt Busch was hired by Penske after leaving Roush racing under a black cloud and then let the Captain down by continuing to be a jerk. And now Allmendinger.

Penske does have one driver in his camp who has the right attitude – Brad Keselowski.

The Michigan driver is hard-nosed and hard-headed about everything. After making the reporters present this weekend in New Hampshire clearly understand that he considers driving for Roger Penske the job of a lifetime, Keselowski said this:

"I don’t think you should take anything. Period."

Got a chest cold? Tough. Goldenrod giving you the sniffles? Too bad.

"Man up and drive the race car," said Keselowski.

Which could be a lesson for us all.

There are some NASCAR races that are interesting and exciting. Daytona and Talladega, are two. The short track races at Martinsville and Bristol are also usually pretty good. And you can’t beat the road courses at Sonoma and Watkins Glen for great racing.

But the mile and mile-and-a-half oval track races can often be boring and Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at New Hampshire was in that category.

Round and round and round and round and I was getting a headache just watching.

In the end it was Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin, Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Keselowski in the top five. Full results here. Race story here.

In British Columbia at the weekend, St. Thomas driver D.J. Kennington won his third straight NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race of the 2012 season and extended his lead in the points standings.

Kennington took the lead from defending national champion and defending race winner Scott Steckly of Milverton on Lape 249 and remained out front the rest of the way to win the A&W Cruisin’ The Dub 300 at Motoplex Speedway in Vernon.

Jason Hathaway of Dutton, Ont., was second, followed by Steckly, J.R. Fitzpatrick of Cambridge and Jason White of Sun Peakes, B.C., who scored his best-ever finish in the national stock car racing series.

White’s sponsors is A&W so to do as well as he did in his home race was icing on the cake for him.

Kennington now has 227 points to Fitzpatrick’s 204. Third-place Andrew Ranger of Roxton Pond, Que., has 200 points.

And talking about incredible streaks, how about this?

Quebec driver Antoine L’Estage of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu and his co-driver, Nathalie Richard of Halifax, won this weekend’s Rally America New England Forest Rally for the third consecutive year.

This was the Rockstar Energy Drink Rally Team’s fourth victory in a row in less than two months, making their bid for yet another North American Rally Championship title virtually certain.

Robby Gordon targets kids with new truck series

Robby Gordon has raced just about everything on four wheels that there is to race.

He started in off-road trucks, went to Indy cars (he was a star of the old CART series and raced several times in the Molson Indy Toronto), switched to NASCAR and raced in the Nationwide and Sprint Cup series and has even been a regular in the Dakar Rally in recent years.

It seems like a lack of sponsorship cash has kept Gordon pretty much out of NASCAR lately (he still shows up from time to time) but now he’s launching a new venture, so probably won't have time for the stock cars anyway.

Called the Stadium Super Trucks Series, it's a combination of  Supercross, Monster Trucks and Mickey Thompson-type indoor arena truck racing.

Imagine a truck with big tires on a Supercross track and you pretty much have what Thompson used to promote before he was murdered and what Gordon has in mind now.

I have no idea if the Rogers Centre will wind up on the schedule but the series will be launched in 2013 and include the Los Angeles Coliseum.

Here are a couple of links for you to see what Gordon has in mind:

Awesome thing or awesomest thing?

Robby Gordon talks about trucks

So, is Gordon on to anything here? My friend, Pete S., thinks so:

Wrote Pete: “Maybe Jacques Villeneuve could make a guest appearance. He hits everything. (It would be a) perfect series for him.”

But then he got serious.

“Robby is smart. Kids love radio controlled trucks. Transfer that to seeing a real truck in a real race environment and you have a market to work with. NASCAR and Indy Car missed on that one.

“Back when I was a kid, my brother and I had state-of-the-art stuff at the time — model cars. Paint and glue and pictures of Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt. I can still see the box the car came in. The point is, that is how it begins, with the kids. Ignore that and I don’t care what racing series you talk about: ignore it or don't promote it at your peril. One day it will disappear if you do not get the kids involved.

“This stadium truck thing will start small but it’s got legs. You watch.”

Know what, Pete?

You’re right.

Okay, now that I’ve quoted Pete, I’ll share some of my wisdom with you.

Tony Stewart and Cal Wells are not shedding any tears that the U.S. Army is dropping its sponsorship of their second car for 2013. Ryan Newman has been driving that car but he is headed elsewhere next season and GoDaddy will move Danica Patrick into the Big League as Stewart’s teammate.

They haven't announced it yet, but it will happen.

Here’s good news from the Honda Indy Toronto folks.

Organizers of the Honda Indy opened up the streets and sites of Exhibition Place to three important charitable initiatives, helping raise more than $485,000 through the 2012 event.

Throughout race weekend, more than $35,000 was raised for Make-A-Wish Canada by fans, Honda Canada and the Ontario Honda Dealers Association. The popular Free Friday initiative helped not only to introduce the sport of auto racing to thousands of families, but also to help raise funds for Make-A-Wish. Over the past three years, more than $235,000 was donated to Make-A-Wish from race-related activities.

A new partnership for 2012, the YMCA Relay for Strong Kids saw more than 1,200 walkers and runners hit the Honda Indy race track on Thursday, July 5. The fun-filled event raised $50,000 for the YMCA Strong Kids Campaign, which helps children and families in the community get active and healthy.

The 2012 edition of the Honda Indy Toronto also included the addition of a kart-racing track to support the efforts of the Bay Street Grand Prix. The kart-racing fundraiser featured top executives going head-to-head to satisfy their need for speed in exchange for funds for Sunnybrook’s Women & Babies Program.

The event raised more than $400,000 and featured a VIP dinner and after-party at Liberty Grand with performances by hip hop star Flo Rida and Canadian pop sensation Mia Martina.

Good for them.

Honda Indy: no Target, no more TSN and Hunter-Reay's mom

Sunday's Honda Indy was one of the best races in years. Good weather, good crowd and good competition.

Winner Ryan Hunter-Reay surprised everyone by mentioning that his late mother, Lydia, was from Hamilton. This is almost becoming a ritual. Two years ago, Will Power revealed that one of his grandmothers came from Edmonton.

There were many stories out of the weekend. Here is a brief glimpse at some of them, particularly the confirmation from IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard that he's negotiating with Rogers Sportsnet on a TV contract for 2013.

Hunter=Reay, who became emotional when he left the podium Sunday after winning the Honda Indy, calls himself half-Canadian.

Although born in Dallas, Tex., his mother, Lydia, came from Hamilton, Ont. She died of cancer in 2009 and the thought of winning, and of being so close to her hometown, was overwhelming for him.

Hunter-Reay honours her by driving car No. 28, which stands for the 28 million people currently fighting various forms of cancer.

The Andretti Autosport driver, who has now won three races in a row in the highly competitive IZOD IndyCar Series, beat Charlie Kimball, a Type 1 diabetic, and Mike Conway to the top step of the podium.

It was Kimball's best finish in IndyCar competition; Conway, who battled back from serious injuries suffered in the 2010 Indianapolis 500, drives for A.J. Foyt and third place was their best finish in the last three years.

Tony Kanaan finished fourth, Oriol Servia was fifth, Helio Castroneves finished sixth, J.R. Hildebrand was seventh, James Jakes was eighth, Takuma Sato finished ninth and Alex Tagliani, one of two Canadian drivers in the classic, was tenth.

The other Canadian, Oakville's James Hinchcliffe, had a horrible weekend that ended early when his second Chevrolet engine went kaput. He finished 22nd, officially.

He missed the entire second practice on Friday after the first engine failed. That earned him a 10 grid-position penalty to be assessed after qualifying, in which he was ninth fastest, sending him off in Toronto from 19th position. He was on the charge, and well up in the top ten, when the second engine blew up.

This means that at the next race in Edmonton, he will be assessed a further 10 grid-position penalty after qualifying, which hardly seems fair but rules are rules.

Tagliani was also the victim of a 10 grid-position penalty and started the race 16th. He had an up and down day, charging to the front but then falling back. His tenth-place finish was excellent, all things considered.

 

IndyCar President and CEO Randy Bernard confirmed that the series is negotiating with Rogers Sportsnet to take over the televising of Indy car racing from 2013 on. TSN, which broadcast the race in Canada Sunday (ABC carried the event in the U.S.), has televised Indy car racing for years, as well as NASCAR and F1 races.

Bernard says the time is ripe for IndyCar to make a Great Leap Forward in Canada because of the popularity of Oakville's James Hinchcliffe.

"When a guy who's running 22nd or 23rd comes to me and says 'I'm not getting enough exposure,' my answer to him is 'win.' When you have someone like James who is right up there kicking butt, this is the type of guy - he's got a great personality, he's got a great sponsor - this is the type of guy you want to take that momentum and build and that's why the time is ripe for us to build in Canada.

Bernard wouldn't be specific and, in fact, ducked the direct question but did confirm that IndyCar is looking to grow the series in Canada.

He wouldn't bite when asked about the possibility of a third race north of the Canada-U.S. border, as has been rumoured. IndyCar has two races in Canada, here in Toronto and in Edmonton, but CART and Champ Car previously raced in Vancouver, Montreal and at Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant in Quebec.

Quebec City has been rumoured but IndyCar would love to somehow get back to Vancouver.

Bernard, who wouldn't say if he was negotiating, or with whom, did say he would be open to any race that didn't negatively impact the current races in Edmonton and Toronto.

 

Michael Andretti owns Ryan Hunter-Reay's car. Andretti won the Toronto Indy seven times but this is his first victory as a car owner. With this victory - his third straight - Hunter-Reay now leads the IZOD IndyCar Series points standings.

Andretti said it was unfortunate that the Honda Indy had to end under yellow that that a green-white-checkers finish would not be a good thing for Indy car racing. 

"You can't do that (have a green-white-checkers)," he said. "Some guys were just running on fumes and wouldn't be able to compete."

He said NASCAR, where he's rumoured to be entering a team in 2013, is different.

"Their races are a lot different than ours. For them, it works. They just shut their cars off on the backstretch and park 'em and we can't do that so all we'd do is hold the show up and maybe make the fans mad so we shouldn't do it."

 

Where was Target?

A year ago, after it was announced that the U.S. department store would be coming to Canada in late 2012 and 2013, they used the Honda Indy to market their company and their involvement in racing.

They threw a wonderful reception on Sunday morning in advance of the race, brought in their American executive team and introduced their Canadian executives. Target drivers Dario Franchitti and Scott Dixon entertained the assembled media and even Chip Ganassi showed up.

Out on the grounds, there were signs with the Target logo everywhere and young men and women were dressed in Target-branded clothing and were handing out flyers and small merchandise.

This year, nothing.

Yes, the Chip Ganassi team is still Target Chip Ganassi but there were no signs around the site nor were there any representatives of the store wandering around publicizing it.

It was a complete withdrawal and it seemed strange

ASN Canada FIA supervised kart races that were held in the infield of the Honda Indy Toronto circuit during the weekend.

Nearly a half-million dollars were raised for women's programs at Sunnybrooke Hospital from the kart races that started Thursday with a Bay St. celebrity event and continued Saturday and Sunday.

 

Gustavo Yacaman, the Colombian racer who won Saturday's Indy Lights race, said Sunday morning that he hopes to be in the IndyCar Series next season.

"That's the plan," he said, adding that he expects the necessary sponsorship to be in place before the 2013 season starts.

Yacaman, echoing Roger Penske, also said it was disappointing to hear about NASCAR star A.J. Allmendinger's failed drug test that saw Sam Hornish Jr, replace him for the Coke 400 at Daytona Saturday night.

"It's disappointing when you see a driver get an opportunity like he did with Penske Racing and then do something that could destroy his career. We have to give him the benefit of the doubt, but it's disappointing to see."'

Allmendinger, who was mentored by Paul Tracy, raced in the Champ Car World Series before going to NASCAR. He is married to a girl from Toronto.

 

Other racing news: Mark Webber passed Fernando Alonso with two laps to go to win the British Grand Prix Sunday. Sebastien Vettel was third. . . . Tony Stewart won the Firecracker 400 at Daytona Saturday night (now called the Coke Zero 400). A.J. Allmendinger failed a drug test and has been suspended temporarily. It could be indefinite, depending. Dinger previously pleaded guilty to DUI. . . . Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr came back from being four laps down to win the American Le Mans Series race at Lime Rock, Conn. The ALMS will be at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (Mosport) in two weeks.

 

Mayor Rob Ford came to the Honda Indy Sunday morning talked about the $50 million economic impact the race has on Toronto and expressed hope that the event would continue for years.

He noted that there are more construction cranes in the air in Toronto at the moment than there are in any other major North American city.

The mayor said he couldn't pick a winner because he wished the best of luck to all the drivers.

 

Meantime, back at the Honda Indy, the two front row starters, pole sitter Dario Franchitti and outside front row starter Will Power, have had better days.

Franchitti took the lead at the start, only to be passed by Power. When Franchitti, who's won this race three times, including last year, made his first stop for fuel and tires, he stopped too far out from the pit wall for the fuel hose to attach to the car. By the time his crew were able to move the car in enough to fuel it, his race was essentially over.

It ended shortly before the finish when he collided with Ryan Briscoe and both cars were too damaged to continue.

Power, meantime, had a slight coming-together with another car and the front wing on his car came apart, damaging a tire. He made two stops, one for fresh rubber and fuel and another for a new nose and that was pretty much all she wrote. 

Power officially finished 15th and Franchitti was 17th.

It was a fast race and, until the last laps, remarkably clean. There were only two caution periods before the schmozzles at the end and, according to the official score card, only eight laps in total were run under yellow all race.

It only took a little over 90 minutes to run the Honda Indy and the average speed for the 85 laps was 95.787 miles an hour. There were five lead changes between Franchitti, Power, Pagenaud (who ran near the front all day but was assessed a 30-second penalty after the checkers for blocking, dropping him to 12th place), J.R. Hildebrand and Hunter-Reay.

Sebastien Bourdais was heading for a top five finish when he crashed to bring out the second caution flag (Graham Rahal's crash brought out the first) and was extremely angry at Kimball, suggesting he didn't deserve a podium. (Kimball was on the inside and Bourdais  was outside going into Turn One and often in siutations like that, two into one won't go and Bourdais wound up in the wall.)

Kimball was asked about this afterward and was very calm, sugggesting any anger should be directed at officials in Race Control who didn't see fit to send out a sweeper to get rid of the marbles that were everywhere on the course once a car got off the racing line.

The inference was that Bourdais was the architect of his own demise by getting off the race line and into the marbles.

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The big Honda Indy question: how to beat Dario

The question that 24 of the 25 drivers starting Sunday's Honda Indy Toronto are asking themselves is short and to the point: How to beat Dario Franchitti?

Franchitti, the swashbuckling Scottish racer who lives in Tennessee and is married to one of Hollywood's biggest stars, Ashley Judd, won the pole Saturday for Sunday's race with a last lap burst of speed that left his opponents shaking their heads.

His time around the 1.755-mile circuit at Exhibition Place was 59.3510 seconds, which translates into a speed of 106.451 miles an hour. It just beat Australian driver Will Power's time of 59.3757 seconds (106.407 mph) and English driver Justin Wilson's 59.4506 seconds (106.273 mph).

Canadian drivers did well and not so well at the same time. Alex Tagliani of Montreal was sixth fastest on the day, which normally would have seen him starting on the outside of the third row but a 10 grid-position penalty imposed after his team changed his car's engine before it had gone the required number of miles will see him go off 16th Sunday.

And James Hinchcliffe of Oakville, who gave it the old college try after missing Friday's second practice session completely, could only go ninth fastest but will have to start 19th, also because of an engine-change penalty.

"It's tough out there," said Hinchcliffe. "It's IndyCar. It's a lot of good drivers and it's only a tenth-of-a-second (separating the top ten cars) that sort of makes a difference. Our big thing is we were using up our tires quicker than the other guys. The second lap was . . . my quickest and I didn't have a chance to improve on that so it's too bad.

"We have to take the penalty so we'll start 19th and see what we can do from there."

Tagliani was much more optimistic about his 16th starting spot.

"We can win from there," he told the Star. "This track provides a massive amount of windows for strategy and it could be something that we can turn to our advantage. We can select a different set of tires. We can run long or come in early for fuel, that sort of thing."

Franchitti is the defending IndyCar champion and the defending race winner here in Toronto. He's won a total of three Toronto Indys to date and won  this year's  Indianapolis 500. Before winning the pole today, he'd been fastest in two of the three practice sessions.

"He's going to be tough to beat, for sure," said Tagliani.

Like Formula One, the IZOD IndyCar Series features knockout-style qualifying with 12 drivers advancing to the second session and six surviving to challenge for the pole.

Big names eliminated in the first round where ex-F1 star Rubens Barrichello of Brazil, the always-popular Tony Kanaan, also of Brazil, and the only woman in the race, Simona de Silvestro of Switzerland.

Hinchcliffe and Brazilian Helio Castroneves, who's famous for winning TV's Dancing With The Stars as well as for auto racing, went out in the second round, leaving Franchitti, Power, Wilson, Sebastien Bourdais of France, Scott Dixon of New Zealand and Tagliani to fight it out for the pole.

For Wilson, it was a great comeback. In the opening practice session Friday, he wasn't able to stop his car when he entered his pit stall and hit four crew members who were preparing to service his car and the one being driven by Bourdais.

Although none was seriously hurt -- only two were taken to hospital and they were treated and released -- it was upsetting for Wilson who's never won the Honda Indy but started from pole in 2010.

"It still lingers on," he said. "I was texting backwards and forwards with Chuck (Homan) last night. He was back at his hotel and told me not to worry. I went round this morning to see the guys and make sure everybody was okay."

One of the big questions facing the drivers is how IndyCar officials will define "defending" in the Sunday morning drivers' meeting.

For years, "defending a position," or "blocking," wasn't allowed in IndyCar racing. In fact, at the Toronto race, drivers were specifically told they couldn't even drive to the right of the middle of the track going into Turn 3 (at the end of the Lake Shore Blvd. W. straight) unless they were passing.

This rule was enforced rigidly because of the accident in 1997 that killed driver Jeff Krosnoff and marshal Gary Avrin that happened when Krosnoff was blocked while attempting a pass heading into Turn 3.

Said Franchitti, now that "defending" is allowed again: "It depends how the defending rule is explained. I've had a couple of diffferent explanations this year - defend to the wall, then to the car within an inch - so it will be interesting to see what happens."

"Push to pass" is being reintroduced here in Toronto and it is exactly what it sounds like: an overtake assist feature that allows a driver to add turbocharger boost and additional RPM with the press of a button on the steering wheel to complete a pass. Of course, drivers being passed have been known to use it to fend off an opponent. There is a limit on the amount of extra juice than can be used over the course of the race: use it all early and you have none at the end.

Mayor Rob Ford's office announced that he will be at the race Sunday morning to take a ride in a pace car and to meet Hinchcliffe and Tagliani. Although Mel Lastman attended when he was mayor, David Miller did not.

The Honda Indy, 85 laps of the CNE circuit, will get the green flag at 1 o'clock Sunday afternoon.

In the weekend's main support race Saturday, the Firestone Indy Lights race, Gustavo Yacaman of Colombia was the winner. Canadian driver David Ostella of Maple came home seventh.

Franchitti wins Honda Indy pole; Hinch to start 19th

Dario Franchitti won the pole for Sunday's Honda Indy Toronto moments ago, pipping Will Power and Justin Wilson.

 

Alex Tagliani was the only Canadian to make it into the Fast Six, James Hinchcliffe just missing make it out of the second qualifying session.

 

He set ninth fastest qualifying time and will start 19th as a result of a 10 grid-position penalty assessed Friday after his team had to change his engine before the pre-determined number of laps had been turned.

 

So Sunday's race will look this way: Franchitti on pole with Power beside him on the front row. Wilson will start inside Row Two with Sebastien Bourdais beside him. Scott Dixon will go off fifth (inside Row Three) with Ryan Hunter-Reay beside him.

 

Canadian Alex Tagliani was sixth fastest but, like Hincchcliffe, was assessed a 10-grid-position penalty because of an engine change and so will go off 16th.

 

Tag thinks that might give him an advantage, as it allows for the potential for different strategies. When you're at the front, the race pretty much dictates how you will handle tires and fuel. But when you're in the back, you can maybe do things differently and get the win that way.

 

 Earlier,

 

Over the years, politicians have been largely  absent from the Honda Indy.

 

David Peterson was just about the last Liberal to show up and that was in the 1980s. Bob Rae didn't attend when he was premier, nor has Dalton McGuinty. Mike Harris came, of course, as did Mel Lastman. But David Miller? It is to laugh.

 

The news today is that Rob Ford is coming to the Honda Indy on Sunday morning. He will be taken for a pace car ride a little after 9 in the morning (brother Doug will be here as well) and then will meet James Hinchcliffe at Andretti Autosport and Alex Tagliani at Bryan Herta Racing. He's also going to meet Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi at some point.

 

Whether he'll stay for the race is not known.

 

Earlier,

 

Where is Target?

 

A year ago, after it was announced that the U.S. department store would be coming to Canada in late 2012 and 2013, they used the Honda Indy to market their company and their involvement in racing.

 

They threw a woonderful reception on Sunday morning in advance of the race, brought it their American executive team and introduced their Canadian executives. Target drivers Dario Ffranchitti and Scott Dixon entertained the assembled media and even Chip Ganassi showed up.

 

Out on the grounds, there were signs with the Target logo everywhere and young men and women dressed in Target-branded clothing handing out flyers and small merchandise.

 

This year, nothing.

 

Yes, the Chip Ganassi team is still Target Chip Ganassi but there are no signs around the site, there are no representatives of the store wandering around publicizing it.

 

It's a complete withdrawal and it seems strange.

 

Earlier,

Although this is Honda Indy Toronto weekend, there is still other racing going on.

 

-Kurt Busch won the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Daytona Friday night. There was a "big one" two thirds into the race, collecting (and wrecking) 16 or 18 cars.

 

-In Britain, Fernando Alonso won the pole for Sunday's British Grand Prix. The story, though, was the rain. Jenson Button's miserable season continued wen he couldn't get a handle on the Silverstone track and couldn't make it out of Q1 qualifying. He will start 17th.

 

And Silverstone bought radio ads urging people not to go to the circuit because the parking and camping areas were quagmires. Traffic jams were more chaotic than usual.

 

Meantime, Scott Dixon was fastest in third practice leading up to Saturday afternoon qualifying for Sunday's Honda Indy Toronto. Ryan Hunter-Reay was seoond and Simon Pagenaud was third.

 

James Hinchcliffe finished seventh after returning to the track aftger Friday's disastger in which his team had to change the engine in its car before it had gone the required number of miles. Ergo, it was an "unauthorized" engine change and he will be penalized 10 grid positions after qualifying later today.

Franchitti happy, Hinchcliffe dour after Honda Indy practice

Three-time winner Dario Franchitti of Scotland threw down the gauntlet Friday by setting fastest times in both practice sessions leading up to Sunday's Honda Indy Toronto.

 

His Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon of New Zealand was second in the hour-long morning session, with Simon Pagenaud of France third. They traded places in the 60-minute afternoon session, with Pagenaud, who drives for Schmidt-Hamilton Racing, finishing in the second spot. 

 

James Hinchcliffe of Oakville, the GTA's hope for victory in Sunday's race, was forced to miss the afternoon practice because of mechanical issues with his Andretti Autosport car that resulted in an unauthorized engine change (because the engine gave out before its due date).

 

This means he will be assessed a 10 grid-position penalty following Saturday afternoon's qualifying session, something that disappointed the young Canadian who's been hitting his stride recently in the IZOD IndyCar Series.

 

He's fifth in points going into the Honda Indy.

 

"Unfortunately, today is a day to forget, really," Hinchclife said afterward.

 

"It's too bad what happened in the second session because with the first session not going too smoothly (he was only 15th fastest) we were really looking to make some gains.

 

"Hopefully we can learn a lot off what (teammates) Marco (Andretti) and Ryan (Hunter-Reay) accomplished, but it's just putting us on the back foot - not only with setting the car up but with the engine penalty as well. 

 

"Certainly it makes it more of a challenging weekend than we wanted, but at the end of the day it's still possible for the Go Daddy car to move forward. Last time we got an engine penalty (early in the season), we were able to come back and finish on the podium.

 

"So we may be down but we're certainly not out."

 

Justin Wilson of England, who ran down four crew members in his pit stall during the Friday morning session (all were treated and released, including two who were taken to hospital by ambulance), recovered sufficiently to post the fourth fastest time Friday afternoon while Ryan Briscoe of Australia was fifth.

 

Drivers of the four quickest cars enjoyed power provided by Honda engines while Briscoe drove the fastest Chevrolet-powered car. The third engine manufacturer, Lotus, was represented by the 19th fastest driver, Simona de Silvestro, of Switzerland.

 

Franchitti's record illustrates the importance of a good qualifying effort. When he won the Honda Indy in 2009 and again last year, he started from the pole position both times. When he won the race in 1999, when it was still the Molson Indy, he started second.

 

Franchitti's best time Friday around the 1.755-mile circuit at Exhibition Place (the IndyCar series uses Imperial measurements) was one minute, 00.2786 seconds for a speed of 104.813 miles an hour.

 

He said he was most satisifed with his car in both sessions and raved about the smoothness of Lake Shore Blvd. West that was recently resurfaced.

 

"Lake Shore is like the top of this table, billiard-ball smooth," he said, referring to a table he was leaning on. "For years, I couldn't see as I was heading toward Turn 3 (because of vibrations from the bumpy road). 

 

"It's good to see that the promoters and the city got together to solve this. And it (the repaving) will make it safer because you won't have cars moving around out there (trying to find a smooth portion of the road to set up for Turn 3, where there is usually passing)."  

 

Pagenaud acknowledged that the race's title sponsor was getting its money's worth because Honda engines were leading the way.

 

"I think they will be very happy," he said, adding that he'd had a run-in with Australian driver Will Power at Turn 8 during the second practice

 

"We hit (together)," he said. "I don't know (what it was about); you'll have to ask him."

 

The morning practice was interrupted for about 10 minutes after Wilson was unable to stop his car while entering his pit stall and ran over four crew members, two from his team and two from the team that fields a car driven by Sebastien Bourdais of France.

Michael Cole of Dale Coyne Racing, Wilson's team, and Daniel Martin of Dragon Racing, Bourdais's, were treated and released from the infield care centre.

Chuck Homan and Raffi Aroyan, both of Dragon Racing, were taken to St. Michael's Hospital for evaluation of lower leg and foot injuries and subsequently released.

Both Bourdais and Wilson returned to the track after the accident and, in fact, Wilson later spun into a tire wall when he tangled with a car driven by Alex Tagliani of Montreal. No one was hurt in that incident.

Said Wilson later: “I came down pit lane and the car refused to go into neutral. I was stuck in first (gear). On top of that, these carbon brakes don't work when they're cold, so I was hard on the brakes and I couldn't stop.

"At the last second, I tried to drive into the wall to take speed off but those guys were there and had no idea I was coming.”

The turnout for Free Friday was steady but not overwhelming (admission was waived for the day, which was sponsored by the Honda Dealers of Ontario in return for a donation to Make-A-Wish Canada). It was very warm at Exhibition Place and many of the spectators spent most of their time inside the air-conditioned Direct Energy Centre.

The support race Star Mazda Series will kick off Saturday's on-track activities at 8 a.m. The Indy cars will go out for final pre-qualifying practice at 9:45 a.m. with qualifying commencing at 1:05 p.m.

In addition to Hinchcliffe, Tagliani and de Silvestro will be assessed 10 grid-position penalties post-qualifying for unauthorized engine changes.

The featured race of the day Saturday will be the Firestone Indy Lights, with the green flag scheduled to be waved at 4 p.m.