Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

U.S. Grand Prix details announced

Here are some odds ‘n ends heading toward the weekend (which is a big one, with all the major series – F1, IndyCar and NASCAR – all running bigr races: F1 in China, NASCAR at Talladega and IndyCar at Long Beach).

– The promoters of the 2012 U.S. Grand Prix at Austin, Tex., held their press conference Tuesday and, as expected, it was a public-relations exercise. They announced the name of the track – the Circuit of the Americas – and that MotoGP motorcycle racing would be part of the show, beginning in 2013.

There was one interesting announcement – that the race on the twisty circuit with a couple of long straights (hello Malaysia) will be run counter-clockwise.

That was one of the problems with the circuit at Indianapolis – that the F1 race was run backwards on the most historic, and storied, race track in the United States. It just didn’t feel - or look - right.

This is a brand-new circuit and organizers could have gone either way, so it’s interesting they chose to run the race the way American racing has traditionally been run: counter-clockwise.

Incidentally, there was no date announced for the Grand Prix. They only have two real windows in Austin, so it’s going to be one of them – early spring and late fall. Otherwise, it’s too hot (average temperature in the summer months is in the 90s Fahrenheit).

If they start the season in Austin in March, the average temp. would be 73F; or they could end the season there in November when the average is 70. If they go to Austin before travelling to Montreal in June, the average will be 85-90F.

Damn hot to be outside all day.

Before I leave this subject, I would direct you to a comment on my blog post below. It has to do with Texas barbecue and is enough to, a) make your mouth water and, b) make you start making plans to attend that race!

– James Hinchcliffe, who made his first start in the IZOD IndyCar Series last weekend in Alabama, is one of the most savvy media guys around. He knows how to milk the social networks and he’s a fine writer and broadcaster.

It comes as no surprise, then, to see that he’s writing a column for speedtv.com. He has some interesting things to say in his first effort, which you can read here.

– Pierre Bourque of Ottawa, a regular in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, will start his season early this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama when he rolls out to compete in the 3 Amigos 250 ARCA Series race on Friday evening.

Making this possible for Bourque and Eddie Sharp Racing, which is providing the car, are Revolution Resources, a Canadian-owned junior gold mining company operating in North Carolina, Anheuser-Busch and their "Responsible Use" campaign, the Fight Network, the world's premier provider of combat sports content, OCR Gaz Bar, owned by fellow Canadian Tire competitor Derek White in Khanawake, Que., and Sure Pure, the global leader in turbid liquid photopurification.

"I’m very pleased to have these great companies supporting our efforts with ESR and the #6 Toyota" said Bourque, adding he was looking forward to providing awareness for his supporters.

The ARCA race can be seen live on SPEED Friday at 5 p.m. ET.

– Paul Tracy will make his first start of the 2011 IndyCar season this weekend in Long Beach, driving for Dragon Racing, Jay Penske’s team. That will make three Canadians in the race – Tracy, Hinchcliffe and Alex Tagliani.

What a podium that would make, eh?

Raikkonen to try NASCAR truck today

Notebook Jottings from a weekend of race-watching and listening:

– Kimi Raikkonen will take his first laps in a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series truck today (Monday) at Gresham Motorsports Park, outside Atlanta. He’ll be testing with – and eventually driving for – Kyle Busch, whose team won the 2010 truck series championship.

As he aims to launch his NASCAR career, Raikkonen has made the right move initially by selecting Busch’s team. In my opinion, Busch is good enough to drive and win in Formula One (given the right car and team), so it will be a partnership of equals.

But Busch has also won in NASCAR trucks as well as the two stock car series – the minor-league Nationwide and the big-league Sprint Cup – so he knows his way around and will make a good coach.

Raikkonen is aiming to make his first start next month in the May 20 truck race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the night before the big NASCAR All-Star race. It will be an interesting debut as Charlotte is a tough track to drive. As well, the field will be deep for such a prestigious event (the trucks will kick off two weekends of racing that will conclude with the running of the Coca-Cola 600 on May 29).

Busch says the deal this year is for between three and five races and that Raikkonen hopes to get into Nationwide and Sprint Cup races next year, when he’ll no longer be racing in the World Rally Championship.

Busch says full-time members of his truck team will service Raikkonen’s truck while his own truck will be crewed by team managers and volunteers.

For a complete interview with Busch and how he sees things going with the 2007 World Champion, click here.

Oh, and how did Busch do this weekend in the NASCAR races at Martinsville, Va.? He was second in the truck race Saturday (Johnny Sauter won that joust; full results here) and he finished third Sunday in the Sprint Cup bout (full story and results here) that saw Kevin Harvick get past Dale Earnhardt Jr. with two laps to go to steal the victory.

– Junior Nation was almost beside itself after Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Martinsville. Dale Jr. took the lead by bumping Kyle Busch out of his way with 20 laps of the half-mile track to go and then started to pull away, only to tail off slightly as his handling started to go off.

When he made his move on Busch, and shot to the front, you could hear the cheers over the roar of the engines. If he’d managed to hold on for the win, it would have been his first trip to Victory Lane in 99  starts, seeing as he hasn’t won a Sprint Cup race since the 2008 Michigan 400.

But it wasn’t to be. Harvick got him with two to go and the crowd wilted.

Even Harvick said he’d like to see Earnhardt win again. "I hate to be the bad guy here, but I'm in it to win it," he said, indicating there was just no way he was going to sit back and let Junior beat him.

Maybe he didn’t get the memo . . .

By the way, Juan Montoya had a great run to finish fourth at Martinsville and Jeff Gordon was fifth. Chase standings after Martinsville start with Kyle Busch on top with 219 points. The rest of the top 12 – Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Harvick, Ryan Newman, Montoya, Little E., Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon.

– The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series got a big boost late last week with the announcement that former Champ Car World Series and recent Firestone Indy Lights driver "Speedy" Dan Clarke would join the series for the 2011 season as a teammate to Holland Landing’s Anthony Simone.

But enthusiasm was tempered somewhat at the weekend when it was learned that Canadian Tire Series star JR Fitzpatrick won’t be running the full schedule in 2011 because of opportunities that have opened up for him south of the border.

Jason Sharpe, Fitzpatrick’s business manager, said that while the driver will race in select Canadian Tire races this season, his main focus will be on a dozen NASCAR Nationwide Series races with one or two Sprint Cup races thrown in later in the year.

Sharpe confirm ed that Toronto businessman Steve Meehan had purchased all but the name of the Baker Curb Racing Nationwide team and intends to take Fitzpatrick to the top with the goal of being full-time in Sprint Cup by 2013.

Meantime, a press conference is planned in the near future to connect the dots. The new team is aiming to run the Nationwide race at Nashville April 23.

The Canadian Tire Series, with Clarke and Simone and the rest of the gang, will open for the 2011 season at Mosport Speedway on May 28. D.J. Kennington of St. Thomas is the defending champion.

– James (Bubba) Stewart finished fourth in the AMA Supercross feature at the Rogers Centre last weekend (there were 45,000 people in attendance – almost as many as attended the Blue Jays home opener on Friday) and then went home to Florida where he managed to get himself arrested and charged with impersonating a police officer. See story here

He should have been charged with assault on Saturday night in Dallas when he did a number on series leader Chad Reed, which saw Reed finish eight in the feature and fall out of the points lead (Trey Canard won; he’d finished third here a week ago).

Stewart finished fourth after literally landing on top of Reed and driving him off the track. Ryan Villopoto was second and Toronto winner Ryan Dungey finished third.

It’s hard to say what had gotten into Stewart’s head when he got himself arrested last Monday. What it did do, however, was to cut his route to superstardom off at the pass.

His name was being bandied about as potentially one of the five non-IndyCar regular drivers who would be invited to race as a guest in the final race of the IZOD series at Las Vegas in October.

I know you’re innocent until proved guilty but I suggest that the invitation that was supposed to go out to him in the mail will now somehow get lost. . .

Oh, before I leave the AMA Supercross, Dean Wilson of Calgary won the SX Lites feature at Dallas and is now a close second in that championship.

In other motorcycle action, Jorge Lorenzo won the wet Moto GP race in Spain on Sunday. Dani Pedrosa was second and Nicky Heyden finished third.

Valentino Rossi lost control and took Casey Stoner out with him. He went to apologize later and still had his helmet on. Smart move.

– All of the big series will be in action next weekend. F1 is in Malaysia (the middle of the night here for qualifying and the race on TSN but TSN2 will air repeats on Saturday and Sunday mornings) while NASCAR is in Texas (the Sprint Cup race will be on TSN2 Saturday night at 7) and the IndyCar race from Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama will be seen Sunday on TSN at 3 p.m.

Paul Tracy hopes for INDYCAR answer today

Weekend Headlines:

1. Paul Tracy gets ride decision Monday

2. Daytona 200 winner changed engine

3. Ken Wilden gets 12 Hours of Sebring ride

1. Tracy close to INDYCAR employment

Paul Tracy has his fingers crossed that today (Monday) will be the day he finds out whether he has an INDYCAR deal for 2011.

Those of us who follow his Twitter posts have been expecting good news for a couple of days now.

Last Tuesday, for instance, he wrote: "Going to the gym. Then it’s time to get these deals put to bed."

But then on Thursday, he wrote: "First and inches to the goal line. Problem is, every time we move, the goal line seems to move. Got to get there . . ."

On Friday, (at 3:37 a.m.) there was this: "CAN’T SLEEP. TO (sic) MUCH ON MY MIND."

And finally, on Saturday: "Hate it when decisions get held over till Monday."

Speculation has Tracy close to a deal with Conquest Racing, which is operated by former driver Eric Bachelart. Let’s hope it’s for a full season. Tracy, one of the greatest, committed, entertaining and most loyal racing drivers of our time, deserves a farewell tour.

DiSalvo gets second chance, wins Daytona 200

My Toronto Star Wheels column on Saturday was about Canadian motorcycle racing superstar Miguel Duhamel (if you missed it, click here), who won North America’s most famous race, the Daytona 200, five times.

Duhamel wasn’t in this year’s event, which is probably just as well. There is much to report – and talk about.

The winner on Saturday was Jason DiSalvo aboard a Ducati. But DiSalvo was allowed an engine change mid-way through the event during a long red flag brought about by concerns that the tires supplied by spec manufacturer Dunlop were not safe.

That engine change and subsequent victory left a sour taste in some mouths.

The concern about the tires came about because resurfacing of the Daytona International Speedway resulted in increased grip. Temperatures on Saturday were much higher than on days when tests were conducted. So, higher timperatures combined with the increased grip resulted in significantly higher tire temperatures and the decision was made, in the interests of safety, to stop the race and order all competitors to change their front tires.

The race, scheduled for 57 laps, was also reduced to 42 laps – the first time that has happened in the 70 years of the event.

Now, this is where it gets interesting.

Moments before the red flag, DiSalvo raised his arm to signal he was pitting because his motor had conked out. He told a TV reporter that he was finished. "Looks like our day is done," he said.

But because the red flag was out for so long, his team completed the engine change before the race was restarted and the American Motorcycle Association gave him permission to continue and he went on to win.

How fair is that?

Cory West was second behind DiSalvo on a Suzuki and Jake Zemke, who won the 200 in 2006 as well as the pole for this particular race, was third on a Yamaha. It was Ducati’s first win in the famous race.

As DiSalvo flashed across the finish line, Dane Westby and Taylor Knapp crashed right behind him. Auto racing crashes at 200 miles an hour are scary but motorcycle wrecks at that speed are terrifying.

Fortunately, both those riders were okay. I suspect, however, that this story isn’t over.

Racing and Racers

NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Kasey Kahne won the Camping World Series truck race at Darlington on Saturday. Ron Honaday finished second and Todd Bodine was third.

Two things: Kahne was subbing for Kyle Busch, which is okay in one way because Busch owns a truck team but not in another because, yet again, a Cup driver has scored a win in a minor-league series, which is something NASCAR is trying to avoid.

The other thing is that Ron Hornaday had to qualify for this race on time. He was a go- or go-homer, which is really hard to believe. Ron Hornaday is truck racing. Or used to be, I guess.

Kenny Wilden of Oakville will be at the wheel of a Jaguar RSR XKR at next weekend’s 12 Hours of Sebring, which will be available for streaming video viewing at americanlemans.com starting at 10:15 a.m. next Saturday morning, March 19.

(That’s corrrect: there’s no live TV coverage of this iconic event. ABC (WKBW-TV in Buffalo) will provide post-race coverage next Sunday from 12:30 p.m. till 2 p.m.)

Wilden will be co-driving with P.J. Jones and Rocky Moran Jr. in the GT category. Said a Jaguar release:

"Wilden has established himself as one of the best drivers and coaches in North America. The Canadian has earned four national championships with wins in many types of cars from showroom stock to endurance to open wheel, oval and prototype.

"His resume includes claiming the Players GM series crown in 1992, Michelin Enduro Series champion in 1994 and back-to-back runner-up positions in 1995-1996, multiple wins and podiums in the Atlantic Series and second overall in the championship in 1999, success in Trans-Am and Grand-Am series. His most recent accomplishment was winning the 2009 Grand-Am Koni Challenge GS."

Way to go, Ken.

Speaking of next Saturday, Mark Webber will drive his Red Bull Formula One car over the Sydney Harbour Bridge to publicize the season-opening Australian Grand Prix a week later.

I’ve got a great idea. How about Paul Tracy (see first item, above) driving his Conquest Racing Indy car over the Prince Edward Viaduct (a.k.a. Bloor Viaduct) to publicize this July’s Honda Indy Toronto?

How about it, Charlie Johnstone?

And, finally, a little bird tells me that Guelph and Toronto’s Robert Wickens will be in F1 next year, driving for Virgin Racing. I’d like to believe that.

Canadian motorcycle racer dies

Sad news to report today.

Jesse Phibbs, the 21-year-old motorcycle racer from Leamington who was critically injured in a 
flat-track race on the Indiana State Fairgrounds dirt mile in September, has died.

Phibbs was hit by another rider on the first lap of a heat race during the MotoGP weekend in Indianapolis. Ironically, a 12-year-old racer was killed the same weekend during a race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Jesse’s father, Matt Phibbs, told the Indianapolis Star that his son died on Tuesday at Victoria Hospital in London, Ont., of severe brain trauma. 

"He fought hard," Matt Phibbs said. "There was too much brain damage."

Jesse had been treated at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis for about a month before being transferred to a facility closer to his home.

He was in his first professional season.

Click here for an earlier story about the accident.