One of the greatest drivers in the history of world motorsport, Mario Andretti of Nazareth, Pa., will be inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame’s International category at a ceremony and reception in September.
Dr. Hugh Scully, chairman of the board of the Hall of Fame, made the announcement Tuesday, explaining that Andretti would join Carroll Shelby, Bobby Rahal and his son Michael Andretti as International racers who have made significant contributions to motorsport in Canada.
Andretti will be inducted, along with Canadians Ron Fellows, Tom Walters, John and Sharon Fletcher, Jimmy Carr and the late Bob Armstrong, during the 19th annual Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies presented by Canadian Tire Sept. 28 at the CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio in downtown Toronto.
Nobody drove a Formula One car faster than Andretti at what is now Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, where he won the pole and recorded the fastest lap in 1977, the final year the Grand Prix of Canada was held at Mosport before being moved to Montreal.
Ten years earlier, the back straight at the iconic circuit was named Mario Andretti Straightaway after he was clocked at 178 miles an hour in a U.S. Auto Club (USAC) Indy car race.
On a global scale, Andretti was the first driver to win both the Formula One world championship (1978) and several Indy car championships (1965, ‘66, ‘69 and ‘84).
His versatility remains unparalleled and one of the many books about him is titled, "The Man Who Can Win Any Kind of Race," because he won the Daytona 500 stock car race in 1967, the Indy 500 and Pikes Peak hill climb in 1969, the USAC big car championship on dirt in 1974 (when he was also racing in F1!), three 12 Hours of Sebring endurance championships as well as a class win at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans.
In Canada, Andretti was unbeatable in the 1960s at Le Circuit-Mont Tremblant, winning all four races held in 1967 and ‘68. In 1975 at Mosport, he went green flag to checkers to win a Formula 5000 race.
In the Hall of Fame’s announcement, it notes that some of the bad luck associated with him at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (" . . . and Mario Andretti is slowing down . . .") sometimes crossed the border when he came to race in Canada.
After turning the fastest-ever F1 lap at Mosport, engine failure sent him to the pits while leading. A broken halfshaft took him out of a USAC Indy car race at the same circuit.
His best finish in a Canadian Grand Prix was third in 1976. Later in his career, in the CART series, he was second in the Molson Indy Toronto in 1991 after finishing third in the Vancouver race a year earlier.
Although he says he raced in Canada in the early 1960s ("we went to some small tracks near Quebec"), the first recorded visit here came in 1965 at a USAC midget race at the CNE Stadium stock car track. He also raced in F1 at Montreal’s Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve and in Indy cars at the Sanair Speedway oval in Quebec.
Named the U.S. driver of the year in 1967, 1978 and 1984, Andretti was chosen Driver of the Century by the Associated Press.
Tickets for the informal, cocktail party-type gathering where attendees can mingle with Andretti and the other inductees following the induction ceremony will go on sale this Friday, June 21, on the Hall of Fame’s website, www.cmhf.ca or by calling 1-289-803-1375.
Let’s take a break from Formula One (Mercedes is being hauled onto the carpet at FIA headquarters in Paris on Thursday over Tiregate, but that’s a few days away), NASCAR (Carl Edwards is angry with race winner and teammate Greg Biffle for not being polite when he passed him in Michigan on Sunday) and IndyCar (think Honda Indy Toronto) in order to enjoy a change of pace: a couple of videos and some South American racing photos.
Next weekend is the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 1955, British driver Mike Hawthorn won the iconic race (with co-driver Ivor Bueb) but was also largely responsible for the dreadful accident that killed 83 spectators and another racer.
Hawthorn reportedly braked suddenly while approaching the pits and this caused the driver of the car following to swerve to avoid a collision. In so doing, the driver following, Lance Macklin, placed his car directly in the path of one being driven by Pierre Levegh, causing Levegh’s car to go out of control and literally fly into the crowd.
Here is a link to a fascinating video made the following year, a few days in advance of the 1956 Le Mans. Hawthorn drives a D-type Jaguar equipped with cameras and a microphone and describes a lap of the circuit (which is on public roads, not yet closed, and he has to keep a close eye out for other cars, motorcycles and people on bicycles while he bombs along and talks).
It is mildly chilling, as he approaches the scene of the carnage, to hear him say, in a somewhat dispassionate voice: "Just up ahead a bit was where they had a terrible accident last year . . ."
Hawthorn won the Formula One World Championship of Drivers in 1958 and promptly retired from the sport, only to die in a road crash a few months later at age 29.
NASCAR driver Tony Stewart is under contract to Mobil 1 motor oil. Their advertising people like to present him as a cheerful, positive, somewhat-cherubic teddy bear out to have some fun. Of course, anybody who knows Stewart is very aware that he can be the polar opposite. But that’s the world of advertising for you.
Click here to watch a video of Tony and F1 driver Jenson Button (who’s also supported by Mobil 1) demonstrating what the sponsor’s product can do to improve flexibility.
Finally, a friend of mine who was a helluva Ontario Formula Ford driver in the 1960s who went on to turn heads in England and Europe while driving various racing cars overseas is riding his motorcycle throughout South America these days.
Clive Rayman is in Bolivia at the moment, in the city of Sucre, to be exact. It turns out that the country’s most famous motor race, the Oscar Crespo, is being held in and around the city while Clive is there, so he sent the following photographs. Note that the cars are quite close to the spectators in some instances.
Writes Clive:
"There are no motorbikes racing this year because of deaths and injuries in previous years. Man, they are taking the fun out of everything! Guess I better get to the Isle of Man before they stop that race!
"So today was qualifying for the 142 cars; yeah 142! A two-minute run...for a few kms...cars leave about 30 seconds apart...different classes...a lot of fast machines...the last group were the wanker cars...some real wankers, too!
"However for the poorest country in South America it was impressive. Driver and co-drivers...Nomex, helmets, roll cages, seat belts, some with no gloves though. Yes they do have tech inspection...that was yesterday.
"Tomorrow is the race. Two laps of 50 kms each on pavement and gravel. They go into a small town, Yotola, and circle back. They stagger them two minutes apart in the same class so there is little overtaking.
"On the map of the race, I counted around 151 +/- turns, kinks, hairpins...the only straights are coming into the Plaza...start/finish line and exiting for about 2 kms. The first corner after the start/finish line is full bore...apparently that is where a lot of guys bury it ...check the pic of the sand bags.
"There are 45 dangerous spots marked off for spectators not to be...but this is Bolivia so I doubt anybody will pay attention. There are safety barriers and cops right in the town but most probably not once the cars leave and are outside."
Exiting the first corner.
The second straight from Corner 1.
So you know where you're at.
Sand bags and gravel...this is where cars bury it...
As was the case with the U.S. Open golf tournament Sunday (Justin Rose, Survivor), it was survival of the fittest at Michigan International Speedway when just about the last driver standing won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race there.
Greg Biffle won the Father’s Day contest, with Kevin Harvick second and Martin Truex Jr. third.
But Buffle was hardly the class of the field on this day.
First, Kurt Busch was in charge but brushed the wall with his Furniture Row car early in the race and there was sufficient damage to ruin his day.
Then, Kasey Kahne was running away with the race – literally leading the pack with ease – when his right front tire blew out and that send him careening hard into the first turn wall.
Kahne wasn’t injured but had to stick his head back into the cockpit after exiting the wreck to push the fire-extinguisher button because the car was in the process of burning down.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. then took over the lead and he was on his way to Victory Lane when, all of a sudden, his engine dropped a cylinder and before you knew it he was out of the race.
Carl Edwards inherited the lead but then he also started to fade and Biffle got past him.
Jimmie Johnson was closing the gap from second place as the race wound down but then he also had a tire go flat on him and he hit the wall as well.
Biffle’s victory was the 1,000th for the Ford Motor Co. in Cup, Busch/Nationwide and Craftsman/Camping World trucks racing.
Kyle Busch finished fourth and Tony Stewart was fifth.
Danica Patrick matched her best finish of the season (Martinsville) by arriving home 13th.
The IZOD IndyCar Series race report from Milwaukee is down further in this post, having been held Saturday, as are reports on other major league racing events held Saturday.
Here are, briefly, the rest of the Sunday racing reports:
– In Jerez, Spain, Nelson Mason of Niagara Falls won the European F3 Open (Spanish Formula 3) race after capturing the pole in qualifying.
– In Germany, Robert Wickens of Guelph and Toronto finished fourth for Mercedes in the DTM race at Lausitzring. Mercedes driver Gary Paffett was the winner. The other Canadian in the race, Quebec driver Bruno Spengler, was seventh for BMW but is tied for the points lead with Audi driver Mike Rockenfeller. Wickens is in seventh place in the standings.
Said the young Ontario racer after the event:
"That was quite a difficult race for me today. I was forced to push very hard on the option tires, which meant that they degraded faster than we had expected. I didn't have a spare set of new tires available for the final stint, so consequently Christian (fellow Mercedes driver Christian Vietoris) was able to get past me.
"That's regrettable, but the main thing is that we scored some vital championship points today. As far as I am concerned, I'll keep giving it all I've got in every race. If I manage to win, that's great. But if I finish in second or fourth place, that's also okay. I'll just keep pushing."
- In Spain, Jorge Lorenzo won the Moto GP race at Catalunya over Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez. It was Lorenzo's third win in four years.
- For the first time in 32 meets, John Force gave himself a Father's Day present Sunday by winning the NHRA Funny Car drag race championship at Bristol, Tenn. Steve Torrence won in Top Fuel amd Rodger Brogdon was first in Pro Stock. Force had to beat his daughter Courtney in his march to the title, eventually knocking off Cruz Pedregon in the final.
– And with the World of Outlaws making its annual stop at the Brantford-area Ohsweken Speedway in about six weeks, Donny Schatz won back-to-back races in the series in Iowa over the weekend – Friday night at Jackson Speedway and Saturday night at the iconic Knoxville Raceway.
– Finally, Oakville driver James Hinchcliffe co-hosted the Speed Center racing news program Sunday night in place of Sam Hornish Jr. and did a fine job. The kid’s got a future in television if that Indy car racing gig he’s got doesn’t pan out. . .
EARLIER
Ryan Hunter Reay won the IZOD IndyCar Series race at Milwaukee Saturday, with Helio Castroneves second and Will Power third.
E.J. Viso and James Hinchcliffe of Oakville finished fourth and fifth.
It was defending IZOD series champion Hunter-Reay's second straight Milwaukee victory and his third at the famed Milwaukee Mile.
The result was Hinchcliffe's fourth top ten finish this season, including his two victories. He sits ninth in the points standings.
Said Hinchcliffe after the race: "Any time you get a top five in a series so competitive, it's a good day. I'm just a little upset we weren't a tiny bit better in traffic today.
"This track is the ultimate test of patience. It's so easy to overdo it and get in the marbles and end up in the wall and I had a couple of close calls for sure. It was a lot of fun out there either way."
The second Canadian in the race, Alex Tagliani of Montreal, finished 23rd. After starting 16th, Tag moved ahead quickly at the start but ducked into the pits when there was an early yellow.
What looked to be smart pit strategy backfired when Tagliani spun on cold tires on the restart. The team never recovered and an overheated gearbox forced them out of the contest on Lap 146 of 250.
Pete Shepherd III of Brampton won the EMCO 200 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race at Delaware Speedway outside London, Ont., Saturday night. J.R. Fitzpatrick of Cambridge arrived home second and Steve Matthews of New Liskeard was third.
Defending national champion D.J. Kennington of St. Thomas was fourth and Martin Roy of Napierville, Que., finished fifth.
L.P. Dumoulin of Trois-Rivieres, Que., who won the first race of the season at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on the Victoria Day weekend, was 19th of the 22 cars that started the race.
Kennington leads the standings with 81 points, followed by Jeff Lapcevich of Grimsby with 75 points (he finished 12th Saturday night) and Jason Hathaway of Dutton, Ont, who has 74 points after ending up 11th at Delaware.
There were seven lead changes among six drivers. Shepherd beat Fitzpatrick by .680 seconds.
The win was Shepherd’s fourth in the series and he seems to win at least once a year going back to 2010 despite only making 17 starts in total.
Meantime, in NASCAR Nationwide Series action at Michigan International Speedway, Regan Smith, who started 20th, won the Alliance Truck Parts 250, with Kyle Larson second after starting 11th. The margin of victory was 0.330 seconds.
Paul Menard, Kyle Busch and Trevor Bayne were third through fifth.
In Germany, meantime, qualifying for this weekend's German Touring Car Series race (DTM) saw Robert Wickens of Guelph and Toronto finish fourth. He will start the race at the the Lauzitsring Sunday on the outside of Row Two.
Said Wickens afterward: "Qualifying turned out very promising for our team. As for me, I pushed a little too hard on my lap and ran wide in the second sector. In the DTM, you just cannot make a mistake and then expect to still be out in front.
"Anyways, I'm fourth on the grid and the podium is not all that far away. Some points in the race should be possible."
Wickens was in Montreal with his Mercedes employers for last weekend's Grand Prix of Canada and said that although he still habours ambitions to continue up the single-seater ladder, he is happy and satisfied to be racing in the DTM.
Finally, at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Joao Barbosa and Christian Fittipaldi won the Diamond Cellar Classic Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series race driving a Corvette Daytona Protype.
Michael Valiante of Vancouver, the defending race winner, came second in another Corvette DP he co-drove with Anzo Potolicchio.
"I think second right now is like winning for this team," said Valiante later, "because we have been pushing so hard to get on the podium."
Ryan Dalziel and Alex Powpow finished third in a Ford-Riley DP.
In the GT class, Paul Dala Lana of Toronto and Bill Auberlen were first in a BMW M3. (Those two finished second in the Continental Tire race on the same card.)
Emil Assentato and Anthony Lazzaro, co-driving the Ferrari 458 entered by AIM Autosport of Woodbridge Team FXDD with Ferrari, finished third in class.
Max Papis and Jeff Segal finished eighth in class in the sister Ferrari 458 entered by AIM Autosport with Remo Ferri.
EARLIER
James Hinchcliffe was hotter than a pistol early in the 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series season but then appeared to falter.
After winning two of the first four races of the season at St. Petersburg, Fla., and Sao Paulo, Brazil, Hinchcliffe started ninth in the Indianapolis 500 but couldn’t finish the world’s most famous race any better than 21st.
And things didn’t get any better at the double-header races in Detroit immediately following Indy (20/15, 10/19) and at Texas Motor Speedway last weekend (12/9).
The season looked very much like last year’s, in which "Hinch" started fast and finished not exactly slow, but slower.
But Friday, in qualifying for today’s (Saturday’s) IZOD race at the iconic Milwaukee Mile, Hinchcliffe shook out the cobwebs and laid down a two-lap qualifying time of 42.8829 seconds (170.418 mph) and will start second to Andretti Autosport teammate Marco Andretti, whose pole time and speed of 42.8584/170.515 mph was just a smidgen faster.
"Don't tell Marco, but the outside is way better on the start," Hinchcliffe joked afterward. "That's what I was going for."
Will Power will started third for Team Penske (42.9347/170.212) with Andretti driver Ryan Hunter-Reay fourth (42.9629/170.100) and the fourth Andretti driver E.J. Viso fifth (42.0317/169.828).
That makes four Andretti drivers in the top five in qualifying for the race that the team also promotes and all were powered by Chevy engines. The top Honda driver, Josef Newgarden, was eighth.
Alex Tagliani of Montreal, the second Canadian in the race, will go off 16th (you can watch the race on Sportsnet 1 starting at 4 p.m.). Other notables: Indy 500 winner Tony Kanaan qualified seventh; Sebastien Bourdais, 14th; Dario Franchitti, 17th and Helio Castroneves, 18th. Top woman qualifyer was part-time ride-buyer Ana Beatriz, who will go off 20th, ahead of series regulars Ed Carpenter, Charlie Kimball, Graham Rahal and Simona De Silvestro.
Jason Leffler, the NASCAR and Indy car driver who was killed in a sprint car race in New Jersey earlier this week, was wearing a Simpson hybrid head and neck restraint system when the crash happened but still died of blunt force trauma to his neck, an autopsy has shown.
Now, I don’t know what it is about some NASCAR drivers and a whole lot of short-track open-wheel racers but for some stupid reason (and there’s no other word for it) they refuse to wear the HANS device that has saved the lives of countless Indy car, Formula One (and other formulas) and, yes, NASCAR stars since it was invented.
I think, because it came from Formula One (the late Prof. Sid Watkins, Toronto surgeon Dr. Hugh Scully and U.S. doctors Terry Trammel and Steve Olvey propelled the research that led to the HANS) that the stock car types didn’t want to have anything to do with it.
So the Hutchens device was invented to pacify those guys and I still shudder when I think of supermodified drivers like Mike Ordway climbing into one of those ground-shaking rockets and hooking up the straps of a gizmo that was eventually banned by NASCAR because – when tested – it failed to do the job.
One time on national television, there was a discussion of safety and Michael Waltrip flat out said it: there may be other devices and systems on the market, and even approved for use by NASCAR, but "the HANS device is the best." Those last six words are a direct quote. No paraphrasing.
Why? Because in a crash, it keeps the head and neck from moving. It anchors your head to your shoulders.
I’m not saying that Leffler could have survived his crash. What I am saying is that the HANS device is the best defence a driver can have in an accident like that one and I think it’s a shame he wasn’t wearing the HANS.
My friend, the race driver Gary Morton, once said to me that the HANS is expensive. So I asked him how much his life is worth.
It’s a question that every race racer should ask himself or herself.
Carl Edwards won the pole for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway. Kurt Busch will start second, with Kasey Kahne third. Qualifying for Saturday’s Nationwide Race (all the NASCAR races, by the way, can be seen on TSN or TSN2) will be held Saturday morning. Austin Dillon was the fastest of the Nationwide drivers during practice Friday. . . . Brennan Poole won the ARCA race at Michigan Friday after Ryan Blaney, son of NASCAR regular Dave Blaney, won the pole. George Webster, who produces George’s TV Listings for Race Fans for wheels.ca, sent along the following information about ARCA and Blaney: "Recently Blaney has tested at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah and at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in preparation for upcoming ARCA races at the Road America and New Jersey road courses. But this is really part of a bigger plan. ARCA officials recognize that their series has become an important development series and that the road courses have been built into their schedule to help drivers get road course experience they can use in other series. Blaney’s immediate goal is to be ready for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park this coming Labour Day weekend." Thanks, George. . . .Jordan Taylor, driving a Corvette-powered Daytona Prototype for his father Wayne’s race team, won the pole for the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series race at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. His brother Ricky, also in a Wayne Taylor Corvette DP, will start beside him on the front row for Saturday’s race, which is live on Speed Channel. In GT qualifying, John Edwards won the pole in a Camaro while Boris Said was second in a Corvette. Emil Assentato, driving the No. 69 AIM Autosport of Woodbridge Team FXDD Ferrari 458 with Anthony Lazzaro co-driving, will start third while a second Ferrari entered by AIM with Remo Ferri and driven by Jeff Segal and Max Papis will go off fourth. In the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge, also taking place Saturday but earlier in the day, Jade Buford, co-driving with Toronto ace Scott Maxwell in the No. 55 Multimatic Motorsport of Markham’s Aston Martin Vantage, won the pole.
I must plead "brain fade" when I wrote a few columns back that, in my experience, Jean Chretien had been the only prime minister to attend a Canadian Grand Prix. As has been pointed out in the comments, Pierre Trudeau attended at Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant in 1968 (I even wrote one time about how thrilling it was to see him arrive by Canadian Forces helicopter that landed right on the circuit near the tower) and, of course, he was there at what is now Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in 1978 when Villeneuve won his first F1 race at home. Even more appalling is that besides neglecting to mention his presence, I also forgot that he presented the trophy to Gilles as well as a big bottle of beer instead of the traditional champagne. As I said, brain fade. I'll really try not to let it happen again.
Jason Leffler’s sprint car did what sprint cars everywhere do hundreds of
times a season: it clipped a retaining wall at Bridgeport Speedway in New
Jersey Wednesday night and started flipping. When it stopped, everybody
expected what usually happens to happen: Leffler to get out of the car
and walk away.
He didn’t.
Rescue workers removed him from
the car and he was airlifted to a nearby hospital where he was
pronounced dead. He was 37 years old and leaves his 5-year-old son,
Charlie (the photo of the two of them published with this post is from
the driver’s personal website, jasonleffler.com).
And so ended the
life of one of the most versatile and successful race drivers
in the sport. And it’s also, once again, a sad reminder that
automobile racing - unlike baseball, hockey, football and so-on - is very much a
deadly game.
As mentioned, we watch the sprint cars and the
midgets flip, and the big NASCAR stock cars ram into each other in what
everybody calls “the Big One,” and just about 100 per cent of the time
the drivers climb out and wave to the crowd and walk back to the pits
and it’s just a part of doin’ business.
And then there are the times like this one that make you stop and think.
Leffler
started racing, as just about all the good ones do, as a child. From
the age of 12 until Wednesday night, he won four USAC open-wheel
championships before trying NASCAR, where he won two races in the
Nationwide Series (294 starts; 107 top tens) and one in the
Craftsman/Camping World Truck Series (56 starts, 35 top tens).
He
made 73 Sprint Cup Series starts, including last weekend’s race at
Pocono. It was a start-and-park deal and he finished 43rd. He had one
top ten finish but never won in the big league.
No matter. Over
the years, his talent was appreciated and he was hired to drive for,
among others, Joe Gibbs Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing and Kyle Busch Motorsports.
He was a veteran of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He raced in the
Indianapolis 500 in 2000 and ran the Brickyard 400 five times.
Statements mourning his passing were issued by the Speedway, IZOD
IndyCar Series, World of Outlaws and NASCAR.
Of particular note was one issued by Panther Racing Indy car team owner John Barnes, who said:
"Jason
. . . was one of the most versatile
drivers I have ever met. He reminded me so much of Parnelli Jones. We
will miss his fierce spirit and his devilish attitude. He constitutes
the old saying, 'It isn't the size of the dog in the fight, it's the
size of the fight in the dog.' Jason was a small man with a huge right
foot."
Leffler
– like Tony Stewart, the late Rich Vogler, Kenny Schrader and Busch –
was a racer’s racer. He wasn’t satisfied to just go out once a week in a
truck or stock car or Indy car and glad-hand with the folks taking time out from
the corporate boardrooms; he had to be out on a speedway someplace,
pedal to the metal.
That’s why, for instance, in 2002 he was
racing in the truck series, Nationwide and Cup and won the Night Before
the 500 midget race at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
This season, as
he announced on his website, he’d returned to his roots and was out
racing two and three or even more times a week in sprint cars on dirt
tracks in Pennsylvania and surrounding states.
It was during one
of those races that he met his end. He was running second in a heat race
and it all went wrong. He was one of the really good guys and will be
missed.
Scott Steckly of Milverton travels in some fast company.
The 2008 and 2011 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series champion prepares cars for others to race in addition to his own mount and some of the drivers who’ve raced for him include Max Papis and L.P. Dumoulin, who won the season-opener at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on the Victoria Day Speedfest weekend.
The big news today is that F1 world champion, CART champion and Indy 500 winner Jacques Villeneuve will be in one of Steckly’s cars at the Aug. 11 Grand Prix of Trois-Rivieres.
Sponsored by the Dodge Dealers of Quebec, Villeneuve last raced at Trois-Rivieres in 2009. He shook down the car on Tuesday at Circuit ICAR (Mirabel Airport) and issued this statement:
"I was very pleased with the setup that Scott and the team put under the car today. This is probably only once in my career that I jumped into a car and it was good right out of the box. I am very excited to race at Trois-Rivieres."
It will be good to see you back out there again, Jacques.
Meantime, the IZOD IndyCar Series moves to the Milwaukee Mile this coming weekend and our own James Hinchcliffe will make his 40th career start there on Saturday afternoon. "Hinch" likes Milwaukee because he had a podium there last year - he finished third.
"I love racing there," he’s quoted as saying in an Andretti Autosport release, "not only because of the history of the place but also because the wheel-to-wheel action is awesome. The team had a really strong outing there last year, so hopefully we can repeat that performance and celebrate with some cheese, brats and beer. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend Saturday on Father’s Day weekend."
One other thing about James. He’s asking his fans to design a new helmet for him and the winning design will be on Hinch’s head when he races in the final IZOD event of the season at California Speedway in October. For details, click here.
The other Canadian in the race on Saturday will be Alex Tagliani and he’s due to have some good luck. As the saying goes, if he didn’t have bad luck he wouldn’t have any luck at all. The rumour mill has been suggesting that Tag’s days are numbered at Brian Herta’s team but I reject that, simply because the money that team has is there because Alex Tagliani arranged for it. No Tag, no moolah. It’s that simple.
For the Indy car series’ sake, let’s hope their TV numbers start to improve. They were on network television again last Saturday night (ABC) and finished last in the ratings game. Fox had major league baseball and that got a 3.2 rating. NBC had NHL hockey and that landed a 2.9. Indy car got a 1.1.
Of course, they do a great job of boring everybody to death beforehand. Baseball comes on and they have maybe five minutes of pre-game and then the pitcher throws the first ball. Same with hockey; five minutes to set the scene and then they drop the puck.
Indy car racing had an explanation of how high the banking is at Texas Motor Speedway, a prayer, the U.S. national anthem, an interview with Marco Andretti and Helio Castroneves about how exciting the racing was going to be (unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way) and then they ordered the engines to start.
That’s about 20 minutes we can do without.
Then, when they actually started the race, two laps later – two laps – Pippa Man’s rent-a-ride from Dale Coyne caught fire and they threw a yellow and then took five or six laps to determine that there was no reason they shouldn’t have continued racing.
By that time, I suspect many viewers had changed channels.
By the way, wasn’t that a wonderful lead-in to the Indy car race on ABC?
Tim Allen’s show Last Man Standing last Saturday night before the Indy race featured Tony Stewart and his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car. Tim Allen went for a joy ride in the stock car. Ha. Ha.
My question: was that an accident? Or was it done by design?
A popular victory in NASCAR, as well as controversy, and a NASCAR-type "big one" crash in the second IndyCar Series race at Detroit, were highlights of this weekend’s auto racing.
It was also a weekend of "firsts."
At Dover, Del., Tony Stewart won his first race of the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season after Jimmie Johnson was penalized for jumping a restart with 19 laps to go when leader Juan Pablo Montoya didn’t go with him.
It always takes two to tango or, in the case of car racing, two drivers in sinc on a side-by-side restart when the green flag is thrown. When the green comes out, both guys are supposed to go. Johnson, on the inside, went and Montoya didn’t and NASCAR ruled the 48 was in the wrong and assessed Johnson a drive-through penalty.
Johnson had the option of relinquising the lead to Montoya but refused and that’s why he was penalized. He eventually finished 17th. Montoya, meantime, was three laps short of his first oval-track victory when he was passed by Stewart. Jeff Gordon finished third, with Kyle Busch fourth and Brad Keselowski fifth.
Incidentally, Keselowski’s car flunked post-race inspection – the front end was too low – and he will be assessed some type of penalty in the week ahead. (Click here for full story and results.)
Stewart has been having a miserable year, as has his whole Stewart-Haas Racing team. Danica Patrick was 24th Sunday (after starting 39th) and Ryan Newman, who went off fifth, crashed out after exchanging paint with David Gilliland.
Said Stewart: “Man, it’s been such a tough year. We’ve let them (fans) down for a long time. Hopefully, we’ll start building that momentum.”
Keep an eye on Stewart now. He has a habit of slumbering, like a bear. When he wakes up, everybody else would be wise to watch out. Sunday afternoon at Dover, he emerged from hibernation.
At Detroit, Simon Paginaud won the first IZOD IndyCar Series race of his career by surviving some serious carnage that saw poor A.J. Allmendinger crash out for the second time in two days at almost the same place.
In the first double-header in Indy car history (there have previously been two races held on the same day, called "twins," in which full-race distances were cut in half in order to have two green flags and two checkers), the drivers pretty much behaved themselves on Saturday during the first race (won by Mike Conway) but checked their manners and good judgment at the door on Sunday and all bets were off.
As well as being the first victory for Pagenaud, it was the 100th for Honda when competing against other manufacturers in IndyCar. Pagenaud was also the sixth different winner in seven races and the third first-time winner.
Said Pagenaud in Victory Lane: "It’s unbelievable. I don’t know how we did it. It’s a great feeling. One I hope of more to come."
Ten cars were either eliminated through crashes or sufficiently damaged that although classified as running at the end of the 70-lap contest they were just turning laps for points.
For the second straight day (and race), Alex Tagliani of Montreal failed to finish because of a crash. He and Justin Wilson were eliminated on Lap 27 when Sebastien Bourdais tapped Will Power going into a corner and caused him to go into a slow, lazy spin and everybody piled up behind them. Many of the drivers got going again but couldn’t be considered threats for victory by any stretch of the imagination.
One of those was poor James Hinchcliffe of Oakville. Winner of two of the four opening races of the season, his performance has been less than stellar since. Of course, as is the case with jockeys and horses, if the car ain’t working, there’s not a whole lot the driver can do to get it to run faster.
For instance, Hinchcliffe was behind Power when the Penske driver started his slide and so he backed off. As Power’s spin continued, "Hinch" ducked to the inside and floored it, expecting to shoot past on the right, only to have the Aussie’s mount start to straighten out and POW!
Hinchcliffe made it to the pits but by the time repairs were made and he rejoined, he was out of contention and finished the race 13 laps behind the winner in 19th place, four worse than where he finished on Saturday.
Paralyzed ex-racer Sam Schmidt and Hamilton both personify the "never give up" philosophy of automobile racing pioneer Louis Chevrolet.
A short-track oval racer and champion, Hamilton first went to Indianapolis looking for a ride in the early 1990s when CART was in all its glory and road racers were the drivers of choice. Although he never did make a start at Indianapolis under CART sanction, it wasn’t for lack of trying and Hamilton went on to become one of the early Indy Racing League stars.
In fact, by 2001, he was the only one of the original IRL drivers (a group that included Scott Goodyear and Tony Stewart) to have raced in all of the league’s races and in which he finished second in points twice.
Schmidt didn’t start a professional racing career until later in life – he was 31 when he was rookie-of-the-year in the USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series. Five years later, after three Indy 500 starts, Schmidt rode a car backwards into the wall at Walt Disney World Speedway near Orlando, leaving him a quadraplegic. In 2000, he formed his own racing team and Hamilton became his driver.
Hamilton’s own world nearly came to an end in 2001 during a race at Texas Motor Speedway. Another car below an engine and Hamilton lost control in the oil. The ensuing crash into the wall tore and broke his feet and ankles so badly that doctors prepared to amputate.
But a friend who was with him, John Nicotra, begged them to reconsider - they did - and Hamilton subsequently underwent more than 20 operations, many performed by Dr. Terry Trammel of Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, to restore them to where, today, you wouldn’t know he’d been so badly injured.
Forced to retire from driving at the time, Hamilton promoted races, race series and managed racers and joined the Indianapolis Speedway Radio Network as a colour commentator. (In fact, he was on the air with play-by-play announcer Mike King in Detroit on Sunday when his driver and team won the second race.)
However, you can’t keep a good racer down and Hamilton not only returned to Indy cars to race in the 500 again – he made the field five more times, in fact – but continues to drive supermodifieds at Oswego Speedway in northern New York state, cars that are entered for him by – would you believe? – his old pal, Johnny Nicotra.
Hamilton’s ambition, perserverance and courage have not gone unnoticed and are largely responsible for his ongoing relationship with sponsor Hewlett-Packard. HP’s support is Davey’s contribution to Schmidt-Hamilton Motorsports.
Now, you could produce a "made-for-TV" movie out of a story like that, couldn't you? It’s just the sort of thing that IndyCar has to jump on if it wants to regain its proper share of the North American auto racing audience.
The question is: will it?
Now, on Saturday, I said I’d make a suggestion in this column today about how IndyCar could seriously start to improve its marketing and public relations. But this entry is too long already, so I will spell it out in the next one – if I can keep myself from being sidetracked.
But the Sam Schmidt-Davey Hamilton saga is too good a story to wait for another day, which is why it got priority this time around.
PARTING SHOTS: I hate to be negative - those two races in Detroit were really good stuff - but somebody has got to get hold of the people at IndyCar and shake them. Hard. Why in the world would they hold qualifying for the second Detroit race before they even held the first race? They held qualifying on Friday afternoon for the first race Saturday. Fine. But then, on Saturday morning, hours before they held the first race, they conducted qualifying for the second race, which wasn't going to be held till Sunday. What is with those people? Let’s hope that by the time they get to Toronto for the next double-header, they’ll have fixed that. . . . The crowd for the Sunday race in Detroit looked significantly bigger than the crowd that turned out on Saturday. . . . Will Power looked like he was going to punch Sebastien Bourdais’ lights out – or try to – for triggering that pileup on Lap 27. One or two members of the safety crew held him back. All he could do was toss – toss! underhand, even – his gloves at Bourdais. They should have let Power alone. Did anybody try to stop Tony Stewart from throwing his helmet last year? Not a chance. . . . Jorge Lorenzo won the Moto GP race in Italy. . . . Bobby Santos won the USAC Silver Crown race at Gateway Raceway outside St. Louis. Closed for several years, Gateway previously held CART and NASCAR races. . . . Finally, at Spielberg, Austria, another round of the German Touring Car Series championship was held (DTM) and Canadian Bruno Spengler leads the championship for BMW. Robert Wickens, of Guelph and Toronto, started seventh in the race and finished 12th. I must say I find his post-race comments curiously amusing: ""Unfortunately, my race did not go according to plan. I still cannot understand how I fell back from seventh to twelfth place. I was even in sixth position on my first stint. I didn't get stuck in traffic at all, nor did I make any mistakes. The car didn't feel in any way different to yesterday either. We need to analyse exactly what happened before the next race."
Here are some leftover thoughts from last weekend’s Indianapolis 500:
I nearly fell over in a dead faint
when the TV ratings came out and they revealed that the Indianapolis
500 had the fewest people watching it since it started being broadcast
live in the U.S. in 1986. (Thanks to the late Johnny Esaw of CTV,
Canadians and some people in the U.S. along the Canada-U.S. border got
to watch the 500 live for 10 years before the rest of America got it.)
But a 3.7 is shocking. Absolutely shocking.
What is going on? It’s the Indy 500, for God's sake.
The 3.7 is down
from 4.1 in 2012 and 4.3 in 2011. According to sportsmediawatch.com,
2013 marked the fifth year in a row that the 500 has been below 4.5.
So listen to what Speedway spokesman Doug Boles said:
“We’ll
continue to get the message out that races at the Speedway here over
the last three years have gotten more and more exciting.”
Oh?
I’d suggest that kind of “messaging” ain’t workin'.
If I was the Speedway, I’d be thinking of a change in its approach, wouldn’t you?
Where
these guys are missing the boat is that they think exciting racing is
going to attract viewers. If that was so, don’t you think more people
would have tuned in last Sunday to a race that was simply terrific,
which followed an equally great race in 2012 and 2011, as Mr. Boles
said?
But they didn't. So something's missing.
What IndyCar
and the Indianapolis Speedway need is conflict, drama, gossip and
intrigue - or a combination of all of the above. NASCAR has tradin’
paint and drivers throwing helmets; the F1 race in Monaco wasn’t over
more than about a minute last Sunday before winning team Mercedes and
tire supplier Pirelli were being accused of cheating.
At Indy, everybody was talking about what a really great guy Tony Kanaan is and how happy they were for him.
Gag me.
The drivers in IndyCar these days are all clean-behind-the-ears, corporate goody-two-shoes.
They are BORING.
They had four women in the race. Quick: name them.
Couldn't do it, could you?
But
you know who Danica Patrick is, don’t you? Why? No, not because she’s a
good race driver but because she took her clothes off for the camera.
Never nude, she was in Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Edition and
sprawled across the hood of a car in Maxim and everybody knew it.
People looked at her and saw a bikini. And the girl can drive, too.
When
Tony Kanaan got down on his hands and knees last Sunday to kiss the
yard of bricks after his big win, some other driver should have gone up
behind him and kicked him in the butt and accused him of dirty driving.
He should have pointed his finger at Kanaan and told him, live on ABC
television, that if he ever did that again he’d clock him in that big
nose of his.
So instead of headlines on Monday morning saying,
“Harvick sorry he's switching teams," or “Kyle Busch stomps off in a
huff again," you’d have seen, “Indy 500 winner threatened with bodily
harm.”
And instead of the usual TV shot seen on every channel of
yet another “big one” in a NASCAR race, you’d have seen Kanaan trying to
defend himself by swinging the Borg-Warner Trophy at somebody.
One more thing about TV ratings.
TSN sent out the Canadian figures on Tuesday and it’s interesting that
the race in the No. 1 spot was the Grand Prix of Monaco on TSN, with
252,000 viewers. The NASCAR Coke 600 on TSN was second with 210,000 and
the Indy 500 on Sportsnet was third with 153,000.
Which seems
about right – except that I know a lot of my friends who watched the 500
on ABC, which had side-by-side service during commercials while
Sportsnet went to full-screen commercials. Maybe it didn't make a big difference, but it made a difference.
Everything – as usual – was perfect
about the race. The pre-race went off without a hitch and I was
particularly impressed with Jim (Gomer Pyle) Nabors, who’s been singing Back Home in Indiana
since 1973. More than one person came up to me in the media centre and
said they thought he’d died. They were wrong, or else the Speedway came
up with a hell of a Jim Nabors impersonator.
And the race itself was thrilling, with the cars literally floating on the Speedway, they were going so fast.
But
something wasn’t right about the start. Not once did they line up in
the traditional 11 rows of three. They’re supposed to be in that
formation by the time they get to Turn Three near the end of the second
parade lap. They do this so they can parade down the front and back
stretches in a salute to the fans during the pace lap. Also known as the
“wave-off lap,” it’s when both audience and performers can acknowledge
each other’s presence.
But they didn’t line up till the
backstretch of the pace lap and were ragged and out of sinc going
through Turn Four. By that time, though, they’d thrown the green and all
bets were off as all 33 cars charged toward Turn One.
Maybe it’s not a big thing to some people but that’s the way it’s supposed to be and I’m a traditionalist.
Before I go, a quick change
of pace. The people trying to build that speedway down in Fort Erie are
running out of patience, the Fort Erie Times is reporting.
Calling
the Ontario Municipal Board’s approvals process inefficient (you can
say that again), the speedway’s executive director more or less said
that if something positive doesn’t happen in the fairly immediate
future, the project will be cancelled.
One of Canada's great race drivers and a motorsport ambassador par excellence, Ron Fellows of Mississauga, will be inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame at a celebration in September.
In
a release, the Hall announced today that Fellows and four others will
become Honourable Members of the Hall at a reception on Sat., Sept. 28. A
major change this year sees the elimination of the formal, black-tie,
gala dinner in favour of a more informal reception.
And Canadian Tire will sponsor the event, which is another big change.
The Hall of Fame issued this release today:
Five Canadians will be honored at the 19th Canadian Motorsport Hall of
Fame Induction Ceremonies, presented by Canadian Tire, when this year’s
event takes centre stage under a new format at the Glenn Gould Studio at
7:15 p.m. on Sept. 28.
Those to be inducted include the late Bob Armstrong, Jimmy Carr, Ron Fellows
(pictured talking to Martin Truex Jr. at Watkins Glen), Tom Walters and John and Sharon Fletcher.
They’ll
be showcased on the Gould Studio stage in the Toronto CBC Building (205
Front St.) where concert pianists or jazz divas usually perform. With a
lobby reception mixing inductees, fans and celebrity guests following
the show, the new-format is a relaxed step away from the formality of
previous black-tie dinners.
“I wish to congratulate the successful
inductees for their dedication and contribution to Canadian
motorsports," said the Hall’s Chairman, Dr. Hugh Scully.
“We are
also delighted with the new format and the participation of Canadian
Tire as our official presenter allowing the Hall of Fame to reach new
audiences and open our doors to more of the general motorsport
community,” concluded Dr. Scully.
The International Inductee will be announced next month .
Fellows,
of Mississauga,is among the most versatile Canadian racers with wins in
24-hour classics at Le Mans and Daytona, in NASCAR truck and Nationwide
stock car competition, and three championships in the American Le Mans
Series.
Fellows is inducted as a contributor as well as a
competitor. His Sunoco Ron Fellows Karting Championship encouraged and
developed young drivers, and he’s a driving force in the Canadian
Karting Championship and Team Canada Rotax World Finals program with
Canadian Tire.
After spending much of his adult life at Mosport,
Fellows became co-owner of the track in 2011 and its rejuvenation as
Canadian Tire Motorsport Park reflects his vision.
Armstrong, of
North Gower, Ont., who died of cancer in April, is honored as a
competitor, builder and significant contributor. Beginning as a track
marshal in 1969 and a showroom stock racer in 1973, he excelled in
Formula Ford and held the lap record at Mosport in that class for more
than 20 years.
Although an Ontario Challenge Cup champion in the
Touring GT class as recently as 2005, Armstrong’s work trackside earned
him even more respect. He served as director of track safety at the
Canadian Grand Prix from 1990 through 2012.
Armstrong was chief
instructor for ASC-Ontario Region race schools. Hundreds of retired
racers remember him as steward for the Canadian Professional F2000
series and the Canadian Rothmans Porsche series in the 1980s and the
Canadian Professional F1600 series in 1990-1991.
Jimmy Carr,
inducted as a competitor/team member, was rookie-of-the-year in the
World of Outlaws in 1991 and went on to Outlaws championships in
management roles with Tony Stewart Racing.
Carr, now living in
Indiana, as a boy watched his father Frank competing on dirt tracks
outside Vancouver in the 1960s. Jimmy raced sprint cars in Washington,
Oregon and California before turning to the Outlaws.
Builders John
and Sharon Fletcher of Waterford, Ont., twice took over faltering drag
strip facilities and steered them to prosperity, helping preserve this
form of motorsport in Ontario.
After purchasing Dragway Park at
Cayuga from bankruptcy trustees in 1982, they introduced new classes to
attract new racers, attracted non-automotive sponsorship and held the
first Canadian event sanctioned by the International Hot Rod
Association.
Next, they bought St. Thomas Dragway and developed
the facility as London Motorsport Park with new timing equipment and
improved safety measures.
Tom Walters of Bradford, Ont., won 28
division championships in 40 years of southern Ontario short-track stock
car racing. He bought a neighbor’s stock car and scored his first win
at Sutton Speedway in 1970 - and he’s still racing.
Walters was
mentored by legends like Don Biederman, who in 1977 brought a hammer to
his car to remove the rear view mirror, saying “without this you will be
a better racer.” In 2010 Walters added the McColl Racing Series to his
titles, racing late models at Sauble, Barrie, Sunset and Peterborough
Speedways.
A limited number of tickets will go on sale in early June. Watch the CMHF website (CMHF.ca) for details.
A cable that operates a TV camera snapped apart early in Sunday
night's Coca-Cola 600 and resulted in the third major motorsports event
of the day being stopped while it was removed.
About a dozen fans were injured and race cars damaged.
The
cars were able to be repaired; seven fans were treated and released at a
Charlotte Motor Speedway medical centre while three others were taken
to local hospitals for observation.
Fox Sports apologized for the problem and issued the following statement:
"The
camera system consists of three ropes - a drive rope which moves the
camera back and forth, and two guide ropes on either side. The drive
rope failed near the Turn 1 connection and fell to the track. The camera
itself did not come down because guide ropes acted as designed. A full
investigation is planned, and use of the camera is suspended
indefinitely.
For details of the NASCAR race, which was being won by Kevin Harvick at 500 miles, please click here.
Nico Rosberg led from start to finish to win the Grand Prix of Monaco (for details, click here).
I am writing this in Indianapolis and didn't see much of the race
because the Fox Sports Network channel in the Indianapolis area showed
the pre-race program and then switched to a fishing show.
So I
asked my wife at home if she'd seen it and she said she had and that it
was boring. "It's time they went the other way around to make that race
interesting again," she said.
Of course, there's controversy - and when isn't there in F1? Seems Mercedes maybe (maybe .
. .) conducted a private tire test for Pirelli. So? How else are they
going to fix the tire degredation problem. I'm sure we'll find out more
about this in the days ahead - or not.
Next race: Canada in two weeks.
Oh, Romain Grosjean caused another crash, apparently. How long can that guy stick at Lotus?
Finally, what follows is my wrapup and then my live blog from Indianapolis Sunday.
Tony Kanaan finally got some luck - few people have had more bad luck than him at Indy - and won the 97th Indianapolis 500.
Oh,
before we pick up what I wrote earlier Sunday, I have to say something.
A number of people have written or left comments about how wrong I was
suggesting in a column I wrote for Toronto Star Wheels Saturday that
Carlos Munoz wasn't good enough to be in the 500.
I didn't say
Munoz shouldn't be in the Indy 500. I didn't think Katherine Legge
should have been in it (seven laps down at the checkers) or Pippa Mann
(the less said about her the better) but what I did say was that it
would have been a good idea if they'd asked him to drop back for the
start because his inexperience could have created a problem.
I
still feel that way. And it has nothing to do with Munoz. Any rookie who
had never driven on an oval track until two weeks ago (as was the case
with him) and was in the front row of the most important auto race in
the world at one of the most demanding and dangerous tracks would also
have been better off starting at the back.
Munoz pulled it off and good for him. But I won't change my mind when it comes to safety at race tracks.
Norris McDonald wraps up this year's Indy 500
In
one of the most popular victories in years, Tony Kanaan won the 97th
renewal of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing under yellow today after
defending champion Dario Franchitti crashed when the race was restarted
with just a few laps to go.
Rookie Carlos Munoz finished second, with Ryan Hunter-Reay third, Marco Andretti fourth and Justin Wilson a surprising fifth.
The
remaining drivers in the top ten: Helio Castroneves, who was shooting
for his fourth Indy 500, was sixth, A.J. Allmendinger was seventh, Simon
Pagenaud was eighth, Charlie Kimball ninth and pole-sitter Ed Carpenter
tenth.
The two Canadians in the 33-car field were far from successful.
Alex
Tagliani of Montreal hung around the top ten all day but faded at the
end to finish 24th after brushing the wall and damaging his right-rear
wheel.
James Hinchcliffe of Oakville had a dreadful day. His car
never handled and got worse every time he pitted and his team tried to
correct the problem. There have been suggestions that a tire placed on
the car during a late-race pit stop might have been losing air
(translation: going flat).
He finished 21st.
The big loser
was Hunter-Reay. He led many laps in the race - there were 13 different
leaders and 68 change, both records - and was in the lead when the field
got the green flag with only a few laps remaining.
But Kanaan,
who had been second on the restart, went low on Hunter-Reay going into
turn one and Munoz, in third place, followed him into second. And then,
before anybody else could do anything, Dario Franchitti crashed and the
yellow was out and that was all she wrote.
(There is not a
green-white-checkers finish in Indy car racing, so the iconic race got
the checkers with the pace car leading Kanaan across the finish line.)
Hinchclifffe
had qualified ninth in the 33-car field but was visually unhappy after
Carb Day Friday when he was only 14th fastest while running with a full
fuel load and his race-day setup.
Right from the get-go today,
Hinchcliffe was uncompetitive and his handling appeared to get worse as
the race progresssed. When he got out of the car after the checkers, he
was obviously angry and suggested there was more wrong with the car than
a lousy setup.
Kanaan was a single fellow for years but married
his long-time sweetheart, Lauren, over the winter. Observers suggested
that married life suited Tony and that he could be challenging for the
series championship going forward.
It was a hugely entertaining
race. With that many leaders and lead changes, it couldn't help but be.
And the huge crowd showed its appreciation with many of them staying in
their seats and clapping and cheering the participants after the fact.
Of
course, a huge crowd, an iconic race and an exciting finish featuring a
very popular driver serves to show the challenges facing a series like
IndyCar, which undoubtedly attracted a huge TV audience today but is
largely invisible the rest of the year.
The only race that really
matters, year in and year out, is the Indianapolis 500. It makes or
breaks a season for a team. Yes, the overall championship can be
important but if given a choice of one or the other, most drivers would
say a win at Indy would be more important than any championship.
In
fact, Canadian hero Jacques Villeneuve, who won the F1 world
championship, recently told Britain's Autosport magazine that he
considered his 1995 Indy 500 win more important than his world
championship.
The 97th Indy 500 is now in the history books. The
circus will now move on to Detroit next weekend for the first
double-header weekend of the season. That's when they run a race on
Saturday and then turn around and run another one on Sunday.
The
Toronto Honda Indy will also feature a double-header. How the cars and
stars of IndyCar handle Detroit will pretty much illustrate what to
expect when IndyCar gets to Toronto in July.
Kanaan said afterward that he got a little bit lucky.
"It's
(the victory) for the fans," he said. "It's for my dad who's not here.
I'm looking at the stands and it was unbelievable. I'm speechless. This
is it, man, I made it. Finally, they're going to show my ugly face on
this trophy."
EARLIER
Tony Kanaan won the
Indy 500 today with rookie Carlos Munoz second and Ryan Hunter-Reay
third. Marco Andretti finished fourth and Justin Wilson was fifth. James
Hinchcliffe was running at the finish but was far out of contention.
The
race finished under yellow - no green=white=checkers finishes in Indy
car racing - after a restart led to yet another crash in the waning laps of the classic race.
EARLIER
Yellow
with seven laps to go after Graham Rahal spins and hits thewall coming
out of two. Hinch had just gone to the pits again. Hunter-Reay, Kanaan
and Munoz are one, two, three.
Can they clean up the mess to get a green flag finish? More than 200,000 are standing at Indy.
EARLIER:
Ten to go: Kanaan, Huner-Reay and Andretti. Close as paper on a wall.
Hinchcliffe leads laps as he was last to come into the pits for fuel, tires.
EARLIER
Sebastien Bourdais hits the wall while pitting. Final pit stops happening.
EARLIER
Tagliani brushes wall. He is done.
EARLIER
With
40 laps to go, Hunter-Reay is leading, Marco Andretti is second and
Allmendinger is third. Munoz and Kanaan round out the top five.
Officially, 13 different leaders and 50 lead changes are new records with more to come.
EARLIER
Allmendinger
has recovered his lap (all other drivers had to pit for fuel and tires,
giving him a leg up) and he leads the Indy 500. Hunter-Reay is second,
Viso is thid, Andretti is fourth and Kanaan is fifth.
Tagliani is 13th and Hinchcliffe is so far back they'll have to send out a search party. His car is undriveable. He came sooo
close to hitting the wall between turns one and two that there must
have been room for maybe an eyelash. He then nearly lost total control
but held it together.
Allmendinger has pitted.
EARLIER
It
is now official. Twelves racers, a record, have now completed 38 lead
changes in this Indy 500, also a record. There is still a quarter of the
race to go.
EARLIER
There have been 3 lead
changes in the race to date. At least a dozen drivers have led the race
but the Canadian drivers, Tagliani and Hinchcliffe, are not among them.
The 12 drivers to lead, incidentally, is a record for the Indy 500.
EARLIER
After
120 laps, there are still 23 cars on the lead lap. Hunter-Reay, Munoz
and Viso are the top three. Hinchcliffe is having a miserable time and
is back in 17th.
EARLIER
Graham Rahal and
James Jakes have each been fined $10,000 for violating blend-line rules
(not entering or exiting the pits properly). Jakes also got a
drive-through penalty for a pit safety rule infraction.
Meantime,
Allmendinger dropped out of the lead when he pitted for tires and fuel.
While in the pits, his belts became undone and had to be refastened by a
crew member. Hè's a lap down.
EARLIER
They
are at the halfway mark of the 97th Indy 500. It is an official race,
in case it rains (which it probably won't as the sky is pretty bright,
although still overcast).
The order: Allmendinger, Kanaan, Hunter-Reay, Viso and Andretti. Tagliani is ninth and Hinch is 12th.
EARLIER
Indy
is a strange place and race. As mentioned, most of the seats were
filled when the race started. Now, nearly at the halfway mark, many of
the seats are empty as people get up to walk around and party in the
infield.
Pit stops starting. Green ones too.
Jamie Little,
who usually does pit stops in NASCAR, just reported that someone had
taken on a load of Sunoco fuel. Sorry, they burn ethanol in IndyCar.
EARLIER
Hinchcliffe`s
handling is going away big time and he`s out of the top ten. Power is
still in the lead, Kanaan is second with Hunter-Reay third, Allmendinger
is up to fourth and Marco Andretti is fifth. Tagliani is ninth and
Hinch is 14th.
EARLIER
Will Power, Helio
Castroneves and A.J. Allmendinger - all Penske drivers - are turning
heads running first, sixth and ninth. Hinch is out of the top ten, in
11th. Tagliani is tenth.
EARLIER
The
low-buck effort of 1996 Indy 500 winner Buddy Lazier is over. His car
has been pushed to the garage. Ed Carpenter, the hometown boy, still
leads.
EARLIER
Carpenter is back in the
lead. Hinchclifffe`s car is obviously working better and he is
challenging for the top five. Having said that, Viso just passed him and
he`s back in eighth place.
Lining up for the restart, Hinchcliffe
got a great jump during the pit stop and is now running seventh.
Hunter-Reay is now in the lead, with Andretti second and Carpenter
third. Tagliani is running tenth.
EARLIER
Takuma
Sato, a favourite to win, has just spun coming out of turn 2.
Hinchcliffe is up into the top ten. Tagliani is ninth. The yellow is out
and the leaders are in for pit stops.
EARLIER
The
top dozen cars are still together on the restart. Andretti is in front,
followed by Carpenter, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Helio Castroneves and Tony
Kanaan. Tagliani is 10th and Hinch is 13th.
EARLIER
The
yellow is out after Sebastien Saavedra spun and hit the wall in turn
four. He told his crew someone should be penalized but it appeared that
the Colombian driver tried to pass on the inside at a spot where cars
drop down into the groove to go through a corner and he could have been
the architect of his own misfortune.
Saavedra, of course, replaced
Katherine Legge at Dragon Racing at the beginning of the season,
leaving Legge without a drive. There was much bitterness. Legge felt
aggrieved and sued. It was settled but details have never been made
public.
Saavedra has crashed in previous races, putting smiles on the faces of Legge fans.
His crash, of course, means she`s still in the race and he`s not. More grist for the Twitter mill.
EARLIER
Pit stops are shuffling the order. Kanaan was fist in, then Andretti and the rest.
EARLIER
Kanaan
and Andretti keep trading the lead. The top 20 cars are running
literally nose to tail. It is a very competitive race so far.
The place is packed. There are some empty seats down near the track near the start/finish line but most other seats are full.
EARLIER
Tony Kanaan had the lead for a lap but Andretti passed him back at the beginning of Lap 15.
The order: Andretti, Kanaan, Carpenter, Viso, Munoz. Tagliani is eight; Hinchcliffe 12th.
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Marco Andretti is now in the lead. Hinchcliffe nearly hit the wall coming out of turn four. Oh, so close.
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Pole
sitter Ed Carpenter led the field into the first turn. All through
safely. Three laps later, J.R. Hildebrand lost control exiting turn two
and hit the wall.
He and Hinchcliffe were running together when
Hildebrand lost control. Hinch and J.R. were rookies the same year and
Hinch beat Hildebrand for rookie of the year.
On the restart, Carpenter held the lead over Andretti and Viso. Alex Tagliani was running 8th and Hinchcliffe 11th.
EARLIER
Mari Hulman George just gave the command to start engines. The 97th Indy 500 is moments away.
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Driver
introductions are taking place. Hinchcliffe just got a great cheer.
It`s too chilly for good racing, though. It will be tough to warm up the
ties. The drivers will have to be very careful doing it.
EARLIER
Race
Day at the Indy 500 is finally here and it`s overcast. Although there
probably won`t be rain till late in the day, the dark clouds could have
an effect on race strategy.
When the sun is shining back home in
Indiana, most racers will settle in for the long haul, maintaining
position and getting themselves ready for a late-race charge to the
checkers. When it`s threatening like it is today, it will be a
free-for-all, with the drivers forgetting about the marathon and trying
to win the sprint to be in front at the 101st lap, which would make it
an official race.
A.J. Allmendinger,
a favourite in the old Champ Car Indy car series and a NASCAR driver of
note (although when he flunked a drug test last summer there was
concern for his future), is making his first Indy 500 start driving for
Roger Penske. He is one of four rookies in the field but anybody who
thinks he`s a rookie is nuts. The other three - Conor Daly (son of ex-F1
and CART star Derek Daly), Tristan Vautier and Carlos Munoz - have
talent but lack experience.
Other `fours`at this year`s 500: four
women are in the race - Pippa Mann, Catherine Legge, Ana Beatriz and
Simona de Silvestro will be out to equal or beat the the third-place
finish of Danica Patrick.
And Helio Castroneves and Dario Franchitti will be trying to win their fourth 500, tying Rick Mears, A.J. Foyt and Al Unser Sr.
In warm sunshine and in front of a monster crowd, Louise-Phillipe Dumoulin of Trois-Rivieres, Que., won the Vortex Brake Pads 200 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Sunday.
Jeff Lapcevich of Grimsby was second and Jason Hathaway of Dutton, Ont., was third in the opening race of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series stock car racing season.
Defending champion D.J. Kennington of St. Thomas finished fourth and Robin Buck of Campbellville was fifth. The rest of the Top Ten: Kerry Micks of Mt. Albert, Ty Dillon of Charlotte, N.C. (a Camping World Truck Series regular doing reconnaisance for the truck race at CTMP on Labour Day weekend), Noel Dowler of Sherwood Park, Alta., Trevor Seibert of Williams Lake, B.C., and Brad Graham of Glencoe, Ont.
It was the first NASCAR Canada victory for Dumoulin, who also races sports cars (ALMS and Rolex Grand Am).
Two of the race favourites were eliminated early in the race. Pole-sitter J.R. Fitzpatrick of Cambridge dropped out with a broken drive shaft and two-time Canadian Tire champion Scott Steckly of Milverton crashed. He wasn't injured but his trip into the tire wall in Turn Three was spectacular.
Steckly said he might have hit some oil, he wasn't sure, but that "I lost the front" end and couldn't help hitting the tires.
"It's awful (the crash)," he said. "I feel badly for my crew, who worked so hard, and for all my sponsors, particularly Canadian Tire."
Dumoulin, a driving coach in his "off hours," said he was delighted to have won. He finished fifth a year ago in this race.
"The sponsors gave us a great program over the winter," he said, adding he likes racing at Old Mosport and has wonderful memories of competing at the Bowmanville-area circuit years ago when he raced in Formula 1600.
He said his plan was to save his car - prepared for him by Steckly, by the way - for the end of the race, to save his brakes and to keep calm.
Asked about the calibre of competition in the Canadian Tire series, Dumoulin said it was second to none, pointing out that "ex-F1 guys" (Max Papis) and "old IRL guys" (Alex Tagliani) have raced in the series and haven't dominated.
Lapcevich said he'd wanted to do well to honour the memory of his father, Joe Lapcevich, who died recently. "The support of family, friends and sponsors" was amazing, he said.
He said he'd tried to rattle Dumoulin in the last few laps but had wound up rattling himself instead. "I overshot Turn One," and by the time he regained controlf of his car, Dumoulin was too far in front to catch.
Hathaway, who has entered all 76 races since NASCAR purchased the old CASCAR series from founder Tony Novotny and rebranded it the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, scored his best career finish. He was eighth here a year ago.
Oh, by the way, just to get all of the proper sponsor plugs in: the name of the race, the series and the locale, officially, is:
The Pinty’s presents the Vortex Brake Pads 200; the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series presented by Mobil 1; Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
OTHER RACING
The Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Michelin held its second race of the weekend. David Ostella of Maple, who raced in Indy Lights in recent years, took the checkered flag in Platinum Cup over Saturday’s race winner Spencer Pigot. For the second straight day, Tim Sanderson was the victor in Gold Cup.
Sunday's racing action also saw the Canadian Touring Car Championship complete their weekend doubleheader. Scott Nichol took the win in Super Touring over Benjamin Distaulo. Michel Sallenbach was first in the Touring Class and Karl Wittmer took the victory in B-Spec.
In Canadian Supercar, Frank Fusillo went to the top step of the podium in the S1 class over Guy Leclerc. Simon Dion-Viens was first in S2.
The final race of the weekend saw Florida native Doug Peterson win the SCCCA Trans-Am Series race over defending Series champion Tony Ave.
Jimmie Johnson won the NASCAR All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway Saturday night, or Sunday morning - I'm not sure which. It was the witching hour, in any event. Johnson, who won the non-points, gimmicky event for the fourth time, took home a cheque totalling more than $1 million.
Meantime, at Brands Hatch in England, Canadian driver Robbie Wickens finished a career-best third in the German Touring Car Series (DTM) race there. Wickens joined another Canadian, Quebec driver Bruno Spengler, on the podium. Spengler finished second behind winner Mike Rockenfeller. Wickens was in a Mercedes, Spengler in a BMW and Rockenfeller in an Audi. Watch the video here.
Said Wickens: "This is my first podium in the DTM and, what's more, it comes after starting from 13th on the grid at Brands Hatch where overtaking is notoriously difficult. I certainly wasn't counting on that before the race. My target was just to finish in the points.
"To make that happen, I knew I would have to get off to a good start and overtake the drivers on the prime tires. This strategy worked well. I was pleasantly surprised by my race pace and I was even able to go past drivers on options when I was on primes. The middle stint went perfectly for me. I had two excellent pit stops and was able to control my part of the race right through to the end.
"Afterwards, I was in the middle of an interview when I was told to hurry along to the podium. So after a physically draining 98-lap race, I had to run the full length of the pit lane to the podium ceremony. But it was well worthwhile. It was a great feeling to taste champagne for the first time in my DTM career."
