Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

Where was Target?

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

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

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

This year, nothing.

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

It was a complete withdrawal and it seemed strange

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

Power officially finished 15th and Franchitti was 17th.

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

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

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

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

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

The big Honda Indy question: how to beat Dario

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Franchitti wins Honda Indy pole; Hinch to start 19th

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 Earlier,

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Earlier,

 

Where is Target?

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

This year, nothing.

 

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

 

It's a complete withdrawal and it seems strange.

 

Earlier,

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Franchitti happy, Hinchcliffe dour after Honda Indy practice

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Santander's F1 spending is vulgar

Things to think about on a Friday morning:

The world is a-Twitter about plans unveiled in London Thursday by Spanish bank Santander, which sponsors McLaren and just about everything else in Formula One these days, to run a Grand Prix through the heart of London and around some of that city’s most famous landmarks, including Buckingham Palace.

Bernie Ecclestone mused that he might put up the money to run it himself, which he said would cost in the neighbourhood of 35 million British pounds.

Santander threw a little party in London later in which a video of how such a London Grand Prix would look was shown. It featured McLaren drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.

I have questions.

- Spain, although on top of the sporting world these days with its soccer team in the Euro Cup final and Fernando Alonso leading the world driving championship, is on its financial knees.

Its banking system is on the rocks and the country has applied to the European Central Bank for its second – second – infusion of bailout cash. 

So what the hell is Spain's biggest bank, Santander, doing blowing millions of dollars on a video presentation of a pipe dream?

Do any of those people know what’s going on in the real world?

- Now, did anybody else notice something weird here?

They say it would be wonderful to have a Grand Prix around famous British landmarks like Buck House, the Tower of London, the Parliament Buildings, and so-on, and yet they plan to run the race at night.

How will anybody be able to see any of those famous landmarks?

- Bernie Ecclestone, just like the old Maple Leafs hockey coach Punch Imlach, is a master at getting attention. Imlach had the ability to get the Leafs on the front pages in the middle of 1960s summers when nobody gave a damn about hockey.

Ditto Bernie, whose musings about picking up the tab for a London GP did two things: they pushed news about the upcoming Olympics down below the fold and stopped the speculating about the potential for criminal charges after his sometimes business partner, Gerhard Gribkowski, was jailed for more than eight years in Germany after pleading guilty to evading tax on income from the sale of various and sundry F1 properties.

In any event, here are links to two stories with videos about this proposed Grand Prix. The first is the Santander concept video and the second is a lap of the "proposed" track.

Enjoy.

The big question surrounding NASCAR’s Kentucky Speedway race this weekend isn’t who will win it but whether or not anybody will get to see it.

Last year, you will remember, they were backed up for miles and miles on the Interstate and many people didn’t get to their seats till the race was nearly over. Then it took them forever to get out.

Has the situation improved? We’ll find out, won’t we?

IndyCar has brought back push-to-pass, starting with the Toronto Honda Indy a week from this weekend. Oh, and they’ve decided to allow Lotus some leeway in the engine department in an effort to give Simona de Silvestro a fighting chance the rest of the season and perhaps attract some more Lotus entries for next season. Finally, the season-ender at California Speedway has become a 500-mile race.

There is talk that Rogers Sportsnet may take over the televising of IndyCar races from 2013 onwards. Some people seem to be very happy that TSN will allegedly be out of the picture.

I have something to say to those people: be careful what you wish for.

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.

Dario Franchitti and Canada's hip-pocket racers

CHAMPIONS ALL: CRAIG FISHER (LEFT), WALT MacKAY, GARY MAGWOOD, EPPIE WIETZES, BILL BRACK AND LUDWIG HEIMRATH.

The Honda Indy Toronto is just two weeks away and three-time winner Dario Franchitti will be back to defend his 2011 victory.

Franchitti doesn’t have to worry about where the money comes from in order for him to go racing. In fact, he’s a millionaire who flies his own helicopter and drives road cars that most of us can only dream about. (Last year, in conversation with reporters at a Target media conference at the CNE, he made reference to “one of my Ferraris.”)

Contrast that with a group of champion Canadian racers I spent time with last weekend who paid for just about everything they did on track out of their own hip pockets.

Eppie Wietzes, Bill Brack, Gary Magwood, Walt MacKay, Craig Fisher and Ludwig Heimrath were “Canadian legends” honoured at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park during the Canadian Historic Grand Prix presented by the VARAC International Vintage Racing Festival.

A don’t have space to relate what each of them talked about, but two of the reminiscences had to do with money.

Wietzes, for instance, talked about one of the first cars he raced, a Sunbeam Alpine.

“Paul Cooke (then a mechanic, now vice-president of competition and karting director of ASN Canada FIA) has a way with words,” said Wietzes. “He talked Rootes (the Alpine’s manufacturer) into giving us a car. We ordered one with wire wheels, a radio, a detachable hard top, the works. Then we took all the extras off and sold them and that was how we got the money to race the car that season.”

Brack remembered picking up Graham Hill at the Toronto airport before the 1968 Canadian Grand Prix at Le Circuit-Mont Tremblant.

“I’d rented a ride in a Lotus for $7,000,” Brack said. “Hill was in Toronto to meet some sponsors and then we were both going on to St-Jovite.

“I was really excited about driving the Lotus and I was really excited to meet Graham Hill. So, as I was driving him into the city from the airport, I told him about driving his backup car. He looked at me as if I was positively nuts.

“ ‘Not bloody likely,’ he said.

“True to form, Colin Chapman hadn’t told Hill about either renting out the car or the money I’d paid.”

Brack was certainly prescient when discussing Chapman and finances. The Lotus legend died (in 1982) before he’d have been sent to jail for his involvement (with John DeLorean) in the ripping off of £10-million from the British government in the designing and building of a stainless steel sports car.

He didn’t tell anybody about that money, either.

Craig Fisher told me a wonderful story, one that he thinks should be in Guinness World Records: how he started the 1968 12 Hours of Sebring in one car and finished it in a second, both owned by Roger Penske.

Technically, he finished both first and second in class (third and fourth in the race).

And how did that happen?

“It’s complicated,” said Fisher, “but I’ll keep it short.

“Roger is an astute man; he’s like the man behind the curtain in the Wizard of Oz. If he figures he can win a race, he’ll pull a driver from anywhere to do it. Mark’s car (Mark Donohue) was doing better so he took me off the other car, where I’d started the race, and put me in with Mark to finish.”

When you look up the official classification of that ’68 race, there it is: Mark Donohue and Craig Fisher finished one spot ahead (third) of Craig Fisher, Joe Welch and Bob Johnson (fourth).

And he’s right: it should be in the Guiness records.

Was Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s win a fluke?

The hype that is NASCAR moved into over-hype late yesterday (Sunday) when Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished first in a race for the first time in four years.

You would have thought it was the second coming the way everybody reacted when he won the Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway.

The fans went nuts, which is fine.

But the announcers also went nuts - please - and SPEED Channel publicists quickly sent out a media release with supplied quotes from eight – count ‘em, eight – analysts and commentators ranging from Dave Despain, Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds to Bob Dilner and Kenny Wallace all saying what a wonderful thing this victory was.

You'd have thought he'd cured cancer.

Tony Stewart – God love him – was the only driver with any sense. "National holiday tomorrow," he quipped when Little E crossed the finish line.

Greg Biffle, Jimmy Johnson, Jeff Gordon – to a man – all said how happy they all were for "Junior" but Stewart said he sure wasn’t because he’d wanted to win the race.

"Just because NASCAR wants him to win a race doesn’t mean the rest of us have to roll over for him," Stewart said.

If I’d been asked, I’d have wondered out loud how a guy could possibly drive for Rick Hendrick and have that equipment and that crew chief and that pit crew and not win a race for four – count ‘em, four – years.

I’d have wondered out loud about his talent and commitment. Yes, I would most certainly have been in the minority, and maybe not even believed some of the stuff I was saying, but they are questions that should have been asked – have to be asked – in a situation like that one.

They say that if you sit a thousand monkeys down in front of a thousand typewriters that one of them will write a best-seller. It’s a law-of-averages thing.

So I maintain that some beer league hockey player could score at least 10 goals in the NHL if a team let him play three shifts in every period of every game all season. Ditto with hitting a baseball at the Major League level: make some amateur the DH for a team in the American League and let him go up to the plate a minimum of three times a game every game all season and I guarantee you he will hit .200 with a dozen home runs.

The preceding paragraph was a warmup for this one: most of the drivers in the Nationwide Series, or even the trucks, could have done better than Dale Jr. these past 48 months if sent out to do battle 36 times a season in a Rick Hendrick-prepared race car with a Rick Hendrick crew and crew chief in support.

So how did Dale Earnhardt Jr. manage not to win?

Those are the questions the high–priced help on television should have been asking instead of gushing all over what might be, could be, may have been . . . a fluke.

I mean, if he wins again next weekend, then maybe the world will sit up and take notice.

Otherwise, the counting up of his losses will start all over again.

Full NASCAR results here

Okay, here are some other questions after a weekend of racing:

– For the second consecutive year, a "gentleman" racer nearly killed a top professional during the running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

In 2011, Mike Rockenfeller was driving the No. 1 Audi and passing a GT class Ferrari driven by Robert Kaufmann when Kaufmann moved into his lane. How Rockenfeller survived that accident is still a mystery.

On Saturday, ex-F1 driver Anthony Davidson, piloting a Toyota hybrid, was passing a – What? Again? – GT class Ferrari driven by Piergiussepe Perazzini when Perazinni turned into Davidson and sent his car somersaulting down the track.

Davidson suffered a broken back and remains in hospital. Perazzini wasn’t injured.

Two close calls in two years. One of these days, Alice . . .

Meantime, Audi became the first manufacturer to win the Le Mans 24 using hybrid technology. Andrew Lottere, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer drove to their second straight Le Mans win in Audi’s R18 e-tron quattro diesel-powered, flywheel-based hybrid car.

And race engineer Leena Gade, who became the first woman race engineer to win Le Mans in 2011, was the engineer on this team too.

Le Mans results here

– Why is the IZOD IndyCar Series running heats to set the field for next weekend’s race at Iowa Speedway? Don’t those people ever learn?

Last year, they had a lottery to determine the starting field for the second of "twin" features at Texas Motors Speedway. It didn’t work well and the drivers hated it. So they scrapped it for this year.

Now they want to hold three heat races at Iowa next Friday night (lineups for those will depend on practice times) to set the field for the race itself next Saturday night.

What if there are accidents and cars are destroyed? What if a driver in the top five in the standings can’t race or isn’t competitive because of something untoward happening in one of those heats?

If you thought the drivers bitched about the lottery at Texas, wait till you hear the reaction after one of them finds out they’re starting 17^th after winning the third heat. And so on.

Oval track time trials are fair and they’ve worked for a century. Why does the IndyCar series think it has to manufacturer excitement?

If the product is good enough, people will buy it. NASCAR plays around with the All-Star race but it doesn’t matter because it isn’t a points race. I don’t think NASCAR would mess around with a points race; F1 sure doesn’t and IndyCar shouldn’t either.

This new leadership was supposed to be enlightened. The jury remains out on that one.

The race at Milwaukee this weekend, won by Ryan Hunter-Reay with Tony Kanaan second, was so-so. James Hinchcliffe of Oakville finished third and is now second in the standings behind Will Power. He could be leading the standings when the series heads for Toronto in three weeks.

I suggest it will be time to get excited about this very soon.

Full IndyCar results here

– How come the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series attracts 27 cars for its first road race of the season (Canadian Tire Motorsport Park) and 29 for its second (Circuit ICAR) and only 21 for its first oval race of the season (CTMP)?

I always figure that if you support a series, you show up – regardless if the type of racing isn’t your particular cup of tea.

Once upon a time, when national stock car racing was made up mostly of ovals, what would have happened at the one or two road-racing venues if half the oval guys had said the hell with it, as a half-dozen or more road racers are now saying to oval racing?

Maybe the NASCAR Canada people should start applying some pressure to some of these "occasional " racers.

Or, when they all show up at Montreal for the glamour–puss event at the end of August, which they surely will, they be told they’re welcome to race but that they’ll have to start behind the 20 or so cars that have run every event to date.

Seems fair to me.

Meantime, D.J. Kennington of St. Thomas won his first race of the season at the oval at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park Saturday night, with first-time-out-in-2012-driver Mark Dilley of Barrie in second place and J.R. Fitzpatrick of Cambridge in third.

Pole-sitter Peter Shepherd III, also making his first start of the season, broke an axle and finished 16^th.

Fitzpatrick leads the standings, followed closely by Kennington with Andrew Ranger of Roxton Pond, Que., in third place. The next race will be held this coming Saturday night at Delaware Speedway outside London, Ont.

Full NASCAR Canadian Tire Series results here

Bay St. Grand Prix supports Sunnybrook

I am lucky to have fathered three children, all of whom were born healthy. They remain so today — although the 15-year-old latest son is being 15 these days and so I can’t testify as to his mental health.

Kidding aside, the greatest thing a parent can be told is “everything’s fine; everything’s normal.”

Your heart goes out to those who don’t get such good news.

Andrew and Cathy DeFrancesco’s son Devlin was born 15 weeks early and came into this world weighing exactly one pound. He spent four months in the neonatal intensive care unit at Sunnybrook hospital up on Bayview Ave. Now 12 years old, he weighs 85 pounds and is making his mark in karting and has ambitions on becoming a professional race-car driver.

Mom and Dad are so grateful that on July 5, the Thursday leading into the Honda Indy Toronto weekend, they are spearheading the Bay Street Grand Prix in which some of Canada’s top business executives will go head-to-head in go-kart races with a goal of raising $500,000 for Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre’s Women & Babies Program.

 “Our son Devlin was born prematurely, but under the expert care of Sunnybrook staff he has grown into a thriving, active boy competing worldwide in the top levels of kart racing with a number of championships to his credit,” said Andrew DeFrancesco, who’s CEO of Delavaco Capital Inc. and, with Cathy, the visionary behind the event.

“Cathy and I are deeply grateful for the treatment Devlin received at Sunnybrook. We hope to turn this into an annual fundraiser at the Honda Indy Toronto so we can continue to support Sunnybrook’s important work.”

Added Cathy:  “The work of the physicians and researchers at Sunnybrook’s Women & Babies Program is vital to so many people. We’re incredibly grateful to everyone there and we’re looking to Bay Street’s top executives to help us support a cause that can truly save lives.”

Hosted by the Honda Indy Toronto, the Bay Street Grand Prix will be conducted on an ASN Canada FIA-sanctioned track at Exhibition Place. I have it on good authority that Canada's kartmeister, Paul Cooke, who's ASN Canada's vice-president of competition and director of karting, will be on hand to personally direct the competition.

The day will start with registration at about 10 a.m. with practice and preliminary races starting at  noon. The final Grand Prix race is expected to be flagged off at 4 in the afternoon.

An après-Grand Prix dinner and concert at Liberty Grand featuring award-winning international superstar Flo Rida and double-Platinum-selling dance artist Mia Martina will follow.

Sponsors include GMP Securities, Canaccord Genuity, Stikeman Elliott LLP, Clarus Securities Inc., Wildeboer Dellelce LLP, Difference Capital, PowerOne Capital Markets Ltd. and Delavaco.

 For more information, go to baystreetgrandprix.ca

NASCAR acted on Richmond, time to act on Busch

Although NASCAR suspended Kurt Busch from racing next weekend at Pocono, it shouldn’t have stopped there. It should have thrown him out for the season.

NASCAR set Busch down until June 13, and extended his probation until the end of 2012, after he threatened a reporter with assault after the Nationwide Series race at Dover last Saturday.

But when he returns to racing a week later at Michigan, in both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series, I guarantee you that nothing will have changed.

He’ll still have the big chip on his shoulder. That spoiled look and the sense of entitlement will still reek off him. The whole world will still be against him, you can bet, and it will only be a matter of time before he goes out and does everything all over again.

But if Mike Helton had called him in, and said he was out of the sport for the rest of the year and to go get some help for whatever it is that’s troubling him, then that might have had an effect.

A weekend here, or a week there, just won’t do it. His enablers – his friends and family who are giving him the "poor Kurt" support he craves – can help him over the hump of a short layoff. But they won’t be of much good for long if he’s looking at next February as the earliest date of a possible return.

When Tim Richmond was obviously ill back in 1988 with the AIDS that eventually killed him, NASCAR was sufficiently concerned about the way he looked and his behaviour (as were many of the drivers of the day) that it suspended him on the pretence that he’d flunked a drug test.

It turned out later that he hadn’t but the point is that NASCAR felt the need to act and came down hard on Richmond. Sooner or later, it’s got be every bit as decisive when it comes to Kurt Busch.

IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard should learn something from the "owner’s revolt" story that he’s still trying to get a handle on:

When it comes to big business, you can’t trust anybody – particularly reporters who might be looking for the big scoop.

I happen to think – just a hunch, now; just a hunch – that Bernard, who says an owner or owners has been trying to get him fired, was talked into making the dispute public by somebody who subsequently wrote long and loud about it. He was egged on to launch a pre-emptive strike to quell a rebellion, if you will.

But my immediate reaction upon hearing about the Tweet and reading the first story that followed was: "This is not CART. What have the owners got to do with this? The guy works for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He doesn’t have to answer to an owner, or owners."

Now, I like Bernard. I think he’s done terrific things for the series in the area of public relations and marketing. He seems like a genuinely nice guy. He’s always been a straight shooter with me.

But I can also understand some of the unhappiness among the owners, because most of those people are not Roger Penske or Chip Ganassi. There are owners in that series who are operating by the skin of their teeth and don’t happen to have several tens or twenties of thousands lying around in cases of emergency.

There are suggestions the Firestone tire deal was not handled as well as it could have been and owners are now paying up to 40 per cent more for tires than they were under the old contract. The Dallara chassis has gone up more than $150,000 in price. Some owners are paying more for their Honda and Chevy engine leases than others because of the botchup that was Lotus.

So there is trouble in River City.

But it shouldn’t have been made public and certainly not by Tweet.

And by communicating to the world in that manner, Bernard has inadvertently opened up another can of worms.

Driver Oriole Servia Tweeted some uncomplimentary things about Texas Motor Speedway and promoter Eddie Gossage yesterday that should result in a fine for embarrassing the series.

But how can Bernard fine Servia – unless he fines himself for doing the same thing?

There was an interesting little verbal exchange during that long red flag at the IndyCar Series race on Detroit’s Belle Isle Sunday that, I think, signalled the beginning of the end for Ryan Briscoe at Penske Racing.

It’s not as if the guy has set the world on fire at Penske. He’s in his fifth season and has won six races but none since 2010. He won the pole for this year’s Indy 500 but, other than that that, pretty much zilch.

The fact that he keeps getting rehired, and on a three-car Penske team that is one more than the Captain usually likes to run, has always been a bit of a puzzler.

In any event, when it looked like they were going to try to restart the race after the two-hour "debris delay," several drivers - including Briscoe - got upset when it appeared some teams were trying to circumvent the rules concerning which tires (soft or hard) were supposed to be on the cars.

Briscoe bitched sufficiently about having to drive on the rubber he was given that a voice on the team radio (and broadcast on TV) finally said – words to the effect of: "If you don’t want to drive the car, leave it in the pits."

That’s pretty strong language. A friend of mine says Roger Penske said the words while I thought it was team manager Tim Cindric. Either way, don’t be surprised if Briscoe’s not back in 2013 – unless he should start winning and then all might be forgiven.