Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

Keselowski wins 'Dega but talk is all about Danica

I don't have a reason to publish this photo (off the Autosport website) except that the smiling fellow whose face is directly to the right of Mark Webber's is none other than Gavin Ward of Toronto, who is Webber's trackside race engineer. The F1 season continues next weekend with the Grand Prix of Spain.

 

MEANTIME, MARCELLI RELISHES PORSCHE GT3 RIDE; CANADIAN WINS DTM RACE. . . BUT FIRST:

Brad Keselowski won the Talladega 500 Sunday afternoon by scooting away at the last second and avoiding a last-lap slingshot by Kyle Busch.

But even before the checkered flag had stopped waving, people were talking about the race at Darlington next Saturday night in which Danica Patrick will return to the Sprint Cup fold.

TV commercials were intoning "Danica at Darlington" during the ‘Dega race and the timing couldn’t be more perfect because of something that happened during the Nationwide Series race at Talladega on Saturday that has both Danica lovers and Danica haters talking.

At the finish of the Nationwide race, Patrick (she finished 13th) was on the outside of Sam Hornish Jr. (12th) when Hornish says his car blew a right-front tire. Hornish’s car went up the speedway and crunched Patrick’s against the outside wall. As both cars then went into the first turn, Patrick hooked Hornish’s rear and turned him into the wall.

Instant payback.

Now, if Kevin Harvick or Kyle Busch or Tony Stewart had done that to Hornish, everybody would have nodded knowingly and opined that Sam got what he deserved. Flat tire or no flat tire, you just don’t put somebody into the wall for no reason.

But because it was Danica Patrick, lightning rod that she is, people were either calling for her head or making excuses for her.

NASCAR, of course, knows a good thing when it sees it, so I don’t think she will be fined or suspended, mainly because she’s a first-time offender. They’ll give her a talking-to, for sure, because what she did – although certainly not as violent – was every bit as serious as Kyle Busch’s attack on Joe Nemechek late last season.

But at the end of the day, it’s good for business because NASCAR is looking for record ratings in prime-time next Saturday night from Darlington and Danica Patrick will probably help deliver them.

And the guy she drives for in the Sprint Cup, Tony Stewart, probably wouldn’t have taken that little love tap from Sam Hornish either. In fact, I bet as part of his tutoring, Tony has warned Patrick not to let anybody push her around.

So she was just showing the Boss that she takes lessons well.

Oh, still wondering about that Talladega 500?

On a green-white-checkered finish, Kyle Busch tucked in behind Keselowski and pushed him around the outside of the field and into the lead. Everybody anticipated that Busch would stick with Keselowski and then duck either high or low and slingshot past him for the win as they approached the finish line.

But something happened to disrupt the scenario: Keselowski went into the third turn high up the track and then dove to the bottom, breaking the connection. He managed to stay clear of his chaser through the checkers.

Matt Kenseth finished third, Kasey Kahne was fourth and Greg Biffle finished fifth.

"Survived" is actually a more fitting word. There were four wrecks in the last 45 laps. Nobody was hurt but there was a ton of property damage.

Full race details here.

A CONVERSATION WITH KYLE MARCELLI

Two weeks from now, during the Victoria Day Speedfest Weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Kyle Marcelli of Barrie will drive the Pfaff Castrol Motorsports entry in the opening race of the 2012 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge.

Pfaff Motors of Newmarket has been a strong supporter of Canadian racing for years and years. Marcelli has raced – successfully – in karts, Formula Ford, U.S. Formula 2000, Star Mazda, the Canadian Touring Car Championship, IMSA Lights and the American Le Mans Series Challenge class.

It’s always been a struggle for him, though. He’s always had to "bring money" – until this particular ride came along.

But I’ll let him tell you about it. I caught up with him last Thursday evening at the Thompson Hotel downtown, where Pfaff held a reception to promote its involvement in the Porsche series.

Norris McDonald: When was the last time you were in a racing car with a roof on it?

Kyle Marcelli: That would have been in ‘07. I drove one race in a Saab 9-3 in the Canadian Touring Car Championship. That was the only time, actually.

NM: Is this going to be a big change for you? You’re an open-cockpit kind of guy. A little claustrophobia maybe?

KM: I love the enclosed Porsche, actually. I was blown away yesterday when I got behind the wheel of the car. It was the first real GT car that I’ve driven; there’s just so much in it, I never even found the limit. I wouldn’t say it’s similar to a prototype (in the Le Mans series) or a single seater because it’s not. It takes a different driving style. You can definitely feel the weight in the car. It rolls around a little bit differently but, all in all, it’s a very impressive car.

NM: Did you call them or did they call you for this gig?

KM: This is the first time that I did not have to pound on the door! The call came to me actually last August. At that time, we were eligible to compete as part of the championship (during the GT3 series’ first season) and collect points. Since then, our eligibility has been denied and we’re going to be racing as a "guest" car.

NM: Explain that, please. Is it because you’re a professional driver (in a series designed for non-professional drivers)?

KM: In a nutshell, yes. The series is designed for, I guess, amateur racers or up-and-comers and there is a ranking system in place – bronze, silver, gold and platinum: every driver has a ranking – I have a gold ranking and I’m denied eligibility because this series is for bronze and silver. Last August, I was eligible but I won a couple of ALMS races between then and now and that’s what has denied us eligibility.

NM: Success is a bugger sometimes, isn’t it?

KM: It still serves as a good marketing opportunity for Chris Pfaff and Pfaff Automotive and it’s a good opportunity for me to be involved with Porsche and hopefully it develops a good relationship.

NM: Compare this car to your ALMS car. Is this more powerful?

KM: It’s about the same horsepower. It’s just as quick – actually, maybe a lttle quicker in a straight line. But in the prorototype we have a lot more downforce, we generate a lot more overall grip, our braking power is stronger so we’d be about 10 seconds a lap quicker in a prototype here (Mosport) but driving the Porsche is still a real thrill.

NM: Are you going to do the whole series – five or six races?

KM: Except one – the Mont Tremblant race is in conflict with an ALMS race so Jeff Pabst will drive that weekend

NM: How is your ALMS season going?

KM: It’s good – I have a seat at the end of the day. It came together two weeks before Sebring and I’m driving in the Challenge class. This is my third season in LMPC and I’m the professional in what’s a pro-am class. I’m sharing the seat with three brothers. They’re alternating race-by-race so we’ve had two races so far and I’ve had two different co-drivers. It’s difficult to get these guys up to speed right away; they’re doing a good job, it’s just a matter of getting them comfortable.

NM: You are a successful race driver. You have won races and showed you have talent. Are you starting to get a little antsy that nobody’s actually hired you?

KM: I am a little bit. I’m still young - I’m 22 - but I do have to get something with a manufacturer. I’m hoping that this leads to something with Porsche. I know I was on the radar with GM over the years but nothing has come together. I do my best when I'm out there. I mean, last year I had three pole positions, three race wins, eight podiums - it was a good year for us and I really thought something was going to come together but it didn’t and we just have to keep on keepin’ on."

OTHER RACING

Bruno Spengler, a French-born Canadian citizen (Saint-Hyppolite, Que.) won the German Touring Car Championship (DTM) race Sunday at the Lausitz Circuit. It was BMW’s first win in the series in 20 years and Spengler’s tenth trip to Victory Lane (he won his first nine races for Mercedes).

The other Canadian in the field, Robert Wickens of Guelph and Toronto, was running 10^th and looked sure to score his first DTM point when his Mercedes ground to a halt with mechanical problems with four laps to go.

Wickens said after the race that he still wasn’t discouraged.

"I have made some progress despite this," he said. "I’ll now focus all of my efforts on Brands Hatch (May 20) and hopefully pick up my first DTM points there."

Casey Stoner won the Moto GP race Sunday at Estoril in Portugal on a Honda. Jorge Lorenzo was second aboard a Yamaha and Dani Pedrosa finished third on a Honda.

Romain Dumas, Loic Duval and Marc Gene finished first in an Audi at the Six Hours of Spa race Saturday in Belgium. Actually, Audi finished top four with the e-tron hybrid versions ending up second and fourth.

I mentioned in my weekend post that Indy car star Davey Hamilton (and now Indy car team owner in partnership with Sam Schmidt) would race at New York's Oswego Speedway Saturday night. Well, he did, finishing second in the first feature of the year behind defending Oswego Classic 200 champion Otto Sitterly. Sprint car star Jessica Zemken was 22nd in the 25-car field.

Sammy Swindell is 56 but you sure wouldn’t know it. He’s leading the World of Outlaws sprint car standings after 15 races.

Two things to note:

One, there is no more intense racing anywhere than on the Outlaws circuit. F1, IndyCar, NASCAR are all walks in the park compared to a 30-lap WoO feature.

Second, the grind of running that circuit is right up there with professional wrestling. The performers (the racers, the rasslers) never get a day off. They are either working on/repairing the cars in motel parking lots, in transit from city to city, or racing.

That is a challenge when you are 25, never mind 55 and Swindell at 56 is a marvel of determination and drive. Sammy’s had some problems in the marketing and PR departments over the years but there’s no denying that he’s a real racer.

Tony Kanaan wins Long Beach GP (not really, but . . .)

WEEKEND HEADLINES

1. Rosberg wins F1 race for Mercedes - what a coincidence

2. Power wins IndyCar race but Kanaan is real winner

3. NASCAR goes crazy over truck race at Rockingham. Really.

4. Other racing

Nico Rosberg won the first race of his 111-race Grand Prix career and he drove a Mercedes Silver Arrows into Victory Lane for the first time since 1955 to do it at Sunday’s Grand Prix of China.

The fact that shareholders at a Mercedes-Benz meeting last week called for the company to pull out of F1 racing and that the team is most unhappy with the way Bernie Ecclestone has been manipulating the signing of the new Concorde Agreement has nothing at all to do with the two surprising victories – apparently.

To get the nuts and bolts out of the way before getting into my latest conspiracy theory, Rosberg won the first pole of his career on Saturday and then ran away with Sunday’s race to finish well clear of second–place finisher Jenson Button, who was driving a McLaren powered by a Mercedes engine.

McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was third, for the third time in three races this season, while Mark Webber finished fourth for Red Bull-Renault - his third straight fourth-place finish. Defending world champion Sebastien Vettel was fifth (complete results here).

They say the best time to tune into an NFL game is after the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter and that was the case with Sunday’s Grand Prix, as all of the excitement happened in the last few laps.

With five laps to go in the 58-lap contest, Kimi Raikkonen was holding down second place for Lotus-Renault, with Vettel third, Button fourth, Webber fifth and Hamilton sixth. At the finish, it was Button second, Hamilton third, Webber fourth and Vettel fifth with Raikkonen all the way back in 14^th as his two-stop gamble saw his tires disintegrate.

It was a good race with lots to talk about afterward, such as Michael Schumacher’s second retirement in three races (he’d started second but his crew failed to tighten his right-front wheel at the first pit stop and he was forced to pull off the circuit before he crashed), whether Button could have caught Rosberg if his crew hadn’t taken so long to tighten his left-rear tire on his final pit stop (nearly 10 seconds), and whether the Mercedes F-duct front wing system gives that team an unfair advantage (at least until everybody else copies it).

One side note:

I don’t want to sound like Don Cherry but F1 will rue the day it did not put a stop to side-by-side "racing" on pit lane. McLaren released Hamilton from a pit stop early in the race and Lotus gave Raikkonen the signal to go as Hamilton drew alongside. Raikkonen and Hamilton then went side-by-side till the end of the pit (albeit on the speed limiters), at which point Raikkonen gave way to Hamilton.

Analyst David Coulthard went so far as to say the pit lane "is part of the race track" but it shouldn’t be. As in IndyCar, teams should have to hold the driver till the coast is clear. Otherwise, there will be a collision in there one of these days and somebody will get hurt. That shouldn’t have to happen in order to force F1 to act.

Now F1 travels to Bahrain where the majority Shiite population feels oppressed by a minority Sunni family headed by Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. This political unrest forced the cancellation of the race last year and there are again fears of revolution.

As Bob Varsha said on Speed TV Sunday, "We worry that this sporting event will turn into a news event." For that, we will have to wait and see.

Meantime, I have to say that I never believed that a car race could be fixed until it was proved that Nelson Piquet Jr., Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds conspired at the 2008 Grand Prix of Singapore to create a situation (Piquet would crash on purpose) that would benefit his teammate, Fernando Alonso, who then went on to win the race.

The reason they did this was because Renault had not won a race for close to two years and was reportedly considering leaving the sport.

In no way do I think Nico Rosberg or anybody else in Sunday’s Grand Prix did anything knowingly illegal or immoral, but I still find it really interesting that – on the heels of suggestions that Mercedes might not continue in the sport – the team suddenly has wonderful success.

When there is big business at play, and there are billions of dollars at stake, anything is possible. Anything. And it goes beyond Formula One. The National Hockey League’s mission statement is that come hell or high water, it will sell hockey in the United States. Ergo, it is no coincidence that, with the exception of the Vancouver Canucks, every professional hockey team in Canada stinks. Remember that, and believe it.

The Mercedes shareholders revolt is being led by a fund manager named Ingo Spech of the Daimler shareholder Union Investment. Worried that Mercedes is losing ground to rivals BMW and Audi, Spech called on Daimler to pull its Mercedes team out of F1, just as BMW withdrew several years ago. His motion reportedly drew support from other large investors.

In a parallel development, Ecclestone announced several weeks ago that he had agreed terms on a new contract with a "majority" of teams but not Williams and Mercedes.

Mercedes has not commented publicly but reports suggest the company - if it remains unhappy - could either challenge the contract, citing the European Union’s competition laws, or else walk away from F1.

So with Mercedes and its shareholders down in the dumps over its involvement in F1, what better medicine than success? So a company that hasn’t won a Grand Prix since 1955 - Juan Manuel Fangio was the driver then - suddenly wins one.

And to put an exclamation mark on that, there are Mercedes engines in all of the first three cars. And Nico Rosberg, who’s always shown lots of promise but hasn’t been able to follow through until now, suddenly delivers in spades.

It will be verrrry interesting, as Arte Johnson used to say, to see if Rosberg can keep it up.

Why do I say that?

Well, do you remember the Belgian Grand Prix of 2009? That was two years after two Indian businessmen bought the Spyker F1 team (which had previously been owned by Canadian businessman Alex Schnaider’s Midland Group, who’d bought it from Eddie Jordan) and renamed it Force India.

Force India had entered 29 races and hadn’t scored a point and there were suggestions that if it didn’t finish high enough in the standings to qualify for a share of F1's travel and TV money that it would either be shut down or put up for sale again.

That year, there were 20 cars in F1. Nobody wanted to lose another two. Veteran Force India driver Giancarlo Fisichella qualified most of the time at the back of the pack that season. In fact, three times in 20 races he was dead last; twice he was 19^th, twice he was 18^th – and, well, you get my drift.

The race before the Belgian GP that year was the European Grand prix at Valencia. Fisichella qualified 16^th and finished 12^th. The race after Belgium was in Italy, where he qualified 14^th and finished ninth.

But at Belgium that year, he qualified on the pole – yes, really – and finished second in the race. The points he earned, plus the fourth-place finish at the Italian GP by his teammate, Adrien Sutil, gave the team enough points to finish high enough in the standings to qualify for financial aid.

What a coicidence. . .

As I said, if something has to happen in F1 (or any other mega-billion-dollar sport) to make somebody happy, it happens.

2. Kanaan wins Long Beach Grand Prix, Hinch second

Okay, Tony Kanaan didn't win. He officially finished fourth in Sunday's Grand Prix of Long Beach (official results here) but because the IZOD IndyCar Series penalized 14 of the 26 starters for unauthorized engine changes, and gave those 14 drivers 10-grid-position penalties, I think it must be taken into consideration when calculating who really won the race in California on Sunday.

Officially, Will Power won the race, with Simon Pagenaud second and Hinchcliffe third. Fourth was Kanaan and fifth was J.R. Hildebrand.

However, because of the stupidity of sticking to the engine-change rule rather than taking the spirit of the rule into consideration (which would have seen the penalties suspended – see my blogs on this in posts below), here is the way the race should really have been scored:

Kanaan qualified 10^th but was made to start 19^th (which is not a 10-grid-position penalty but this thing is so complicated that you will just have to bear with me). He officially finished fourth, which is an improvement of 15 positions. But because he was only penalized nine places instead of 10, we have to dock him a position, so he only improved 14 positions. But nobody did it better on Sunday in Long Beach than this.

Hinchcliffe qualified sixth but then was made to start 16^th – a full 10-grid-position penalty. Because he eventually came home third, that means he improved his position 13 places, which puts him second behind Kanaan's 14, in my books.

Will Power finished third in my "race" because he qualified second, was made to start 12^th, and then finished first for an improvement of 12 positions. Good for him – but not as good as Kanaan and Hinchcliffe.

Oh, before somebody says J.R. Hildebrand should have made it onto my podium, consider this: he qualified 16^th, was only penalized four places instead of 10 (he should have had to go off 26^th but you’d have to ask the geniuses at IndyCar why he didn’t) and so by improving his position from 20^th to fifth, he made up 15 places but really only nine.

UNDERSTAND???

I’m going to stop now because I’m getting a headache. Let’s just hope IndyCar never does this to us again.

3. NASCAR tries to inject excitement into non-crashing boredom

After putting on two of the most boring big-league races in the history of NASCAR, the sanctioning body’s management group pulled out all the stops Sunday afternoon by arriving en masse at Rockingham Speedway in North Carolina to watch a Camping World Series truck race that turned out to be about as boring as the Nationwide and Sprint Cup races that preceded it.

NASCAR is all about crashing. If there is no crashing, there is no excitement. The strategy of the drivers and teams is predicated on yellow flags necessitating pit stops where tire changes, fuel fill-ups and chassis changes can be completed.

No yellows means big trouble because, on top of everything else, the fans get restless.

Friday night’s Nationwide race at Texas Motor Speedway was a yawn (Ricky Stenhouse Jr. the winner). Saturday night’s Sprint Cup race there was no better (Greg Biffle the winner, with but two yellows – including one for a hat that blew out on the track). The commentators spent much of the time explaining why "long green runs" are bad for teams.

So Sunday afternoon, NASCAR president Mike Helton and his entourage flew into Rockingham to say how much NASCAR liked being back at one of its spiritual home tracks. Unfortunately, the truck race that followed (Kasey Kahne the winner, with James Buescher second (James who? See what I mean?) and Matt Crafton third (ditto) was about as unexciting as the two stock-car snoozers.

Rockingham used to be NASCAR’s third race of the season. For years and years, the series would start with the Daytona 500, then go north to Richmond, Va., for the second race, Rockingham for the third and Atlanta the fourth (usually held the same weekend as the start of Ontario’s March break, which used to guarantee a huge snowstorm for all those folks driving their kids to Myrtle Beach or Jacksonville).

But those races were cold for everybody. It was winter, after all. So NASCAR wised up and went west and that’s why, after Daytona, there are now races in sunny (or sunnier) southern California, Arizona and Nevada.

They made those changes eight years ago and since Rockingham only had one race on the NASCAR schedule at the time, it meant the end of racing at the facility. Traditional NASCAR fans were not happy

Owner Andy Hillenburg, a former racer, bought the place at auction five years and has been sprucing it up since. He finally convinced NASCAR to give him something – anything – and they responded by adding a truck race there to the schedule.

Hillenburg said he was happy with the turnout Sunday – the NASCAR communications folks used the term "nearly full grandstands" – but it could have been better. A lot better. In fact, there were a lot of empty seats. But that’s understandable, because truck racing ain’t Cup and Cup is what used to pack the place.

But it’s a start and Helton’s presence was a bit like a blessing from the Pope. The symbolism was obvious: keep tryin’, son, and someday you might see stock cars at this place again.

The bloom is off the NASCAR rose (and if there are any more races like the ones on the weekend, that rose will soon be wilting). Going forward, you can predict the strategy: it was a Southern sport to begin with; to revive it, what better way than to return it to its roots.

And there's probably no better place to do that, than at the Rock.

4. Other racing:

Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr, driving the Muscle Milk Honda Performance Development ARX-03 LMP1 car, won the Tequila Patrón American Le Mans Series at Long Beach for the second straight season Saturday.

Tommy Milner and Oliver Gavin gave Corvette Racing its first victory at Long Beach since 2009 and its first in ALMS since Mosport last July by finishing first in the GT class.

Kyle Marcelli of Barrie finished fourth in the Prototype Challenge class. Tony Burgess of Toronto was eighth in PC.

In World of Outlaws Sprint Car Racing, Joey Saldana won the round at Paducah Speedway in Kentucky.

The ALMS and the Outlaws will both be racing in southern Ontario in July - the sports cars at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (nee Mosport) and the Outlaws at Ohswegen Speedway near Brantford.

Autodate returns to Wheels and wheels.ca

As many of you have noticed, the popular summertime feature Autodate has been missing from the pages of Wheels.

No longer.

This blog today is to invite individuals and groups, car clubs, etc., who are planning non-profit events this year, to send notices of their plans, starting now, to wheels@thestar.ca

They should follow a format as much as possible — although we will fix them up. Essentially, the name of the event and the date should lead off the notice, followed by times and any other pertinent details. In short, the five Ws: What, When, Who, Where, Why.

Now, I want to stress that this notice service is for non-profit organizations and non-profit events. For instance, car washes in support of the Hospital for Sick Children are legal; car washes in support of the owner of the car wash are not.

We sometimes make exceptions: a raffle in support of a worthy cause that’s held at a for-profit event will sometimes qualify (I am the final judge), and that leads me to give the first plug of the Autodate season to this weekend’s Toronto Classic Car Auction at the International Centre in Mississauga.

A sixth generation 2002 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS “Intimidator” Coupe built at the GM plant in Oshawa in honour of Dale Earnhardt Sr. will be sold to the highest bidder (no reserve, either) and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the new urgent care unit at — ta-da — Sick Kids.

Moving right along, next Saturday night the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Motorsport Heritage Foundation, will hold its annual Induction Gala at the On The Park banquet facility (Leslie and Eglinton in mid-town Toronto). Seven Canadian men who have made either significant contributions to Canadian motorsport or celebrated great personal achievement will be inducted.

Special guests are Michael Andretti, a former champion racer and now a team owner in the IZOD IndyCar Series, and Canadian IndyCar racer James Hinchcliffe of Oakville.

Andretti — who won seven Molson Indy races — will be inducted into the Hall in the “International” category was that created several years ago to honour non-Canadians for contributing to the growth, success and popularity of motorsport in this country. Hinchcliffe will appear as guest speaker.

Both, of course, are busy racing this weekend in Long Beach, Calif.

You may order tickets by emailing galatickets@cmhf.ca, calling 905 852 6764 or faxing to 905 852 7012. If you purchase a ticket as a result of reading this column, I’ll introduce you from the audience. I can do that; I'm the emcee.

Andretti and Hinchcliffe aside, I always have a wonderful time at these galas because it is just so great to come into contact with Canadians who have done wonderful things in national and international motorsport and often don’t receive the recognition they deserve. Here are quick squibs on the seven new members of the Hall:

Richard Foley Jr., of Montreal: Racing as Dick Foley, he was the first Canadian to make the field for what was the first Daytona 500 back in 1959. He had to race his way in — he didn’t qualify on speed — but so did Fireball Roberts, Buck Baker, Tim Flock and Curtis Turner so he was in pretty good company. Foley also triggered the biggest wreck in NASCAR history at Daytona in a sportsman-modified feature in 1960: 37 cars piled up but nobody was injured.

Rudy Bartling of Courtice , Ont: A sports car racer extraordinaire, Bartling made 17 starts at the 12 Hours of Sebring — the most by any Canadian — with several top 10 results. At the 24 Hours of Daytona, he made 12 starts with a best result of 12^th in 1973.

Paul S. Manson of Toronto: Manson participated as a navigator in literally hundreds of rallies across Canada and won the Canadian Rally Championship on several occasions. He was a regular competitor, and a top 10 or top five finisher, in the Shell 4000 Rally and the Canadian Winter Rally. He also wrote about the sport and contributed to a rally program on CBC radio.

G. Ben Docktor of Calgary: A stock car racer on the tracks of Alberta and Montana, he envisioned the construction of a comprehensive racing complex for the Calgary area. In 1987, Race City Speedway opened and included a half-mile oval speedway, a 2.1-mile road course and an NHRA-legal drag strip.

Greg Sewart of Halifax: Sewart won the MASCAR championship on several occasions and was always a force to be reckoned with in Maritime and U.S. stock car racing circles.

Robin Edwardes of in L’Orignal, Ont: Another champion rally navigator, Edwardes won numerous rallies, co-drove with some of the finest drivers of the day and was also an administrator. He served as vice-president of CASC in 1975-’77.

Norm Ellefson of Spokane, Wash: Ellefson was a champion supermodified and sprint car driver in Western Canada and the northwest U.S. in the 1960s. He won the Gold Cup race in Edmonton three times and the Daffodil Cup at Western Speedway in Victoria in 1967. He also raced stock cars.

See you at the banquet.

New Jersey F1 race preparations well under way

While there continues to be hand-wringing over whether the much-publicized Circuit of the Americas near Austin, Tex., will be finished in time for the return of Formula One racing to the United States come November (I’m betting it is), there’s no doubt they’ll be ready for the one to follow in New Jersey next year.

Alex Howe, vice-president of communications for Global Strategy Group of New York, emailed me this photo the other day that shows construction already under way on garages and corporate suites for the June, 2013, Grand Prix of America at Port Imperial in Weehawken and West New York, N.J.

Howe advises that when construction is completed, the lower level will house the garages while the upper levels will contain luxury hospitality suits where guests will be able to see the pits, the front straight and, most important, the skyline of New York.

A 3.2-mile course on public roads – yup, just like Monaco’s – will start and finish at the Port Imperial ferry terminal and rise and fall 150 feet as it meanders close to existing residential neighbourhoods (I wonder how they’re going to like the noise . . .).

Much of the course will be on a road beside the Hudson River waterfront.

Organizers (the guy who invented the Yes Network – that stands for Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network – is behind the New Jersey race; one of the investors in Austin is the fellow who owns Patron Tequila, which is title sponsor of the American Le Mans Series) plan to repave the roads on which the cars will run and to erect concrete barriers and to put up grandstands to hold 75,000 people.

Otherwise, as is the case with the Honda Indy through the streets of the CNE in Toronto (July 6-8 this summer) or the Grand Prix of Canada on Ilse Notre-Dame in Montreal (June 8-10), the terrain will be as natural as natural can be.

Hey, Formula One and the city of New York. What an incredible combination!

One of the iconic events of North American racing, the Long Beach Grand Prix featuring the cars and stars of the IZOD IndyCar Series, takes places this weekend (be sure to check "George’s TV listings for race fans" on wheels.ca’s home page for channel and time) and a wonderful multimedia event is going to take place to publicize it.

Drivers Rubens Barrichello and Tony Kanaan will answer live questions from fans around the world and have the questions, answers and full conversation instantly translated using technology developed by Ortsbo, which translates emails (no cutting and pasting required) into more than 50 languages.

The moderator will be another driver, Canada’s own James Hinchcliffe, of Oakville.

Do you want to be a part of this? The Q & A will start at 7 p.m. Eastern on Saturday and you can register to watch in advance or join live at www.liveandglobal.com/indycar

Now, F1 is in Shanghai this weekend and, as mentioned, IndyCar is in California. NASCAR, on the other hand, is in two locations – Texas and North Carolina.

The Nationwide cars will be at Texas Motor Speedway Friday night and the Cup cars will race at night on Saturday. Meantime, the trucks are returning to Rockingham on Sunday afternoon and that race is generating some excitement because of the locale.

The facility, situated in the Sandhills of North Carolina, held its last NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event in February 2004 and pretty much sat there until former racer Andy Hillenburg purchased it in 2007.

Under Hillenburg, racing returned to "The Rock," and last September, NASCAR announced its plan to head back to the one-mile speedway with the Camping World Truck Series (in which J.R. Fitzpatrick of Cambridge, Ont., has had a couple of good runs so far this season).

The inference is that if Rockingham does a good job with the truck race, it might - might - land a Nationwide or Cup race sometime down the line. (Remember, Rockingham was an early-season stop on the Cup circuit for years and years and only lost its place because NASCAR wanted to run races in the southwest when it was cold in the east - and it was sometimes freezing in the Carolinas in March.)

Said Speed TV reporter Ray Dunlap (and, frankly, I can’t figure out why the various networks don’t make better use of this guy in other series, because he does an excellent job in the pits):

"There truly is a great heritage at Rockingham. The drivers are even more excited to get the race started than the media or fans. The surrounding area was hit hard by the loss of Sprint Cup racing, so I think this will be a big boost to the area with the fans travelling in from Raleigh, Charlotte and the Triad."

And me, travelling to my couch, in my Family Room, in Mississauga, Ont., to be there in spirit.

Roundup: Button, Keselowski, Audi, Piquet Jr. all win

WEEKEND HEADLINES:

1. Button wins F1 but Hamilton's sulking is getting tiresome

2. Keselowski wins NASCAR but what's with the drivers holding babies?

3. Audi 1-2 at 60th 12 Hours of Sebring; hybrid race cars coming!

4. Piquet Jr. wins in NASCAR; Toronto Supercross event might not have any stars

1. HAMILTON HAS TO SUCK IT UP AND TAKE FIGHT TO BUTTON

We all know that most world-class athletes are uber-competitive. We understand that they want to win and will do just about anything to come out on top.

But, in the end, when the game finishes or the event is over, most of them will shake hands or exchange a hug, put on a smile and rejoice in the success they’ve achieved, whether it’s in an Olympic relay race or the Super Bowl

You do your best and you move on.

Which means Lewis Hamilton’s post-Grand Prix funk at Melbourne Sunday, where he finished third to McLaren teammate and race winner Jenson Button and second-place driver Sebastian Vettel, struck me as a little over the top.

Yes, he was disappointed. Yes, the season hadn’t started on the high note he’d expected after winning pole position on Saturday. But it wasn’t the end of the world, although one look at his face suggested he was thinking exactly that.

In the initial post-race interview and in the scrums that followed, he offered congratulations to Button, said it was a swell way for McLaren to start the season, said he’d try for consistency from now on, and not much else.

During one interview, he even suggested the car he’d been given to drive on Sunday wasn’t as good as the car he’d had on Saturday – "it was not as spectacular," was the way he put it (and I interpreted that to mean he was perhaps blaming the team for his misfortune rather than accepting his defeat for what it was).

Now, Hamilton has been known to sulk previously. He gets that "poor me" look on his face and you think, ‘You’re 26, Lewis: grow up." Because all the while he’s wallowing in his self-pity and allowing his sense of entitlement to dominate his persona, his teammate, Button, is sitting beside him looking like the cat that swallowed the canary.

If there was a cartoon bubble above Button's head, it would say: "I’ve got him right where I want him – feeling sorry for himself."

The race next Sunday at Malaysia is terribly important – which is surprising, considering it’s so early in the season. But Hamilton has got to show immedately that he’s made of stronger stuff or Button will walk all over him the rest of the season.

And Red Bull – their cars could only qualify fifth and sixth in Australia; Vettel was very fortunate to finish second, and knew it – will have to take the fight right to McLaren if it hopes to get back in the hunt to win a third world driver's and manufacturers championship.

Notebook Jottings:

– Button has won three of the last four Aussie GPs; the victory was the 13^th of his career and it was decisive. (Full story, results here.) He was in charge from the moment the lights went out and didn’t put a wheel wrong. He’s looking like world championship material (although, before the weekend, I argued otherwise – video link here).

– Albert Park in Melbourne is very reminiscent of Canada’s Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve on Ilse Notre-Dame in that it is a relatively flat community recreation area in the middle of a metropolis and the circuit is made up, in part, by service roads. The grandstands are temporary. One difference: while the Villeneuve circuit in Montreal is surrounded by water, the Melbourne track surrounds water.

– Former world champion Kimi Raikkonen – one of six world champions on the grid – won the Hard Charger award (if they had one) for improving his position the most. He started 18^th in his Lotus-Renault and finished seventh, an improvement of 11 places. Sergio Perez in a Sauber-Ferrari was right behind with an improvement of nine places: he started 17^th and finished eighth. Fernando Alonso did pretty well for Ferrari. He started 12^th and finished fifth, an improvement of seven positions.

– Australian Daniel Ricciardo won the battle of the newbies at Scuderia Toro Rosso. Jean-Eric Vergne of France was ahead and in tenth place going into the last lap but a last-second scramble saw Ricciardo not only pass his teammate but make it up to ninth and score points in his F1 debut at his home Grand Prix. Vergne wound up eleventh.

– Michael Schumacher made short work of Lotus-Renault second-chance driver Romain Grosjean at the start (as did three or four others) but then either suffered a mechanical problem (his explanation) or he screwed up and created a mechanical problem when he went off the racing surface (as is maybe suspected by some) and was forced out of the Grand Prix.

But he looked good for awhile when he was out there, holding down a solid third place and keeping Vettel behind him.

Others who looked like they also had fire in their bellies: Raikkonen, Alonso, Vettel.

KESELOWSKI WINS BRISTOL SPRINT CUP RACE

Penske Racing driver Brad Keselowski got the jump on second-place finisher Matt Kenseth on the last restart at Bristol Motor Speedway Sunday to pull away and easily win the Food City 500 at the Tennessee track (details, results here).

A trio of Michael Waltrip Racing entries led by Martin Truex Jr. finished third through fifth, with Clint Bowyer fourth and Brian Vickers fifth.

Vickers missed most of the 2010 season with blood clots and then was left driveless after the 2011 season when his Red Bull Racing Sprint Cup employers went out of business.

Elliott Sadler was originally signed by Watrip to drive the Toyota Cup car when Mark Martin isn’t available but Sadler drives full-time for Richard Childress in the Nationwide Series and Childress was not amused that his Chevrolet driver would be behind the wheel of a Toyota and gave Salder the choice: full-time with me or part-time with them, take your pick.

Sadler wisely chose full-time employment, so that’s how Waltrip came to sign Vickers.

Waltrip – and the smartest thing Michael W. has ever done in his career is to utilize his vast promotional and public-relations talents and leave race-driving to people who know how to do it – said afterward that Vickers might be making a few more appearances in addition to the half-dozen he’s contracted for.

There were a couple of kaboomers but nobody was hurt. Kyle Busch, Kasey Kahne, Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards were notable victims.

Notebook Jottings:

– The final appeal of that $100,000 fine and six-race suspension levied against Chad Knaus and Hendrick Motorsport will be held Tuesday and suggestions are that it will stand and Jimmie Johnson will be without his team manager/crew chief for more than a month, starting next weekend in California.

As written previously in this blog, NASCAR is sending a strong message here and if anybody is missing the symbolism of what’s happening, they’re blind. The sanctioning body is saying to Hendrick and, particularly, Knaus that one more false move and somebody’s going to take a very serious fall.

– Okay, I have to say it. How come all the NASCAR drivers stand at attention for the U.S. National Anthem before the races and hold their children in their arms?

I don’t take my kids to work with me. Do you? Do hockey players stand there on the bench with infants in their arms before the ref drops the puck? Baseball players? Politicians? Does Lil Wayne, before he starts singing (or whatever you call it that Lil Wayne does)?

I know that NASCAR is a family sport. I get it. But the babes-in-arms bit is phony.

– There were empty seats in Bristol but NASCAR’s TV numbers are holding up and it’s still winter, even in Tennessee. I don't know about you but I’m not partial to watching cars race while I’m wearing a parka.

AUDI FINISHES 1-2 AT THE 12 HOURS OF SEBRING

Audi, with Tom Kristensen, Dindo Capello and Allan McNish taking turns driving, won the 60^th anniversary 12 Hours of Sebring on Saturday (details, results here).

It was the third time the three drivers have won as a team and it was Audi’s tenth victory in the race. Individually, Kristensen has won it six times, Capello five and McNish four.

Another Audi R18, with Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Loic Duval finished second while third place overall went to an LMP2 Honda team made up of Ryan Dalziel, Stephane Sarrazin and Vicente Potolicchio.

Joey Hand won a nail-biting battle with Olivier Beretta (Ferrari) to win the GT Class for Bobby Rahal’s BMW team. Second place went to Jan Magnussen’s Corvette after Beretta lost the lead and the race because of a puncture.

The top three Audi drivers will now spend much of the next week at Sebring testing a new Audi hybrid (the R18 e-tron quattro) for future Le Mans Series races in Europe, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans where it’s expected its chief competition will come from a brand new LMP1 hybrid being prepared by Toyota.

Notebook Jottings:

- TV star Patrick Dempsey announced at Sebring that he will be entering a Mazda in the LMP2 division of the American Le Mans Series this year with a partial schedule planned. Co-driver will be Joe Foster (a frequent partner of Toronto's Scott Maxwell in Grand Am Series competition). Dempsey said the team will run a full schedule in future ALMS seasons and definitely wants to be at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2013. No word on whether the 2012 "partial schedule" will include the ALMS stop at Mosport (oops! Canadian Tire Motorsport Park!) in July.

- The ALMS is doing great harm to itself by not having a television package (and no, two hours on ABC the day after a race is not good enough, regardless of what some of the tall foreheads think). From what I'm told, the ESPN3 feed (an online service in the States) is terrible; the ALMS site international feed is not much better, I'm told.

Now, to be fair, I didn't have any trouble. But I heard from lots of people who gave up in disgust while trying to find a link.

Meantime, I wish the ALMS people would stop making reference to Rogers Sportsnet as being one of their television partners. It is not.

OTHER RACING

Nelson Piquet Jr. won his first NASCAR race at the weekend, a late model deal at Bristol. The disgraced F1 driver (he was involved in the fixed race at Singapore a few years ago, remember?) has gone about rehabilitating himself the right way, I think, by taking it very slow and very easy in stock cars and trucks. His father could have paid to put him into the Sprint Cup right off the bat but it would have been a foolish move. This way, he’ll earn his stripes the right way. . . . Joey Pescarella, only 19, won the Daytona 500 of motorcycle races, the Daytona 200 on Saturday. He won by 0.048 seconds over Jason DiSalvo in a photo finish. . . . Ryan Villopoto won the AMA Monster Energy Supercross at Indianapolis at the weekend. What’s worrying for the 50,000 or so Supercross fans expected to flock to Toronto’s Rogers Centre next Saturday night is that two of the sport’s biggest stars, Ryan Dungey and James (Bubba) Stewart are question marks. Dungey broke his collarbone several weeks ago and it hasn’t healed enough after surgery to risk further injury. Steward was injured on Saturday night in a crash at Indy’s Lucas Oil Stadium and is pretty banged up. He passed a post-event concussion test, but barely. He’ll have to take another one before being allowed to race in Toronto.

Button, Audi win in Australia, Sebring

Jenson Button went from pole position in his McLaren to the top step of the podium at the Grand Prix of Australia Sunday (Sebastien Vettel was second for Red Bull and Lewis Hamilton was third for McLaren) and Tom Kristensen, Dindo Capello and Allan McNish finished first in an Audi at the 60th annual 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race Saturday.

Full details, analysis and links in tomorrow's Monday Morning Racing Roundup.

WATCHING RACING ON A COMPUTER

I have seen the future – and it’s your computer.

Right now, right at this very moment at 3:52 p.m. EDT Saturday, I am watching the 12 Hours of Sebring on the American Le Man Series website and the NASCAR Nationwide Series race on the NASCAR.com site.

In fact, I’m riding around with Danica Patrick at this very moment, courtesy of an in-car camera (and we’re really mixing it up out there, I might say).

This is fantastic. I'm free, at last, from the people who run television, who like to dictate when I can watch something (the Nationwide race won’t be on TSN till midnight Saturday; it'll be a recording, obviously. The NCAA basketball tournament is more important, apparently).

Now I just have to get my youngest son to show me how to connect my laptop to my big-screen TV and I’ll really be in business.

P.S. Nationwide race is over now. Elliott Sadler was first, Kasey Kahne finished second and Brad Keselowski was third. We (Danica and me) were 19th.

Okay, saying that qualifying results for Sunday’s Grand Prix of Australia were a surprise would be an understatement.

While it’s not a really big surprise that the McLaren-Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button will start first and second in the 2012 Grand prix season opener Down Under, or that the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher will go off fourth, it is flat-out astounding that comeback kid Romain Grosjean qualified third in his Lotus-Renault and even more surprising that the Ferrari cars of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa are so far back.

Yes, Sebastien Vettel’s sixth-place raised eyebrows, particularly since his teammate, Mark Webber, outqualified him and will start fifth. But it was pretty much expected that Red Bull would be in for a fight this season after pretty much dominating things the last two years (two drivers’ and two manufacturers’ titles) and negative conclusions shouldn’t be reached too quickly on the basis of the year’s first qualifying session.

Alonso will go off 12th but suggested he could have eventually qualified third if he hadn’t spun off during the second session and didn’t even make it into the top ten. His teammate, Felipe Massa, had a miserable session and nearly didn’t get out of the first session. He will start 16th.

Kimi Raikkonen’s return to F1 started off negatively and he will start 18th. Although there was a mixup in communication, in which he thought he had time for another qualifying try in Q1 when he didn’t, he didn’t really have the speed anyway.

It was a great day for Australian Daniel Ricciardo, who got his Toro Rosso into the top ten, but then the team gave the finger to the Australian crowd by not sending him out at all in Q3. So Formula One, eh?

Finally, the HRT team of Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Kathikeyan won’t be allowed to start because their qualifying speeds – if you want to call them that – were beyond the 107% per cent of pole time rule.

Several quick observations:

– Michael Schumacher will make quick work of Grosjean at the start. It won’t be surprising if the seven-time world champion scores his first podium since his comeback. It will put an exclamation mark on his finest qualifying effort for Mercedes.

– Felipe Massa won’t last more than a couple of races for Ferrari in 2012 if he can’t do better than he’s shown so far in Australia.

F1 QUALIFYING RESULTS

Pos  Driver                Team                  Time          Gap  
 1.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes      1m24.922s
 2.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m25.074s  + 0.152
 3.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m25.302s  + 0.380
 4.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes              1m25.336s  + 0.414
 5.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m25.651s  + 0.729
 6.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m25.668s  + 0.746
 7.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m25.686s  + 0.764
 8.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m25.908s  + 0.986
 9.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes  1m26.451s  + 1.529
10.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    No time
Q2

11.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m26.429s  + 0.960
12.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m26.4942  + 1.025
13.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari        1m26.590s  + 1.121
14.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault      1m26.663s  + 1.194
15.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m27.086s  + 1.617
16.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m27.497s  + 2.028
17.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari        No time
Q1                            
18.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m27.758s  + 1.576
19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault      1m28.679s  + 2.497
20.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault      1m29.018s  + 2.836
21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth     1m30.923s  + 4.741
22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth     1m31.670s  + 5.488
23.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth          1m33.495s  + 7.313
24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth          1m33.643s  + 7.461

107% time: 1m32.214s

Marcelli to lead Canadian charge at 12 Hours of Sebring

The 60^th annual 12 Hours of Sebring, among the world’s most famous sports car endurance races, will be held in Florida next Saturday and will officially kick off two world series – the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship and the 2012 American Le Mans Series season.

The entry list is a Who’s Who of international sports car racing led by Audi Sport Team Joest running the Audi R18s with Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Dindo Capello driving one, Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and a third driver to be announced aboard a second and Andrew Lottere, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassier in the third.

There will be Lolas and Pescarolos and Ferraris and Corvettes and many other famous drivers like David Brabham, Emmanuel Collard, Giancarlo Fisichella and Oliver Gavin.

Canadian content will be supplied by four drivers, in particular. Kyle Marcelli of Barrie returns to the Le Mans Series Prototype Challenge class driving for Merchant Services Racing while Chris Cumming and Michael Valiante of Vancouver and LP Dumoulin of Trois-Rivieres will be driving Porsche 911 GT3s in the GT Challenge division.

Marcelli, one of Canada’s finest young racing drivers, is no stranger to American le Mans Series competition and is looking forward to the 2012 season.

Said Marcelli, in a note to fans sent just before he left for Florida Thursday:

"The 12 Hours of Sebring will surely be the toughest race on the 2012 calendar. Not only is it the longest race of the year for the American Le Mans Series but will also be the busiest as the track will be filled with over 60 of the worlds most exotic sports cars and prototypes. It will be a race of attrition for sure. It will be important we drive fast, keep our noses clean and work well as a team."

The race can be seen on ABC from noon till 2 p.m. next Sunday (yes, that’s an edited, delayed telecast) and live on your computer on Saturday at ALMS.com.

See George’s TV listings on the wheels.ca home page for details and start times for Sebring, NASCAR (below) and the start of the Formula One season next weekend in Australia.

Kasey Kahne, who replaced Mark Martin at Hendrick Motorsports this season, won the pole Friday for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas. Kyle Busch will start outside on the front row. Qualifying results here.

Sprint Cup drivers Paul Menard and Regan Smith and Smith’s wife were in an auto accident earlier this week but weren’t injured. Smith lost control of his truck on ice and crashed into trees near his home in Evergreen, Colo.

Danica Patrick says it was a poor choice of words to suggest she would run for the Nationwide Series championship in her first season. Full story here.

Although many people are suggesting her 21^st-place finish at Phoenix last weekend was a poor result, I’m not so sure. I think she wanted to finish a race - something she hadn’t done in three starts in her full-time NASCAR career. She crashed in the Daytona 500 qualifyer, the 500 itself and the Nationwide race at Daytona. For sure, she wanted to bring the car home in one piece at Phoenix.

The proof will be in the pudding this weekend. She finished fourth at Las Vegas last year. If she’s in the mix today, she’ll be okay. Otherwise, it’ll be a long haul for her.

Wheels.ca launches George's TV listings for race fans

As part of Toronto Star Wheels and wheels.ca’s commitment to providing the finest coverage of all things automotive, including competition, it is my pleasure today to announce the addition to our lineup of "George’s TV listings for race fans." Link here

Updated weekly, George’s TV listings will provide one-stop shopping for Canadian race fans looking to find television coverage of their favourite sport, from pre-race programming to race coverage itself.

As a bonus, in the case of NASCAR programming in particular, the listings will not only include the time the race program will come on but also the time the race will actually start (which is great for people setting recorders for viewing at a later time).

The TV list is a labour of love for retired Oakville high school chemistry teacher George Webster, who took it up as a hobby after he stopped going to, and writing about, races.

Webster has been a fan of motorsport since the mid-1950s and started writing about sports car racing, the Can-Am, Formula Atlantic and Formula One in 1976 for Pete Chapman’s Wheelspin News.

He travelled to Europe for F1 races and wrote about the Canadian and U.S. Grands Prix up until 1982 when he shifted his attention to NASCAR while writing for Motoring News.

"I hated oval racing," Webster was saying the other day, "but I went to Michigan and Darlington in 1982 and came to appreciate NASCAR for the strategy - or lack of strategy, to be more exact.

"That might sound strange, but it’s not. In F1, everybody knows everybody else’s race strategy right from the start; in NASCAR, the only strategy they have is not to crash on the first lap. After that, they react to circumstance and make it up on the fly as a result of what happens during the race. Watching, it can be fascinating."

He joined PRN magazine in 1988 and wrote about NASCAR until he saw an ad in National Speed Sport News in 1997 seeking someone to cover CART. He applied and got the job.

In 1999, he stopped covering the Indy cars and rejoined PRN to write about NASCAR on an occasional basis. He also wrote for goracing.com in the early days of the Internet.

In 2000, borrowing an idea from the U.S. provider Compuserve, Webster started RaceFanTV, a racing listings service for U.S. as well as Canadian viewers, and worked on it year-‘round until a few years ago when another listings service took it over.

Although still contributing articles on historic racing to PRN, Webster admitted to having time on his hands - we occasionally meet for breakfast - and so when I suggested to him several months ago that he consider a Canadian listings service for wheels.ca readers, he agreed.

The timing couldn’t be more perfect as NASCAR’s season has started, Formula One will be back in action a week from this coming weekend in Australia, the 12 Hours of Sebring is scheduled for March 17 and the IZOD IndyCar Series will kick off its 2012 schedule at the end of the month.

With so much going on, a listings service is required and George's on wheels.ca would seem to fit the bill. 

So bookmark the link. And tell all your friends.

IndyCar cancels 2012 Las Vegas speedway race

The IZOD IndyCar Series won’t be going back to Las Vegas Motor Speedway any time soon.

The series announced Thursday night that IndyCar won’t close out the 2012 season at Las Vegas as previously planned because they don’t want a repeat of the horror show that took place in October when two-time Indianapolis 500 champion Dan Wheldon was killed in a 15-car pileup

The series was scheduled to close its 2012 season at the speedway next Oct. 14, but IndyCar and speedway officials said considerable testing with the new car to be used by the series next year is needed prior to returning to the facility.

"We feel we need to give our technical team ample time to conduct thorough testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, once we complete our ongoing investigation into the 15-car accident during the Oct. 16 race at the track," said Randy Bernard, CEO.

The 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series season opens March 25 with the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. The complete schedule will be announced in the coming weeks.

Observers are wondering just how many races the series will end up running. With Las Vegas gone, only three ovals remain from the preliminary schedule, California, Iowa and Indianapolis (the Fort Worth race is also on the buble). The street race in Baltimore is also reportedly at risk because of financial difficulties stemming from the first event.

In other scheduling news, the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series will open Mosport’s 2012 racing season next May.

 Canada’s only national racing series will headline the Victoria Day Speedfest in mid-May that’s traditionally kicked off the racing season at the legendary circuit north of Bowmanville.

The Canadian Tire series is no stranger to Mosport, having headlined the June Father’s Day Weekend meeting in recent years. And as well as racing on the road course, the NASCAR Canada cars and stars have always raced at least once a seson on the half-mile Mosport Speedway oval and will do that once again in June.

When fans head out there next May, they will be astonished at the improvements that have been made to the facility since racing ended in the fall. A new entrance road, a double tunnel that will allow race transporters to come and go while racing is being conducted on the track, improved spectator viewing areas and much improved access roads around and inside the circuit are just some of the things that have changed since new owners Al Boughton, Ron Fellows and Carlo Fidani took over the plant last June.

Here is the full Mosport Raceway schedule for 2012.

May 18-20        Victoria Day SpeedFest Weekend

NASCAR Canadian Tire Series; SCCA Pro Racing Trans-Am; Castrol Touring Car Championship; Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada; F1000 Pro Series       

June 15-17        33rd Annual Int’l Vintage Racing Festival

This year’s featured marque is Corvette.  Regular classes include Historic & Vintage Production; Sports Racers; Group 70+; Open Wheel

June 16        Mosport Speedway 200 (at Mosport Speedway)

NASCAR Canadian Tire Series returns for second date, this time at Canada’s fastest half-mile paved oval

June 22-24        Mosport Sports Car Doubleheader Weekend

Pirelli World Challenge (GT, GTS, Touring, B Spec); Porsche 944 Cup

July 19-22        Mobil 1 Presents The Grand Prix of Mosport

American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón; Cooper Tires Prototype Lites; Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada; IMSA GT3 Challenge; Castrol Touring Car Championship

August 24-26    Mosport Superbike Doubleheader Weekend

Pro Superbike; Pro Sport Bike; Amateur Superbike; Harley-Davidson XR1200; Honda CBR250R Challenge; BMW Motorrad SummerFest

'Crazy Leo' tackles the Tall Pines

Photo by Mèlina Lamoureux (www.melinalamoureux.com)
'CRAZY LEO' URLICHICH LETS IT ALL HANG OUT DURING A RALLY EARLIER THIS SEASON

 

The 41^st Rally of the Tall Pines, taking place in Bancroft this weekend, is featuring the winners of the last five TPs – Antoine L’Estage, who's won three of them, including last year’s, and Pat Richard, who's won two – as well as a new kid on the block, 26-year-old Leonid Urlichich, a.k.a. “Crazy Leo.”

 

Urlichich, who’s sitting third in this year’s Canadian Rally Championship and hopes to make a run for second at the final rally in the national championship this weekend, insists his nickname has nothing to do with marketing.

“Everybody thinks I named myself that for publicity,” he told me during a telephone conversation we had this week, “but that’s not what happened. When I first started rallying, one of my teammates asked me why I didn’t take better care of my car. They said, ‘Your car’s all scratched up, aren’t you going to paint it?’ and I said,'Not until I roll it,' and they thought I wasn’t serious.

"But then I did and they said, 'That's it, you’re crazy,’ and that’s been my name ever since.”

One of the largest fields in Tall Pines history will start the rally Saturday morning - 60 cars and driver/co-driver combinations are entered - and although L'Estage and his co-driver, Nathalie Richard, have wrapped up the 2011 title, that doesn't mean there won't be plenty of action.

The Tall Pines covers more than 500 kilometres of twisty roads (including 200 km of stages) around Bancroft, a town about mid-way between Peterborough and Pembroke.

The big matchup of the weekend is expected to be between national champion L'Estage, who was runner-up this year in the Rally America championship,  and British rally driver David Higgins, who won the Rally America tiitle.

And the Tall Pines is no picnic. Those roads around Bancroft at this time of year can be muddy, icy and sometimes snow-covered.

Urlichich, who came to Canadian from Russia nine years ago to attend Trent University in Peterborough, thinks he might have an edge in the Tall Pines.

"The Tall Pines is based out of Peterborough," he said. "When I left Russia, I had the choice of three countries - the U.S., the U.K. and Canada. I chose Canada and I came to Peterborough, which is the home of the biggest rally in the country.

"So I know these roads. I have a better knowledge of these roads than any other. I don't want to sound too optimistic but if I stand a chance at any rally, this is the one."

Urlichich nearly wasn't around to follow his dream of rally driving. A big crash on the street three years ago last summer left him seriously injured with six broken bones, including his spine.

"It took me a year to recover," he said. "Thank God that nobody else but me got hurt and I learned my lesson and that's the last time I drove fast outside of motorsport. I have a metal plate in my arm, all sorts of things, as a result of that.

"I like to think that it made me better because the one thing it really made me do is exercise regularly. If I didn’t go to all that physio, all that recovery, I wouldn’t have been able to race."

Besides his success in rallying, Urlichich has also taken a crack at auto racing. His rally team, Can-Jam Motorsports, treated him to an outing during a round of the Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship at Mosport on the American Le Mans Series weekend in July.

"The road race was a bonus from the team because I didn't crash a rally car this year," he laughed. "The deal was that if I kept the rally car in one piece, and they didn’t have to spend money fixing it, I would get a road race as a bonus. So we went to Mosport.

"I qualified second to last, but finished the first race in eighth place and the second race in seventh. I was off the track, but for me I considered that normal. But the marshals weren’t impressed. One marshal said he counted that I went off 11 times and maybe I went off once but not 11 times. Anyway, I was in a Subaru, so I knew how to handle it in the run-off areas."

Urlichich said he has plans to go rally racing in the United States next year and would like to take a crack at the X Games. 

"Next year, we almost certainly have secured the funding to do U.S. events that would allow us to go for the North American rally cup," he said. "I'm really excited about that. Obviously, the X Games would be a dream come true sort of thing, too." 

(With a monicker like "Crazy Leo," I don't know how he could miss.)

Urlichich, who works for a Toronto media company and is busy these days promoting it on social media, says his ultimate ambition is to rally race on the world stage - the World Rally Championship.

"Every day I eat, sleep and dream to become a good competitor in WRC. That’s the goal. Between myself, the team and my family, we’re pushing so hard to make it happen. Maybe nothing will come of it, maybe I’m just not fast enough or I don't have enough talent, but we’re doing everything we can to make it there. I’ll do whatever it takes to get there."

"Crazy Leo" says he's still single but he wonders how long he's going to be able to hold out.

"My mother starts into me, you know, saying that maybe I should find a permanent girl, but not yet. She's not pushing for grandkids yet, but I’m starting to feel the vibes."