Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

Hinchcliffe fastest driver at Indianapolis

It might not mean a whole lot at this stage of the game, but the fact that Oakville’s James Hinchcliffe set the fastest time during practice Tuesday for next weekend’s Indianapolis 500 time trials means Indy car racing’s hottest driver is settling nicely into a groove for a run at pole position.

Hinchcliffe, the 26-year-old super nova who’s won two of the four IZOD IndyCar Series races to date, put the hammer down at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and turned a speed of 224.210 miles an hour (40:1410 seconds around the 2.5-mile oval race track), albeit while driving teammate Marco Andretti’s car to exchange notes.

Andretti, meantime, drove Hinchcliffe’s GoDaddy-sponsored Green Machine to the third-fastest time of the day, going 223.570 mph. The Andretti Autosport teammates were split by second-fastest driver J.R. Hildebrand, who went 223.652 mph.

In all, 34 driver-car combinations turned time while preparing for Saturday’s time trials that will determine who will start first and so on back to 33 and last when the 97^th 500-mile race goes to the post on Sunday, May 26^th.

Said Hinchcliffe: "Marco (Andretti) is pretty angry with me now. Not only did I rock a big tow, which he is famous for, but I did it in his car, so "Marco Tow-dretti" is pretty upset with me now.

"It's good to be up there, but at the end of the day, those numbers don't mean a lot right now. It's about the work you do on the race car and making sure the No. 27 GoDaddy car is going to be good not only on one lap, but over 200 (laps)."

Asked why he’d traded cars with Andretti and if he learned anything, Hinchcliffe added: "I get to see how good I look in red and blue (the colours of Marco’s car). There are some things we wanted to see and suss out, and that's the way to do it.

"It's (trading cars) not uncommon. Guys have done it in the past – especially this team. I think TK (Tony Kanaan) drove every single car on the team at some point during the month (when he was an Andretti driver). It's standard procedure to feel a couple of things out."

Practice will continue through Friday and then qualifying time trials will be held Saturday, with bump day (in which faster cars "bump" slower cars out of the field) scheduled for Sunday.

I said in the beginning that fast times don’t mean a lot and that’s because both engine suppliers, Chevrolet and Honda, will be fitting qualifying motors into all (or most) cars toward the end of the week and a horsepower boost will be allowed for time trials.

Horsepower will be dialed back, however, for the race itself.

Social note: Dario Franchitti, who’s won the Indy 500 three times and is the defending champion, will turn 40 on Sunday.

- NORRIS McDONALD

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Why I like NASCAR best (and other mid-week observations)

I was caught up short when I bumped into a media colleague earlier this week and he said to me: “What have you got against NASCAR?”

This was in regards to a column I wrote in which I suggested that NASCAR, in suspending owner Joe Gibbs for six races for a relatively minor transgression (among other penalties levied against other competitors), was acting irrationally.

So when he said what he said, I said something flippant in reply but afterwards I thought, “Uh-oh.”

I like and admire the journalist in question, so if he’s wondering about my motives, perhaps others are too and that’s why I’ve called you all together today to say this:

I think NASCAR is the best organized and best managed racing business in the world.

In the world.

Formula One has been held together by one man, Bernie Ecclestone, and I guarantee you that when he either retires, is fired, or forced out, or dies, F1 will be a mess of public bickering and backstabbing. And the Indy car series, regardless of who’s been in charge, has been in chaos much of the time ever since the original split that saw CART break away from the USAC in 1979.

Yes, NASCAR has been, essentially, a France family business and it’s been their way or the highway. But I don’t think they’ve abused that trust and they've reached out to the grassroots by sanctioning and administering local racing just about everywhere in the United States and, on occasion, in Canada. Their regional racing series – eight, including the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series – has given (and is giving) scores of ambitious and talented racing drivers a professional environment in which to grow and demonstrate their talents. Their diversification program has demonstrated a commitment to helping minorities, be they non-Americans, drivers of colour, or women, advance in the motor sport. In short, no other sanctioning body has even attempted what NASCAR has already achieved.

So I’m a big fan of NASCAR.

That doesn’t mean I like everything – I think they need more road course races, with at least one during the Chase – but in a clutch I would take Mike Helton, Robin Pemberton, Brian France and the rest of the executive group over anybody that the other big leagues have to offer.

Which makes it even more puzzling for me, after reading what I’ve just written, to understand that penalty against Gibbs. And a $25,000 fine charged to Denny Hamlin when all he did was say he didn’t like the new car.

What?

When something goes wrong in a business, or a marriage, or whatever, things that don’t normally happen start happening.

They are usually signals, or symptoms, of something else going on – sometimes beneath the surface and away from public view.

So I wonder what’s happening inside NASCAR?

Because a $200,000 fine for next-to-nothing ain't normal.

I posted a report on Monday afternoon about the visit to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park of executives from the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and a truck from the Turner Scott Motorsport stable.

Led by series director (and former Sprint Cup competitor) Chad Little, the contingent gave Old Mosport the once-over in advance of the truck race there on Labour Day weekend - called the Chevrolet Silverado 250, by the way - and driver Nelson Piquet Jr. shook down the TSM entry in order to record data that will be shared with other teams in the series who won’t even see the facility until they arrive for the Sept. 1 race.

Although Piquet was the only one to get any track time, three other drivers came up for a look-see including defending truck series champion James Buescher, 20-year-old hot-shoe Jeb Burton (son of Daytona 500 winner Ward Burton and nephew of Jeff Burton) and Miguel Paludo, a Brazilian Porsche GT3 Cup driver now trying his hand at NASCAR.

But in posting my report, I didn’t have time to include photos so I’ve posted a bunch with this post over at wheels.ca that were taken by me (uncredited) or by Gary Grant, who writes Auto News for Toronto Star Wheels and the Insider Report for wheels.ca

(That's his photo here, by the way, with Paludo (left), Burton, Piquet, CTMP co-owner Ron Fellows and Buescher.)

Also, if you want to take a video tour of Mosport with Piquet, courtesy of Joel Robinson, click here 

Road racing in Ontario will officially get under way at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park this coming weekend, May 4 and 5.

The 63rd annual (wow!) British Empire Motor Club Spring Trophy Races will involve eight classes, including the BF Goodrich GT Challenge, GT Sprints presented by CSC Racing, Toyo Tires F1600 Championship, Formula 1200, Formula Libre, Formula Four, Vintage/Historic and G70+.

Action gets under way with a driver’s meeting in front of the infield restaurant at 7:45 a.m. Saturday morning. For more information, the weekend schedule and FREE TICKETS, go to the CASC-Ontario website (click here).

Speaking of NASCAR, and penalties (see lead item), the two Richard Childress Racing crew members arrested and charged with assault after approaching driver Piquet and another man outside the speedway in Richmond, Va., last Friday night following an altercation in the pits earlier have each been fined $15,000, suspended for the next four Nationwide Series races and placed on probation till the end of the year.

Piquet and another driver, David Scott, who got into a shoving match in the pits, have been put on probation till June 26th.

Oh, and late-breaking news has the penalties against Team Penske, for trying to sneak unapproved parts past NASCAR inspection, upheld by an appeals panel. Just about everybody has been suspended for six races (not the drivers) and the crew chiefs for Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski have been fined $100,000 apiece.

About as appalling as the refereeing in the NHL, if you ask me.

Denny Hamlin says he will start the Talladega 500 on Sunday and then give way to relief driver Brian Vickers. That’s what he tweeted Tuesday.

"They (his doctors) all came to the conclusion they were happy with me starting Talladega and getting out when it's a safe time to get out,'' Hamlin said.

He told ESPN.com that he would drop to the back of the pack and then pit at the first caution, confident that he and Vickers can switch and not lose a lap under yellow.

Okay, I want to say right here and now that if  he’s out there, and he’s racing, and he’s feeling good, that Denny Hamlin will not get out and let Brian Vickers in. He just won’t.

He’s a tough mother when it comes to pain. He’s done it in the past and he’ll do it again.

Mark my words: Once in the car, he won’t leave it.

It’s official. Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, known officially this season as Panther DRR with driver Oriol Servia up, will drop out of this season’s IZOD IndyCar Series following the Indianapolis 500.

Co-owned by Indy new-car dealer Dennis Reinbold and former driver Robbie Buhl, the team has run full-time in the series for the past 13 seasons.

Even if you’re low buck, car racing is a financial drain and these guys, racers to the core, can’t afford to keep doing it.

Sorry to see them go. They gave it their all.

Here’s what’s on tap at Toronto Motorsports Park. Starting today on the road course, motorcycle lapping is scheduled till 5 p.m. Registration is at the track and it’s $115 plus HST. Open car lapping is scheduled for Friday from noon till dusk for $130 plus HST. If you can’t make it till 5 p.m., the price drops to $90 plus HST.

Finally, on the dragway, the first Friday night test and tune will cost $20, $10 for spectators. ONDR Nostalgia Drag Racers plus test and tune on Saturday is $30 for competitors and $15 for spectators. Test and tune on Sunday, the 5th, is $30 for participants and $10 for spectators.

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Grand Prix Preview: Hamilton will be champion, Donaldson says, but Norris disagrees

Every year, around this time, usually over breakfast, I sit down with my good friend, Gerald Donaldson, to break bread and discuss the upcoming Formula One season.

Donaldson, of course, knows more about F1 than any other Canadian alive and has been covering the sport and writing books about it — several dozen books, in fact — since the 1970s.

So we order our pancakes and bacon and I turn on the tape recorder and ask the questions and “Gerry” answers away. I then transcribe the conversation and dress it up a little bit and usually put it in Toronto Star Wheels the day before the season starts, which would be next weekend.

Big mistake.

This is because Donaldson (or I) will go on record as saying this driver will be fast and that car will be slow and this is fine — except the timing often turns out to be terrible.

By putting predictions in the paper the day before the first race, I leave us open to ridicule because the cars have already been out for two practice sessions the day before, on the Friday, and we are left with egg on our faces because our predictions sometimes turn out to be wrong.

So, this year, I’m not taking any chances. This is the preview and it’s on this website a whole week before the first race. This way, we won’t be wrong until at least next Friday.

Of course, it might very well turn out that we’re right.

Whichever — I hope you enjoy what follows.

Gerry, right off the top, what kind of a season do we have to look forward to?

For the most part, the rules are the same as they were last year so the cars will be pretty even and this suggests close racing. Next year, there will be big changes. They are going from 2.4-litre V8 engines to 1.6-litre turbos. The big teams have already said they will switch their focus to next year pretty early in the season, which further opens up the possibilities for this year. The small teams are just going to invest in this year because they don’t have any money to invest in the future so that could make things really interesting.

There are five rookies and they are all pay drivers. Is this good?

It’s always been the case in Formula One. The most famous pay driver was Niki Lauda, who borrowed money against his life insurance policy and won three world championships. A superstar. The Mexican, Esteban Gutierrez, is being supported by Carlos Slim, the richest guy in the world. Max Chilton at Marussia, his father (Grahame) is so wealthy he bought half the team.

However, all of these guys have a good track record. It’s not as if they’re diluting the talent pool. And they’re replacing guys who didn’t do a lot — Bruno Senna, Kamui Kobayashi, Vitaly Petrov. It’s not a bad thing necessarily and it’s not a new thing at all.

I have to slip in some Canadian content here. Robert Wickens, a very talented Canadian, when they were racing in the lesser categories, consistently defeated Gutierrez. Robert is in the DTM and Gutierrez is in Formula One. Poor Wickens beat Jean-Eric Vergne for the Formula 3.5 championship and Vergne is in Formula One and Robert is in touring cars. Is there any justice in the world?

What Robert Wickens needs is a Canadian multibillionaire to back him, which is the case with Gutierrez and Carlos Slim. Robert is not doomed; he had a good year last year in his rookie season, he’s very popular with the team and the fans and the future bodes well.

Okay, the testing is finished and it was really quite amusing this year because, at one time or another, just about everybody led a session; just about everybody topped the charts. For what it’s worth, I think the McLaren is going to turn out to be a rocket. What do you think?

You say you have a hunch about McLaren. I can tell you it’s a wonderful year for hunches. Everybody in the paddock is talking with hunches. Nobody knows what’s going to happen; there’s no foregone conclusion. This year could be even more unpredictable than 2012, which was wonderfully unpredictable.

Okay, quit beating around the bush. Who do you think will win the championship?

It’s my custom every year when we do this to take a big gamble. I’m going to take a driver who switched teams, to a team that hasn’t done much of anything but this year they seem poised to do well. I think Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes will be champion.

My goodness! You mean to tell me that Sebastian Vettel’s reign is coming to an end?

He will have much stronger competition than last year. All the testing didn’t prove a thing, other than to show that the championship and the racing will be extremely close.

Adrien Newey, the greatest designer in F1, has no idea where his team stands in relation to the others. It was a typical pre-season, in that some were sandbagging, some were really testing different things. The kicker here is the Pirelli tries. This year, they have gone more aggressive than ever with the tire compounds.

It’s a bit of a dichotomy for a tire company. Pirelli’s brief is to make tires that don’t last. They wear out quickly, deliberately. They have different compounds that have different stages of degradation. No one has any idea how they will behave in race conditions. It will be a big free-for-all, particularly in the early races until everybody becomes familiar with how the tires behave.

Okay, let’s go down the list and discuss the teams. How do you see Red Bull-Renault doing in 2013?

Vettel will not lose any of his talent. He’s improved every year and he’s a triple world champion. So he’s going to be right up there. But I wonder about the management of that team. The sponsor – Red Bull’s – representative is Dr. Halmut Marko who has a knack of putting his foot in his mouth and he’s done it again.

He says Mark Webber, Vettel’s teammate, is not capable of winning a championship. That’s going to light a fire under Webber. He’s 36, the oldest guy in the field and this is his last chance. Unless they give team orders right from the start of the season, those guys will be fighting each other harder than anybody else in the field, particularly Webber.

Maybe this is a psychological ploy but those are fighting words and they could have been said behind closed doors rather than in public. To do it out front like that is not good for team morale. We have to remember that the cars are side-by-side in the garage and the engineers and mechanics on either side are with their driver. So he’s really dividing the team.

Will Fernando Alonso come close to winning the title. And what about Ferrari as a whole?

Alonso will be close-er to the championship. Both Alonso and Massa have said the car is on a different planet. It is much better. Everybody in the field agrees Ferrari is looking good. Alonso would probably be a safer bet for a champion than Lewis Hamilton, but I’ve made my pick. He is probably the best all-rounder in F1 at the moment.

Massa? First, Alonso will not tolerate a quick teammate; we know that and he’s the team leader. Massa came on strong at the end of last season (after his contract was renewed) but he knows his place, he’s a real team player and he knows his place. Everybody in the paddock loves him, including Alonso — so far. Ferrari will be strong and Alonso will be basically backed up by Massa.

How do you see McLaren? I think they have a rocket. Sergio Perez was a surprise signing and, at 33, Jenson  Button ain’t getting’ any younger.

Jenson won the championship in 2009 because he had the best car. He’s a good journeyman driver who, on a good day, can beat anybody but he doesn’t have a good day every Grand Prix. Everything’s got to be perfect; he won’t drive around a problem.

He’ll be pushed by Perez, who’s a bit of an unknown quantity with a top team. He did well with Sauber but he’s got a bit of a reputation of being a hot-head and it will be interesting to see how he handles the pressure of being with a team like McLaren.

During this conversation, we’ve danced around a bit and neither of us has mentioned Lotus-Renault, or Kimi Raikkonen. How do you see that team and Kimi?

First, Romain Grosjean (the No. 2) has been given yet another chance; he crashed a lot last year, stupid crashes. . . but he will straighten out. We used to watch him in GP2 and he was as good in GP2 as Lewis Hamilton, who was the best there’s ever been in GP2. So he’ll straighten out.

Kimi, his teammate, is without doubt the most popular Formula One driver of them all. Everybody loves him because he’s so quirky. He’s so against the grain. Remember last year, he put himself into history with the simple phrase over the radio, ‘Leave me alone, I know what I’m doing.’ And he does know what he’s doing.

Lotus is a feel-good story in F1. It’s a grand old name and last year it was a comeback team with a comeback driver. Kimi loves racing. He’s a hard racer but a safe one. Last year, he was the only driver to complete every lap of every race despite the fact he was so aggressive. Yes, he knows what he’s doing.

So you’re picking Lewis to win the championship. Tell me about the team, Mercedes.

They have a whole bunch of new technical people and the car is better. They’ve also got a driver who can get the best out of that car, Lewis Hamilton. His teammate, and they’ve been good friends their entire lives, Nico Rosberg, is a good, steady driver. This will be a test of their friendship; they live next door to each other in Monaco.

But there is a bit of dissension within that team. They brought in Niki Lauda and a new team manager and the personnel are a bit confused about who’s in charge. At the moment it’s Ross Brawn and he says he’s in charge but I wouldn’t be surprised if he leaves. It will be a test of his perseverance to hang in there.

Niki Lauda is a wonderful character but he doesn’t have a great track record of being in charge. That will be the only part of Mercedes that might not work. I think they’re good with the car, the engines and the drivers.

But the rest of the team . . .

Okay, those are the top dogs. Let’s talk about some of the lesser teams, starting with Sauber.

This is the best of the rest. Sauber has always punched above its weight. The team is Swiss and is a reflection of the country — prudent money managers, cautious and safe but also aggressive. Williams? They think they’ve got a good car. Count on them to be up there. And Paul Di Resta is a talent, as is Adrian Sutil, so don’t pass on Force India.

Toro Rosso is a curious team. It’s supposed to a farm team for Red Bull. But neither Jean-Eric Vergne nor Daniel Ricciardo have shown themselves to have superstar potential.

We had one team drop out at the end of last year, HRT. Will the others hang in there, and do they have a chance?

Caterham has a lot of money but they will never catch up. They and the other ‘new’ teams were brought into F1 in 2008 by Max Mosley, who promised them that budgets would be reduced and everybody would be able to get along on $50 million a year and everybody would eventually be equal and it’s never happened and never will happen. They are doomed to be backmarkers.

But, they build their own cars like everybody else and hire pay drivers. Nobody is going to drop out. Anyway, in the background is the great orchestrator, Bernie Ecclestone, who will look after anything and everything that needs looking after.

Okay, we’re nearly finished. Let’s return to the rookies. Which ones will impress?

Gutierrez  might; he’s well-placed. Sauber is a respectable, competitive team; they know how to bring people along. Vettel, Robert Kubica, Raikkonen, Perez — they all made their debut with Sauber, so he’s best placed to do well. He has a respectable track record, too.

Jules Bianchi (Marussia) has the best credentials. I expect the latest Finn in F1, Valtteri Bottas, to do well. He’s been Williams’ reserve driver, so knows his way around, and he could be the pick of the crop.

I think it will be a good year for the championship and it’s a very high quality class of rookies. It’s going to be very interesting.

NORRIS' TAKE

I agree with Gerry that 2013 could be a banner year for F1 excitement. But Niki Lauda aside, I’m not crazy about the high number of pay drivers (more than the rookies are bringing money).

As mentioned, I suspect McLaren has a rocket ship of a racing car but I’m not sure the drivers will be up to it. Perez was signed when the team was on the rebound from Hamilton’s defection and I’m not sure he was the best choice. And Button? He’s no Mark Webber.

But I’ve been wrong about Button before . . .

In the end, the title fight will be between Fernando Alonso and — tad-da — the “Iceman” himself, Kimi Raikkonen. Personal habits, though, will make the difference in the end.

And what do I mean by that? Well, the Kimster missed a test session in Barcelona last week (Lotus had to call Grosjean back) because his tummy was acting up as a result of Kimi out being Kimi the night before.

He’s a character, for sure, but Alonso is too disciplined for that and will be world champion as a result.

Canadian, U.S. investors reportedly eyeing F1 team

Lotus unveiled their 2013 car to great fanfare (if not universal approval) this week and the rest of the F1 teams are on tap to follow suit over the next few days and weeks.

McLaren is up next, and they will roll out the new model today - Thursday - while Ferrari and Force India will follow on Friday.

Here are the rest: Sauber on Saturday, Red Bull on Sunday, Toro Rosso and Mercedes on Monday and Caterham next Tuesday. Williams has scheduled a Feb. 19 launch and while Marussia has not set a date (as of today), it will follow Williams at some point.

Sticking with F1 for a moment, DTM racer Susie Wolff will be doing more with Williams this season, focusing on most of the team’s aerodynamic and simulator work.

And Autosport magazine is reporting that there is a move afoot to resuscitate the Spanish HRT team, which thankfully went out of business at the end of last season. Autosport says Canadian and American investors in something called Scorpion Racing are hoping to get the team back on the grid in time for the 2013 season and have the blessing, allegedly, of one Bernie Ecclestone, although Bernie is now saying they're probably too late.

I'm curious as to who the Canadian investor, or investors, might be.

Two Canadians have owned teams in Formula One – B.C.'s Walter Wolf back in the 1970s and, more recently, Alex Shnaider of Toronto, who bought Eddie Jordan’s team early in 2005 and unloaded it onto the Spyker Car company about 18 months later. Both Wolf and Shnaider got out while the going was good. Translation: before they lost their shirts.

There are relatively few Canadians with the money required to play in Formula One. And it is a sucker bet to begin with. Don't believe me? Ask Craig Pollock. Ask Richard Branson. Ask Alex Shnaider.

A lot of people think it’s easy. Back in 2004, I had a column in the Toronto Star in which I wrote the following paragraphs about idealistic people with stars in their eyes who think it's a dandy idea to try to break into F1:

“When Grand Prix racing came to Canada in August, 1967, eight Formula One manufacturers brought cars: Brabham, Lotus, Cooper, Honda, Ferrari, BRM, Eagle and McLaren.

“It is 38 years later and only two of those famous marques are still in business: Ferrari and McLaren.

“In all that time, untold others have tried to crack the lineup of the most famous, the most demanding and the most expensive auto racing series in the world. None of them ever made it for long. Despite idealism and big promises and big money, lest we forget:

“Matra, March, Surtees, Shadow, Iso, Tecno, Hesketh, Lola, Parnelli, Penske, Hill, Ensign, Ligier, Copersucar, Wolf, ATS, Arrows, Fittipaldi, Alfa Romeo, Theodore, Osella, Toleman, Zakspeed, AGS, Rial, Onyx, Eurobrun, Larousse-Venturi, Larousse alone (didn't he kill the other guy?), Andrea Moda and Footwork — to name some, but certainly not all.

“Even the Ford Motor Co. — the Ford Motor Co. — had to throw in the towel when it realized its Jaguar team was costing a fortune and going nowhere.

“The manufacturers that lasted — Ferrari, McLaren, Williams — did so because of elbow grease. They proved that the business of auto racing grows from the ground up, over many years. It's not something that happens at the snap of a finger.”

If HRT does make a comeback, it’ll be gone again before the Canadians and Americans who sink their money into it will know what hit them.

If you do have money to burn in something like F1, wouldn’t it be better to buy in as an associate sponsor of an existing top team (none will ever say no, you know) and get some enjoyment out of it?

It's a lot better than going bankrupt.

Social note: Ashley Judd and Dario Franchitti are calling it a marriage. I really thought they were forever.

Now, even the managers pay to play in Formula One

The European economy is in the ditch these days and it explains much of what has been going on in Formula One.

The situation is so critical that for the first time in the history of the sport, management positions appear to have been purchased.

At least one, anyway.

I’ve heard of pay drivers before but now we have pay managers.

Let me explain – but in order.

Timo Glock, who’s been a paid driver for Marussia (and I have no idea why, by the way), got the boot this weekend because the team needs a pay driver to partner its other pay driver, somebody named Max Chilton, a British driver who’s never finished higher than fourth in any professional series he’s been in.

Caterham, meantime, still has a seat open for a pay driver beside the pay driver they already have, Charles Pic, whose main claim to fame (besides finishing 21^st in points in F1 last season) is that he finished fourth in GP2 the year before Max Chilton did, – which suggests to me that if you want to get into F1 these days, you must first finish fourth in GP2.

But I digress.

Force India is in serious trouble and you wonder whether driver Paul di Resta will wake up one of these days and find himself in the same boat as Timo Glock – or out of the boat, as it were.

Force India majority owner Vijay Mallya (Bernie Ecclestone is believed to hold the mortgage . . .) is having a terrible time keeping his Kingfisher Airlines afloat (it might go bankrupt later this week) and the future does not look good for the race team, as a result.

Force India at one time was Eddie Jordan’s team. He got out while the going was good. Jordan was purchased by Canada’s Midland Group (headed by land developer Alex Shnaider of Toronto) but then sold to the Spyker car company. When Spyker couldn’t make a go of it, Ecclestone brokered the deal that transferred title to Mallya.

Mallya fell into financial difficulty previously but was bailed out by Sahara India Pariwar, an Indian company involved in sports promotion. Sahara paid Mallya $100 million US in 2011 in return for a tad more than 40 per cent of Force India. Hmmm. Wonder what the return’s been on that investment.

Moving right along, Williams has two pay drivers working for it, Pastor Maldonado and Valtteri Bottas. They used to have pay driver Bruno Senna but Bottas has the means to pay more so away went Senna.

And Esteban Gutierrez, who will partner Nico Hulkenberg at Sauber this season, is also a pay driver, although his third-place finish in GP2 in 2012 is an improvement on the previous fourth-place finishes of Pic and Chilton.

So when the 2013 season gets under way, there will be eight drivers out of 22 paying for the privilege of competing. And if di Resta gets deep-sixed to make way for a guy with money, there will be at least one more.

But pay drivers have always been around F1 – and other forms of racing – so it’s really not that out of the ordinary (although having more than a third of the field writing cheques is kind of disturbing).

What’s amazing today, though, is that the ability to pay has now moved into F1's management ranks.

At some point recently, the investment company Aabar, based in Abu Dhabi, which owned 40 per cent of the Mercedes F1 team, wanted to vamoose. Parent company Daimler agreed to buy Aabar’s holdings (the two companies have other business dealings together, including an interest in the Tesla electric car company) and promptly offered 30 per cent of that total toWilliams executive director Toto Wolff.

Wolff said, "I’m in, as long as you let me run the team (or words to that effect)," so Dailner agreed and the deal was done. Better Wolff should be the executive director of a team that might win the world championship in 2013 than do the same job with a team that won’t.

Daimler then unloaded the remaining 10 per cent onto Mercedes F1 team executive chairman Niki Lauda.

While Wolff left Williams to run Mercedes, Lauda was already there (in an undefined roll, albeit with a fancy title). Is it possible that Niki agreed to buy into the team in order to keep his job?

I mean, if he refused, was there somebody standing by ready and willing to ante up in order to be executive chairman of an F1 team?

Who knows? And maybe this sort of thing happens all the time and is perfectly normal.

But I have a feeling that new ground has been broken here and no longer are the drivers the only ones in F1 who are ponying up.

Michael Waltrip coming to Canadian Motorsports Expo

 Auto racing headline of the week:

“McLaren pleased with Perez so far”

Sergio dropped into the McLaren factory the other day to say hello and the brass thought this was really swell.

Such is the state of motorsport journalism in the dead of winter.

Here, however, is some real information.

Two-time Daytona 500 champion Michael Waltrip is coming to Toronto.

Well, not exactly Toronto. Mississauga is more like it, but you get the drift.

He’ll be appearing at the 7th annual Canadian Motorsports Expo being held Feb. 8-10 at The International Centre out by Pearson International.

The veteran NASCAR television personality, team owner and racer (like Sprint Cup champion Brad Keselowski, he’s also active on Twitter — @mw55) will appear at the Expo on Sat. afternoon, Feb. 9, to sign autographs and take part in a question-and-answer session with fans.

Waltrip’s appearance is in keeping with the Expo’s practice of bringing major racing stars to Toronto. Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski and Dario Franchitti are some of the others who have appeared.

According to Expo sponsor Inside Track Motorsports News, Waltrip has driven in 770 Sprint Cup races over 28 years. Most of the time these days, however, he’s busy directing staff in the preparation and entering of cars in NASCAR Sprint Cup races for drivers Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer and Mark Martin.

Except when it comes to Daytona. Waltrip will again try for his third Daytona 500 victory this year, driving a Toyota in a one-off for Swan Racing. He’ll have Tony Eury Jr. as his crew chief for the 500. And to warm up for the big stock cars, he’ll be driving in the Rolex 24 sports-car race at Daytona next weekend.

Said Waltrip, in a release: “With the racing season less than a month away, it’s a very busy and exciting time. MWR (Michael Waltrip Racing) had its most successful season ever, in 2012, and we’re really looking forward to 2013.

"Add into the mix that I’ll be racing in the Rolex 24 and the Daytona 500, and I suspect I’ll have plenty to talk about with the fans at the Canadian Motorsports Expo. I look forward to meeting as many of them as possible and signing a lot of autographs.”

Said Expo co-promoter Rob Morton, also in a release: “In addition to being a two-time winner of the Daytona 500, Michael Waltrip is one of the most popular and recognizable personalities in all of racing. He’s involved in all aspects of the sport, which gives him a unique perspective. We’re very excited that he’s coming to the CME.”

We’ll pass on more information about the Expo as it becomes available. It’s always a great show.

..

Robert Kubica, who came within an eyelash of losing his life in that terrible rally crash in 2011, is soon going to test a German Touring Car Series Mercedes.

But before getting too excited about this, remember that it’s only a test. He’s going to be rally racing again this season and several of the European Rally Championship dates he’ll be doing are on the same weekends as DTM races.

The Danica Patrick Show - all the time

If there was ever any doubt that Danica Patrick would dominate the runup to this year's Daytona 500, well -- guess again.

 

In final testing at the weekend before next Saturday's Busch Clash -- er, Sprint Unlimited at Daytona pre-pole-qualifying race -- Patrick was third

fastest in the morning session but not in the top three in the afternoon and yet the headlines on all the stories I've seen said things like, "Patrick quick at Daytona," and "Danica showing early speed."

 

Get used to it, all you Danica haters out there. All eyes will be on her as she embarks on her first Sprint Cup season in NASCAR. And come Daytona 500 time, the broadcast team will remind you again and again how she's doing, whether she's first or last.

 

And it's all about marketing, remember. NASCAR knows it has you and all the other auto racing fans out there. They are going after the casual auto racing fan and even the non-auto racing fan and while the name Trevor Bayne doesn't resonate much anywhere, the name Danica Patrick does and that's why everybody involved in the promotion of NASCAR is told to focus on her.

 

Having said that, the fact that she was third fastest in any session is not bad. She won't win this season, probably, but she'll certainly be competitive.

 

The "new" Cup cars will be on display in that Unlimited race for the first time, by the way. These are the new generation "Car of Tomorrow" cars that actually look a little bit like the cars you find in GM. Ford and Toyota showrooms.

 

NASCAR's first era was dominated by Detroit iron and where the slogan "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday," meant something. Then the sport's biggest star, Dale Earnhardt, was killed in a crash at Daytona and NASCAR opted for a generic car that was super safe to avoid further catasrophies. Because the fans couldn't tell the cars apart, the marketing of the drivers kept NASCAR on top but didn't do a lot for the manufacturers.

 

Now the pendulum is starting to swing back. 

 

Kevin Swindell, son of sprint car champion Sammy Swindell, is a very talented racing driver but he hasn't had the success in other racing series that he's had at the annual Chili Bowl, held indoors each January in Tulsa, Okla.

 

Swindell has won sprint car races, midget races and stock car races. But he hasn't been able to string anything together.

 

The Chili Bowl, though, is a different kettle of fish. Saturday night, Kevin won his fourth consecutive Chili Bowl and his dad finished second. Brad Sweet was third.

 

Like most successful short-track racers, Kevin Swindell is aiming for a career in NASCAR. If he can transfer that obvious talent to the bigger, heavier stockers, he'll have a great career ahead of him.

 

It's a shame that Kevin Swindell hasn't even thought about Indy cars. And that the generation before him - his father, Steve Kinser, Jac Haudenschild, those guys - was totally ignored. You know, if Jeff Gordon, sprint car driver, hadn't been snubbed by CART and had spent his wonderful career in Indy cars, that series wouldn't be in the mess it is today.

 

Although the cheerleaders for the series continue to suggest that when the season opens in March in St. Petersburg, Fla., 24-26 cars will be on the grid, the feeling here in the media centre in Detroit is that 22 to 24 is more likely.

 

I say 20-22. We'll see who's right.

 

The speed sport is well represented at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this year.

 

Media days Monday and Tuesday precede the public show that opens next Saturday. Attendees will see a Red Bull F1 car at the Infiniti display, Dario Franchitti's Indy 500-winning car at Honda, a Ferrari at - well - Ferrari and on and on.

 

Don't forget to go to wheels.ca for everything you would ever want to know about the Detroit show - we have 14 people here Tweeting, blogging, Facebooking, etc.

IndyCar team manager Phil LePan of Toronto dies

Sad news today.

Philip Buchan LePan of Toronto, better known to his many friends and admirers in the world of motorsport as Phil LePan, has died. A memorial service and interment is planned for Sat., Feb. 16 at 2 p.m., at the Mount Pleasant Cemetery Visitation Centre.

Racer Scott Maxwell emailed me the news earlier this week and said that “before moving on to bigger and better things, Phil was my team manager in Formula 2000 way back in 1989-90. Not only was he a great crew chief but he was one of the kindest and classiest people in motorsports.”

In a tribute published on the Speed Channel’s website, writer Marshall Pruett said Phil had worked for several Indy car teams after starting his big-league career with Team Lotus in Formula One.

He was team manager for Player’s/Forsythe Racing in 2003 when Paul Tracy won his championship and also was team leader with Kraco Racing, Team Green in 1995 when Jacques Villeneuve won the Indianapolis 500 and the CART championship and this past season with Dale Coyne Racing (Justin Wilson up).

Pruett quoted Tracy thusly:

“His whole life was about racing. That’s what he lived for. As a team manager and a guy I worked with for seven years . . . he wasn’t a guy who pushed himself out to the spotlight as the star team manager or crew chief. Some people try to become a bit of a personality with a position like that . . . but he wasn’t that guy. If you wanted to find Phil, he was in the garage with the mechanics and I liked that about him.”

Said another Canadian, Alex Tagliani, also to Pruett: “Phil was always one speed, and that was very good for us. He was someone that always was composed and kept things in perspective.”

Phil LePan leaves his wife and two sons.

Auto show season is upon us and Toronto Star Wheels and wheels.ca are gearing up to bring you complete coverage of all of them.

The biggie, right off the button, is the North American International Auto Show at Detroit, which opens to the public next weekend but has media preview days scheduled for this Monday and Tuesday.

We will be there, in force, to keep you fully informed about everything happening at that show.

Starting Sunday evening, wheels.ca’s home page will be humming with live blog files from writers Jim Kenzie and Jil McIntosh on the unveiling by General Motors of the 2014 C7 Corvette. Former Wheels editor Mark Richardson will report on what’s up with Nissan and Peter Gorrie will be dining with Toyota Canada executives and reporting on what they have to say.

I’ll be in Detroit with photographer Steve Russell and writer Brian Early to cover the world premiere of the all-new CLA-Class Mercedes-Benz at a special reception .

Early will blog and I will kick off two days of video reporting, with the help of Russell.

Monday, we’ll be back on the air early in the day with the 7:15 a.m. announcement of the North American Car and Truck of the Year. For the rest of Monday and on Tuesday till early afternoon, writers Kathy Renwald, Tim Miller, Steve Bond, Anne-Marie Marais, Gary Grant and Lesley Wimbush will cover all of the manufacturers’ unveilings on Twitter and Facebook as well as on our rolling blog at wheels.ca.

Yes, we’re promising blanket coverage but for an auto show as important as Detroit, we think our readers deserve nothing less.

And of course, we’ll wrap up the whole show — news, information, photographs and analysis — in next weekend’s issue of Wheels.

I started this piece by using the words “auto show season,” and that’s because the Montreal auto show is opening next week and correspondent Costa Mouzouris will be there to report. The Chicago show opens Feb. 9 and Richardson will be there and, of course, the Canadian International AutoShow here in Toronto will kick off on Feb. 15 and if you think our Detroit coverage is thorough, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Please join us at wheels.ca and Wheels for the Detroit auto show and stay with us through the Toronto show for the most comprehensive coverage you’ll find anywhere.

The Pro Mazda Series (nee Star Mazda) will run six of its 16 scheduled races this season in Canada. 

The first two will be held at the Honda Indy Toronto July 13 and 14 and then there will be two run the very next weekend as part of the American Le Mans Series weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (nee Mosport).  

The final two will be part of the traditional Trois-Rivieres race weekend Aug. 10 and 11.

The season will open at the Circuit of the Americas in March as part of the Grand Am Rolex weekend there and wind up in Houston as part of the IndyCar meeting in October.

Finally, the Mopar Canadian Superbike Championship will kick off June 7-9 at Shannonville Motorsport Park near Belleville. July 5-7 will see the riders doing battle at Autodrome St-Eustache in Quebec and then they'll tow to Atlantic Motorsport Park near Shubenacadie in Nova Scotia July 26-28.

Two races will be held at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park Aug. 9 to 11 and the season will wrap up Aug. 23-25 at Le Circuit-Mont Tremblant in the Quebec Laurentians.

Why is F1 still planning to race at Bahrain in 2013?

I have been A.W.O.L. this week and much of last, and I apologize. This thing I have called a job keeps getting in the way.

Lots to talk about, so here goes.

Red Bull racing director Helmut Marko says Fernando Alonso was too “political” in 2012 and that’s why he lost the title by three points to Sebastian Vettel.

I suggest having a Lotus nearly land on his head might have had more to do with it.

Marko, of course, is a master politician who took a shot at Mark Webber the day before he slandered Alonso.

Marko learned his lessons well from Flavio Briatore, who was famous for hiring the drivers he managed after first launching psychological warfare against the guys he already had.

There is no apparent connection between Marko and Nico Hulkenberg, his current choice to partner Vettel in 2014, but you can bet there’s a link somewhere.

The current F1 is a wasp’s nest of conflicts-of-interest that likely couldn’t happen in most other professional sports. We live with it, though, because there isn’t an alternative.

Talking of F1, the auto racing websites and specialty periodicals are full of the usual non-stories you find at this time of year (“Bernie will step down from F1 post if thrown in jail” – ya think?) when there is a very serious story that could be reported.

And that story is: Why is F1 still planning to race in Bahrain in 2013?

If you Google “Bahrain Grand Prix” and “news,” the first 10 entries are all dated April 2012 when racing and Bahrain were last together.

And there’s the rub. Both the New York Times and National Post published op-ed articles in recent weeks about the situation there, which is worse than it was the last time anybody bothered to take a look. Dissent of any kind is not allowed, more protesters have been killed (about 100 at last count) and the jails are full of people who’ve dared to publicly challenge the regime of King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa.

Now, last year, F1 was kind of caught in the middle, in that the schedule was set, the race was on and the violent demonstrations pretty much came out of nowhere. There was great international criticism of F1 and the FIA for going ahead anyway but, as I said, I don’t think they had much choice.

But the 2013 race? Bernie and Jean Todt and the rest of them have had a year to figure out a way to not go there and they haven’t done a thing. They sat on their hands and they should be ashamed.

F1 was decisive in the 1980s and refused to race in South Africa after 1985 because of apartheid. The much-maligned Jean-Marie Balestre, who was president of the FIA at the time, made that decision.

Where is the leadership today? Are not Ecclestone and Todt aware of what’s happening in Bahrain? And if not, why not?

The Bahrain Grand Prix will be a much bigger story this year than it was last and the people who run F1 are courting disaster by still planning to go ahead.

Moving right along, I have a friend in the U.S. who made his living managing a string of 30 or so small-town radio stations throughout the Midwest. He did that for about 15 years. No, he did not have a “job for life,” but he felt pretty comfortable in his position.

One day, the president of the company called and said he’d sold the stations to Gannett. My friend knew instantly that he was out of a job. The new owners would send in their own people to do things their way.

Which is why I, along with many others, was worried about the future of sports car racing in North America when it was announced late last year that the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series and the American Le Mans Series would “merge” in 2014. Specifics about the class structures would be announced in January.

It turned out it wasn’t really a merger. It turned out the Grand Am Rolex Series, which is owned by NASCAR, had purchased the ALMS and I was concerned because of what happened to my friend: the new owners would want to do things their way.

I needn’t have worried. With the exception of the elimination of the poorly populated P1 class, everything else is status quo (GT classes in both series will continue in the new Grand Am, for instance) and I am very optimistic about the future.

NASCAR did not get to be the Goliath it is today by being stupid. I am confident the people in charge will do a good job with sports-car racing.

Short Takes:

— I’ll always think of it as the Busch Clash but that non-points, pre-Daytona 500 pole-winners-only invitational that went on to become the Budweiser Shootout will now be known as The Sprint Unlimited at Daytona. NASCAR calls it “the fans’ race.” Gee, I always thought they all were. . . .

— Carroll Shelby, Skip Barber, Bobby Rahal, Andy Porterfield and Bill Noble are the latest to be named to the SCCA’s Hall of Fame. . . .

—   A.J. Allmendinger and Regan Smith will split the driving chores at Phoenix Racing this Sprint Cup season. . . .

—   The Ontario Topless Sprints series, which was soft-launched a year or so ago, has an aggressive 2013 planned with five stand-alone events and a number of co-sanctioned races planned. The non-winged sprinters will start the season June 15 at the Chatham-area South Buxton Speedway. . . .

—   This in from Adam Saal, who handles PR for some of the drivers assigned to Woodbridge-based AIM Autosport:

“The No. 69 AIM Autosport Team FXDD and No. 61 R.Ferri AIM Motorsport Racing with Ferrari F458s wrapped up their first official event as a two-car GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series team with positive results this past weekend at the Roar Before the Rolex 24 At Daytona test. The No. 69 AIM/FXDD Ferrari F458 and drivers Emil Assentato, Anthony Lazzaro, Nick Longhi and Guy Cosmo ended up ninth fastest overall in the GT ranks at the end of the three-day test while the debuting sister No. 61 AIM/R.Ferri Ferrari F458 improved in every session. Full-season No. 61 teammates Jeff Segal and Max Papis will be joined by Ferrari stalwarts Toni Vilander and Giancarlo Fisichella for the season-opening Rolex 24 at Daytona later this month.”

Fastest driver at the test was Vancouver’s Michael Valiante, who was behind the wheel of a Daytona Prototype entered by Michael Shank Racing. Scott Maxwell of Toronto was fastest in testing for the Continental Tire support race. . . .

—   Despite rumours to the contrary, Danica Patrick will be front and centre in Go Daddy commercials during this year’s Super Bowl telecast. . . .

—   At least four young Canadian drivers have signed on to compete in the U.S. Formula 2000 Series this year.

Once upon a time, in the 1970s and ‘80s, the world came to Canada to race in memorable series like Formula Atlantic and the Porsche Cup. Except for the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, there is no national racing series in Canada – particularly a single-seat, open wheel series where these young drivers could hone their skills at home instead of heading for the U.S.

Surely there is someone out there with the skill, drive, ambition and connections to get such a series off the ground again. Guys like  David Deacon and Jack Christie did it before; can they (or someone else) not do it again?

Auto racing: John Judson, Salt Walther and me

A couple of years ago, I wrote a column for Toronto Star Wheels about evil sometimes being present at race meetings.

I wasn’t talking about meets where there’s a fatal accident. Auto racing is a dangerous sport and death can be part of the game.

But sometimes there’s something else going on. I choose to call that evil.

In that column, for instance, I discussed the Grand Prix of San Moreno at Imola, Italy, in 1994, when Rubens Barrichello was injured in practice on the Friday, Roland Ratzenberger was killed in qualifying Saturday, there was an accident at the start of the race on Sunday in which drivers and spectators could have been injured, or worse, and then Ayrton Senna (left) was killed in a crash shortly after the safety car pulled off and the race was re-started.

Even after all that, a wheel came off a car in the pits later on and narrowly missed beaning people, including one other driver.

There was really nothing else that could have gone wrong that weekend.

But there was definitely something sinister present. It was evil.

I was reminded of evil this weekend when I heard the news that David (Salt) Walther had died at age 65. (Click here for Robin Miller's tribute.)

Many will remember that Walther was terribly burned in an accident on the front straightaway at Indianapolis in 1973 (left). It was a horrible crash (my colleague, Gary Grant, had a link to the video – click here – in Monday’s Insider Report at wheels.ca) but it wasn’t the only accident that May.

In fact, May 1973 was an absolutely horrid month in racing. It was evil, and there is no other explanation for it.

Shortly after practice started at Indy, in which rain was almost a constant and several racers had ridden their cars into walls, three drivers – Bobby Allison (yes, him), Gordon Johncock and Dick Simon – flew to Talladega, Ala., to race in the NASCAR Winston 500. A massive crash in which 21 cars were eliminated (Allison’s among them) saw several drivers injured, including Wendell Scott, who never fully recovered and was never able to race in NASCAR again. 

Back at Indianapolis, popular driver Art Pollard was killed on the first day of qualifying. Pollard (left, who drove a turbine car for Andy Granatelli at Indy in 1968) was a star of the old Western Canada-northwestern United States CAMRA supermodified series, out of which came Indy drivers Jim Malloy, Eldon Rasmussen, the Sneva brothers (Tom and Jerry) and Cliff Hucul, among others. Pollard's death was a big loss.

Rain delayed the Indy 500's scheduled 11 a.m. Central Time start on Monday, May 28, and it was after 3 p.m. when the green flag finally flew. There was an immediate 11-car crash and Salt Walther’s mount very nearly went into the crowd. After touching wheels with another car, the No. 77 Dayton Steel Wheel Special climbed up the retaining wall and sprayed fuel on spectators, injuring 11 of them.

Eleven cars crash, 11 spectators are hurt; coincidence, or what?

The front end of Walther’s car was torn off and photographs of his upside down car with his lower legs and feet sticking out (left) were published on front pages all over the world.

Walther survived, albeit scarred for life. His addiction to morphine and the other pain killers that helped him to recover from his burns plagued him for the rest of his days.

The rains that came almost at the same time as the accident forced cancellation of the 500 until the following day but further inclement weather kept it from being restarted until the Wednesday.

In the race that finally got going, Swede Savage lost control coming out of Turn 4 and crashed in a ball of fire. Although alive when taken from the speedway by ambulance, Savage (left, below) was to eventually die. But in the commotion and fear that immediately followed the crash, a crew member for another team who was running toward the scene was struck and killed by a fire truck travelling the wrong way along pit road.

When the rains came yet again, the race was stopped on Lap 133. Only 11 cars were running (11 again?) and only two were on the lead lap. Gordon Johncock was declared the winner.

There was no Victory Banquet in 1973. No victory laps for the winner. Three people were dead and the career of another was cut short by injuries.

Evil.

########

Now, I was at Indianapolis in 1973 but I was there as a spectator, not as a reporter. I’d recently left the Globe and Mail, where I’d covered every 500 from ’69 through ’72. I’d just started at the Star and Frank Orr was on the car racing beat, so if I wanted to be at the 500, I’d have to pay my own way and, well, Indy was Indy for me in those days and there was no way I could miss it.

My travelling companion was the late John Judson, a fantastic guy who was more than twice my age but we fit together like two peas in a pod. "Jud" was a WWII veteran who was involved in the restoration of a Lancaster bomber (he’d been a gunner on one) and earned his living as an oil-company dispatcher (leading to his classic response, when asked what he did: "I’m in oil."). He also learned how to ride a motorcycle at age 65 and that sort of thing is five-star in my books.

(If there’s a perfect death, Jud’s was close: he passed away in 1978 while at the bar of the Ashbridge’s Bay Yacht Club in Toronto. He’d just tucked into a large Canadian Club and ginger ale and – just like that – was gone.)

It had been a disappointing weekend that end of May in '73. When you went to Indy in those days, there was a full weekend of racing leading up to the classic, starting with the USAC sprint cars at the Indiana State Fairgrounds and then the Night Before the 500 midget races at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Rain had washed out both events. In fact, it was raining so hard - and the temperature would be warm one minute and chilly the next - that some weather reports suggested a tornado was possible.

To pass the time, we did a lot of eating and drinking, not necessarily in that order. Jud enjoyed playing a game in which he would flirt with the female bartenders, just to see how far he could get, and I – being married at the time – would keep track of how he did so I could entertain him on the drive home. Trust me: when it’s raining in Indianapolis in the springtime, you sometimes have to grasp at straws.

In any event, on race day, we’d driven into the infield of the massive Indianapolis Motor Speedway through the tunnel midway between the third and fourth turns. As the day stretched out – it would rain for 10 minutes and then dry up for an hour, then rain for 10 minutes and so-on – and the race kept being delayed, we decided to move the car closer to the exit, just in case. This turned out to be a very wise move.

A little after 3 p.m., the command went out: Gentlemen, Start Your Engines! There was a hot dog stand right in the middle of the Turn 3 infield and Jud and I looked at each other and, silently saying "What the hell," managed to climb up on top of it.

The crowd is still huge at Indy each May but the Indy cars and the 500 were really the big dogs back then so every seat was filled in the stadium and there were thousands of people in the infield straining to see something – anything – and here John Judson and I were standing on top of a hot dog stand and we could see forever and we could see it perfectly.

As a result of this catbird seat we occupied, it quickly became very clear that the U.S. Auto Club officials in charge of the "Greatest Spectacle In Racing" should never have tried to start that race. Although the skies had looked dark when we were down on the ground, once we were head-and-shoulders above everyone else, it quickly became clear that the weather was about to let loose again and there was no way anybody was going to be able to go racing for any length of time.

And it was as if the drivers didn’t have their heads in it, either. I have never seen a worse set of parade laps nor a worse pace lap in all my years of going to car races before or since. The drivers were all over the place and out of line and although they seemed to get it together at the last second before pulling onto the main straight for the start, you could sense disaster coming.

And come it did.

As the field went through Turn 4, I felt the first sprinkles. "It’s starting, Jud," I said. And then I heard the voice of the late, legendary, Speedway announcer Tom Carnegie, say these words:

"And the green flag is out! . . . There’s a fire. . . And another fire. . ."

And it started to pour rain as he was saying those words and Jud and I, without speaking again, were off that hot dog stand and running for the car. We were in it and moving before anyone else could react.

We moved so quickly that we were the very first car through that tunnel and on out of the Indianapolis Speedway. We were dry and safe and soon home at our 38th Street Holiday Inn, where we sat drinking maragaritas and smoking long, unfiltered cigarettes and watching replays of the horror on the TV set in the hotel’s lounge.

And Salt Walther (left) was fighting for his life underneath a car that was caught up in an accident at the start of an Indianapolis 500 race that should never, ever have happened.

My wife sometimes asks me how, when I see things like this happen, I can continue to love this sport as a do.

I sometimes have a hard time answering.

- Norris McDonald