Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

'Glen duel makes case for more NASCAR road races

On Saturday, Toronto Star Wheels published a cover story by freelance writer Sylvia Proudfoot about Toronto driver Paul Dalla Lana, an ultra-successful businessman, husband and father who discovered auto racing later in life than most. In case you missed it, here’s the link.

The news today is that Saturday evening, Dalla Lana and co-driver (and coach) Bill Auberlen finished first in the GT Class of the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series race at Watkins Glen, N.Y. For Auberlen, it was his 85^th race win and his 180^th podium finish in the Grand Am series.

Dalla Lana and Auberlen have scored eight top-five GT finishes in the nine Rolex races they’ve driven together in 2012. They have two wins and four podium finishes in their No. 94 Turner Motorsport BMW M3.

They are now second in the GT championship standings, with three races remaining. The first of those three takes place at Montreal next weekend.

Now, there are exactly two road course races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season and none in the Chase for the Championship and I really want to know how come?

With the the exception of Daytona, Talladega, Bristol, Richmond, Martinsville and one or two others, why aren’t all the other Sprint Cup races on road courses?

You want excitement? You want drama? I give you yesterday’s race at Watkins Glen as a prime example of what NASCAR racing could be - and mostly isn’t.

You want boring? You want predictable? I give you Las Vegas, California, Homestead, Loudon, Kansas, Indianapolis, Pocono – and I could go on and on.

Marcos Ambrose won that edge-of-your-seat nailbiter at the Glen yesterday, with Brad Keselowski, and Jimmie Johnson winding up second and third. Clint Bowyer was fourth and Sam Hornish Jr. (and ain’t that a kick in the pants!) finished fifth, ahead of Greg Biffle, Kyle Bush, Matt Kenseth, Regan Smith and Martin Truex Jr.

When the smoke had cleared (literally) Johnson is leading the points standings with Kenseth and Biffle right behind. Dale Earnhardt Jr., who’s been leading the standings of late, is now back in fourth after a 28th-place finish yesterday.

Now, essentially what happened on the last lap is that Keselowski, who was running second to Kyle Busch with Ambrose third, hit Busch and spun him around. This resulted in damage to the front of Keselowski’s car and, although he gave as good as he got for the rest of the lap, Ambrose had a better handling car and was able to get past him at the end.

The thing that impressed me the most is that both Ambrose and Keselowski gave each other room to race. Several times that last lap, they were both off the track and each time the one who got back on the tarmac first allowed the other driver to get back on too.

Yes, they were pushing and bumping and rubbing and all the other good things that NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers do but, in the end, they both fought fair.

Here, take a look yourself.

Ambrose has had more than 140 Sprint Cup starts and now has two wins – yesterday was his second and they both have come on the road course at the Glen. That ties him for wins (also on road courses) with Juan Pablo Montoya, but Montoya has had more than 200 starts.

Now, I know that NASCAR and the majority of its fans would not go for as many road course races as somebody like me would like. But surely, after watching yesterday’s slugfest at Watkins Glen, they would have to agree that several more could be inserted into the regular schedule and at least one into the Chase.

I mean, do they have to go to Loudon twice, to Phoenix twice, to Kansas twice? Of course they don’t - and right there you have room for three more road-course races.

Other weekend racing:

Keselowski also finished second in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Watkins Glen on the weekend. He couldn’t catch the winner, Carl Edwards, but held off Sam Hornish Jr., who was third (and what a weekend he had!). Danica Patrick recorded her worst finish in NASCAR racing: dead last – although it wasn’t her fault. She was just driving along, going into the first corner on the first lap and Ryan Truex went sliding by on the grass and slid back onto the track right in front of her and stopped. She had nowhere to go. Ron Fellows of Mississauga, incidentally, finished fifth. Fellows, Patrick as well as Jacques Villeneuve, Andrew Ranger, Alex Tagliani and Patrick Carpentier will all be in action next weekend at Circuit-Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. . . .

Jordan Szoke of Brantford won the Mopar Canadian Superbike Championship round at Le Circut-Mont Tremblant on Sunday and moved closer to clinching his astounding and unprecedented eighth (that’s 8^th) national motorycle championship. He took the lead on lap 4 of the 12-lap race aboard his Waznie Racing/Parts Canada/BMW Motorrad/Canada BMW S1000RR bike and was never headed. Matthew McBride of Mississauga finished second and Jodi Christie of Keene, Ont., who’s second in the standings, was third. The 2012 season will conclude in two weeks with a double-header at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, north of Bowmanville. . . .

Returning to Watkins Glen for a moment, Ryan Dalziel and Lucas Luhr won the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series race Saturday, with Sebastien Bourdais and Alex Powpow second and Scott Pruett with Memo Rojas third – all wheeling Riley Daytona Prototype cars with the first two powered by Fords and the third-place car by a BMW motor. As reported above, Auberlen and Dalla Lana were the first GT car; they finished eighth overall. The AIM Autosport of Woodbridge Team Ferrari FXDD with drivers Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato still lead the GT standings but had a disastrous race with a first-lap crash leading to a lengthy pit stop and a seventh-place class finish. . . .

At the 52^nd Knoxville Nationals, which is the Indy 500 and Monaco Grand Prix of sprint car racing all rolled into one, Donny Schatz won his sixth A Main in the last seven years and his second straight but the big story of the night was that for the first time since the 1970s, the race rolled off without either Steve Kinser or Sammy Swindell in the 24-car field. Local racer and Knoxville track champion Brian Brown finished second, with Craig Dollansky third, Kraig Kinser fourth and Jason Meyers fifth. As well as Kinser, who hasn’t missed the feature since 1977, and Swindell, who’s been in every race in 1975, four-time Knoxville champion Danny Lasoski also failed to qualify. . . .

Sticking with sprint cars, Dain Naida of Tecumseh, Mich., won the Southern Ontario Sprints feature at Brighton Speedway Saturday. Chris Jones of Carrying Place and Jamie Collard of Burford, Ont., was third. . . .

At Calabogie Motorsports Park, Kyle Marcelli of Barrie drove his Pfaff Automotive entry to victory in both Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Michelin series races but since he is a professional racing driver (the American Le Mans Series), he can’t collect points.

At the end of the weekend (and the season, it turns out), Jean-Frederick Laberge is the Platinum champion, Bruce Gregory won the Gold championship and Robert Seitz was tops in Silver. I understand new Porsches are already being ordered up for next season. . . .

Schumi to Ferrari? Allmendinger rumours

Friday morning musings:

1. Ferrari has let the option to pick up Felipe Massa’s contract for 2013 lapse, which means he will not be in the team next year.

By interviewing Mark Webber for the job, Ferrari tipped that it’s looking for a solid second banana rather than a young speedster who would make Fernando Alonso uncomfortable.

There’s another veteran in F1 who doesn’t have a contract for next year. He’s fast — but not fast enough to really challenge Alonso — and he has strong ties to Ferrari.

I don’t think it’s beyond the realm of possibility that Michael Schumacher could sign on for 2013 and then ride off into the sunset for the last time wearing Ferrari red.

2. A.J. Allmendinger has still not said anything about what made him flunk the NASCAR drug test. There are suggestions it had to do with emphetamines and his business people are pushing the “accidental” angle — that somehow, something he ingested legally put him over the line and it was all an accident. I’m hearing it was something else entirely. And that’s the problem: when there is no clear explanation forthcoming, the rumours start. Speak up, A.J., before it’s too late.

3. Danica Patrick told the media at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Thursday that she wants to do the “double” next U.S. Memorial Day weekend — the Indianapolis 500 as well as the Coca-Cola 600 — if the logistics can be worked out and she can get a good ride at Indy. She’ll be driving in the Sprint Cup series for Tony Stewart next year and he’s done it previously, so if she wants to try I can’t see him standing in her way. Who knows? Perhaps he’ll start laying the groundwork for the eventual establishment of an Indy car team to compliment his NASCAR team after he retires from driving. If Roger, Chip and maybe Michael can do it, why not him?

4. JR Motorsports has launched a contest around everybody’s favourite all-‘round Canadian driver, Ron Fellows, who will be competing for them at Watkins Glen and at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in the Nationwide Series in August. Go to www.JRMracing.com or www.Fellows5.com for contest details and questions. The Grand Prize is a three-day driving experience package at Ron Fellows Performance Driving School at Spring Mountain Motor Resort and Country Club outside Las Vegas.

5. While a lot of attention will be on Paul Tracy in the Daytona Prototype class this afternoon in the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, let’s not lose track of the fact that the AIM Autosport of Woodbridge Ferrari driven by Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato is very likely going to win the GT class in that race. Segal will start the race with the best race-win record in the series as well as the GT class championship points lead. Segal and the first-year AIM Autosport Team FXDD Ferrari program also have a series-best six GT podium finishes in the season’s first eight races, with only one result out of the top four all year.

6. I’ve been in the newspaper (and radio and TV) biz for longer than I can even remember. One of the things I was taught by my very first city editor, Jim Pauk, was to use language that people can understand. Ergo (that’s a fancy word for “therefore”), I can’t figure out why modern communication specialists (they used to be called “reporters”) have to copy down, or repeat, everything the way it’s written or spoken. This is particularly true when it comes to medical explanations. These days, you would think we are all doctors, the way things come out in the paper and on the web. Example. Charlie Kimball apparently crashed during an IndyCar test at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.  All the stories are reporting that he suffered a fracture of the fifth metacarpal of his right hand. Okay, I’m not stupid. I suspect he has a broken hand. But why not just say it? What the heck if a metacarpal? Same thing with broken legs. Why not say, “broken leg?” Why say, “fracture of the femur?”

7. Chevrolet announced Thursday that its NASCAR Nationwide Series car for 2013 will be the Camaro. The Camaro, as we all know, is built in Oshawa. Wouldn’t it be neat if the Nationwide Series and the Grand Am Rolex Series raced a double-header at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park next summer? Maybe everybody employed at GM Oshawa would get a free ticket so they could cheer on “Canada’s car!”

8. Okay – so this is my scenario for 2013: Continuing student unrest in Montreal forces F1 to review the Canadian Grand Prix. Its future there could be in jeopardy. So Montreal needs a new headline event for Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. How about a NASCAR Sprint Cup race? This means the Nationwide Series event would be free to move to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. The Grand Am Rolex could support both. The NASCAR trucks could double-head with the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series at CTMP. Add the American Le Mans Series and the Canadian motorcycle championship and Summer 2013 at the facility north of Bowmanville could be non-stop action. I’m dreaming – but it’s a nice dream. (Oh, I have a sollution to the F1 problem. Coming Monday.)

On racing DQs, podiums and NASCAR at Mosport

Corvette Racing, westbound on the 407 at 6:15 p.m. July 22, its work done.

Fernando Alonso won the German Grand Prix (details here), Helio Castroneves won the IZOD IndyCar race in Edmonton (details here) and Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr won the American Le Mans Series Grand Prix of Mosport (details and rolling blog here).

I was at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park all weekend for the ALMS, so didn’t see the F1 or IndyCar races, other than watching the highlights on TV. So here are just some meanderings on a Monday morning about what took place over the weekend.

1. The ALMS race ended on schedule at 2:45 p.m. and the podium ceremony was held immediately after. Jorge Bergmeister and Patrick Long stood on the top step of the podium as winners of the GT class in their Porsche 911 GT3.

They got to spray the champagne and were interviewed by three different television reporters as well as the track’s PA announcer. They went with the other winners to the post-race press conference and answered questions. Then, presumably, they went off to celebrate.

At a little after 5 p.m., more than two hours later, I was putting away my computer after filing my race story to the Star’s sports department and putting the finishing touches to the online blog I’d kept going most of the weekend when a photographer hurried into the media room and said these words to an ALMS official:

"What’s the 45 car still doing in tech?"

The "45 car" was the winning car in the GT class.

The ALMS official said he didn’t know but would go and find out.

"Mind if I tag along?" I asked, and away we went.

Half way to the tech centre, we ran into the series’ main tech inspector who looked at my official friend and shook his head.

"DQ’d," he said, meaning disqualified.

What was the problem?

"Failed the stall test," the tech inspector said.

The stall test on a normally aspirated engine is done by blocking off the air-intake valves and trying to start it. If there’s no air getting in, it can’t start.

It started – which meant air was getting in somewhere; Bergmeister and Long might have had an advantage from the extra air during the race.

So the second-place car in GT – the Ferrari of Van Overbeek and Sharp – moved up a notch and the car that finished fourth in class on track, the BMW of Joey Hand of Sacramento, Calif., and Dirk Muller of Germany, became third in the official results.

2. The podium ceremony at ALMS races is nuts.

Twenty six cars were entered at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park this weekend and each car had two drivers so there were 52 drivers in the race. There were five classes of cars — P1, P2, PC, GT and GTC. Each class rewards the first three cars (see where this is going?)

So 28 drivers showed up for the podium ceremony. There would have been 30, except there were only two cars entered in P2.

Anyway, more than half the drivers in the field were on the podium and that seems – to me, anyway – to be a little much.

3. Klaus Graf has won the pole for this race the last three years and has gone on to win the race each time and good for him. Muscle Milk Pickett Racing is a top-notch team and his co-drivers, Lucas Luhr this year and last, and Romain Demas the year before that, have been formidable teammates.

But, you know, Graf doesn’t have any real competition. It’s been a walk in the park. If the ALMS wants to grow, and to thrive, it’s got to talk someone – Roger Penske, maybe? – or some manufacturer – Audi, maybe? – to step up and take this guy and this team on.

Otherwise, it’ll get boring.

4. Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, like all the other motorsport entities around, won’t issue attendance figures. But there was a big crowd on hand for the race. On driver’s left, going from turn four down to where the track starts to sweep up into Moss Corner, people were standing shoulder to shoulder behind the fence and I haven’t seen that for years.

And that was the road course. As I drove out of the place Saturday night, I was surprised to see the Mosport Speedway stands were packed solid (much like Merrittville’s were when I was there three weeks ago. Who wants to say that short-track racing isn’t thriving in southern Ontario?)

In any event, the big draw Saturday night at the Mosport oval was the OSCAAR late model stock cars and they, my friends, are rockets. You should check to see where they’re running next and take in a show. Those guys in those cars were well worth it.

5. It’s plain that the new owners of the old Mosport are hot on the trail of a NASCAR race (will it be the trucks, or the Nationwide stockers, or – dare I dream – the Cup cars that come?)

In any event, there have to be 43 pit stalls to accommodate any of those series, which means the old control tower that has stood since 1962 will either have to come down or be moved and that could happen sooner rather than later if a NASCAR race is to be reality in 2013.

The new corporate centre is being built as we speak. Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is lookin’ pretty good.

5A. If a NASCAR race becomes reality, will the Grand Am Rolex Series be far behind? And will the Grand Am and the ALMS be able to co-exist at the same facility? Just wondering.

6. When I heard about (and later saw) Sebastien Vettel’s off-track pass of Jenson Button near the end of the German Grand Prix Sunday (he was subsequently penalized 20 seconds, moving him from second to fifth – although, like Bergmeister/Long at Mosport it was after the podium ceremony – the first thing I thought of was Alex Zanardi’s pass of Bryan Herta in a CART race at Laguna Seca in 1996.

In Germany, they had stewards to look at the circumstances and determine a penalty, if any. In California in the Nineties, Zanardi’s audacity caught everyone by surprise and it was only much later that people were saying that it shouldn’t have counted, that Zanardi left the race track to make the pass.

Even today, Herta will tell you it was illegal (you decide: take a look here).

7. I don’t know what D.J. Kennington of St. Thomas has been putting in his coffee but at Edmonton Sunday he won his fourth consecutive NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race – the 15^th victory of his career.

Kennington was running third when, during a late-race restart, the first and second-place cars of Scott Steckly of Milverton and J.R. Fitzpatrick of Cambridge collided, allowing Kennington to take the lead.

Jason Hathaway of Dutton, Ont., finished second – he’s having a great year – while Trevor Seibert of Williams Lake, B.C., was third. Steckly recovered to finish fourth.

8. Jordan Szoke of Brantford won the Mopar Canadian Superbike Championship round at Atlantic Motorsport Park at the weekend, with Jodi Christie of Keene, Ont., second and Frank Rombino of Kleinburg third. The motorcycles will be at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in August.

9. Rinaldo (Dindo) Capello has called it at a day. The sports car racer with an astounding record - two-time ALMS champion, 23 ALMS victories, three 24 Hours of Le Mans victories, five Sebring 12 Hours wins (including 2012) and three ELMS triumphs - is 48 and says his work is done.

Hey, maybe he'll be able to enjoy life a little. Years ago, when Mosport announcer Jim Martyn and I had a radio show on the Fan, Capello arrived for an interview and said he was starving. An aide was dispatched to a nearby restaurant to pick up a chicken caesar salad. Capello wouldn't start to eat it until he'd picked out every single one of the croutons.

10. Speedtv.com is reporting that Lotus will withdraw from the IndyCar series at season's end but CEO Randy Bernared says they have four years remaining on a five-year contract and will have to negotiate a settlement. Oh? If Lotus hasn't been able to afford to put any additional moneys into its dismal engine program, who thinks it will have any to buy its way out of its commitment?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If so, that idea backfired -- big time.

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

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

Bernie Ecclestone in jail is no laughing matter

PRECEDE: Terrible news from Europe this morning.

Spanish driver  Maria de Villota, recently signed to test drive for the Marussia F1 team, is in hospital in England after a crash during a straightline test at Duxford airfield on Tuesday.

Local ambulance officials says her injuries are "life-threatening."

De Villota's Duxford outing was her first test for Marussia. She was set to give the major upgrade package that the team is introducing for the British Grand Prix its first run.

The daughter of ex-F1 racer Emilio de Villota, she is a former World Touring Car Championship driver. At age 32, she first drove an F1 car at the Paul Ricard circuit last year.

She was testing what Marussia described as a major upgrade to be introduced at next weekend's British Grand Prix.

Here's a link to the latest story.

Earlier:

It bothers me that so many people apparently think the possibility of Bernie Ecclestone going to jail is something to laugh about.

I suppose it’s human nature to be jealous of success, of good fortune, and of success gained through great risk and very hard work, as is the case with Ecclestone.

It’s a pity his critics didn’t work as long or as hard or else they might have success of their own and not be so jealous.

The really difficult thing to comprehend is that all these people say they’re fans of Formula One racing . What they fail to understand is that if it wasn’t for Ecclestone, there wouldn’t be F1 racing as we know it.

The fact of the matter is that the guys who were F1 racing in the Sixties, the Ron Dennises and the Ken Tyrrels and the Frank Williamses were, like most road racers of the time, content to play pretty much in their own little world.

They disdained commercial involvement; they really were, in the true sense of the phrase, independent contractors and if a country wanted to promote a Grand Prix, the national motor racing authority had to deal with the drivers and teams on an individual basis just to get them to show up.

Most of the participants lived hand-to-mouth. The drivers and mechanics were often so hard up they frequently shared flats or apartments and when they went racing they lived in tents at the circuits.

One person changed all that: Bernie Ecclestone.

After Colin Chapman, because of his experience at Indianapolis, introduced Gold Leaf tobacco sponsorship to F1, it was Ecclestone who saw the potential for the whole of F1, not just one team.

Anybody who’s paid attention knows that Ecclestone, who owned Brabham, then got the teams to form the Formula One Constructors Association, with him as its head, and the rest is history.

From a small-thinking, low-buck (for the times) bunch of blue-collar auto racers came the licence to print money that we know today. And each and every one of them is filthy rich – all thanks to Bernie.

And, yes, he took a big chunk of the cash that came in up front because it was his initiative, his bargaining, his vision that got that series – and auto racing in general – to where it's at now.

Because of Ecclestone's scheming and chutzpah, Dan Gurney, Roger Penske, Jim Trueman and Pat Patrick were inspired to break away from the U.S. Auto Club (stuck in the same small-town mindset that F1 was in the mid-Sixties) and formed CART. And they all got rich, too.

And from F1 and CART on down, through F2 (now GP2) and F3 (GP3/Indy Lights), racing entrepeneurs created a world-wide industry that generates billions in economic activity and employees hundreds of thousands of people.

And it’s all – all – because of Bernie Ecclestone.

What?

Don’t believe me?

Tell me who, then? Who else did it?

It wasn’t Frank Williams or Ron Dennis or Jackie Stewart or any of the rest.

And it wouldn’t have "just happened," either.

No, it took the little genius, B. Ecclestone, to chart the way.

If he’s broken the law, either in England or Germany or wherever, the charges will be laid and the chips will fall where they may.

But before any of that happens, laughing at the possibility of someone – anyone – going to jail is repulsive.

It is most undignified, and people should be ashamed.

Weekend Racing:

– The scary thing about the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Kentucky Saturday night – won by Brad Keselowski, with Kasey Kahne second and Denny Hamlin third – is that there are only nine races left before the Chase for the Championship starts.

Where has the time gone.

If Kahne hadn’t had to stop Saturday night because of a botched pit stop (a loose wheel), he might have given Keselowski a run for this money. He was on the charge the last 10 laps; another couple of laps and he would have caught the leader.

Matt Kenseth, who will likely drive for Joe Gibbs Racing in the No. 20 Home Depot-sponsored car from 2013 on, leads the Sprint Cup standings with Dale Earnhardt. Jr. second and Jimmie Johnson third.

The NASCAR stars now go to Daytona for the Firecracker 400, now known, of course, as the Coke Zero 400, which just doesn’t have that July 4 ring.

In the Nationwide Series, Austin Dillon won the Kentucky race Friday night by cheating. Kurt Busch was second and Kevin Harvick was third.

Dillon was dominant in his win but in post-race inspection, NASCAR found the team to have been cheating (actions detrimental to stock car racing, among other infractions) and fined the crew chief $10,000 and docked the owner, Morgan Shepherd, and the driver, Dillon, six points each.

It’s hard to tell why anybody wouldn’t cheat in NASCAR. If you win the race, or finish second or third, you get to keep the position. It’s there in the record book and you get the payoff – in this case, $97,000. So you pay the fine and you’re still $87,000 ahead. Where’s the deterrent?

– Joao Barbosa and Toronto-born Darren Law won the Sahlen’s Six Hours of the Glen Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series at Watkins Glen, N.Y., on Sunday. In GT, Robin Lidell and John Edwards won the class and took the points lead in their Chevrolet Camaro.

Up next for Toronto race fans: the Honda Indy Toronto. James Hinchcliffe, Dario Franchitti, Marco Andretti, Scott Dixon, Graham Rahal, Alex Tagliani and the rest of the IZOD IndyCar Series warriors will do battle on the streets of Toronto Friday (Free Friday practice),  Saturday (qualifying) and Sunday (race) next weekend.

Plus there will be a full lineup of supporting class races, including the Firestone Indy Lights (David Ostella of Maple driving).

More information and tickets at www.hondaindytoronto.com

Alonso wins in Spain as rivals fall off; other racing

I TOOK THIS IPHONE SNAP OF DALE CREASY JR. (LEFT LANE) AND CRUZ PEDREGON FACING OFF IN A MATCH RACE SATURDAY AT TORONTO MOTORSPORTS PARK NEAR CAYUGA. PEDREGON WON.

In a thrilling European Grand Prix at Valencia, Spain, this morning, Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso became the first repeat winner of 2012 due to a storming drive on his part and bad luck on the part of his major opponents.

After seven different drivers won the first seven races of the season, Alonso had to battle to the front after starting 11th - yes, he failed to make it into the final qualifying session on Saturday - in order to win his second race of the season.

Comeback kids, and former world champions, Kimi Raikkonen finished second for Lotus-Renault (he came back to F1 this season after driving in the World Rally Championship the previous two years) and Michael Schumacher was third for Mercedes. It was Schumacher's first podium since he returned to the sport three seasons ago. Full results here

Two-time world champion Sebastien Vettel was running away with the race - he had a 20-second lead at one point - but his Red Bull-Renault racer conked out on him on Lap 34 of the 47-lap contest. There was no immediate explanation for the engine failure.

Romain Grosjean was running second in his Lotus-Renault and it appeared to be only a matter of time before he would take the lead when the alternatore stopped working on Lap 41 and he was forced to retire.

And on the second-last lap, Lewis Hamilton's McLaren-Mercedes was assaulted by Pastor Maldonado's Williams-Renault and sent flying into a retaining wall, eliminating the winner of the last race, the Canadian Grand Prix, and allowing Schumacher to inherit third place.

Alonso was very emotional following the victory. He teared up during the playing of the Spanish national anthem and told interviewers later that his home race victory overshadowed everything else he'd done in his career.

The race featured incredibly intense and close racing, particularly in the early stages.

In other racing (of which there was a ton on Saturday):

- Ryan Hunter-Reay won the IZOD IndyCar race in Iowa that started Saturday and finished early today. The start was held up 40 minutes because of rain but it still began way too late in the day - another case of this series shooting itself in the foot.

Canadian James Hinchcliffe of Oakville crashed out, despite leading the event at one point. He was 17th; Alex Tagliani of Montreal also didn't finish but was classified 16th.

- Ex-F1 racer Nelson Piquet Jr. won the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Road America Saturday. Canadian Ron Fellows of Mississauga finished third but the Canadian everybody was talking about later was another ex-F1 racer, Jacques Villeneuve, who continued his battering ram ways of a year ago.

Saturday, he pushed not one but two drivers off the track - Elliott Sadler and Danica Patrick. Patrick, in particular, was upset because she was running the best race of her first full-time NASCAR season, in the top five all day, and her trip into the sandtrap on the last lap, compliments of Jacques (a move that Paul Tracy tweeted will now be known as the "Newtown horn"), dropped her to 12th.

- D.J. Kennington of St. Thomas won his second NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race of 2012 at Delaware Speedway near London on Saturday night, with defending series champion Scott Steckly of Milverton second and Jason Hathaway of Dutton, Ont., third.  The race had to be red-flagged at one point because the lights along the front straight went out. There were 22 cars in the field, one more than showed up at Mosport Speedway a week ago.

- Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato won the GT class in the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car race at Road America Saturday, which was won overall by Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas. Segal and Assentato's class victory in a Ferrari was the third of the season for the AIM Autosport team out of Woodbridge.

- At Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, In the Pirelli World Challenge Championship, Mike Skeen of Charlotte, N.C., won the first of two weekend in a Corvette. Johnny O’Connell of Flowery Branch, Ga., was second in a Cadillac. The GTS class saw Michael Galati from Olmstead, Ohio, take the top spot while his Kia Motors teammate Mark Wilkins of Toronto finished second. In Touring class, American Jeff Altenburg won the first of three weekend races while Markham's Gary Kwok took the top spot in the second. Andre Rapone of Thornhill won both races in the new B-Spec class in his Honda Fit.

Saturday's racing also saw the Ontario Formula Ford Championship hold its first of two races. In the F1600-A Class, Jack Mitchell Jr. of Clarendon Hills, Ill., won over Caitlin Johnston of Orangeville. 

In the final race of the day, Skeen finished first in the Porsche 944 Cup.  Mike Mallais of Scarborough was second.

- At Toronto Motorsports Park, near Cayuga, qualifying was held in a number of categories for today's Canadian Nitro Nationals elimination finals. 

Taking the No. 1 spot in Pro Modified Racing Association competition was Bruce Boland of Hamilton. Boland, a three-time champion, posted a 6.005-second, 238.05-mph pass with his 1941 Willys Pro Modified. Second in qualifying was Derek Hawker of Corbyville and third was Kenny Lang of Grand Pointe, Man.

In the Quick 32 Sportsman Series, Dave Leverentz of Irving, N.Y., took the No. 1 spot in Top Dragster with a 6.183-second, 223.02-mph run. James Lichty of Linwood placed second, followed by Rick Kopp of Burlington. 

On the Top Sportsman side of the Quick 32 Sportsman Series, two-time champion Kevin Wicke of Stratford qualified first with a 6.797-second, 203.09-mph effort in his Dodge Stratus. Mike Wagg of Waterdown placed second and Darryl McMillen of Goderich was third

In the PBSS series, Kevin McKay of Ingersoll rode his Pro Bike Suzuki to the No. 1 qualifying spot with a 7.711-second, 169.10-mph run. John Orfanidis of Toronto placed second with his Pro Bike entry. Dan Cryderman of Thamesville, Ontario, also in Pro Bike, qualified third. 

- Finally, in Round 2 of the Northern Summer Nationals for sprint cars, Justin Barger of Montrose, N.Y., won the main at South Buxton Speedway (Chatham area) Saturday night. Dustin Daggett of Grand Ledge, Mich., finished second and Travis Cunningham of Grimsby was third.  

Round 1 at Ohsweken Speedway (Brantford area) Friday night went to Jared Zimbardi of Salamanca, N.Y., with Chris Steele second and Bryan Howland of Auburn, N.Y., third.

A feast of GTA-area racing this weekend

Michael Adams, who is leading the Ontario Toyo Tires F1600 Series Championship going into this weekend’s races at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, was a busy driver on Canadian Grand Prix weekend in Montreal. He finished fifth in the first FF race, backing off with an overheating engine, and was sixth in the second race. As you can see, he was in some pretty good company as he waited to go onto the track for the first race.

I — and others — frequently refer to the last Sunday in May as the greatest day in auto racing.

I mean, it’s hard to beat the Indianapolis 500, Coca-Cola 600 and the Grand Prix of Monaco all happening on the same date.

But then, along comes a weekend like this one.

I mean, everything is happening this weekend. Here’s a quick rundown:

- In Formula One, the Grand Prix of Europe will be held Sunday at Valencia, Spain. Will there be eight winners in eight races? Michael Schumacher has yet to win this year (or since he started his comeback, for that matter) and some people think he stands a chance. It would be exciting, wouldn’t it? See “George’s TV listings for race fans” for times and channel.

- In the IZOD IndyCar Series, the last race before the Honda Indy Toronto (which will happen in two weeks) will be held at the Iowa Speedway Saturday night (see “George’s TV listings, etc.). Oakville’s James Hinchcliffe is second in the standings and could improve his position dramatically by the time the checkers fly. Heat races to set the field instead of time trials have tongues wagging.

- NASCAR is in California for the first of two road course races this season, which are always more interesting than most of the ovals anyway. The Sprint Cup race at Sonoma Sunday afternoon (see George’s) will be the first since the seas parted in Michigan last weekend and Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove through them and straight into Victory Lane. With due respect, he ain’t gonna win this week.

Meantime, the Nationwide Series will be at Road America in Wisconsin on Saturday and our own Jacques Villeneuve and Ron Fellows will be in action. It's on TV, too.

- The Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series is also at Road America this weekend (see George’s, etc. — but you'd best look soon because it’s a Saturday noon start . . .) and of particular interest to Toronto-area race fans is the performance to date of drivers Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato in the No. 69 AIM Autosport of Woodbridge Team FXDD Ferrari 458 Italia Grand Am. In leading the GT class standings, Segal and Assentato have won two races this season, at Miami and New Jersey, and have been on the podium four times in six races.

So that’s a pretty outstanding lineup of international races that can be seen on TV in your living room.

But there’s also some pretty incredible local racing on offer this weekend, as well. How’s this for a menu?

- The first two rounds of the Northern Summer Nationals Sprint Car series will take place this weekend, with Friday night racing at Ohsweken Speedway near Brantford and Saturday at South Buxton Raceway near Chatham. Three affiliated sanctioning bodies have officially signed up for the series, including Ohsweken’s Corr/Pak Merchandising Sprint Car division, along with the Southern Ontario Sprints club and the Patriot Sprint Tour. NHRA drag racing star Cruz Pedregon will pilot a car entered by Ohsweken owner Glenn Styres on Friday night. For more information, click here

- At Toronto Motorsports Park near Cayuga, the annual Canadian Nitro Nationals will be held featuring nitro Funny Cars, Top Fuel dragsters, alcohol Funny Cars, jet dragsters, the Pro Modified Racing Association, the Quick 32 Sportsman Series and the Pro Bike and Sled Series. Cruz Pedregon and his brother Tony will line their NHRA Funny Cars up for a couple of exhibition runs. For more info, click here

- At Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (formerly Mosport), the  Pirelli World Challenge (GT, GTS, Touring and a new class for 2012, B-Spec) will bring their “Sports Car Wars” north of the border to headline the CTMP’s Sports Car Doubleheader Weekend. Also in action will be the action-packed Porsche 944 Cup and the Ontario Formula Ford Championship F1600. For information, click here

- At Shannonville Motorsport Park near Belleville, the Mopar Canadian Superbike Championship is going to have a strange look when the 2012 season opens this weekend. For the first time since 2006, Jordan Szoke will not be wearing the No. 1 plate on his motorcycle. After a record-breaking string of five straight national championships between 2006 and 2010, the Brantford ace was beaten to the title last season by Brett McCormick of Saskatoon. While McCormick has moved on to the World Superbike wars, Szoke will be looking to reclaim the top spot in Canadian motorcycle road racing this summer. For information, click here

- At Delaware Speedway near London, the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series will be racing Saturday night. They had 21 starters at the Speedway at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park last weekend and when I complained that the number was low, some of my critics said it was because the facility wasn’t up to par. Well, Delaware is a good track, so we’ll see this weekend who’s right. More than 21 entries? We’ll see. For more information about the event, click here.

Tag third, Hinch 14th for Detroit Grand Prix

For the first time this IZOD IndyCar Series season, James Hinchcliffe of Oakville did not make it into final Fast Six qualifying for a road or street course race and, as a result, will start Sunday’s Detroit Grand Prix in 14^th place.

But Montreal’s Alex Tagliani had his best qualifying attempt of the 2012 season when he finished third in Saturday time trials behind pole winner Scott Dixon and second-fastest Will Power.

Dixon, of course, drives for powerhouse Target Chip Ganassi Racing while Power leads the Team Penske contingent. Tagliani drives for the lesser-funded Bryan Herta Motorsport and is finally coming into his own with Honda power after having started the season stuck with the under-perfoming Lotus engine.

Andretti Autosport driver Hinchcliffe, who will enter the race tied with Helio Castroneves for second in the standings behind Power, was disappointed with his performance. He brushed the wall in the final corner on his second lap of the first round of qualifying and the car didn’t work as well afterward.

"I did the exact same thing at St. Peterburg and the car was okay there but this damaged the left rear. It was an easy fix, and the guys were able to fix it, so we would have been ready to go back out in the next round.

"With 60 seconds to go, our first lap was still in the top six but we just got bumped at the end. We should have been there (in the Fast Six) with Ryan (Hunter-Reay, his teammate, who qualified sixth).

Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti will go off 15^th, one position behind Hinchcliffe.

The lone woman in the field, Simona De Silvestro, who is the last remaining Lotus driver in the series, will start 22^nd in the 25-car field.

The series has lost a car since Indianapolis. Dragon Racing, which employs Katherine Legge and Sebastien Bourdais, went to court to get out of its Lotus contract and got Chevrolet engines for Indy.

But following the race, Chevrolet said it could only supply the team with engines for one car through the end of the season so the drivers are alternating, with Legge concentrating on the ovals and Bourdais the street and road courses.

Bourdais qualified 10^th on Saturday.

Other racing:

– For the second Indy Lights race in a row, David Ostella of Maple crashed out of the contest early. He finished 13^th and last at Belle Isle Saturday after qualifying eighth.

– Mark Martin won the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Dover, Del. It was his third pole of the season and the fifth he’s won at Dover. Jimmie Johnson will start beside him on the front row, with Ryan Newman third, Clint Bowyer fourth and Matt Kenseth fifth.

Kurt Busch once again got into it with a reporter after the race. After watching Busch exchange words with another driver on pit road after the race, and after he (Busch) brought up the subject of probation, a writer asked him if he was racing as hard as he could, considering he was on probation, and Busch replied:

"(Probation) refrains me from not beating the shit out of you right now, because you ask me stupid questions."

Kurt Busch is a professional entertainer and sportsman who should know by now that there are no stupid questions. He obviously can’t stand the heat so it’s time for him to get out of the kitchen.

– Joey Logano won the Nationwide Series race at Dover, with Ryan Truex Jr. second and Brian Scott third. Sam Hornish and Danica Patrick had another run-in, this time with Hornish putting her into the wall.

Logano is dominating the Nationwide Series this season but is in danger of losing his ride in the Sprint Cup because of poor results.

– Rain curtailed qualifying at Circuit ICAR for the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race on Sunday so owner points determined the lineup with Scott Steckly starting on pole, with D.J. Kennington right beside him. J.R. Fitzpatrick, who won the season opener at Mosport on May 24 (18^th, really) weekend will go off third.

– Joao Barboss and Darren Law won the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series race at Belle Isle, finishing first in Daytona Prototype. Jordan Taylor and Paul Edwards were first in GT, driving a Chevrolet Camaro.

Jeff Segal and Emil Assentato, driving the AIM Autosport of Woodbridge Ferrari 458 (below), finished fourth in GT but continue to lead the standings in that class.

PHOTO BY JOHN jlarsen@photograffics.com]

Will (automaker name here) take Randy Bernard's bait?

Randy Bernard is a marketer, first and foremost, and he knew exactly what he was doing Monday morning when we were chatting over at Exhibition Place and he ever so casually said, "You know, I’d really like to see Paul Tracy in this race," meaning the 2012 Honda Indy Toronto July 6-8.

The CEO of the IZOD IndyCar Series had flown into Toronto to participate in a media conference to announce a new three-year contract between the city of Toronto, Savoree-Green Racing, Tourism Toronto and Honda Canada that will see the Honda Indy continue at the CNE through 2014.

Yes, it was a good news story – but not the sort that generates either big headlines or, more important for the organizers, ticket sales.

So why not stir the pot a bit by musing about the possibility of the "Thrill from West Hill" finishing his fabulous Indy car career on the track and in the event near and dear to him and his millions of fans.

It was a good hook to throw out, too, because the name Paul Tracy always generates good newspaper and Internet traffic and, let’s face it, there hasn’t exactly been a lineup at his door this year to sign him to an IndyCar contract.

For his part, once I got hold of him at his home in Phoenix Monday evening, Tracy was enthusiastic and yet skeptical at the same time.

We were talking off the record, so I have to be careful with his quotes, but he said – in so many words – that he doesn’t want to be embarrassed in Toronto. That means he wants a ride in a car that has either Honda or Chevrolet power.

"I’ll give you a quote," he told me. "Tell him (Bernard) that if he can guarantee me a ride in a car with a Honda or a Chevrolet engine, then I’ll be glad to fly up there and help him promote that race."

But otherwise, he continued, he’s not all that interested.

"I love to race in Toronto, in front of my hometown fans, but I’ll need a good car," he said. "A second Sam Schmidt car, for instance; I could handle that. (Schmidt runs Honda engines in the IndyCar series – he’s partners in the team with former driver Davey Hamilton, a good friend of Tracy's – and has one driver at present, Simon Pagenaud.)

What we have here, then, is a savvy CEO-promoter named Bernard who drops a bon mot into the lap of a reporter, me, who gets something up on the Internet that gets a reaction from the driver, Tracy, and all of a sudden, the ball that didn't even exist a day ago is suddenly rolling.

Honda Canada has sponsored Tracy in the past but they made it clear earlier this year that he no longer figured in their long-range racing plans. But, at the time, the pitch they were getting was for a season, or for a series of races.

This is just one race. The Honda Indy Toronto. It's their baby. And the old gladiator’s ready to suit up for one last joust.

He just needs a little help to make it happen. 

Spanish Grand Prix inferno follow-up:

Williams F1 announced Monday that one crew member remains in hospital in Spain being treated for burns suffered in that incredible post-Grand Prix garage fire on Sunday.

The team issued a statement Monday saying two team members had been discharged from hospital and were home in England and the third man was expected to rejoin the team shortly.

Sir Frank Williams thanked everyone who assisted after the fire broke out and said the incident "demonstrated the genuine cohesiveness, camaraderie and spirit of co-operation that exists within the Formula One paddock. The astonishing response from the teams and other paddock personnel was immediate, unconditional and overwhelming."

So, a disaster was averted, in that property damage was kept to a minimum and nobody died.

However, it was oh, so close.

Photographs can tell a story, as the ones I posted with my Monday morning blog illustrate.

But my friend Pete sent me a link Monday afternoon to a video that shows just how dangerous the situation was. It runs about six minutes, but the drama is intense.

Take a look at the video here

Weekend Racing Results - and other observations:

– Max Angelelli and Ricky Taylor won the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series race in New Jersey. Paul Tracy and Dr. Jim Lowe were eighth in class in their Daytona Prototype.

The big news for Canadian racing fans in this one is that the AIM Autosport of Woodbridge Team FXDD Racing with Ferrari won the GT class with Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal driving.

Michael Valiante of Vancouver was fifth in DP, Paul Dalla Lana of Toronto was fourth in GT, and Scott Maxwell of Toronto, driving for Patrick Dempsey in GT, had mechanical difficulties.

– In the Continental Tire feature, also at New Jersey, David Empringham was top Canadian, finishing sixth. Jean-Francois Dumoulin of Trois-Rivieres was ninth, Ashley McCalmont of Ancaster was 14^th, Paul Dalla Lana was 16^th, Scott Maxwell was 19^th, Kenny Wilden of Oakville was 20^th.

– In the American Le Mans Series race at Monterey, Calif., Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf won overall. Kyle Marcelli of Barrie finished seventh overall and fifth in the Prototype Challenge class. Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner won the GT class for Corvette. Tony Burgess of Toronto was a victim of mechanical woes.

– Ferrari is really putting the pressure on Felipe Massa, suggesting on the team’s website that a big turnaround is expected at Monaco. If not, he could get the heave-ho early. Adrien Sutil is reportedly hanging around. Why?

– Conor Daly, who learned to race up here in the Ontario Formula Fords (he’s Derek Daly’s kid), won the GP3 Series race at the weekend.

Will Power wins Indy race; AIM Ferrari tops in Grand Am

THIS FERRARI PREPARED BY AIM AUTOSPORT OF WOODBRIDGE WON THE GT CLASS IN THE GRAND AM ROLEX SPORTS CAR RACE AT HOMESTEAD-MIAMI SPEEDWAY SUNDAY. DETAILS BELOW.

WEEKEND HEADLINES:

1. Will Power wins IndyCar race – and why isn’t he in F1?

2. Toronto-based team, Ferrari, win big in Grand Am

3. Canadians fail to score points in first DTM race; other racing

Precede: Tom Cotter, one of the world’s most sophisticated PR people, was on Speed TV’s Wind Tunnel program last night and illustrated why he’s so good at what he does.

Guest host Bob Varsha reminded viewers that Bernie Ecclestone had mused at last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix that the New Jersey Grand Prix, tentatively scheduled for 2013, might not happen until 2014.

So Varsha put it to Cotter - who was out of the PR business and writing books before being enticed back by New Jersey race interests: what, exactly, is going on? Cotter, old pro that he is, talked and talked but didn’t answer the question – although, to be fair, he hinted later in the interview at what might be the difficulty when he said they can’t start selling tickets to any F1 race till that year’s schedule is formally issued.

So, although the circuit in New Jersey (across the Hudson River from New York) will likely be ready to go well in advance of spring/summer 2013, a reading of the tea leaves suggests Bernie was hinting that the race might not make it onto the F1 calendar until 2014.

Or maybe not.

1. Power proves (again) he’s in a class by himself

Will Power won the IZOD IndyCar Series race in Brazil Sunday for his third victory of the four-race 2012 season. He’s won two of the four poles so far this season and it was his third consecutive victory in Brazil.

Second-place went to Ryan Hunter-Reay while third went to Takuma Sato, who made it to the podium all the way from the back of the grid where he’d been sent because of an "unauthorized" engine change (see comment below).

James Hinchcliffe of Oakville came home sixth after starting fourth. Hinch had a good race, considering he lost three positions in the early laps because his car wasn’t handling. In fact, he led the race at one point.

He’s third in the standings with 123 points after four races. Power leads with 180, followed by Helio Castroneves (fourth Sunday) with 135. Full story and results here.

Notebook Jottings:

– Power is almost unbeatable every time he climbs into an Indy car. Nobody has been faster on pure speed this season and when it comes to race craft, he is a master. He’s a clean racer, too.

I know that F1 is all about the money and that Power is not a ride-buyer. But if talent counts for anything these days, and if given a chance, I have no doubt he would capture attention in F1.

– Speaking of F1, an interested spectator in Sao Paulo was Ferrari driver Felipe Massa, who spent much of the time over the weekend hanging around with ex-F1 star Rubens Barrichello. In fact, Massa accompanied Rubens to a post-session engineering de-briefing. Might Massa be the next F1 driver to sign on with an IndyCar team?

– The rigidity of the people running the IndyCar series continued apace as four more drivers – Sato, Katherine Legge, Sebastien Bourdais and Oriole Servia – were penalized 10 grid positions for "unauthorized" engine changes (you can’t change an engine in IndyCar until it runs x-number of miles, even though this is an engine transition year and teams are swapping power plants left and right because they keep either blowing up or preparing to blow up).

And Justin Wilson’s car – he’d qualified it sixth – was sent to the back at the start because it flunked post-qualifying inspection. Its sin? In IndyCar, you have to have a tiny little TV camera on your car or else a dummy camera and Wilson didn’t. Off with his head!

– Okay, now get this: IndyCar has penalized every driver in the field for an engine change at one time or another this season. They penalized more than half the field at Long Beach, making for all kinds of fun: some drivers were penalized 10 places (Hinchcliffe) and others were only penalized four. J.R. Hildebrand, for instance, only had to go from 16th back to 20th because there were so many penalized drivers behind him that there wasn’t room for him to go back any further. (I mean, how stupid.)

But for the Indy 500, they’ve cancelled that rule. You can make any number of unauthorized engine changes during the month of May but you won’t be penalized. You will only serve the penalties at the race, or races, following Indianapolis.

"We do not intend to apply any penalties that will disrupt the Indy 500 starting field from their qualifying positions," IndyCar vice president of technology Will Phillips said. "We’re not saying there will not be any penalties; the penalties just won’t be served at Indianapolis. They’ll carry that penalty forward to the next event. Likewise, if someone racks up two penalties, they will go forward to the next two events."

Maybe even three, four or five events. If Dragon Racing changes engines four or five times in May (it’s possible; they’re running Lotus’s), Sebastien Bourdais and or Katherine Legge could be penalized 10 grid positions at the Honda Indy Toronto in July!

(Which makes Toronto race fans second-class citizens, when you think about it. They won't penalize drivers at Indy because it's a really important race but they will penalize them at Fort Worth of Milwaukee or Toronto because those aren't really important races.

(If you know what you are doing, you penalize drivers across the board, like they do with jockeys in horse racing. If a jockey is set down 10 days for rough riding, and the Kentucky Derby is five days later, he  or she can't ride in the Derby. Think Ron Turcotte and Secretariat's last race in Toronto. Turcotte couldn't ride Big Red at Woodbine because he was under suspension for something that happened at Aqueduct.

(Which is the way it should be. The engine change rule in IndyCar is ludicrous but it is what it is and if you change an engine at Indy, you should be penalized at Indy.) 

I’m actually beginning to think the whole IndyCar rules thing is farce.

Here’s another example. John Barnes, who runs Panther Racing and has been one of the most loyal car owners in recent years (one of those guys who – like the late Carl Hogan – spends a lot of his own money to keep his team going) was fined $25,000 and put on probation till the end of the year for Tweeting this: "Today is the day to resolve TURBOGATE! I hope @indcar gets their act together. It has been embarrassing."

Nothing like speaking the truth – but for that, it’s off with his head!

– Turbogate, by the way, came about because Honda, which has been getting its ass kicked by Chevy since the first race of the year, complained to IndyCar that it needed more power, and IndyCar said, sure, go ahead and make changes to your turbocharger. Chevrolet (correctly, I say) then complained that IndyCar was changing the rules after the game had started. The Barnes Tweet referred to the day of the appeal – which Chevy lost, by the way.

So I have to ask: Does Chevy really need the IndyCar series? Really need it? We’re going to find out at the end of the contract, aren’t we?

– There was a great crowd in Sao Paulo, as there was in Long Beach two weeks ago. The IndyCar series seems to be on the upswing. Will that carry through to Toronto? Let’s cross our fingers and hope so.

AIM Autosport Ferrari wins GT Class at Miami race

It was raining so hard Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway that all the animals were running around in pairs. That explains why the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Race received the checkered flag with an hour still remaining in the two-hour, 45-minute event.

Ricky Taylor and Max Angelelli driving a Corvette Daytona Prototype won, with Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas second in a BMW-Riley and Darren Law and David Donohue third in a Corvette.

Big news for Canadian race fans, however, was the first victory for the AIM Autosport of Woodbridge Ferrari 458 Italia Grand Am in only its third race. Jeff Seagl and Emil Assentato did the driving.

Here is a report from Adam Saal:

Combined with a second-place finish one race ago at Barber Motorsports Park and an eighth-place showing in January’s season-opening Rolex 24 At Daytona, the No. 69 Ferrari team and its drivers have taken an early-season lead in the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series GT Team and Driver Championship standings.

"It was a great day for us," Segal said. "We’ve put a lot of hard work into this program, getting this new Ferrari up to speed, and there’s just been a lot of work behind the scenes by Ferrari and Michelotto, and a lot of hard work by AIM Autosport Team FXDD to adapt to this car. I’m really happy for all of them.

"I’m excited about the direction this program is heading. Obviously, we have a lot of races left to go, but I think everybody is comfortable with the car, we’re comfortable with each other, so we’re hoping that this is the start of a good run this season."

The only other Canadian in the Rolex race, Toronto’s Paul Dalla Lana, finished 10^th in GT in a BMW M3.

The day before, in the Continental Tire Series race, David Empringham and John Farano of Toronto finished second in a Porsche Carrera. Dalla Lana was fourth in a BMW M3 Coupe. Ashley McCalmont of Ancaster, who’s being coached these days by Kenny Wilden, was 13^th in a Camaro GS.R.

Toronto’s Compass360 Racing team had four cars entered in the ST class and recorded fifth, tenth, 13^th and 27^th-place finishes. Multimatic Motorsports of Markham had cars finish ninth and 24^th in ST and 15^th in GS.

3. Spengler, Wickens blanked in Germany; other races

The German Touring Car Series season got going in Hockenheim, Germany, Sunday and the two Canadians in the 22-driver field, failed to score points.

In fact, Spengler, of St. Hypolite, Que., who was fastest in morning warmup in his BMW, was crashed out after only a few laps.

Wickens, of Guelph and Toronto and seen as a potential F1 driver, finished 14^th in his Mercedes but was pretty much eliminated early in the contest when he was assessed a drive-through penalty for speeding in pit lane.

The race was won Mercedes driver Gary Paffett.

In Moto GP competition at the Jerez circuit in Spain, Casey Stoner won the race with Jorge Lorenzo second and Dani Pedrosa third.

Ryan Dungey won the Supercross in Salt Lake City.

NASCAR links below.