Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

Fitzpatrick finishes mid-pack in NASCAR

SATURDAY NIGHT HEADLINES

1. Fitzpatrick's first outing for Go-Canada

2. Rahal, F1 car reunited at Motorsports Hall gala

1. Fitzpatrick makes NASCAR start

J.R. Fitzpatrick of Cambridge, at the wheel of the No. 67 GoCanada Ford Mustang, finished 27^th in Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Nashville Speedway.

The subject of an excellent story by Dan Ralph of Canadian Press that was published in the Saturday Star (here's the link), Fitzpatrick had qualified the car 21^st (out of 43 starters) in the GoCanada team’s first official outing.

Owned by Toronto businessman Steve Meehan, Fitzpatrick and the GoCanada team plan to contest at least 11 more Nationwide Series races this season and mix in a couple of Sprint Cup starts toward the end of 2011.

The plan is to seek corporate sponsorship (Meehan is picking up the tab this season mostly by himself) so that in 2012, Fitzpatrick will race half the time in Nationwide and the rest of the time in Cup with the goal of going full-time in the big league in 2013.

I’ve written a couple of stories about these guys in recent weeks (blog, column) and will be keeping a close eye on their progress. We haven’t had a Canadian team in NASCAR since Carling Breweries sponsored Earl Ross of Ailsa Craig, Ont., on what was then the Winston Cup circuit in the early 1970s.

It’s great to see talented young Canadians getting their shots at the big time. While Fitzpatrick was racing in Nashville, the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame was inducting 10 giants of motorsport in this country at a black-tie gala at the On The Park facility at Leslie and Englinton.

2. Rahal remembers racing in Canada

Among the inductees (I wrote about them all in my column this weekend) was Bobby Rahal, who reminisced about racing in Canada when he was first starting out.

I wrote a story about Rahal a few weeks ago (here’s the link, if you’re interested) and have to make a correction. I reported that his very first car race was a Mosport. In fact, he started a novice event at Harewood Acres before that.

In any event, he told a fascinating story about a car that was on display at the gala – a Formula One car from the team owned by Walter Wolf, an Austrian businessman who took out Canadian citizenship and who still lives on a ranch in British Columbia.

The car on display is numbered WR1. At the Canadian Grand Prix in 1978 – the first one held at the track in Montreal, by the way – Rahal had gone out in car No. WR5. It was raining and, as Rahal described it, he ran out of talent toward the end of the session and crunched it sufficiently that he couldn’t continue to drive it.

So the team went and got car No. WR1 that was on display in a hotel lobby – a show car – and dropped an engine into it. Rahal drove that car in the race and was up to "tenth or 11^th" when things started going awry and he was forced to drop out.

But who would guess that 33 years after that Grand Prix (which was won by Canada’s own Gilles Villeneuve), the driver and the car would be reunited at a banquet in a Toronto convention centre?

Small world.

One last thing about that dinner and induction ceremony last night.

Paul Cooke, who is the vice-president, competition, of ASN Canada FIA (the organization that sanctions motor racing in this country) and is the driving force behind karting in Canada (he had some help early on from Ron Fellows and Tom Ryley), arrived at the On The Park hall with four – count ‘em – four Canadian karters who are World Champions.

Imagine that? How many among us knew that we had four karting World Champions in our midst?

They are Luc Sauriol of Montreal, who won Canada’s first World Championship in Portugal in 2006; Pier-Luc Ouellette of Montreal, who won his World Championship in the United Arab Emirates in 2007; Scott Campbell of Saskatoon, who won his world title at Italy in 2010 and Daniel Morad of Markham, who also won at Italy a year ago.

Great stuff.

Canadian’s newest IndyCar driver, James Hinchcliffe, was also in attendance, as was 2010 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series champion D.J. Kennington.

Canadian racing is well represented by all of these fine young drivers and we should all be proud.

Let's hear it for Daniel Morad, World Champion!

In my web-only Monday Morning Racing Roundup, I included the following information — but at the end of the report, as Jimmie Johnson’s fifth NASCAR championship and Antoine L’Estage’s and Nathalie Richard’s Tall Pines rally win, giving them the North American Triple Crown of rally racing, took precedence.

So if you missed it, here’s what it said:

"It was an unbelievable day for Canadian karters at the world championships in Muro Leccese, Italy, as Canadians won two of the four world titles at the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals.

"Scott Campbell of Sakatoon held off Dennis Kroes of the Netherlands to win one championship and Daniel Morad of Markham, after starting 13th on the grid, charged through the field to win the second."

Now, Morad, of Markham, is a major talent who is under-appreciated in his own country. After winning the Formula-BMW Americas championship, which qualified him for a scholarship from Red Bull, he was told to get lost by Helmut Marko (who likes to call himself  Doctor, but isn’t one) because Robert Wickens of Guelph had won the championship the year previous and Marko/Red Bull didn’t want to have to support any more Canadians.

Simple as that.

After being pretty much ignored by Canadian corporations when he went looking for sponsorship, Morad — whose bloodlines are in Lebanon — went there looking for support and got it. He raced for Lebanon in the A1GP Series and Lebanese support got him into the European GP3 Series last year and will continue in 2011.

(An aside: where are Canadian corporations when guys like Morad and Wickens go looking for support? Morad is a WORLD CHAMPION, for God’s sake. They both won that F-BMW series championship and Wickens finished second in the Formula 2 Series in 2009 and second again this year in GP3. These guys are major talents. Everybody’s lining up to try to get Canadian Tire money but where is Petro-Canada? Where is the Royal Bank of Canada?)

In any event, Morad’s victory last weekend in Italy will be remembered for a long, long time because of this video.

Click on the link and take a look. It’s hilarious.

But what happened, happened because Daniel Morad of Markham, Ontario, CANADA, had just won the world championship and was thrilled.

We should all be thrilled with him, and for him.

Johnson wins NASCAR title the right way

Weekend headlines:

1.     Johnson wins NASCAR Chase for the Championship

2.     L’Estage and Nathalie Richard are Canadian rally champs

3.     Big day for Canadian karters

NASCAR:

As was the case a week ago in Formula One, when Sebastien Vettel won the world championship of drivers by going out and winning the final Grand Prix of the 2010 season, so it was with Jimmie Johnson on Sunday, who put his head down and drove to his fifth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Although Carl Edwards won the Ford 400 season finale, Johnson finished second in the race, which was good enough to win the title over Denny Hamlin, who was 39 points behind when the final figures were tallied, and Kevin Harvick, who ended up trailing by 41.

Johnson was enormously excited at the checkers, whooping and hollering over the radio to his crew chief and team members: "Unbelievable! Yeah! You guys are the best!"

One reason why Johnson was overly elated was because he had to come from behind to win his fifth straight championship – a record, incidentally, that will likely never be matched as three consecutives were the most anyone could put together before.

Going into the final race, Hamlin was leading the championship with Johnson second (15 behind) and Harvick third (46 in arrears). It was a situation that Johnson and his crew chief, Chad Knaus, had not  faced in winning their four previous championships.

So they had to hunt down Hamlin and pass him and then keep him behind, which they did successfully. As Knaus said: "We had to come down here and beat ‘em, and we beat ‘em."

Hamlin didn’t do his own cause any good by, first, qualifying poorly (he started the race in 37th place) and, second, running into Greg Biffle’s car on the 24th lap, which resulted in a spin and damage to the front of his car.

Although he initially complained to his crew that "the 16 came right down on me (which was not true, as TV replays showed)," he’d calmed down enough following the race to explain that the accident had knocked the toe out (toe settings determine straight-line stability and corner handling) and "the car was never the same after that."

Harvick, on the other hand, did everything he said he’d do, which included sending Kyle Busch for a ride into the inside guardrail when Busch the Younger drifted up into his path, expecting Harvick to lift,  which didn’t happen.

While Harvick’s aggressiveness was admirable, his speeding ticket on pit road was not and it likely cost him second place in the championship. If he hadn’t been sent to the rear of the field as penalty, he might either have won the race or finished ahead of Johnson, which might not have won him the overall title but would have had him ahead of Hamlin in the final points (6583 for Hamlin, 6581 for Harvick).

Oh, well. As he said: "We went down swinging."

Unlike last Sunday’s F1 race, which was a bit of a bore after Vettel went into cruise control and Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber appeared content to trundle around behind Vitaly Petrov (except for a couple of half-hearted attempts to pass by Alonso), the Sprint Cup race was full of tension until the final checkers.

Yes, Johnson was in second place and in the catbird seat for the last 20 laps, but this is NASCAR and one never knows when a tire will go flat or a leader will come upon a wreck happening back in the pack.

Anyone who remembers Dale Earnhardt apparently winning the Daytona 500 in 1990, only to have a tire go down midway through the third turn on the last lap, knows you don’t count your chickens in NASCAR until you cross the finish line for the final time.

Okay, one of these years, somebody driving for some other team will beat Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus.

But they’ve been saying that since he won his first title and it hasn’t happened yet.

Maybe — maybe — next year.

Notebook jottings:

– Sebastien Vettel is world F1 champion, Dario Franchitti is the IZOD IndyCar Series champion and Jimmie Johnson is the NASCAR Sprint Cup champion.

For all intents and purposes, racing is finished for 2010 (although the German Touring Car Championship remains to be determined, with the final race of the season scheduled for next Sunday in Shanghai. Canadian Bruno Spengler is in the lead, so cross fingers for him).

Which means, however, that for the first time since last February, there will be no live racing on television next Sunday afternoon.

What ever will we do?

– NASCAR should find a way to end the season in a place other than Homestead, Fla. The track is okay, but as a tourist destination, it is the pits.

The best thing about Homestead is that it’s only 60 miles away from Fort Lauderdale.

– Kevin Harvick was interviewed post-race while holding the ever-present bottle of Coca-Cola — a product placement that is the most irritating of all product placements.

When the interview was over, but while the camera was still on, Harvick handed the Coke to someone and accepted a bottle of water.

The drivers might have to hold it but they won’t drink that stuff and that might tell you something.

– It looked like a full house at the Homestead-Miami Speedway but NASCAR’s final race of the season wasn’t on network TV in the U.S. and that is another problem for the sanctioning body.

As attendance has fallen, and TV ratings have dropped, long-time sponsors are turning away from the sport. For instance, Sunday was Jeff Gordon’s last race with DuPont on his car; next season, he’ll be racing in support of U.S. food banks (yes, it’s come to that).

As NASCAR falters, IndyCar seems to be gathering momentum with more and more announcements being made concerning 2012.

It’s like a boxing match. The challenger knocked the old champ down and has been dancing around the ring, arms upraised in triumph.

But the old champ is getting up off the canvas. The challenger has been too busy mugging to the crowd to notice.

He’d better be careful. If he doesn’t watch it, the old champion’s going to deliver a knockout punch.

Ask anybody in the fight game about that scenario. It’s only happened in the ring – oh, about a thousand times before.

Triple Crown for Canadian rally champions

Antoine L'Estage and Nathalie Richard of Ste-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., drove their Rockstar Energy Drink-sponsored Mitsubishi to a decisive win in Saturday’s 40^th Rally of the Tall Pines, the final round of the Canadian Rally Championship Presented by Subaru and supported by Yokohama.

The win is their third Canadian Rally Championship and combined with their Rally America and North American Rally Cup titles makes them only the second team ever to win all three titles in the same year.

"I'm so happy that we've done it," L'Estage said after the event, which is held each year in Bancroft.

"The car was so good all season, and my family and sponsors have all been very supportive. I am so happy that I can show my appreciation by winning every rally title there is in North America."

Second place in both the event and the championship went to Craig Henderson and Lyne Murphy of New Richmond, Que. By finishing second, the team won the manufacturer’s title for Subaru.

Bruno Carré and Yvan Joyal of Lavla, Que., who won the opening round of the six-rally 2010 season and led the point standings for much of the year, finished third.

Pat Richard of Squamish, B.C. and Alan Ockwell of Toronto were forced out with a broken suspension. They had gone into the rally in second place, only two points behind L’Estage and Nathalie Richard.

"Congratulations to Antoine and Nathalie on their win," said Pat Richard, who was seeking his third consecutive national championship.

"We've done so well in the past, it's tough not to be able to continue that trend. This rally was really hard on us, and we wanted to win, but sometimes that's just not how things go."

Antoine L'Estage and Nathalie Richard have developed into one of the most dominant teams in North America, winning six of the last seven rallies they entered and earning the U.S. title in their first full season south of the border.

The 2011 Canadian Rally Championship season will start in Maniwaki, Que., with the Rallye Perce Neige next February.

The Canadian Rally Championship is made up of six events held nationwide in a season that extends from February to November. The series is presented by Subaru Canada, supported by Yokohama Tire Canada and features contingency programs from Subaru Canada and Mitsubishi Canada.

The Canadian Association of Rallysport (CARS) is the official sanctioning body for rallying in Canada.

My thanks to Keith Morison, who’s in charge of media relations for the championship, for supplying the information published here.

As well as an excellent journalist, Morison – of Calgary – is also a pretty good rally competitor himself, finishing fourth in the Tall Pines with Martin Rowe of Whistler, B.C. driving.

Canadian karters show the world

It was an unbelievable day for Canadian karters at the world championships in Muro Leccese, Italy, as Canadians won two of the four world titles at the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals.

Scott Campbell of Sakatoon held off Dennis Kroes of the Netherlands to win one championship and Daniel Morad of Markham, after starting 13^th on the grid, charged through the field to win the second.

Congratulations!

As was the case a week ago in Formula One, when Sebastien Vettel won the world championship of drivers by going out and winning the final Grand Prix of the 2010 season, so it was with Jimmie Johnson on Sunday, who put his head down and drove to his fifth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Although Carl Edwards won the Ford 400 season finale, Johnson finished second in the race, which was good enough to win the title over Denny Hamlin, who was 39 points behind when the final figures were tallied, and Kevin Harvick, who ended up trailing by 41.

Johnson was enormously excited at the checkers, whooping and hollering over the radio to his crew chief and team members: "Unbelievable! Yeah! You guys are the best!"

One reason why Johnson was overly elated was because he had to come from behind to win his fifth straight championship – a record, incidentally, that will likely never be matched as three was the most anyone could put together before.

Going into the final race, Hamlin was leading the championship by xxx, points, with Johnson second (xx behind) and Harvick third (xx in arrears).

It was a situation that Johnson and his crew chief, Chad Knaus, had never faced in winning their four previous championships. Previously, they’d gone into the final race of the year already in first place.

So they had to hunt down Hamlin and pass him and then keep him behind, which they did successfully. As Knaus said: "We had to come down here and beat ‘em, and we beat ‘em."

Hamlin didn’t do his own cause any good by, first, qualifying poorly (he started the race in xxth place) and, second, running into Greg Biffle’s car on the 24^th lap, which resulted in a spin and damage to the front of his car.

Although he initially complained to his crew that "the 16 came right down on me (which was not true, as TV replays showed)," he’d calmed down enough following the race to explain that the accident had knocked the toe out (toe settings determine straight-lin stability and corner handling) and "the car was never the same after that."

Harvick, on the other hand, did everything he said he’d do, which included sending Kyle Busch for a ride into the inside guardrail when Busch the Younger drifted up into his path, expecting Harvick to let off, which didn’t happen.

While his aggressiveness was admirable, his speeding ticket on pit road was not and it likely cost him second place in the championship. If he hadn’t been sent to the rear of the field as penalty, he might either have won the race or finished ahead of Johnson, which might not have won him the overall title but would have had him ahead of Hamlin.

Oh, well. As he said: "We went down swinging."

Unlike the F1 race, which was a bit of a bore after Vettel went into cruise control and Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber appeared content to trundle around behind Vxxx Petrov, the Sprint Cup race was full of tension until the final checkers.

Yes, Johnson was in second place and in the catbird seat for the last 20 laps, but this is NASCAR and one never knows when a tire will go flat or a leader will come upon a wreck happening back in the pack.

Anyone who remembers Dale Earnhardt apparently winning the Daytona 500 in 1990, only to have a tire go down midway through the third turn on the last lap, knows you don’t count your chickens in NASCAR until you cross the finish line for the final time.

One of these years, somebody driving for some other team will beat Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus.

Maybe.

Notebook jottings:

– Sebastien Vettel is world F1 champion, Dario Franchitti is the IZOD IndyCar Series champion and Jimmie Johnson is the NASCAR Sprint Cup champion.

For all intents and purposes, racing is finished for 2010 (although the German Touring Car Championship remains to be determined, with the final race of the season scheduled for next Sunday in Shanghai. Canadian Bruno Spengler is in the lead, so cross fingers for him).

Which means, however, that for the first time since last February, there will be no live racing on television next Sunday afternoon.

What ever will we do?

– NASCAR should find a way to end the season in a place other than Homestead, Fla. The track is okay, but as a tourist destination, it is the pits.

The best thing about Homestead is that it’s only 60 miles away from Fort Lauderdale.

– Kevin Harvick was interviewed while holding the ever-present bottle of Coca-Cola – a product placement that is the most irritating of all product placements.

When the interview was over, but while the camera was still on, Harvick handed the Coke to someone and accepted a bottle of water.

The drivers might have to hold it but they won’t drink that stuff and that might tell you something.

– It looked like a full house at the Homestead-Miami Speedway but NASCAR’s final race of the season wasn’t on network TV in the U.S. and that is another problem for the sanctioning body.

As attendance has fallen, and TV ratings have dropped, long-time sponsors are turning away from the sport. First instance, Sunday was Jeff Gordon’s last race with DuPont on his car; next season, he’ll be racing in support of U.S. food banks (yes, it’s come to that). \

As NASCAR falters, IndyCar seems to be gathering momentum with more and more announcements being made concerning 2012.

It’s like a boxing match. The challenger knocked the old champ down and has been dancing around the ring, arms upraised in triumph.

But the old champ is getting up off the canvas. The challenger has been too busy mugging to the crowd to notice.

He’d better be careful. If he doesn’t watch it, the old champion’s going to deliver a knockout punch.

Ask anybody in the fight game about that scenario. It’s only happened in the ring – oh, only about a thousand times before.

Triple Crown for Canadian rally champions

Antoine L'Estage and Nathalie Richard of Ste-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., drove their Rockstar Energy Drink-sponsored Mitsubishi to a decisive win in Saturday’s Rally of the Tall Pines, the final round of the Canadian Rally Championship Presented by Subaru and supported by Yokohama.

The win is their third Canadian Rally Championship and combined with their Rally America and North American Rally Cup titles makes them only the second team ever to win all three titles in the same year.

"I'm so happy that we've done it," L'Estage said after the event, which is held each year in Bancroft.

"The car was so good all season, and my family and sponsors have all been very supportive. I am so happy that I can show my appreciation by winning every rally title there is in North America."

Second place in both the event and the championship went to Craig Henderson and Lyne Murphy of New Richmond, Que. By finishing second, the team won the manufacturer’s title for Subaru.

Bruno Carré and Yvan Joyal pf Lavla, Que., who won the opening round of the six-rally 2010 season and led the point standings for much of the year, finished third.

Pat Richard of Squamish, B.C. and Alan Ockwell of Toronto were forced to drop out with a broken suspension. They had gone into the rally in second place, only two points behind L’Estage and Nathalie Richard. Their DNF, however, knocked them well down in the final standings.

"Congratulations to Antoine and Nathalie on their win," said Pat Richard, who was seeking his third consecutive national championship.

"We've done so well in the past, it's tough not to be able to continue that trend. This rally was really hard on us, and we wanted to win, but sometimes that's just not how things go."

Antoine L'Estage and Nathalie Richard have developed into one of the most dominant teams in North America, winning six of the last seven rallies they entered and earning the U.S. title in their first full season south of the border.

The 2010 edition of the Rally of the Tall Pines marked the event's 40th anniversary, making it one of the oldest events in the championship.
"With the 40th anniversary this year, we've been focused on making this the best Tall Pines ever," said Mike Koch, rally co-ordinator. "We were able to improve some of the roads over previous years to make things better for the competitors, and have continued to foster great spectating . . . and I am really happy with the results."

The 2011 Canadian Rally Championship season will start in Maniwaki, Que., with the Rallye Perce Neige next February.

The Canadian Rally Championship is made up of six events held nationwide in a season that
extends from February to November. The series is presented by Subaru Canada, supported by
Yokohama Tire Canada and features contingency programs from Subaru Canada and Mitsubishi
Canada.

The Canadian Association of Rallysport (CARS) is the official sanctioning body for rallying in
Canada.

My thanks to Keith Morison, who’s in charge of media relations for the championship, for supplying the information published here.

As well as an excellent journalist, Morison – of Calgary – is also a pretty good rally competitor himself, finishing fourth in the Tall Pines with Martin Rowe of Whistler, B.C. driving.

Ryley’s story doesn’t mean I now like karting

I was talking earlier this week with Paul Cooke, an old friend who – when it comes to motorsport in Canada – wields enormous power and influence.

We were discussing karting, as the national championships will be held next weekend at Le Circuit-Mont Tremblant.

Paul is director of karting and vice-president of competition for ASN Canada, which governs all amateur and professional motorsport in the country on behalf of the Paris-based Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).

I was gathering material for a column I wrote this week for Toronto Star Wheels (if you missed it in the paper, you can read it here) and we were discussing the long-term prospects of two Quebec children – Lance Stroll, now 11, and Kami Moreira-LaLiberté, who’s 10.

At some point, Paul said: “So, Norris, are you prepared to acknowledge the importance of karting in the development of young racing drivers?”

And I replied, “Yes, of course. It’s reality.”

But that doesn’t mean I like it, and that’s the question Paul was really asking me: was I changing my mind about kids and karting?

No.

I’ve always believed that anybody in this world can do anything they want to do so long as they realize the implications of their actions and those actions are within the law.

So if a man or a woman wants to go sky-diving, they are free to do so because they know what can happen. If they want to skin-dive among the wrecks in the waters off Tobermory or Kingston, they can do so because they know the risks.

I don’t know of too many children, if any, who sky-dive or skin-dive.

And yet parents will willingly put their kids in go-karts and sign the waivers that absolve (allegedly) just about anybody and everybody connected with the promotion of the sport, should anything happen. Then they send them out to race, sometimes at very fast speeds.

There’s a reason those kids have to wear helmets good enough for a Formula One driver to wear and that’s because they need them: karting can be a dangerous sport.

And I don’t think a 10 or 11-year-old kid appreciates what can happen to them if something goes wrong while they’re racing, which is why I don’t like it.

There is no doubt that this is a generational thing, and I’m of the older generation. In my youth, you had to be anywhere between 18 and 21 even to get into the pits, never mind actually drive or work on a car. And the reason was simple: society (and race organizers) felt you weren't old enough to know the dangers.

I’ve always been nervous about children being put into a position where they can get hurt. Or being forced to do something they don’t want to do (and that can include hockey and football, too).

In my own case, I have adult children who grew up in a racing household. I told them from the get-go that when they got their licence to drive a car on the street they could decide for themselves if they wanted to go racing.

If so, they would have my full support. If not, that was fine, too.

For the record, they are great fans of the sport – they travelled with me when I was racing mysef and we had a mini-reunion last weekend at Oswego Speedway in New York – but neither felt the need to climb into a cockpit.

I know there are millions of people around the world who enjoy karting and that – like any sport or pastime in which the generations can do it together – it can be a positive family experience.

But that doesn’t mean my personal reservations are incorrect. Whenever I write one of these things, I always get at least one letter from a parent who regrets their involvement because of something that happened to their child.

When that happens, I always think that the one letter is one letter too many.

Having said that, I write about motorsport. As I said – above – to Paul Cooke about karting, “it’s reality,” and I won’t ever let my personal bias interfere with my responsibility, which is to cover all aspects of the sport of racing.

And, at the end of the day, there are always good stories.

Here is one of them, as sent my way earlier this week by the folks at the Autosports Media Group: 

Ryley Hulme is 8 years old and from Woodstock. A week before the Brian Stewart Karting Championship race at Shannonville last weekend, his mom died after battling cancer.

Racing in the Cadet class, Ryley won the pole position and the pre-final race, which secured him the pole in the feature. At the start, he rocketed into the lead. Although he dropped back as far as third at one point, he held on for the win by 0.064 seconds – less than a nosecone.

“It feels really good to win this race for my mom,” Ryley said from the podium. “I knew she was watching over me all day. I wish she could have been here to see it, but she is in a better place now.”

Ryley will now continue his 2010 championship chase at the Waterloo Regional Kart Club. Currently leading the Cadet class point championships, he will be back in action this weekend at Flamboro Speedway – going for the gold and with his mom’s picture on his helmet, riding with him.

I wish him the best of luck and a safe ride.

Preview: More racing than the Grand Prix this weekend

Although the eyes of the world will be on Montreal this weekend for the 41^st Formula One Grand Prix of Canada that will go to the post at noon on Sunday (11:55 a.m., TSN), there are other races scheduled that you should know about.

Starting with the 24 Hours of Le Mans (Speed Channel, 8:30 a.m. Saturday), the weekend will also see the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, the Castrol Canadian Touring Car Series and the Formula Ford 2000 and FF1600 series all racing at Mosport.

At Le Mans, Canada will be represented by Tony Burgess of Toronto, who will be driving his sixth Le Mans with Americans Michael Lewis and Bryan Willman in the Autocon Motorsports P1 Lola B06-10. His best finish previously was third in class in 2000.

Burgess said his goal is to finish.

“We will be up against very good cars such as Audi and Peugeot (which won the pole Thursday),” he said in a release. “We can’t hope to match pace with them but it is an endurance race, so if we finish without any delays then chances are we will be in the top 10.”

At Mosport, the second race of the 2010 Canadian Tire-sponsored stock car series – which is Canada’s only national racing championship – will get the green flag Sunday at 1:30. Sponsored by Vortex Brake Pads, the race will go 200 miles, or 1 hour and 45 minutes, whichever comes first.

Reigning Series champion Andrew Ranger – who missed the season-opening joust at London’s Delaware Speedway last Saturday that was won by D.J. Kennington – and J.R. Fitzpatrick will renew their rivalry. In the three Canadian Tire races ran on Mosport’s road circuit, Ranger has taken two and Fitzpatrick one.

Ranger, who won both Canadian Tire Series races at Mosport a year ago on the road course and the oval, is running a limited schedule while he focuses on a NASCAR series in the U.S. But he’s excited about getting into some Canadian action this weekend.

“The competition is always really good there because it’s such a fast track,” Ranger said in a handout. “With guys like Scott Steckly and J.R. Fitzpatrick who run really well at Mosport, it will be really hard.  Fitzpatrick is fast on both the oval and the road course.  He’s got a good car and we always have a battle.  It’s great for the fans to watch.”

Fitzpatrick, who finished second at Delaware, is running the full Canadian Tire Series schedule while also driving some races for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports team in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

“Ever since 2007, Andrew and I have been racing each other hard and clean,” said Fitzpatrick. “We always put on a good show and a lot of people like to watch the rivalry that we have.  It makes for great racing and that’s why I am glad to hear that Ranger is coming to Mosport.

“It’s going to be a great race.”

Other NASCAR Canada drivers expected to run well at Mosport include Kerry Micks, Mark Dilley and Pierre Bourque.

“Rain or shine, I love this track,” said Bourque, of Ottawa. “I have no doubt we’ll have a strong qualifying session and we’ll be in the hunt for an excellent finish in the race itself. I’ll be tweeting updates, pictures and video with my iPhone through the weekend,” he said, in putting in a plug for his sponsor, Telus.

Road-racing veteran Robin Buck will also see action at Mosport as he kicks off his four-race season that will also include the Honda Indy Toronto, Trois-Rivieres and the NASCAR August weekend in Montreal.

The Castrol Canadian Touring Car Series will race twice at Mosport – on Saturday at 1:25 p.m. and again on Sunday at 3:30 p.m.

And the Touring Car championship is releasing the first of seven Webisodes and Video Race Recaps this weekend. According to a release, the Webisodes are designed to take viewers behind the scenes of the series, from the paddock to the pitlane to the track and the podium. Viewers will learn about the challenges as the drivers and teams fight their way to the top.

“We have been working with Mark Drager and his Phanta Media team over the past two years to put together the right concept that would bring the championship to life via the Internet,” stated series president, John Bondar.

“And I believe that we have found a fabulous formula to build brand awareness and showcase the competition.

“Initial response has been incredible!”

For further information, go to www.touringcar.ca

Also in action this weekend will be the Brian Stewart Racing Karting Championship at the recently repaved Innisfil Indy Kartways located in Gilford.

As is the case with the F1 drivers in Montreal, practice begins Friday and then there is a full schedule of warmups, qualifying, pre-final and final races set for both Saturday and Sunday.

Oh, and before I forget, if you’re glued to your TV for Le Mans and the Grand Prix, you can watch a recording of the opening NASCAR Canada race at Delaware on Saturday at 2 p.m. on TSN.

The race will be repeated next Wednesday at 12:30 in the morning and 3:30 in the afternoon.

 

 

 

 

 

Ferrari signs young Canadian kart star Stroll

Last summer, I wrote a column about karting and mentioned a little guy from Montreal named Lance Stroll, who’d already been marked for greatness at the age of 10.

(For that column, click here.)

He was being coached at the time by six-time World Kart Champion Mike Wilson from England. Prior to last summer, the only time previously that Wilson had come to Canada was in 1998 for the FIA North American Karting Championships that were held on the kart track at Mosport.

His driver then? A kid from Spain named Fernando Alonso.

Wilson doesn’t waste his time with posers, apparently. The news today is that young Lance Stroll, who’s now the ripe old age of 11, has been signed by Ferrari’s driver development program.

James Allen (you remember him – he was the play-by-play announcer for years when Britain’s ITV had the contract to broadcast Formula One races) reported on his website today that Stroll is the “youngest member of the recently formed Ferrari Driver Academy, which is managed by former Ferrari race engineer Luca Baldisserri.”

Baldisserri is a great friend of Eric Jensen, the Canadian team owner in Formula BMW and Atlantics.

Allen notes that Stroll’s signing parallels the system that McLaren has had for years that saw Lewis Hamilton join the program when he was 13.

Allen says Stroll finished sixth in the world finals in his category last year and has won Canadian and U.S. championships.

“He is young but he has already shown that he is exceptionally talented,” Baldisserri said in a release. “We will follow him step by step and he will take part in our courses at Maranello.”

It is symbolic that Ferrari chose to make the announcement of the young Canadian’s signing on the eve of the Canadian Grand Prix, which is returning to Montreal after a year’s absence.

The last Canadian to sign with the famous Italian marque was the legendary Gilles Villeneuve, after whom the circuit where the GP will be held is named.

 

 

Brian Stewart kart series kicks off 2010 season

Brian Stewart has been a motorsport leader in this country for more about 40 years, give or take a year or two.

He started out as a mechanic, became a racing driver quite by accident (it’s a long story but let me say he was very good and he experienced some success) and then settled down to mentor aspiring racing drivers and prepare cars for them to race.

The list of people he’s turned into champions (they had the raw talent; he helped smooth out the rough spots) is truly mind-boggling: Paul Tracy, Cristiano Da Matta, Gualter Salles, Brian Herta and on and on.

His first international-calibre driver, back in the late 1980s, was Irishman Tommy Byrne, who has complimentary things to say about him (he calls Stewart a "natural winner") in his book, "Crashed and Byrned."

Championship after championship followed.

I talk to "Stewie" just about every day. He’s a character – he has a million stories – and although he likes to talk tough, he has a good heart.

He also has excellent observations on the state of racing in the world today, some of which I steal. . .

In any event, Stewart is also heavily involved in karting as a supporter and sponsor. "Racing’s given a lot to me," he says, "and this is one way I can give back."

The Brian Stewart Karting Championship (its mission statement is short and to the point: "to present the most professional regional karting series in North America at an affordable cost") kicks off the 2010 championship season this coming weekend at the 3-S Go-Karts facility in Sutton.

Stewart will be on hand throughout the weekend, cheering on the karters and talking about racing. He’ll also present the trophies and the cheques to the top three finishers in each of the six classes.

To raise the profile of the karting series, and to raise some much-needed funding, Stewart is also planning a "Brian Stewart Racing Golf Tournament" at the exclusive Briars Golf & Country Club at Jackson’s Point on Thurs., July 14.

A post-tournament dinner and awards presentation is scheduled for the Lionshead Resort and Yacht Club just down the road from the Briars.

For prices and other details about the golf tournament, go to Brian Stewart Racing

And if you should happen to be in the vicinity of 3-S Go-Karts on the weekend, drop in and take a look at the next generation of Canadian motor racing talent.

AIM, Brian Stewart both expand racing businesses

Two of Canada’s finest race-car and race-driver preparation businesses, AIM Autosport of Woodbridge and Brian Stewart Racing of Sutton, are expanding their franchises – and their horizons.

AIM, which has been involved primarily in professional sports car racing as well as the Star Mazda open-wheel development series, announced Monday that it will field a team in the new USF2000 series that IndyCar (formerly the IRL) has designated as the first post-karting stepping stone in its Road to Indy program.

(IndyCar would like young drivers planning a career in Indy cars to move from karts to Formula Fords (the F2000 series) to Star Mazda to Indy Lights before going on to the big leagues.)

On the same day as the AIM announcement, Stewart – who’s had a team in the Firestone Indy Lights Series for years, sponsors the Brian Stewart Racing Karting Championship and only recently entered the USF2000 championship – announced that his business would be entering a team in the Star Mazda series.

The announcement by AIM – which was co-founded by Ian Willis and involves Keith Willis as Star Mazda team principal and former Toyota Atlantic standout Andrew Bordin as driver mentor – included information that Toronto teens Michael Furfari (Star Mazda) and his brother Anthony (USF2000) would be driving for the team this season.

"Andrew was a great influence on both drivers," noted Keith Willis, referring to a pre-Christmas testing session in Florida involving Bordin and the Furfaris. "He has the ability to communicate with the guys and make them feel comfortable which is important to the team dynamic, especially with young drivers."

AIM has a solid track record. Most recently, it won the 2008 Star Mazda title with American John Edwards aboard. In addition to the Formula Ford and Star Mazda teams, AIM fields the No. 61 Ford Riley with drivers Mark Wilkins (Toronto) and Burt Frisselle (Aspen, Colo.) in the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series.

Stewart, meantime, feels that his team is the perfect fit for any young driver planned to travel the Road to Indy.

"In our 45-year history, we have consistently graduated drivers through the various levels of open-wheel racing," said Stewart, noting that his star pupils have included Paul Tracy, Brian Herta, Christiano Da Matta, Gualter Salles and Eric Bechelart, among others.

"With the addition of our Star Mazda team, we now have a seamless series of stepping stones from karts through to Indy Lights for a driver planning to make racing his or her career."

In addition to Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame inductee Stewart, mentoring and coaching of young drivers will be provided by former British F2000 and F3 champion Tommy Byrne, who also raced for Stewart in Indy Lights.

Both AIM and Stewart have seats available for all of these series.

It’s tough out there.

　

Michael Schumacher’s not alone in Vegas

Remember that little blog item I had a week or so ago about Michael Schumacher going to Las Vegas to race in this weekend’s Superkarts! USA Supernationals?

Well, he’s not alone. There’s a real gathering of the F1 clan in Vegas to either race themselves or cheer Michael (or their friends) on.

Nelson Piquet Jr. is there. (Oops, I guess I should say "former F1 driver," or "ex-F1 driver," or "disgraced F1 driver. . . ) Anyway, Sebastien Buemi is there. Sebastien Vettel has been spotted in the paddock (or so my spies tell me) and Felipe Massa is expected to arrive shortly. Indy car star Raphael Matos is also on hand.

Rob Howden of Kitchener is doing the announcing. If you want to follow the action all weekend, you can keep up at www.ekartingnews.com/live, which will be carrying live audio broadcasting all weekend.

Schumacher arrived in Vegas this morning and is scheduled to go out for his first practice session later today.

 

Michael Schumacher to race go-karts in Las Vegas!

We were all disappointed when seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher didn’t attempt a comeback in Formula One after Felipe Massa was injured and Ferrari needed a replacement driver.

But news received from Rob Howden, editor-in-chief and publisher of the Howden Media Group (eKartingNews.com, eKartingNews.ca, eFormulaCarNews.com and IndoorKartingNews.com) brightened me right up and I think you’ll get a kick out of it too.

Michael might not be doing any F1 but he is coming to North America to race in the 125cc SuperPro category of the Superkarts! USA Supernationals at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

Howden, of Kitchener, will be announcing at the event Nov. 18-22. He’s drinking tea and honey and practicing his vowels, as we speak.

Here’s a link to the eKartingNews.com site that has all the details.