Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

AJAC ‘best of’ list the only one that counts

Although this is primarily an auto racing blog, there are occasions when I, as editor of Toronto Star Wheels and Wheels.ca, will discuss policy. This is one of those times. NM

Every time a freelance journalist drives a car for review in Toronto Star Wheels, we acknowledge that the vehicle was provided by the manufacturer.

When one of our journalists goes to Europe or the United States for an unveiling or to attend a car show, we state at the end of the article that the manufacturer paid for the trip.

We are transparent about this, almost to a fault.

More: Behind the wheel of the best – this year’s TestFest winners

The policy was initiated by the late Dennis Morgan, the founder of Wheels, to deflect suggestions of conflicts-of-interest. “We could not do what we do without the assistance of the auto manufacturers,” Morgan said.

“We have to tell our readers.”

In fact, with the exception of Consumer Reports magazine, most media — newspapers, automotive websites, magazines — are dependent on the manufacturers, although many won’t admit it.

Only recently did one of Canada’s national newspapers — the original one — start to publish a paragraph acknowledging this reality. Rarely do you find this admission anywhere else.

The reason, of course, is that none of us (except for the previously mentioned Consumer Reports) can afford to buy the cars, motorcycles or light trucks in order to review them. We have to partner with the automakers in order to do our job.

There are those who will say that this arrangement automatically compromises the reviews we publish, which is true to a point: if Wheels writers trashed just about every vehicle they tested, I think it’s fair to say we wouldn’t have as much cooperation from the automakers as we do.

But automakers are like classical musicians: they want to be reviewed and they are not averse to criticism. And Wheels writers never pull their punches. If there’s something wrong with a vehicle, they will say so and the manufacturers appreciate it. But with the bad always comes good, and our correspondents include that in their reviews too.

I can say with pride that the men and women who write for us are the best in the business. Many of them were in Niagara-on-the-Lake this week participating in the annual Automobile Journalists Association of Canada TestFest, in which members drive and evaluate 2013-model-year cars on sale in Canada.

The best in 11 categories were chosen (see Page 13 of today’s Wheels section for the winners) and the 2013 Canadian Car of the Year and the Utility Vehicle of the Year selected. The last two winners won’t be announced until the Canadian International AutoShow in Toronto next February.

As is the case with individual journalists and publications, the cars entered in the TestFest were provided by the manufacturers. In fact, they paid $7,900 per car for the privilege of having the vehicle judged. The tests were conducted in a manner that encouraged fairness: journalists assigned to a category drove all the vehicles along the same route and under the same conditions and filled out a secret ballot. The scores on the ballots were then tabulated by Canadian accounting firm KPMG and they determined the winners.

Toronto Star Wheels is an AJAC-oriented publication. We like the way TestFest is organized as well as the methodology employed. It’s not foolproof, but it’s about as close as you can get to impartiality.

In recent years, other auto-writer groups have issued “best of” lists and sometimes they were published in Wheels. That won’t happen any more, for several reasons.

First, the potential for confusion in the marketplace increases exponentially with the number of lists published.

Second, and most important, the AJAC results have more legitimacy than a discussion leading to consensus, usually done over dinner that is sometimes arranged by an automaker, which is the way some of those other organizations operate.

There is only one Canadian Car of the Year and one Utility Vehicle of the Year and they are selected by the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada.

On NASCAR, pit crews and the Petit Le Mans

The Delta Wing finished sixth at Road Atlanta

News and musings following a big weekend of auto racing:

Bruno Spengler, a French-born Canadian citizen from Saint-Hippolyte, Que., won the German Touring Car (DTM) Championship Sunday for BMW.

He won the title in grand style by racing to victory in the last DTM race of the season at the Hockenheimring.

It was Spengler’s first championship. He was the good soldier for Mercedes for years and years but was never able to close the deal. He moved to BMW this season when the marque returned to the DTM after a 20-year absence and stepped right up.

The other Canadian in the field, Robert Wickens of Guelph and Toronto, retired after 20 laps. His rookie reason in touring cars was not the success that he, and his fans, had hoped for.

For complete details, click here

NASCAR Canada held a reception on Saturday at the Hyatt-Regency Hotel on King St. W. to honour the 2012 Canadian Tire Series champion, D.J. Kennington of St. Thomas, the other drivers in the series, and the many officials and sponsors that make the National Championship the success that it is.

Dana Gladstone of major sponsor Canadian Tire said a few words, as did series director Brad Moran. The drinks were free and the hors d’ouvres were hot. It was very nice.

However (there’s always one or two of those, aren’t there?), when NASCAR purchased CASCAR from founder Tony Navotny in 2006, it was a big deal. Following the 2007 season, its first under the NASCAR banner, the Canadian Tire Series participants were treated to a lovely banquet at an east Toronto hotel. TSN’s Vic Rauter was the MC and all the drivers, wives, crew members and sponsors turned out for what was a really swell time.

Since then, everybody’s had to make do with an annual two-hour reception and, frankly, it’s not enough for a National Championship.

This should be a Big Deal – and it’s not.

One other thing. If I went to Florida as a representative of the media of Canada and mispronounced the names of – say – some of NASCAR’s favourite sons ("I’d like to say thanks to Bill FRANK and the FRANK family . . .") I think I’d be run out of town on a rail.

This is the fourth or fifth year that I’ve had to listen to some NASCAR executive fly up to Toronto and mangle the name of the patron saint of Canadian motorsport, Gilles Villeneuve, while mispronouncing the name of the race track in Montreal that’s named after him.

Memo to NASCAR: It’s Sir-quee Jeel Veel-noov, NOT sir-cut gil vilnuff.

You would think someone would have had the good manners to ask how to say it corrrectly by now, wouldn’t you?

Okay, enough of that.

Jim and Joel Robinson, who produce the Canadian Tire racing TV programs for TSN, were singled out for praise and they do a great job. Here’s a link to a video that’s representative of their work.

Now, the reception was rife with rumour that NASCAR is on the verge of making an announcement about either a truck series race or a Nationwide Series race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park next season.

One fellow "in the know" said it was a lock that the Camping World Series trucks would be the headliner at the track next May 24 long weekend.

But with the Nationwide cars out of Montreal for 2013, I still say the possibility of that race being moved to Old Mosport is very real. And the fact that a Nationwide car was practising out there in the last two weeks just adds to the intrigue.

We should know in the next week or two at the most whether one or more of NASCAR’s touring series will be at CTMP next year. Cross fingers.

Just before I wrap up the "Canadiana" portion of this column, I must say that poor James Hinchcliffe must rue the day he agreed to travel to Australia to participate in a V8 Supercar race on the Gold Coast Down Under.

They ran two races at the weekend and he didn’t finish either one of them.

Click here for a link to a video showing how his first race went. And the second one wasn't much better.

Okay, moving right along, the Daytona Beach city council has approved an application filed by International Speedway Corp. to develop some land it owns adjacent to the storied speedway as well as an application from the Daytona Speedway itself for redevelopment.

Want to take a guess what that all means?

Hint: look all around downtown Toronto and what do you see?

Condominiums.

Actually, I’m surprised they’ve waited this long. And I’m puzzled why they haven’t started down that road at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, too.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship ran its sixth Chase for the Championship race at Kansas Speedway Sunday and it was won by Matt Kenseth. For complete details, click here.

Question: Kenseth has won two of the six races in the Chase to date. Why is he in NINTH place in the standings.

Why don’t the drivers who make it into the Chase start off even, as is the case in most other sports when the playoffs start?

Why aren’t the Chase drivers scored differently in the playoffs, with winning being the only thing?

It is wrong that Brad Keselowski and Kenseth have each won two races in the six that have been run since the Chase started (Clint Bowyer and Denny Hamlin won the others) and yet Keselowski is in first place in the standings and Kenseth is in ninth.

Nuts.

The North American sports car season is finito. Saturday at Road Atlanta, the American Le Mans Series ran its Petit Le Mans 10-hour race and the winners were (this can get complicated):

- Neel Jani, Nicolas Prost and Andrea Belicchi finished first overall and first in Prototype 1 driving a Lola-Toyota.

- Scott Tucker, Christophe Bouchut and Luis Diaz were second overall and first in P2 in an HPD ARX-Honda.

- Alex Popow, Ryan Dalziel and Toronto’s Mark Wilkins won the Prototyep Challenge class in an Oreca-Chevrolet. They were seventh overall.

-Scott Sharp, Toni Vilander and Johannes van Overbeek were first in GT in a Ferrari Italia.

- Henrique Cisneros, Mario Farnbacher and Jakub Giermaziak won the GT Challenge class in a Porsche 911 GT3.

Muscle Milk Picket Racing won the team and drivers’ championship in the glamour-puss P1 class. Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf fought back from early-race adversity to wrap up both titles.

Now, an incident at Kansas Speedway and another at Road Atlanta illustrated perfectly this weekend why auto racing is the most complex and exciting team sport there is.

At Kansas, Jimmy Johnson’s pit crew kept him on the lead lap while doing repairs to his car after he backed it into the outside wall early in the race. He recovered to finish ninth and to score enough points to stay just seven behind Chase leader Keselowski, who finished eighth.

It took the Muscle Milk crew a little longer – an hour, actually – to repair the damage after Luhr tangled with a GT Challenge car early in the Petit Le Mans. But their expertise and effort was unparalleled on this day and they got the car back on track for the drivers to score sufficient points to wrap up the championship.

Great stuff !

And one last thing: Don Panoz’s pet, the Delta Wing project powered by Nissan, finished sixth overall in the Petit Le Mans, driven by Gunnar Jeannette and Lucas Ordonez.

You will recall that Jeanette was knocked for a loop late in the week during practice and the race car emerged a mess. Once again, it was the crew that saved the day.

They repaired and reworked the car in time for Saturday’s race – an amazing achievement.

Panoz, in an interview, said he still thinks there is an open-wheel future for the car. 

Take it to Indy next May, I say. If Andy Granatelli could get his turbine to work there in 1967, Dr. Don should be able to find a way to get the DW into the 2013 classic's qualifying line, don’tcha think?

NASCAR will use sports cars to fight IndyCar, F1

If you are in the ketchup business, you are in it to dominate the market. If need be, you will do just about anything and everything to put your competition out of business.

Same with beer, soft drinks or politics: if you’re a winner, your attitude is that this town ain’t big enough for the two (or more) of us.

Like it or not, this is also the way it is in big-league auto racing.

I’m not talking about the drivers, who obviously are out there to beat each other.

I’m talking about sanctioning bodies and I think this is the thinking behind NASCAR’s purchase recently of the American Le Mans Series.

There’s more to this than a simple buyout. Much more.

The competition for auto racing sponsorship mega-dollars, primarily, and bums-in-the-seats is heating up in the United States.

For years, NASCAR has had the No. 1 position all to itself but the ground is shifting.

Formula One is returning to the U.S., with a vengeance. After a promising start, F1 racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway stumbled badly: people really didn’t take to race cars going the wrong way at the fabled facility and the tire fiasco in 2005, when only six cars “raced,” and Michael Schumacher’s dumb attempt to “tie” with teammate Rubens Barrichello in 2002 turned the event into a joke.

After the 2007 race, F1 left the U.S. again — this time with its tail between its legs.

Next month, F1 returns to the States for a race at a purpose-built circuit outside Austin, Tex., and you can almost feel the excitement in the air all the way up here. There are only a few tickets left for the inaugural event. It is going to look fabulous on television. The Circuit of the Americas will rank right up there with Abu Dhabi and some of the other, newer, GP venues in the world.

And in about seven months, a second U.S. Grand Prix will be held, this one through the streets of several picturesque towns in New Jersey with the New York City skyline in the background.

This will be a powerful one-two punch.

Talking about television — there was a reference several paragraphs ago — Formula One has just signed a new deal with NBC to take race, qualifying and practice coverage away from the Fox-owned Speed Channel, starting in 2013. Bernie Ecclestone is delighted, and said he expects NBC to “promote Formula One to a level not seen before in the United States” across three platforms: over-the-air, cable and digital.

Although it has had its ups and downs, NBC is the most powerful and influential television network in the U.S., followed by its two old-time rivals ABC and CBS. Fox and its subsidiaries are way off in the distance.

Meantime, after years of struggle because of a civil war and coupled with bad management, the IZOD IndyCar Series has regained its sea legs and is embarking on an expansion program in 2013 that will see double-header races promoted in three of North America’s largest markets: Detroit, Toronto and Houston. Led by CEO Randy Bernard, IndyCar is making serious waves again.

The return of Formula One with not one but two races in a little more than half a year and a rejuvenated IndyCar series spells bad news for NASCAR.

It’s not that it won’t hold its traditional audience but the potential for NASCAR to grow is substantially limited in the face of increased competition, particularly in the boardrooms of Madison Avenue.

And anybody who knows anything about business is aware that it’s not good enough to just make a profit any longer; it’s the rate of growth and ability to attract new business that counts.

Now, NASCAR has the oval track crowd in its pocket. But the road-racing audience — that’s another kettle of fish.

NASCAR created the Grand American Road Racing Series in 1999 and took the Rolex Sports Cars Series under its wing in 2000 when the U.S. Road Racing Championship went out of business. Much like it's handled its Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Camping World truck series championships, NASCAR concentrated on cost-effective sports car racing rather than high-tech. The result was club racing. The people doing the racing had a fine time but the product was not particularly spectator-friendly. This year’s Daytona 24 was a fine example: a good race with zero people there to watch it.

The Grand Am has been in competition with the much more exotic and high-tech American Le Mans Series, which puts on good races in front of sizable crowds. But much like the Indy car war, sports car racing was stymied when it came to growth because of two series instead of just one. As IndyCar has benefitted from unification, so could sports car racing — if some one or some thing wanted to make it happen.

Don Panoz, who started the ALMS, told me once that he had talked to NASCAR about unification but had balked “because they wanted to run everything." NASCAR finally made Panoz an offer he couldn’t refuse and unification will happen in 2014 under the Grand Am banner.

Since the announcement, many people have speculated about the makeup and direction of the new series and there has been an underlying suggestion that NASCAR will “dumb it down” so it’s much like the present Grand Am Series.

I thought so initially too. I’ve since changed my mind — and here’s why.

NASCAR bought the ALMS in order to be in control of what will eventually be a very high-tech sports car racing series to compete directly against the IndyCar Series and to blunt any inroads Formula One might have designs on making into the boardrooms of corporate America.

To do otherwise would be folly. And NASCAR has already indicated it will be going in that direction by meeting in Paris with officials of the Le Mans-centric Automobile Club of the West, which organizes and makes the rules for the annual 24-hour race.

NASCAR can revert to being a growth-oriented corporation by being as upscale and as high tech as it can in sports car racing.

And by so doing, it can cut IndyCar and F1 off at the pass.

On weekend results, concussions and Tony George

When it comes to speed, nobody (and nothing) will be able to beat Felix Baumgartner’s amazing performance Sunday when he became the first human being to break the sound barrier without the aid of an aircraft. For details, click here.

Back here on Earth, however, there were these racing developments:

– Sebestian Vettel has his groove back – he won the Grand Prix of Korea Sunday (click here for details) - and the F1 championship is up for grabs with four races to go. Vettel’s Red Bull-Renault teammate, Mark Webber, was second in Korea with Fernando Alonso third in a Ferrari.

– Clint Bowyer won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase for the Championship race at Charlotte Motor Speedway Saturday night (click here for details), mainly by avoiding running out of gas. It was a classic "fuel economy run," with Denny Hamlin finishing second and Jimmie Johnson third.

– Antoine L’Estage of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., and co-driver Nathalie Richard of Halifax won the Pacific Forest Rally at the weekend. The victory, plus their previous three wins and one second-place finish, saw them clinch their fifth Canadian Rally Championship.

Hardy Schmidtke of Cochrane, Alta., and John Hall of Edmonton were second in the rally, while Max Riddle and Aaron Neumann, both of Vancouver, finished third. Challengers for the championship, Leo Urlichich of Toronto and Carl Williams of Wales, crashed out early.

– Drag racer Eric Latino of Whitby, the subject of a cover page article in Toronto Star Wheels on Labour Day weekend, won the Pro Mod title at the annual Shakedown Nationals in Englishtown, N.J. The Shakedown Nationals is the Indy 500 of Outlaw drag racing for door cars. Well done, Eric.

And then there were these other racing developments:

– Speed TV seems on the way out.

– It’s only a matter of time before Tony George takes over Indy car racing – again.

– The can of worms that’s been opened by Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s concussion.

Speed TV first.

This story came out of the blue last Friday afternoon when a strange item was posted on speedtv.com saying, in so many words, that Speed Channel had lost the TV rights to F1 racing in the United States.

But it didn’t say who, or what, had them for 2013 and beyond and there has been much speculation – since confirmed – that it’s NBC, which would put some of the races on the main network and the rest on its NBC Sports Network channel, formerly Versus, which also has the IZOD IndyCar Series races and, let us not forget, the NHL in the U.S.

Now, there are several aspects of this story worth discussing.

First, Canadian F1 fans don't watch the races on Speed now, so it really doesn’t matter where and with whom Bernie Ecclestone chooses to do business with south of the border. TSN has owned the Canadian rights for years and if TSN doesn’t want to continue then I’m sure Rogers Sportsnet will step in, as it did recently by announcing it would be showing the IndyCar Series races from now on.

In the end, as long as somebody televises F1 races in Canada, I don’t really care who it is.

However, I do enjoy Speed for its Speed News coverage of racing that runs through the weekend, culminating with the 7 p.m. Sunday night show Speed Center. TSN and Sportsnet pretty much pay lip service to auto racing on their sports news shows (as do the all-sports U.S. networks) so Speed Center on Sunday night is a wonderful hour for those of us racing junkies who need a solid fix at the end of the weekend.

Although I don’t want watch it regularly, the Sunday night program Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain is usually a worthwhile hour of racing information and, more important, gossip. And I enjoy – usually, and if I have time – the Sunday morning pre-NASCAR race program, Race Day.

But the rest of it – Pinks All Out, Gearz, Pass Time, Dumbest Stuff on Wheels, and so-on – is boring and a waste of time and a money-losing proposition and is likely why parent company Fox Sports will soon turn the channel into an all-sports network to compete against ESPN and NBC Sports Channel.

– Now, the Tony George and IndyCar story.

It’s interesting how this story has developed. There have been hints, for months, that something was up. But what?

Then, the respected publication Sports Business Journal came out with a story a couple of weeks ago saying George and a group of people including Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi had made an offer to purchase the series from the people who own the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

As this is all about politics (isn’t everything?), certain reporters with vested interests got all sorts of people to deny it. The president of the Speedway said the series wasn’t for sale and even George himself said the story was inaccurate.

However, you will note that Tony George did not say the story was wrong. You will note that the president of the Speedway did not deny that somebody was trying to buy the race series.

Now it turns out that Penske knows all about this but says he isn’t involved. Ganassi says he has an open mind about a takeover but hasn’t done anything about it.

At the end of the day, if George has the money needed to buy the series, he will get it.

Open-wheel racing in the United States was once sanctioned by the AAA. After the Le Mans tragedy in 1955, when more than 80 people were killed when a car went into the crowd, the AAA withdrew from racing and the Indianapolis Speedway owner, Tony Hulman, was instrumental in the formation of the U.S. Auto Club (USAC) to sanction Indy-type car racing.

Although Hulman had influence within the USAC, he wasn’t involved in its operation. And although he promoted the Indy 500 and helped to promote other Indy car races, he did not run Indy car racing.

Neither did the people who took over the running of the Speedway after his death in 1977.

Tony George changed that in the mid-1990s when he started the Indy Racing League after a falling-out with the people who ran CART. In the ensuing war, that lasted until 2008, George – as president and CEO of the Speedway as well as the family business, Hulman and Co. - spent millions of dollars propping up the IRL (just as his counterpart, Kevin Kalhoven, did over at the Champ Car World Series after CART went bankrupt).

But while Kalkhoven was spending his own money, Tony George was spending some that was his and a lot that wasn't. This got him into trouble with his relatives.

George’s sisters and mother forced him out in 2010 and hired Randy Bernard to not only operate the renamed IndyCar Series but to get the budget under control. This he has done but it's still costing the Indianapolis Speedway and Hulman and Co. serious money to own and operate a racing series that is not its core business and it is only a matter of time before the money being offered to buy it is too much to refuse.

It doesn’t matter who’s in or who’s out. Tony George is the key and he wants to own Indy car racing again and who’s going to stop him?

– Finally, the Earnhardt concussion.

I can remember, years ago, looking at photographs of sprint car drivers whose eyes were totally bloodshot after flipping upside down and the captions would talk about how tough those guys were after having their "bells rung."

Awareness of head injuries and ongoing medical research now shows how dangerous this "bell ringing" is.

After knowing he’d been concussed following a testing accident at Kansas Speedway in August, and after being bashed around during the Big One at the conclusion of the NASCAR race at Talladega last weekend, Dale Earnhardt Jr. went to see a doctor and was told to stop driving for at least two races.

Now we have a firestorm of opinion, ranging from people wondering if Earnhardt would have ‘fessed up if he’d been nearer the top of the Chase standings to other race drivers suggesting that they’d felt themselves concussed but didn’t do anything about it.

Race drivers, for all their bravado and machismo, are among the most insecure people on the planet. They will – to a man and woman – walk through fire, if necessary, to keep their rides.

Why? Because they fear that the person who replaces them might do a better job and they will find themselves unemployed.

How many times does a team have a driver on standby, ready to take over if the driver who starts the race has to get out of the car because of illness or injury? And how many times has that second driver actually gotten into a race? Correct. Exactly none.

Denny Hamlin had a knee operation in 2010 and three weeks later won a race at Texas in excruciating pain because he wouldn’t take any pain killers for fear of flunking a drug test. Casey Mears was on standby in case Hamlin needed relief. He was still on standby when Hamlin drove into Victory Lane.

Last night on Speed Center, ex-crew chief Jeff Hammond said Darrell Waltrip had suffered a concussion in a crash in 1982 and "doesn’t remember the next two races." Jeff Gordon, who was on Wind Tunnel, said he’s pretty sure he’d suffered concussions. Lee Roy Yarbrough, a famous 1960s-era stock car star, died in recent years while suffering from a form of dementia brought on by numerous concussions.

The NHL, the NFL and other pro sports leagues have a protocol for dealing with athletes who’ve been knocked silly while on the ice or the field. It will be interesting to see what NASCAR does, now that this particular horse is out of the barn.

Will it continue to treat all the drivers as "independent contractors," and suggest they see their family doctor if they have a headache?

Or will it take responsibility for the athletes and have a head injury test conducted immediately after a driver has been in a crash?

Or, as I suggested the other day, will the insurance companies force the drivers and racing organizations (NASCAR in particular) to take action or else face increased premiums?

This discussion is not going to go away. How NASCAR handles it is going to be just about as important as who wins the Chase for the Championship.

Fellows optimistic about NASCAR

Several days have passed since the two big races of the weekend were held (Sebastien Vettel and Matt Kenseth were the winners in F1 and NASCAR, respectively) so today’s entry will be more of a collection of random thoughts than race reports with comment.

First, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and its NASCAR future.

Ron Fellows told me during the weekend that the cancellation of the 2013 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve was unfortunate for two reasons: as a driver, he likely won’t get to race at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve again but, more important, that when it's combined with the cancellation of the 2013 Edmonton Indy, it’s not particularly good news for Canadian motorsport in general.

Fellows said he didn’t expect the cancellation of the Montreal race would lead directly to the Nationwide Series event being moved to his facility, although he didn’t deny that the possibility had crossed his mind.

But if anything, he hinted that if there is to be a NASCAR touring series race at Old Mosport in 2013 it will likely be a round of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

And he admitted to being surprised, and encouraged, by comments published on the NASCAR.com Internet site by Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR's senior vice president for racing operations, who said the league is hoping to fill the Montreal gap with another national-series race in Canada next year, most likely a Camping World Truck Series event.

"Certainly we want to be in Canada in some capacity, either Trucks or Nationwide next year," O'Donnell told NASCAR.com on Friday. "That's a hugely important market to us. We've got some work to do certainly to make that happen. But we've got no complaints certainly about the fan base that turns out for the event."

O'Donnell called a potential Truck Series event in Canada "fairly realistic" for next season, although he declined to name the potential venue. "We've got a good shot at that," he added. "Nationwide, a much longer shot. You may be looking at 2014 for that. But I feel fairly good about our ability to bring a Truck event up to Canada in 2013."

So, in short: nothing concrete to report about NASCAR and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park as yet but, as Fellows said: "It will be an interesting next couple of weeks."

I would add that it will be an interesting next couple of years.

Okay, moving right along.

Five Ontario drivers will be at the Indinapolis Motor Speedway this Wednesday and Thursday to participate in the annual Mazda Road to Indy Test.

The test is designed to provide drivers with seat time in USF2000, Star Mazda and Firestone Indy Lights cars on the road course at the Speedway in order to showcase their talents to potential teams for the 2013 season.

Michael Adams of Courtice, Dalton Kellett of Stouffville, Nathan Blok of Pembroke and Matthew DiLeo of Innisfil will be showing their stuff in USF2000 cars. David Ostella of Maple will be auditioning for another Indy Lights ride.

Good luck to all those drivers.

Short takes:

- Lewis Hamilton is now reportedly "rubbishing" his teammate at McLaren, Jenson Button. I can hardly wait for him to get to Mercedes and try pulling some of this stuff. He’s going to a German team that has a German driver. Does anybody really think he’s going to be No. 1 over there?

- Romain Grosjean is getting a bum rap, I think. Crashing is what you get at the start of just about every F1 race because it’s a race. Some guys get going like rockets, others are not so fast. Kimi Raikkonen hit the back of Fernando Alonso’s car and Alonso was out of the race. Didn’t hear much about that. Grosjean hits Webber, who was able to keep going, and all hell breaks loose. Romain is everybody’s favourite whipping boy at the moment. What if it had been a veteran F1 driver who ran into Webber? Would he have been so vocal? Would he have been so insulting?

- I didn’t hear anybody criticizing Tony Stewart after the Big One at Talladega. (Grosjean might fit in really well in NASCAR . . .) I didn’t hear anybody suggesting that Stewart be thrown out of the next race. They don’t hand out grid penalties in NASCAR, do they?

Stewart owned up to making a mistake. "I was trying to win the race," he said.

Isn’t that what racers are supposed to do?

- I think I should run a pool on how long Kurt Busch lasts with Furniture Row Racing. One race? Six? A quarter of the 2013 season? Sunday, he makes a fool of himself again and this time he blames his "competitive desire." There is no hope for that man.

- The NASCAR story on the autosport.com website starts like this:

"Matt Kenseth claimed his second NASCAR Sprint Cup win of the season by driving through the carnage of a last-lap pileup at Talladega."

How can you drive through something when you’re already ahead of it? See photo above. Kenseth is in the pink car. The one in front. Which is where he was when the wreck started.

NASCAR: Twelve drivers, five words each; Schumi retires

I work with a guy, Bob Bishop, who’s a great fan of NASCAR racing.

A family man, he still finds time to travel to at least a race a season and is particularly partial to Darlington Raceway and the Bojangles’ Southern 500.

Bob has his own blog and on the eve of the Good Sam Roadside Assistance 500 (what a mouthful, eh?) at Talladega Superspeedway, he’s come up with a unique little feature entitled "Twelve drivers, five words each," in which he lists the 12 Chase for the Championship competitors and makes an editorial comment in five words (unlike some writers he knows – me, for example – who just go on, and on, and on).

Here are two examples:

Blue Deuce: Best driver not named Johnson

Junior: It’s not going to happen

Click here for the rest

Michael Schumacher did today in Japan what he should have done before Lewis Hamilton announced that he's taking his seat at Mercedes in 2013 and announced his retirement at the end of the season.

Click here for details

Good luck to him from now until the finish. Let's hope he exits the sport with dignity and grace and goes on to lead a long and fulfilling life as an ambassador for motorsport and an advocate for better driver training and driver safety.

I made mention the other day of the passing of Chris Economaki, editor and publisher emeritus of National Speed Sport News. In the tribute, I wrote about his appearance at the first Canadian Motorsports Expo in 2007 at the Toronto Congress Centre (it’s since moved to the International Centre).

Economaki appeared on a media panel at the Expo and entertained the audience with his wit and wisdom. He was a remarkable man who was interchangeable among the media; equally at ease while writing his column, talking on the radio or reporting from the pits at NASCAR, Indy car and Formula One races.

Glenn Butt, who promoted the first Expo with his father, Ed (Inside Track Motorsport News magazine is now a partner), emailed me a photo of members of that elite panel that he took at the conclusion of that first presentation - and don’t we all look snazzy in our Motorsports Expo jackets?

From left, in the photo above are: Erik Tomas of Raceline Radio, yours truly, Chris Economaki, Greg MacPherson of Inside Track and Tim Miller of the Hamilton Spectator and Toronto Star Wheels.

Services for Economaki were held earlier this week in New Jersey and an old friend of his, Jim Bray of Brantford, the second Canadian to qualify and race in the Daytona 500, flew in to pay his respects.

Bray was surprised that there was nobody from NASCAR among the 100 or so mourners. "I had a chat with Roger (Penske) and Skip (Matczak, a noted short-track racer) says hello," reported Bray. "And Foyt (A.J.) was a pallbearer. But I didn’t see anybody from NASCAR; just short-track racers and Indy people were there."

The results of that final CASC-Ontario Region Formula 1600 race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park are now official and the 2012 series champion is Michael Adams of Courtice.

Caitlin Johnston of Orangeville, who was tied with Adams going into that final race last Sunday and who led most of the race until she was knocked out of second place and into a tire wall by Adams on the last corner of the last lap, was unable to successfully appeal the result.

Both drivers had wonderful seasons. It’s too bad it ended like it did but, as they say, that’s racing.

Meantime, I have to correct an error I made when I wrote about this series in my Monday entry. It is no longer called "Formula Ford," as Honda engines are also allowed, so the correct name is F1600.

(However, I suggest they go back to the drawing board on that name too, because although the Ford engines are 1600 cubic centimetres, the Honda engines are only 1500 CCs.)

Tony George reportedly seeking to take over IndyCar

One day after CEO Randy Bernard officially released the IZOD IndyCar Series' 2013 schedule on - of all places - the Speed TV cable show Wind Tunnel, the publication Sports Business Journal reported that Bernard is walking on very shaky ground because a group led by Tony George is trying to purchase the series.

The future of the series, and Bernard's tenure as president and CEO, rests - according to the Journal - with Mari Hulman George, who is majority owner of shares and chairman of Hulman & Co. and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as well as being Tony George's mother.

Because Tony George has surrounded himself with the heavyweights of the Indy car world - Chip Ganassi, Roger Penske and Michael Andretti are reportedly on board - it's a pretty safe bet that his proposal will at least receive serious consideration.

Tony George, you will recall, is the fellow who broke away from CART in the mid-1990s and triggered the Indy car civil war by creating the Indy Racing League.

When CART went bankrupt in 2003, George attempted to purchase the assets in order to kill it but an Indiana judge sided with race team owners Kevin Kalkhoven, Paul Gentilozzi and Gerald Forsythe, who then formed the Champ Car World Series.

In 2008, when Kalhoven discovered others in the Champ Car paddock were quietly talking to George, he made peace with the IRL owner and a merger was eventually negotiated.

But the war had cost both sides millions and when the dust had settled, all was not well with the George family - notably Tony George's three sisters, who were resentful that their brother, in his role as president and CEO, had spent serious family money to fight the war without consulting them.

In a palace coup shortly after the 2009 Indianapolis 500, Tony George was stripped of his title and responsbilities as chairman and CEO of Hulman & Co. and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

A new president and CEO of the Speedway was hired and Bernard was convinced by one of the George sisters in 2010 to leave the professional rodeo series he was running to take over the newly named IndyCar Series.

There have been some successes since but also plenty of mistakes and Indy car insiders have been aware for some time that Tony George was plotting a comeback.  

According to Sports Business Journal, a group led by George that includes Penske, Ganassi, Andretti and one or two other influential owners (including Kevin Kalkhoven) has made a presentation to the board of Hulman & Co. and the Indianapolis Speedway to purchase control of the race series and to run it.

If true, Randy Bernard will be out of a job.

Here's another thing that I suggest will come true. Never again will the following year's Indy car schedule be formally issued to the world on a cable TV program at 9 o'clock on a Sunday night.

If you're ever looking for a definition of bush league, ladies and gentlemen, that was it.

For complete details of the Sports Business Journal story, please click here.

Toronto to get two Indy car races in 2013

Here are some Good Monday Morning thoughts on some hot auto racing topics – in the following order:

1. Toronto to get two races next July instead of just one.

2. Half-empty Dover Raceway another reason why the Chase needs road races.

3. Ontario Formula Ford Championship finale as exciting as anything in racing.

4. Final farewell for a champion journalist.

1. IndyCar 2013 schedule

The IZOD IndyCar Series announced its 2013 schedule on the Speed TV show Wind Tunnel Sunday night and the big news for fans of the Honda Indy Toronto is that there will be two races in 2013 instead of one.

And instead of TSN, Rogers Sportsnet will be broadcasting IndyCar races in Canada from 2013 on - although that announcement has not officially been made.

IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard had suggested in recent months that he wanted to increase the number of races in the series to at least 19 in 2013 and in order to reach that total he wanted to see double-headers – two races, instead of just one – promoted at some venues.

It turns out that Toronto is one of three locations selected for these double-headers – Detroit and Houston being the others. For details, click here.

Now, it’s not unusual for the Indy cars to race twice on the same card. Throughout the sport’s history, and most recently at Texas Motor Speedway, there have been "twin" races promoted with one race run to its conclusion and then a second one flagged off an hour or so later.

But what will happen in Toronto next July 13 and 14 (and at Detroit and Houston) is that the IndyCar series will be the headliner on Saturday afternoon and then again on Sunday.

Whether this will goose the gate, which is the prime reason for the move in Toronto, which has not exactly been setting the world on fire attendance-wise the last few years, is debatable.

Ever since its beginning in 1986 as the Molson Indy, the Indy cars have been the headline event on Sunday afternoon of what has been a three-day weekend of racing featuring touring cars, stock cars and other formula-car series in support of the big show.

For many years, it was almost a tradition that Canada’s premier stock car racing series, first known as CASCAR and now as the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, would be the feature event on the Saturday.

But this year, the Honda Indy felt it could do without the Canadian Tire Series, as well as the Canadian Touring Car Series, and it went with an almost complete open wheel program made up of "Road to Indy" championships like the Indy Lights and Star Mazda series.

This did not produce the boffo result the promoters expected either, and so to solve the Saturday dilemma in Toronto the Green-Savoree company that owns the Toronto race is banking on the Indy cars attracting as many people on Saturday as they have been on Sunday the last couple of years and increase the overall weekend attendance total as a result.

A lot will depend on how the Honda Indy Toronto weekend is promoted and priced.

If it was up to me (which it’s not, of course), I would charge premium prices for the seats immediately behind the pits as well as for the suites. Everybody else (kids under 12 would be free) would get in for next to nothing – ten bucks, say – in order to do one thing and one thing only: pack the place.

For that pittance of an admission, I’d also give everybody a hot dog, or a slice of pizza, and a drink. I’d have a big act rock or country concert on stage at noon each day, with the IndyCar race to start immediately after the concert.

I’d bank on a Rogers Centre-size crowd of at least 55,000 each day and at the end I’d be able to say the weekend was a huge success and that Indy car racing as a spectacle in Toronto was back.

I would suggest at this point that it would not be all that hard to sell sponsorship and advertising for the 2014 races and to start making serious money again.

We’ll see, though. All I can say at this point is that it’s going to be interesting.

The Honda Indy issued a release at 10 p.m. Sunday night. Here is what it said:

"The Honda Indy Toronto will feature an important addition in 2013: a doubleheader weekend of IZOD IndyCar Series races. The addition of back-to-back races in Toronto is a first in the history of the event, which will run July 12-14 at Exhibition Place.

"Since we acquired the race in 2008, our mandate has been to create entertainment and excitement for fans, customers, sponsors, tourism and the local community," said Charlie Johnstone, Vice President and General Manager of Green Savoree Toronto.

"A doubleheader allows us to go further, faster in the delivery of our mission and offers numerous benefits. We’re extremely excited to make it happen."

"The Honda Indy Toronto brings a shot of adrenaline to the city every summer," said David Whitaker, President and CEO of Tourism Toronto.

"With the event expanded to two marquee races Saturday and Sunday, visitors have even more reason to plan a weekend stay, while Toronto also benefits from the expanded broadcast and international exposure."

"The Honda Indy Toronto is in the final stages of confirming its support series schedule for race weekend. Fans can expect the full race lineup, along with ticket renewals and sales for 2013 to be announced in the coming weeks."

2. NASCAR needs a road race

The Chase for the Championship of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is a terrific idea. Playoffs in any sport are always more exciting than the regular season.

Or they’re supposed to be, that is.

You’d never know it by the attendance at the third race of the 10-race Chase Sunday at Dover Downs Speedway, which was half empty if not more.

Entire sections of grandstand were covered off; the rest of the place had every second seat empty.

I used to think it was the economy. Now I’m not so sure. I’m starting to think that after more than 50 years of watching stock cars go around in circles – endlessly, it seems – even hard-core fans of the sport are tired of it all.

Which brings me back to my soap-box position that NASCAR needs more road races during the regular season (Road America, Montreal, Road Atlanta) and at least one during the 10-race Chase (how about Canadian Tire Motorsport Park?)

NASCAR stock car racing on road courses is way more exciting than it is on most oval speedways (there are exceptions, of course: Daytona, Talladega) because most NASCAR drivers are more versatile than they used to be and are able to race hard and with finesse while turning right as well as left and shifting gears.

But it probably is not going to happen in the short term, which is a pity. We're all going to have to live through seven more oval races before they crown the 2012 national champion.

Brad Keselowski won his second Chase race at Dover yesterday by managing his fuel better than his opponents. Click here for full story and results.

3. Ontario Formula Fords

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: some of the most exciting racing week in and week out in these parts is the Ontario Formula Ford Challenge and this weekend was no exception.

The championship was in the balance this weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, where the Formula Ford title battle was part of the Celebration of Motorsport weekend of races that traditionally ends racing for the season at the legendary road course north of Bowmanville.

Two drivers were fighting for the championship – Michael Adams of Courtice and Caitlin Johnston of Orangeville. Johnston won Saturday’s first race of the weekend after the engine in Adams’s car gave out. He’d been running a strong second to her before being forced off track.

They went into Sunday’s race tied in points. I was unable to attend, so my good friend and ace racing reporter J. Wally Nesbitt of Inside Track magazine emailed me this report Sunday night.

"Adams got a ride in Bill Clubine's No. 64 for Sunday’s race.

"Jesse Lazare qualified on the pole, with Adams second, Sergio Pasian third and Johnston fourth.

"Johnston got the lead by the end of Lap 1, swapped it back and forth with Lazare on each of the next three laps, then took the lead from Lap 5 on.

"On the final lap, Johnston had built up a small advantage but had to slow for a spinning backmarker between Turns 4 and 5A, which allowed the pack to catch up.

"Lazare got past, leaving Johnston in control of second, with Adams third.

"Entering Turn 10, Adams made a bonzai move on the inside and forced Johnston into the tire wall. She was classified a DNF.

"The finishing order was Lazare, Jack Kitchell Jr., Pasian and Adams.

"Johnston lodged a protest but it was not upheld. She has 24 hours to file an appeal (with video proof).

"This process did not affect the race result but the championship remains in doubt."

Thank you, Wally, for that report.

I know both those drivers, I like both those drivers and I cheer for both those drivers.

This is a shame.

4. So long to Chris Economaki

Although he died at age 91 last Friday, it was over for me when his column disappeared from Page 4 of National Speed Sport News in January 2010, several months before the newspaper he owned and wrote in for more than 50 years ceased publication.

Although I thought about him after that, and talked about him with friends, I never again read an original word he wrote so his passing, for me, was somewhat muted.

Economaki was the editor and publisher of  Speed Sport, as it was known, for most of its history. It was a weekly publication that covered everything from local dirt tracks to Formula One. It was the Bible of the sport of auto racing.

Economaki – the press theatre at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is named after him – wrote what was termed the most important column in auto racing. It was the Good Stuff.

And in 1960, after ABC started televising NASCAR racing and messing it up, Bill France insisted that the network use Economaki to improve its product.

Over time, as well as doing NASCAR races, Economaki was the colour commentator and pit reporter for USAC champ car racing, Indy car racing and Formula One.

He knew everybody in the sport and knew just about everything about racing. Two things:

He said on several occasions later in his life that racing was getting too safe."You have to be able to sell the danger or people will stop watching," he said.

If he’d still been in the saddle, I wonder how he would have reacted to IndyCar’s decision to stop the race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after Dan Wheldon was killed.

And then there was the fabulous story he told at the very first Canadian Motorsports Expo in 2007.

He set the scene by explaining that ABC’s Wide World of Sports had a rookie director in charge of the live telecast of a USAC dirt champ car race at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield.

The director had noticed that every morning, A.J. Foyt would go out for a walk around the mile-long dirt oval and wanted Economaki to interview Foyt about this particular habit.

As they prepared to go on the air that Saturday afternoon, the young director went up to Economaki and reminded him one last time to talk to Foyt about his morning walk.

So they went on the air and Economaki did as he was told. He caught up to A.J. Foyt standing beside his car before the start of the 100-mile race.

I’ll let Economaki take over the telling of this story.

"So I looked at Foyt and I put the microphone up to his mouth and I said: "A.J., we’ve noticed that every morning, you take a walk around this big dirt speedway here in Springfield. Are you studying the track? Trying to find the soft spots, the places were you can take your car that might give you an advantage during the race today?

"And A.J. Foyt looked at me and said on live television on the ABC network:

'Actually, Chris, if I don’t go for a long walk first thing in the morning, I just can’t have a good sh-t."

And that was just one story. As someone who had the pleasure of being around him on a number of occasions over the years, I know he had a million of them.

As he himself was wont to write in his Speed Sport column: RIP, Chris.

Grist named 2012 Team Canada Scholarship winner

Reprinted from eFormulaCarNews.com

Rising young Ontario driver Garett Grist of Whitby is the 2012 winner of the 2012 Team Canada Racing Scholarship. The up-and-comer will represent Canada at the 41st running of the world-famous Formula Ford Festival in England in October.

Grist, who's competing this year in the very competitive U.S.  F1600 Formula F Championship Series, is the second winner of the scholarship. Quebec racer Xavier Coupal was the first last year and almost stood the Festival on its ear by finishing second in his heat, winning his semi-final race and starting the championship race from pole before being hit from behind and crashing out of the event.

Grist, a former karting standout, has consistently challenged for top honors in the Formula F championship, displaying not only great speed and race craft behind the wheel but also the skill and professionalism of a future champion outside the cockpit.

Building on a strong debut car racing season in the Ontario F1600 Championship in 2011 - which featured two wins en route to second in the point standings - Grist is currently fourth in the F1600 Formula F Championship Series title chase, with three podium visits as a rookie driving for series newcomers Bryan Herta Autosport.

Grist, a member of the Sofina Foods Drivers' Development program, is now poised to face his biggest racing challenge to date. He'll travel to the famous Brands Hatch Circuit in England to go head-to-head against the best F1600 racers in the world in the Oct. 27-28 festival.

"I am really excited to be selected for the 2012 Team Canada Scholarship," Grist said. "It is a great opportunity to represent Canada at one of the biggest Formula Ford races in the world. For anyone racing F1600, this is the event that you want be in at some point in your career.

"Xavier [Coupal] set the bar pretty high last year, so I know I have my work cut out for me. The chance to run with Cliff Dempsey Racing will be a great experience for me as a driver. I really want to thank everyone on the selection committee for believing in me. I also want to recognize the incredible group of drivers that were on the list. I have raced against most of them, and it really makes this award very special."

Grist was chosen as the 2012 Team Canada Scholarship winner following an extensive evaluation process by the 2012 selection committee of Brian Graham (Team Canada/BGR Team Grote), Ian Willis (AIM Autosport), Kyle Marcelli (Merchant Services Racing), Allan Craighead (eFormulaCarNews.com), and Norris McDonald (Toronto Star).

In what was painstaking affair, the initial list of 10 gifted drivers nominated was narrowed down to five, with Grist emerging as the scholarship winner, marginally ahead of Formula Tour 1600 Series racer Nathan Blok, USF2000 Championship driver Scott Hargrove, Ontario F1600 Championship driver Michael Adams, and USF2000 Championship racer Matthew Di Leo.

"This was a very very difficult decision," saud Graham, one of the three founders of the Team Canada Scholarship program.

"The final group of five drivers were so impressive. We went back and forth trying to pick this year's winner. If we had the funding, we'd send all five, as they are all deserving winners. That being said, we are very excited that we will have Garett piloting the Team Canada entry at this year's Formula Ford Festival and are confident we will be challenging for top honors come Sunday's Final at Brands Hatch."

The Team Canada Scholarship program would not be possible without the  assistance of its corporate sponsors, partners and supporters: Brad Morris & Grote Industries of Canada ( http://www.grote.com ), Nick Majors and the Race Driver’s Guild of Canada ( http://www.racedriversguild.ca ), Gen. Lewis Mackenzie (Ret.), Formula Tour 1600 Series (http://www.siteformulatour1600.com ),LSI Industries ( http://www.lsi-industries.com ), Rod Ends Mechanical ( http://www.rod-ends.com ), Jim Hallman, EFCN ( http://www.eformulacarnews.com ), BGR-Team Grote Racing ( http://www.briangrahamracing.com ), Bamford Produce ( http://www.bamfordproduce.com ), Bollenbach Insurance ( http://www.bollenbachinsurance.com ), Harvan Engineering Ltd. ( http://www.harvan.com ), and Door Doctor ( http://doordoctor.com ).

For more information on the Team Canada Scholarship, see http://www.teamcanadaracing.org 

You can follow the team on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/groups/216921815005015

On Michael Schumacher and NASCAR Canada fisticuffs

Yesterday, I suggested it was time that Michael Schumacher retire for good from Formula One racing because I don’t think his mental ability to process information quickly and to react physically is as razor sharp as it once was.

In other words, like the aging heavyweight who’s been on the receiving end of a left hook or right cross from a much-younger opponent and unable to do anything about it, it’s time for Schumacher to call it a day – I think.

Seems I’m not alone.

The picture above was posted on a Facebook page yesterday populated by fans of world championship leader Fernando Alonso. Click here for a link to that site.

Now, just because I think Schumacher should call it a day in F1 doesn’t mean he can’t keep racing and winning, although I would hope he doesn’t follow the lead of Rubens Barrichello and take a crack at Indy cars because that series is not the walk in the park a lot of people think it is.

But Le Mans and other European-style sports car races would be right up  Schumacher’s alley.

Meantime, last Saturday night at Kawartha Speedway, NASCAR’s "have at it, boys" dictum was taken literally by some of the Canadian Tire Series combatants.

In short, there was a fight at the finish of the last race of the season.

What got some folks riled up were the shenanigans during the green-white-checkers finish.

At the green, eventual winner (and 2012 Canadian Tire champeen) D.J. Kennington (about to win his seventh of 12 races) led Scott Steckly, Andrew Ranger, Pete Shepherd III and J. R. Fitzpatrick across the line. At some point in the next two laps – and cars were sometimes three wide at this point – Fitzpatrick got under Steckly and pushed him out of the groove and up into the marbles.

By the time Steckly regained control, most of the the front-runners had passed him by.

At the checkers, the order was Kennington, Ranger, Fitzpatrick, Shepherd, Rookie-of-the-Year Martin Roy and then Steckly, who - as you can imagine - was steaming.

On the cooldown lap, Steckly – a two-time Canadian Tire champion – and Fitzpatrick - who finished second to Kennington in points this season - played bumper cars on the backstretch.

At that point, NASCAR Canada announcer Adam Ross stopped talking about the wonderful performance of D.J. Kennington and drew everybody’s attention to the developing feud.

"J.R. Fitzpatrick has stopped his car at Scott Steckly’s pit," yelled Ross, approximately, over the track's PA system.

"He’s exchanging words with some of Steckly’s crew," he continued (these quotes are paraphrased, by the way).

"J.R. Fitzpatrick is getting out of his car and it looks like a brouhaha is developing. He’s taking quite a chance. His pit crew is all the way down at the first turn. They’re starting to run to his assistance but in the meantime J.R. Fitzpatrick is surrounded by Scott Steckly’s crew. NASCAR officials are getting involved over there. J.R. Fitzpatrick’s crew, the cavalry, are starting to arrive but they’re all out of breath . . ."

And then it was over and the Victory Lane celebrations to crown Kennington King of NASCAR Canada were held.

I had watched the race from the "press box" in the Kawartha clubhouse, so I went to the infield to track down the 24-year-old Fitzpatrick to find out what had transpired.

I found him over at the post-race tech inspection area, laughing it up and thoroughly enjoying himself.

One thing: he hook hands with his left hand and kept his right hand stuffed deep down in the pocket of his jacket. It seems it was just a tad tender.

NM: What happened, J.R.?

JRF: "Well, I got my car started (after the contact with Steckly’s) and I drove around and Scott’s crew was leaning over the wall all yellin’ at me so I stopped to have a discussion.

"One guy was gettin' really lippy so I took off my helmet and got out of the car and went over and I said, ‘Who wants to go?’ And this guy says, ‘Me,’ so I grabbed him and I got two really good shots in, wham! wham! – and that’s how I hurt my hand – and then by that time they were all over me and they got some good ones in on me too and then the officials arrived and broke it up."

NM: So you got hit?

JRF: "Yeah, I got hit on the side of the head and I got one on my ear but I don’t think anybody hit me as hard as I hit that first guy."

NM: So do you think they’re going to fine you, or anything? I mean, you have a habit of getting into scraps at this track (several years ago, he was involved in a ‘brouhaha’ with Kerry Micks and his crew)."

JRF: "Listen, I’m the only driver who brings any excitement to this series. Without me, it would be boring. Without me, all you’d have is D.J. Kennington winning seven races - and how exciting is that?"

And the whole time, he had the biggest grin on his face you’ve ever seen.