Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

IndyCar to hear appeals of New Hampshire race result

BENTLEY WARREN, 71, TO ENTER OSWEGO CLASSIC

The IZOD IndyCar Series will hear two appeals of the result of last Sunday’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway that was "won" by Ryan Hunter-Reay, who was in second or third place on the speedway when a yellow light came on to effectively end proceedings.

The appeals were filed within 30 minutes of the race ending by Newman-Haas Racing, whose driver, Oriol Servia, was ahead of Hunter-Reay and by Target Chip Ganassi Racing, whose driver, Scott Dixon, had also passed the "winner."

IndyCar race control had decided to restart the race late in the day when it was raining. Most drivers and teams had argued against a restart and there was a pileup, as a result.

Race control subsequently said the race should never have been restarted, that it had been a mistake, and the order of finish would revert to the order the field was in before the restart.

Brian Barnhart, president of competition and operations for IndyCar, said in a release that he would select a panel of impartial individuals to resolve the protests.

"Given my role in race control, I feel that it is in everyone's best interest to have an independent panel hear the protests. I believe a panel will help maintain a fair hearing."

Many commentators and fans – including me – have called for Barnhardt’s dismissal, as a result of this controversy and several others earlier this season, as well as last.

It is unfortunate that Barnart will select the panel, as there could be suspicion that although he’s ostensibly stepping aside, the people he selects will be sympathetic to his predicament.

It would be much better if CEO Randy Bernard struck the committee.

Speaking of Bernard, SpeedTV commentator Marshal Pruett has done a wonderful job analyzing what happened on the track last Sunday and applying it to pertinent passages of the IndyCar rule book. You can read it here.

But he says this about Bernard: "He might not know it right now, but he’s at a critical juncture where making the wrong choice (decision) could kill his credibility within the paddock and the grandstands.

Strong words.

My friend John Bassett, who’s written a number of excellent articles about Indy car racing for Toronto Star Wheels and wheels.ca this season, also has a great sense of humour. In an email, John said:

"Perhaps the (IndyCar) series will put race control on probation now for avoidable decisions!"

CLARIFICATION:  When a little birdie called me yesterday to tip me off about the following story, I got two facts mixed up. Bentley Warren plans to drive Vic Miller's supermodified car No. 71 at the Thomson World Series at Thomson Speedway in Connecticut in October. He won't drive the 71 car at Oswego.

However, Warren does plan to test a car sometime between now and Labour Day weekend and if he likes the car, he will drive it in the Oswego Classic on Labour Day weekend. Maybe even sooner.

Ergo, the following item has been slightly edited from the original.

Bentley Warren, 71, the legendary six-time winner of the Oswego International Classic 200 who’s also won the Little 500 twice as well as other U.S. short track classic races, will enter this year’s Oswego Classic on Labour Day weekend if he likes a car he plans to test.

The resident of Kennebunkport, Maine, who used to drive the U.S. Secret Service crazy by flying his helicopter into restricted air space above the family summer cottage at Kennebunk when George H.W. Bush was president, started 37 Indy car races in the early 1970s and made the field for the Indianapolis 500 twice.

The owner of his own "Champ Car" team toward the end of his Indy car career, Warren was severely burned during a U.S. Auto Club race in Argentina. Following his recovery, he’s spent his time since collecting checkered flags on the U.S. short-track circuits.

In 2006, at Star Speedway, in Epping, N.H., Warren tutored the late actor and racing fanatic Paul Newman on the fine art of going fast in a supermodified. "He really surprised me," Warren said later. "He was 81 years old and he was keeping right up. I was haulin’ ass, too."

Asked if Newman said anything afterward, Warrren added: "He said he wished he was 80 again and then he’d have been able to go a little faster." Newman died at age 83.

The owner of Bentley’s Saloon in Arundel, Maine, Warren rode his motorcycle to Florida in recent weeks, so would seem to be in good shape for the Oswego challenge.

Only the late Nolan Swift of Syracuse won as many Oswego Classics – six – and Warren would love to break the tie before he hangs up his helmet.

 
COURTESY, RACE-PLACE.NET

BENTLEY WARREN (R) WITH ANOTHER INDY 500 VETERAN AND SHORT-TRACK CHAMPION, DAVEY HAMILTON.

Bobby Unser, the big firecracker and other tales

This week has been far too serious on this blog. So I will end it with some foolishness.

Let’s start with some quotes from the late Indy car driver, Lloyd Ruby. In an article published once upon a time in Motor Trend magazine, he talked about himself and some of his zany friends.

MTC: I hear you’re a bit of a prankster. Care to share any stories?

RUBY: There were three of us that used to love to play around with M80s (a firecracker equal to about one-fifth of a stick of dynamite). Jimmy Bryan, Bill Cheesbourg, and me. Any time you’d see us, we’d always have M80s on hand.

One time we were out at a tavern for a birthday party for someone that worked at Autolite, and everybody was sitting around this long table. They brought out this big birthday cake. I lit up an M80 and stuck it right in the middle of this cake.

I looked around and I mean everybody was long gone. They really scattered. The only thing they didn’t know is that I had taken all the powder out of that M80. So the fuse burned but it wouldn’t explode. It was all kinda fun watching everybody run and hide under the tables.

MTC: Any more war stories?

RUBY: One time, Bobby Unser put a firecracker in a salad. But this one was live. That salad went everywhere, but you had to know Bobby. He enjoyed pulling those pranks, even if it did a little damage.

Whenever he turned in a rental car, I don’t see how they ever rented it again to anyone else. We’d be going down the road at 35 or 40 miles an hour and he’d just pull it into reverse, spinning the wheels backwards. A few times, the car didn’t make it back. Something about transmission failure.

One time, we checked into a motel and he was blowing up M80s in the toilets, which didn’t help the plumbing. Then he’d be playing with the fire extinguishers out in the hallways. Needless to say, we didn’t stay there the following year.

I love being with Bobby. He’s a good friend.

Okay, that's funny stuff. A classic example of growing older but never growing up.

Now we'll talk about me.

One time years ago, when I was running my supermodified, we were in a motel near Jennerstown, Pa. There were two queen beds in the room. 

We were killing time because it was raining and the promoters said they would try to run the race the next day. At some point, one of the guys decided to illustrate how professional wrestler Randy (Macho Man) Savage delivered his flying-elbow-smash-off-the-top-rope signature move.

So he got up on an end table and launched himself through the air and came down on one of the beds. This guy weighed 250 pounds and when he landed the bed collapsed like it was made of matches.

Next, he demonstrated how Jake (the Snake) Roberts delivered his devastating DDT move to win the WWF Continental Championship from Ricky (the Dragon) Steamboat and that took care of Bed No. 2.

When I tried to check out the next morning, the owner made me pay $200 extra or he said he would call the cops.

Another time, we all went to Phoenix to watch my pal Gary Morton race his super in the Copper Classic. Two guys drove out with the race car and six others flew out on the charter airline, Wardair.The plan was for me and another guy to drive the race car back to Toronto and we’d give our plane tickets to the two who’d taken it to Arizona.

Now, in those days (the ’80s) tickets on charter airlines were non-transferable. You were threatened with jail if you weren't the person using the return portion. But we figured who would notice?

On the way out, I’d had a few drinks and started flirting with one of the stewardesses. She didn’t seem to mind. In fact, the scene got so hot and heavy that my friend Garnet Williamson started suggesting names for our future children.

Anyway, when the races were over, I gave my ticket to one of the two guys who’d driven the race car out to Phoenix. His name is Wayne Miller and his nickname is Dr. Porky because he is four feet tall and four feet wide. At the time, he had long white hair and a long white beard. I, on the other hand, was 6 feet tall and skinny with brown hair and no beard.

As luck would have it, when Garnet was getting on the plane to go back to Toronto, he bumped smack dab into that stewardess I’d fallen in love with on the way out.

"Hi," she said. "Where’s Norris?"

Garnet didn’t want to let the cat out of the bag while the plane – a big one, by the way; a Boeing 747 – was still on the ground. So he told her I was in one of the back sections (where Dr. Porky, in fact, was sitting).

"Oh, good," she said. "I’ll go back to see him after we leave."

So the plane takes off and Garnet’s watching the girl and after awhile he sees her heading toward the back of the plane.

"Uh-oh," he thinks to himself.

A little while later, she comes back and leans over and says to Garnet:

"Sure has changed, hasn’t he?"

Reba's son to race at Canadian GP

There is a lot to cover today, going into the weekend, so reminders first.

— No F1 until next week (Turkey) but IndyCar is racing in Brazil (TSN2, Sunday at noon) and the NASCAR Nationwide and Sprint Cup series are in Richmond to joust on the short oval (always a good show — Nationwide Friday night at 7:30 on TSN2 and SPEED; Sprint Cup Saturday night at 7 on TSN).

Okay, the first bit of news today is that country singer Reba McEntire’s son, Shelby Blackstock, has signed with Toronto’s Jensen MotorSport to drive in the Formula 1600 race at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal in June.

Blackstock, a 21-year-old from Nashville, is competing in his first full season of professional car racing. So far this season, he’s finished sixth in both races held to date in the 2011 BF Goodrich/Skip Barber National presented by Mazda series and he also made two starts in the Grand Am Series with Roush Racing in Daytona and Jim Click Racing at Barber Motorsports Park.

The Formula Ford race in Montreal is a one-off but I understand there is more news to come, so far as Blackstock’s future racing plans are concerned.

Jensen MotorSport, owned by Toronto’s Eric Jensen (a former racing driver in his own right whose team is competing this season in the Firestone Indy Lights Series with Maple’s David Ostella as one of the two drivers) will also be running Thomas McGregor, a 19-year-old from Saskatoon, at the Montreal FF race.

McGregor, the reigning Skip Barber Southern Series Formula Car Champion, has started his second year in the series with a bang. He won the opening race of the Barber national series and was third in the second race at Sebring.

Drivers Blackstock and McGregor will begin preparing for the Montreal race with a test session at Shannonville Motorsports Park, near Belleville, next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Now, over at the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, Quebec racing driver Isabelle Tremblay announced an extremely ambitious program for 2011 this week in which she will run for Rookie of the Year in the Canadian Tire series as well as compete in sportsman division racing at Autodrome St-Eustache in her home province and do several Formula Ford races, was well.

Wow. I count 26 races on her schedule, which includes that very popular Formula Ford race at the Canadian Grand Prix .

“I am the mother of a wonderful 13-year-old boy, Tommy-Jo, and with his support and that of tremendous partners, I’ve chosen to set aside my career goals for the time being to devote myself 100 per cent to racing,” said Tremblay in a release.

“I am partnered with a championship team at Dave Jacombs Racing for the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series. In the Formula 1600 tour, we’re partnering with David Clubine and for the Sportsman Series at St. Eustache I’m in the capable hands of my Isa Racing Team,” she added.

The reference to her 13-year-old son reminded me of another Quebec mother who arrived on the national scene, in Formula Atlantic, back in the 1970s.

Monique Proulx had some success in the big league but it was her son, the late Stephane Proulx, who did the family name proud by later advancing through the Atlantic series to race in F3000 in Europe.

Stephane would have been about 13 when his mom rode into battle. Maybe we should keep an eye on Tommy-Jo, too.

Senna film in T.O.

The incredible story of Ayrton Senna is being shown at the Canadian International Documentary Festival here in town. Info at:

http://www.hotdocs.ca/film/title/senna

Oswego Speedway sold

Former racer Johnny Torrese and his brother Eric have purchased the famous race track, Oswego (N.Y.) Speedway, from Pat Furlong and Steve Gioia Jr. and one of the first things they plan to do is renovate the front grandstand washrooms.

Don’t laugh: spectator comfort should be at the top of the list at any entertainment facility and anybody who’s been around to various speedways and race tracks knows very well that some of them can be less-than-acceptable when it comes to washrooms.

And this sort of thing is not the exclusive domain of smaller race tracks, either. It used to be embarrassing, back in the early Sixties, to go into a men’s room at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway where they didn’t even have stalls.

I’m not making that up. No stalls.

In Gasoline Alley, they had stalls but no doors on them. In 1966, Graham Hill arrived to drive in the 500 and was appalled. He complained to owner Tony Hulman.

The next day, there were doors on the stalls in Gasoline Alley and stalls, with doors, in the men’s rooms around the grounds.

So kudos to the Torrese brothers. They’re off to a good start.

And they bought the historic speedway (a good number of Indy 500 racers — Gordon Johncock, Sammy Sessions, Bentley Warren, etc. — came out of, or through, Oswego before the road racers took over) for all the right reasons.

Said Eric Torrese: “We bought it for the love of the speedway. There is no good business reason to buy it, we just love the place and the allure to it. There is a lot of work to do to it, but we will improve it.  There will be a lot of changes, we just hope everyone is patient with us."

Racing at the Big O, directly across Lake Ontario from Kingston, starts on May 28, Memorial Day weekend in the United States.

Canadian to try for Bistol speed record

Although most eyes will be on the Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend because the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series’ will be racing there, some of us will be more interested in an attempt to break the Bristol track record that will take place following the Nationwide race on Saturday.

Mike Lichty of Cambridge, driving his ground-shaking International Supermodified Association (ISMA) winged supermodified PATCO Transportation No. 84 rocket, will attempt to obliterate the record of 13.860 seconds (138.442 miles an hour) around the half-mile banked oval that’s currently held by Sammy Swindell driving a World of Outlaws winged sprint car.

In addition to Lichty, ex-California sprint car star and sometimes-NASCAR racer Brad Noffsinger, at the wheel of Howie Lane’s No. 97 supermodified out of Essex, Mass., will also take a crack at the record.

In addition to the supers, two sprint cars – including one owned by Tony Stewart and driven by Brian Clauson – and a racing motorcycle will take a shot.

Although news of whether the attempts are successful or not will undoubtedly leak out, the promotion is really a SPEED Channel production that will not air until April 2 following coverage of a NASCAR Camping World Series truck race.

Oh, for the record, Ryan Newman holds the record for the fastest lap set by a NASCAR Sprint Cup car. In 2003, Newman lumbered around the half-mile in 14.908 seconds.

Kinda slow, eh?

I predict a supermodified will be fastest on Saturday and 13 seconds flat sounds just about right.

Go Mike!

Dale Earnhardt: Ten years later

When there’s a serious accident in auto racing, there are sometimes signs – signals – that it’s really bad.

When A.J. Michaels of Syracuse died at Oswego Speedway in 1990, Bill Foley was the infield announcer working the race. Describing the scene as the safety crew did its work, I can still hear Foley’s words, "A.J.’s looking straight ahead." I knew right then that Michaels was gone.

Same thing on Feb. 18, 2001, when Dale Earnhardt hit the wall on the last lap of the Daytona 500 and slid down into the infield off the fourth turn. If Darrel Waltrip, who was one of the TV announcers, said it once, he said it three or four times:

"Dale’s okay, isn’t he?" and you just knew.

Yes, it’s been 10 years since that sunny Sunday afternoon in Florida when what looked like a routine, somewhat slow, loss of control and resulting crash turned out to be one of the worst days in the history of NASCAR.

Dale Earnhardt, the absolute biggest and baddest star in U.S. stock car racing, died as the result of that accident. I’m going to write a newspaper column closer to the date of his death to discuss Earnhardt’s impact on the sport and the effect he had on people generally but the reason for this blog post today is to let you know that Speed Channel is planning a documentary tribute and from the sounds of it you shouldn’t miss it.

Entitled The Day: Remembering Dale Earnhardt, it will be shown for the first time on Feb. 11 at 7:30 EDT.

Michael Waltrip won that Daytona 500 – his first NASCAR Winston Cup victory in 463 starts – and was driving for Earnhardt’s team that day. This program marks the first time on TV that Waltrip has talked about that day.

In addition to tracing Earnhardt’s movements up to the race, the special – among other things – will also explore his history at Daytona, his relationship with car owner Richard Childress and his friendship with driver Neil Bonnett, who was killed at Daytona in 1994.

As well as the premiere on Feb. 11, the special will air on numerous occasions during Daytona Speedweeks, including the actual anniversary, Feb. 18, at 10 p.m. following the Camping World Series truck race.

F1, NASCAR races both lacked pizzazz

Weekend headlines:

1. Alonso wins Italian GP but Webber leads series

2. Ho-hum NASCAR race reminiscent of CART parade

3. Minor leaguers provide most of the excitement

This was a strange weekend. Two major racers were held – in which Fernando Alonso won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza (full story here) and Denny Hamlin won the NASCAR Chevy Rock ‘ Roll 400 at Richmond (full story here) – but although I can’t come right out and say one or both were boring, they were definitely lacking in pizzazz.

In the Grand Prix, there wasn’t really anything to get excited about. Nobody did anything stupid that we could debate afterward (like Sebastien Vettel piling into Jenson Button and putting them both out, as happened at the last Grand Prix) and even the stewards didn’t get involved in anything, for a change.

In the NASCAR race, nobody rocked the boat – there were only three yellows the whole race and one was for a rain shower – and even Kyle Busch was on his best behaviour, both on and off the track.

Once past the big leagues, however, there was plenty of excitement:

– Canada’s Robert Wickens won the final GP3 Series race of the year at Monza;

– D.J. Kennington beat Don Thomson Jr. by an eyelash in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race at Barrie Speedway;

– Antoine L’Estage and Nathalie Richard won this weekend’s Rallye Défi in Quebec, the fourth of six rounds in the 2010 Canadian Rally Championship;

– Nick Wittmer of Montreal won the Super Touring Car title and Anthony Rapone of Thornhill wrapped up the Touring Car championship as the Castrol Canadian Touring Car Series season came to an end at Le Circuit iCar at Mirabel, Que.

Formula One:

As usual, the start of a Grand Prix is tremendously exciting and this one was no exception, with McLaren’s Jenson Button beating Ferrari pole-sitter Fernando Alonso into the first chicane and assuming command of the race from the get-go.

Felipe Massa managed to hold third for Ferrari, despite being run-into by McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton. The collision destroyed Hamilton’s right-front steering arm and his race was over at the next corner when he went straight into the kitty litter instead of turning right.

Although several other drivers cut corners, everybody else got through the first few turns unscathed for a change and we didn’t have the usual first-lap flurry of pit stops for new noses or fresh rubber.

Mark Webber, who ended the race in sixth place and is ahead in the world championship standings again, had a rotten start from sixth and fell all the way back to ninth.

Although he told reporters later that the team hadn’t performed well and could have done a lot better, I would suggest Mr. Webber take a look at himself in his mirror before pointing the finger at others.

The only pass for the lead took place on Lap 38 when the Ferrari mechanics were fast as lightning getting Alonso out of the pits in front of Button. Once ahead, Alonso had no difficulties holding the lead until the finish.

With the European season now over, F1 will jet off to such romantic locales as Singapore (in two weeks), Japan, Korea and so-on. Everybody should be reminded not to drink the water.

Webber, with 187 markers, leads Hamilton by five points. Alonso is third with 166, which is one ahead of the defending world champion, Button. Vettel is two behind Button, at 163.

Notebook Jottings:

– Massa doesn’t look comfortable. You can see it in his eyes.

While Rubens Barrichello feigned annoyance at having to play second fiddle to Michael Schumacher at Ferrari all those years, he was happy to do it because he knew, in the end, that he wasn’t as good as his teammate.

I think Massa is still fretting about Germany, when he was told to let Alonso past. I think he thinks he’s as good as Fernando (and maybe he is) and it’s really sticking in his craw that he has to be No. 2.

I wonder what Felipe will do the next time?

– Red Bull says one of the brakes on the car failed to fully open after a curve and that’s what slowed Sebastien Vettel down early in the race, not a motor problem.

Eddie Jordan had suggested – for all the conspiracy theorists watching the race – that it might have been a deliberate act on the part of Red Bull’s computer engineers to let Webber pass his teammate.

I, on the other hand, was speculating that perhaps Vettel had accidentally brushed a button, or pushed the wrong one, on his steering wheel and that’s what had temporarily balked the engine’s performance.

But it was just a lazy brake, the team says.

How disappointing . . .

– It might have been his day but Alonso kept making little mistakes. At one point, in the laps before the pit stops, he got right up behind Button but then clipped a curb, which caused him to fall back. Then, near the end, when he had a bit of a lead, he cut the corner of a chicane, driving straight through.

Not the sort of performance we expect from the guy who’s Ferrari’s No. 1.

– Having said that, Alonso can do no wrong – apparently – in the eyes of the tifosi. According to Martin Brundle, Alonso is the most popular driver for Ferrari since Gilles Villeneuve.

He said it; not me.

– How come they continue to get away on world-wide TV calling Ferrari, "Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro?"

– Jenson Button said he spent the part of the race when he was leading looking in his mirrors and guestimated the gap between his car and the Ferrari following him by looking at the big-screen TVs scattered around the Monza circuit.

It shows you how good those guys are when they can drive an F1 car at nearly 200 miles an hour and watch TV at the same time, eh?

- Kevin Kalkhoven was shown watching the race with Sir Frank Williams. Kalkhoven, co-owner of Cosworth engines, former owner of the Champ Car World Series and current team owner in the Indy Racing League, lost a client at the weekend - Lotus, which will go with Renault engines next season.

– Now, I’ve tried – oh, how I’ve tried – not to say anything bad about TSN and their coverage of Formula One recently but I can’t help myself: they cut way from the coverage yesterday morning before the post-race interviews were finished.

It’s like there’s some guy down at that station – or at Rogers Cable, I could care less which – who sits with his or her finger on the button, waiting for someone to stop talking for an instant so they can punch that button and get that stupid auto racing off the air just as fast as they possibly can.

And what do they then put on the air? The 15 millionth rerun of Sports Centre. I mean, if it was something interesting, I could maybe understand it. But the 15 millionth rerun of Sports Centre?

Now, it was about 9:45 on a Sunday morning when they did this. There are – oh, what? – 200,000 F1 fans watching the race? And TSN can’t wait to get back to a program that maybe – maybe – 15 or 20 people might be interested in watching at that hour on a Sunday morning?

I don’t get it. I’ll never get it.

As soon as Bernie offers up Internet coverage of F1 that I can hook up to my 43-inch plasma TV, I will gladly pay anything he wants, just so I never again have to be insulted by those TV people.

Because that’s what they're doing. Every time they pull the plug like they did yesterday, they’re giving the middle finger to every F1 auto racing fan in this country.

NASCAR

Let me see. The NASCAR race Saturday night ended at or about 10:35 p.m. But TSN didn’t get around to putting Sports Centre on the air till, what, 11:25 or so?

Mmmm. Why is it that they leave NASCAR on the air so long after the racing is finished and yet can’t wait to kill the F1 coverage?

Oh, silly me. I forgot. NASCAR and TSN are in business together, that’s why.

In any event, the Chevy Rock ‘n Roll 400 Saturday night reminded me of the last CART race at Nazareth Speedway in 2001 (Scott Dixon got his first Indy car win that day and the microphone cut out when Roger Penske went to say, "Gentlemen, Start Your Engines." He said it; we just didn’t hear it.)

Gary Morton and I sat there just about bored out of our skulls because the race started and it quickly became a  fuel-economy run and nobody passed anybody and it was enough to put you to sleep. Kind of like the way the Richmond race turned out.

Saturday night, the drivers were up-front about it, though: the field for the Chase was set (okay, Clint Bowyer had to solidify his hold on 12^th place) and nobody really had anything to prove. And nobody wanted to do anything stupid that would create a whole lot of unnecessary work for their teams in the week leading up to the first playoff race.

So they drove around and around and everybody stayed out of trouble.

Yes, Kyle Busch closed up on Hamlin in the last half-dozen laps to make a bit of a show of it, but he wasn’t seriously going to try to pass him and everybody knew it.

So, let the playoffs begin.

Notebook Jottings:

– Announcer Marty Reid did his best on Saturday night to make things sound exciting – "if so-and-so passes so-and-so, that will translate into a 20-point swing going into the Chase" – but it’s really tough to make chicken salad out of salami (haha, thought I was going to say something else, didn’t you?)

– Joe Gibbs knows, as only a professional sports coach knows, that nothing is ever a sure thing. When an interviewer asked him if Joe Gibbs Racing was the team to beat, he was denying it before the question was even finished.

"No, no, no," he said, before saying that this year’s Chase field is probably "the closest and best we’ve had."

He’s right about that. The top 12 drivers in this year’s Chase really are the top 12 drivers in NASCAR and the playoff races should give the NFL a run for its money on Sunday afternoons from now till November.

– If stick-thin Joey Logano drank as much Coca-Cola as he pretends to (he’s always swigging from a bottle of the stuff when the TV cameras start cranking) he’d weigh 200 pounds.

– I couldn’t believe Kyle Busch Saturday night. He keeps his nose clean all race and then butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth during all the interviews afterward. Smiling, congenial, charming. Was this an imposter?

Oh, wait a minute. It turns out that on Monday night, a new series is apparently going to start on ESPN in the U.S. called "Riding Shotgun with Kyle Busch."

So Kyle was in total PR mode Saturday night. Wouldn’t want to get the sponsors upset before the series even started, would we?

– Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished six laps behind the winner, Hamlin, on Saturday night. What is the matter with him?

Wickens wins GP3 race at Monza

Robert (Robbie) Wickens of Guelph and Toronto ended the inaugural GP3 Series season in perfect fashion with a victory in the weekend’s second race at Monza. He’d finished second in the first race on Saturday.

Daniel Morad of Markham, driving for the same Status Grand Prix team as Wickens (it’s owned by Vancouver businessman Teddy Yip Jr.), finished seventh (ninth in Saturday’s first race).

Esteban Gutierrez of Mexico won the championship. Gutierrez has a Toronto connection: he drove a season in the Formula BMW-USA Series for Team Autotecnica of Vaughan.

Wickens, who finished the year in second place in the championship, will likely race in GP2 next season, although there’s a chance – a chance – he could make the jump to F1.

Wickens, if he does do GP2 next season, will have to win the title if he harbours any hope of becoming an F1 driver and doesn’t make the move to the big league in 2011.

He finished second last year in the first year of the new FIA Formula 2 Series. That earned him a ticket right out of town from Red Bull racing director Helmut Marko, who had supported him the previous three years.

As Wickens himself said, "the name of the game is to win, and I didn’t."

That, unfortunately, was the story again this year but Wickens showed this weekend that, given the horses, he can beat just about anybody.

When the lights went out Sunday, he started seventh but was in second place by the first corner (shades of Paul Tracy!). He took the lead at the next corner and was never headed.

While Wickens will undoubtedly go on, Morad told the Star’s special F1 correspondent, Gerald Donaldson, that he wants to return to GP3 in 2011, where he plans to run for the championship.

Kennington wins NASCAR Canada race by a whisker

They needed a photo finish to determine the winner of the Wild Wing 300 presented by DriveWise at Barrie Speedway on Saturday night.

In the end, D.J. Kennington of St. Thomas edged Don Thomson Jr. of Hamilton by 0.015 seconds, which is what? Half a blink?

Pete Shepherd III of Brampton was third (and it’s great to see his career back on track after a year or two away from the action), with 2008 national champion Scott Steckly of Milverton fourth and current points leader J.R. Fitzpatrick of Cambridge fifth.

Thomson, a five-time CASCAR champion, edged into the lead on the last lap between turns one and two by "moving" Kennington up toward the fence.

Kennington, who has never won a CASCAR or a NASCAR championship but is determined that this will be his year, backed off ever so slightly and then returned the favour between turns three and four by getting inside Thomson and moving him up the track.

It was then a flat-out, 50-yard drag race to the checkers and Kennington triumphed by about the chrome on his front bumper, moving his points total to within 21 markers of Fitzpatrick’s 1,778.

It looks like this NASCAR Canadian Tire Series championship – with just two races remaining at Riverside Speedway in Nova Scotia next Saturday night and Kawartha Speedway near Peterborough the following Saturday – will go right down to the wire.

P.S. There was controversy in this race. Kerry Micks of Mt. Albert, who finished 14^th, was furious afterward because he felt he’d been held in the pits unjustly following a mid-race collision while he was running on the lead lap.

Micks, who reportedly wasn’t leaking any fluids, went to the pits for temporary repairs and planned to keep ducking in and out of the pits while the yellow was on, staying ahead of the pace car and remaining on the lead lap.

But a NASCAR official wouldn’t let him go and by the time he returned to the speedway, he was four laps down and his race was done.

The NASCAR official reportedly worked for Micks previously as his crew chief.

Conflicts of interest have no place anywhere, but particularly in car racing where a decision one way or another can make or break an effort.

I suspect we haven’t heard the end of this one.

P.P.S. Only 18 cars entered the race on Saturday night in Barrie, down significantly from the more than 30 that entered the race at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal several weeks ago. That is not good enough and NASCAR Canada has got to make it clear that teams can’t cherry pick races.

L’Estage, Nathalie Richard set record with rally win

Two of the most familiar names in Canadian rallysport, Antoine L’Estage and Nathalie Richard of Ste-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., won the 2010 Rallye Défi at the weekend in a Mitsubishi.

L’Estage and Richard (L’Estage has already won the North American Rally Cup and the 2010 Rally America Championship this year), won the Rallye Défi – held just outside Montpellier, Que. – for a record fifth time.

L’Estage and Richard are now three points out of first place in the Canadian Rally Championship standings, a position currently held by Nathalie Richard’s brother Pat, of Squamish, B.C., and co-driver Alan Ockwell of Toronto, who finished second this weekend in a Subaru.

Third place this weekend went to Craig Henderson and Lyne Murphy of New Richmond, Que., also in a Subaru.

There are two rallies remaining in the Canadian championship – the Pacific Forest Rally at Merritt, B.C., the weekend of Oct. 1 and 2 and then the famous Rally of the Tall Pines at Bancroft, Nov. 19 and 20.

Wittmer, Rapone clinch touring car titles

Nick Wittmer of Montreal wasted little time showing his opponents his dust yesterday when the green flag dropped to start the final Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship race of the season.

Wittmer, who won Saturday’s heat race, took the lead right off the bat and never let up over the 25-lap race distance, winning the Super Touring Class championship in the process.

Greg Pootmans of Toronto was second in Sunday’s race and Mathieu Audette of Ste-Ann-de-Lacs, Que., was third.

In Touring Class, Rapone, of Thornhill, held on to win the championship even though he finished second in class in Sunday’s finalé, losing to Michel Sallenbach of Roxton Pond, Que.

Karl Thomson of Toronto finished third in class.

And, finally:

– Dan Aitken Jr. of Belle River not only won his class but scored the overall win as well as the Quick 32 Sportsman Series presented by NAPA Auto Parts wrapped up its season.

The drag racers were rained out at Grand Bend on Labour Day weekend and had to finish things off yesterday at Toronto Motorsports Park near Cayuga.

Aitken, driving a big-block 1995 Ford Mustang in the Top Sportsman class, ran a 7:33 (183.93 miles an hour) in the event final over the Top Dragster of Bill Moloughney of Shawville, Que., who broke. . . .

– Mark Wilkins of Toronto and American Burt Frisselle finished fourth aboard the Woodbridge-based AIM Autosport Pacific Mobile/Biosign No. 61 Ford Riley Daytona Prototype in the final Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series race of the year at Miller Motosports Park in Utah.

(Whew, what a mouthful.)

The race was won by – who else? – Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas driving for Chip Ganassi.

– Anthony Davidson and Nicolas Minassion won the Autosport 1,000 km at Silverstone in England in a Peugeot.

– On a sad note, Willem Fredrik (Wimp) Coerse of Oakville died Friday in hospital in Burlington.

Mr. Coerse and his wife and kids were part of the "Canadian invasion" of New York’s famed Oswego Speedway in the 1960s when Canadian drivers liked Gary Witter, Warren Coniam, Jack Greedy and Norm Mackereth went to Oswego to show the American hot-shoes who was boss.

Wimp’s son Brian Coerse raced supermodifieds at Oswego and then drove midgets with the Can-Am Midget Club.

Only a week ago, Wimp attended an old-timers’ reunion at Oswego.

He was 79.

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

‘Blocking’ rule has Molson Indy root, Hamilton says

Weekend headlines:

1. Szoke has perfect season in winning Superbike championship

2. ‘Blocking’ rule has Molson Indy root, Hamilton says

3. NASCAR doesn’t need ‘road-course ringers’ any more

Canada has produced a large number of world-class motorcycle champions, starting with Mike Duff (now Michelle Duff) in the 1960s and including the famous Yvon Duhamel and his son Miguel.

But arguably the best and most successful of them all is Jordan Szoke of Brantford, who made Canadian motorcycle racing history on Sunday at Atlantic Motorsport Park in Nova Scotia when he won the final round of the Parts Canada Superbike Championship (full story here), giving him a perfect season.

Szoke, 31, won all seven races to win the title, something no other racer has managed to do in the 30-year history of the Canadian national championship.

He actually clinched the championship on Saturday when he won the sixth round, so Sunday’s victory was just a little extra icing on the cake.

"At the start of the year, I thought we’d be able to put together a good challenge for the championship," said Szoke after his 36th career Canadian Superbike win, "but to do this is unbelievable.

"When you think back on the whole year, it’s so easy to make just one mistake that could cost you a race. To do what I did is still shocking to me."

Andrew Nelson of Kars, Ont., finished second in Sunday’s race while Michael Ferreira of Mississauga was third. The podium Sunday was an instant replay of Saturday’s result.

In the final standings, however, Francis Martin of Sherbrooke, Que., was third behind Szoke and Nelson. Martin finished sixth in Sunday’s finale; he was classified 13^th in Saturday’s race, although he’d crashed out of it.

Indianapolis 500 veteran Davey Hamilton told me on Saturday that the genesis of the IRL’s blocking rule, where you can be found guilty of blocking even if you aren’t, was the accident at the 1996 Molson Indy Toronto in which driver Jeff Krosnoff and marshal Gary Avrin were killed.

This conversation came about at New York state's Oswego Speedway, where Hamilton – a 10-start Indy 500 veteran – was driving a supermodified for Homestead, Fla., car owner John Nicotra. As Hamilton finished signing in at the pit gate, I said:

"So when is Randy Bernard (the new IRL CEO) going to dump Brian Barnhart?"

Barnhart is IndyCar’s race director and the chief steward who penalized Helio Castroneves for blocking at Edmonton two weeks ago when there wasn't a block. It has since been explained ad nauseum that Castroneves hadn’t really blocked, but that he was driving on the inside line going into Turn One and you can only drive there when you are passing someone. Unless you are passing, you must take the outside line going into a turn.

I actually might have prefaced Barnhart’s name with something other than "Brian," because Hamilton immediately snapped back:

"Brian Barnart is not a jerk. It’s a terrible rule and it has to go but all Brian did was enforce it. In fact, it (the rule) comes from Champ Car, from back when Tony Cotman was the director of competition there (prior to the Champ Car-IRL merger). And it goes back to Toronto when that driver (Krosnoff) was killed up there."

Late in the 1996 Molson Indy, four drivers were screaming toward Turn 3 at the end of Lake Shore Blvd. – Emerson Fittipaldi, Andre Ribeiro, Stefan Johansson and Krosnoff. Krosnoff pulled out of the slipstream to go down the inside to pass one or more of the cars in front of him when his car came into contact with Johansson’s (video link here).

A millisecond later, Krosnoff and Avrin were dead.

"That’s why the rule came into force," Hamilton said. "If was felt, because of that accident, that you can’t take the low line into a turn unless you’re passing. So it’s been on the books ever since. Nobody made a big deal out of it until Edmonton.

"Don’t get me wrong, they have to get rid of the rule. It’s a stupid rule. But as long as the rule is there, Brian had every right to enforce it."

Hamilton’s right: they have to get rid of the rule because the IndyCar race at Mid-Ohio Sunday – won by Dario Franchitti, with Will Power second and Castroneves third (full story here) – was more follow-the-leader than IndyCar races usually are.

Have you ever watched a snake slither through the grass? That was what Sunday’s race was like because no driver in a string of cars running nose-to-tail would take a chance of deviating, even slightly, from the line taken by the driver in front of him or her for fear of being penalized for "blocking."

That doesn’t mean there wasn’t passing - although there were no passes for the lead - but the few there were  seemed contrived, rather than spontaneous, if you get my drift.

For instance, I was discussing the art of passing once with Ron Fellows (and we’ll talk more about him and NASCAR, in a moment) and he described his thinking.

"I was following Tony Stewart one time at the Glen and I had a plan for him," he said. He then proceeded to describe the plan and I can tell you that at no time did he even mention having to worry about where on the race track he was going to have to be driving in order to be legal, which is now something the Indy car drivers have to be thinking about – on top of everything else you might have on your mind when you’re driving around at 150 miles-an-hour, plus.

Which is nuts.

Got rid of the rule.

Notebook jottings:

– Congratulations to Alex Tagliani of Montreal for a fine fourth-place finish at Mid-Ohio, which is his best finish so far in the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series season. He got up to the front of the pack on fuel strategy (he stopped two laps before everybody else and then there was a yellow) but the name of the game is to finish well and who cares how you manage to do it?

– Simona de Silvestro really seems to have hit her stride and had another top ten finish, officially winding up eighth. She’s generating excitement and that can’t help but be positive for the series.

– If I’m Michael Andretti, and I want to keep the gazillions of dollars Go Daddy is putting into my team, I will start to pay way more attention to Danica Patrick than is currently the case.

She finished 21^st on Sunday – which, when translated, means she was the last of the cars running on the lead lap. She had a terrible result in Edmonton, too.

There are many who maintain that she doesn’t really have the talent to run well consistently in IndyCar but that’s poppycock: she was fifth in the standings in 2009 and you can't do that with marginal abilities.

I think Andretti has just spread himself way too thin – he had five cars entered in Sunday’s race. Sooner or later, quantity can start to have a negative effect on quality.

– Did anybody else find it curious that TV had to wait to interview winner Franchitti after Sunday’s race? Host Bob Jenkins made some reference to "having to wait until Dario makes his way to Victory Circle" just as a helicopter shot showed him being interviewed by the track announcer.

Nobody – and I mean nobody – interviews the winner of a NASCAR race until he does the TV interview. Ditto F1.

I was lunching in Oswego on Saturday with supermodified driver Keith Gilliam, who remarked about the irony of Boris Said teaching all the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers how to road race and now they were kicking his butt.

"Remember when Boris and Ron Fellows and a couple of other guys could show up for road races in the Cup series and clean up? Not anymore, boy."

Gilliam is spot-on with that observation. Although road-racer Juan Pablo Montoya won Sunday’s Sprint Cup stop at Watkins Glen (full story here), he’s a full-timer on the NASCAR tour. What makes it interesting is to see who followed Montoya across the line:

Kurt Bush (second), Karl Edwards (fifth), Jamie McMurray, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Jeff Burton and Jeff Gordon (sixth through tenth). Okay, third and fourth places in the race went to A.J. Allmendinger and Marcos Ambrose, who – like Montoya – come from road-racing backgrounds but they, too, are full-time Cup stars.

You have to go to 18^th place before you will find the name of a true road-course ringer, Andy Lally, who’s a Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series driver in real life. Canadian Patrick Carpentier finished 21^st, Said finished 38^th after being wrecked by Tony Stewart and Fellows was 40^th after the suspension let go on his car.

Once upon a time, a guy like Fellows (or the others) could count on being hired by top NASCAR teams at least twice a year for road races. And they used to deliver with consistent, high finishes.

But as the regular stock car drivers became more proficient at road racing, the opportunities to land good drives with good teams started to dry up. More and more, teams with cars outside the top 35 started to look to drivers like Fellows, et al, just to get their cars into the race, never mind hoping for a high-up finish.

Fellows, driving for low-buck Tommy Baldwin Racing at the Glen this weekend, qualified the car 21^st for Sunday's race and you can bet that made the owner real happy.

In Saturday’s Nationwide Series race, which was won by Ambrose with Joey Logano second and Kevin Harvick third (See? There’s those NASCAR drivers again . . . the Nationwide – nee Busch – series was another place where the road-course ringers could pad their incomes with regularity), Fellows was in the running for a podium finish when he was caught speeding on pit lane and issued a stop-and-go penalty.

It’s a testament to his talent that the Mississauga resident recovered to finish sixth.

Jacques Villeneuve of Montreal, the 1997 F1 world driving champion, finished eighth; J.R. Fitzpatrick of Cambridge was 11^th.

Another ex-F1 racer, Nelson Piquet Jr., finished seventh in his Nationwide Series debut.

Okay, by now you know that cars owned by Chip Ganassi won all the big races at the weekend. Montoya won the NASCAR Sprint Cup race (see above) and Franchitti won the IndyCar race (see above, also). On Saturday, the team of Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas got the ball rolling for the Chipster when they won the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series race, which was also held at Mid-Ohio.

The No. 61 Pacific Mobile/Biosign Daytona Prototype Ford Riley entered by AIM Autosport of Woodbridge and piloted by Toronto’s Mark Wilkins and American Burt Frisselle was heading for a podium finish when the car was rear-ended late in the race and they were officially classified 23rd. . . .

Rick Wilson of Joyceville won the Southern Ontario Sprints meet at Brighton Speedway on Saturday night. Travis Cunningham of Grimsby was second and Tyler Rand of Consecon finished third.. . .

Jerry Curran of Oswego won the supermodified feature Saturday night at Oswego Speedway, with Davey Hamilton (Boise, Idaho) eighth. Otto Sitterly of Canajoharie, N.Y., was second and Joey Payne of Fairlawn, N.J., was third. . .

The International Supermodified Association was at Delaware Speedway near London for a two-night show. Mike Ordway of Fremont, N.H., won the feature on Friday, then promptly crashed when the left-front brake rotor broke and turned the car into the wall. Dave Shullick Jr. of Amherst, Ohio, was second and Mike Lichty of Innerkip, Ont., was third. Mark Sammut of London escaped injury but his race car was severely damaged when it went end-over-end four times during a heat race.

On Saturday night, Rob Summers of Manchester, Conn., was the winner with Lichty second and Russ Wood of Pelham, N.H. third.

Where won't they let Castroneves go this weekend?

With F1 on vacation for the next three Sundays (Belgium is next on Aug. 29; mark it down), we’ll have to content ourselves watching IndyCar and/or NASCAR, which this weekend is not a bad deal because the Sprint Cup race is on the road course at Watkins Glen and that’s always great fun to watch.

The intrigue, however, will be at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course where Helio Castroneves will be making his first start after being robbed of victory at the Honda Indy Edmonton by driving on a part of the track where he wasn’t supposed to be. The IRL called it blocking but there wasn’t a block.

(Can you imagine anybody in NASCAR telling guys like Tony Stewart, Mark Martin, Kevin Harvick and Ryan Newman that they can’t drive on half the road while going into a turn at Watkins Glen? The gales of laughter would be heard all the way to . . . well, Mid-Ohio.)

In any event, the IndyCar people met with Castroneves earlier this week and fined him $60,000 and put him on probation for the rest of the season, primarily because of his post-race meltdown at Edmonton when he’d yelled and screamed and grabbed a couple of people by the lapels. (If this had happened to A.J. Foyt, he’d have slugged somebody but that was back at a time when drivers decided who won car races instead of officials, who apparently are more important these days than drivers, at least in the eyes of IndyCar.)

Castroneves shouldn’t have touched anybody, but his anger was understandable: He won the race.

 

Meantime, at Watkins Glen, the Nationwide race on Saturday will be of interest because Mississauga’s Ron Fellows and Cambridge’s J.R. Fitzpatrick will again be driving for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports. The last time these two drove for Junior, at Road America in June, Fellows was second to Carl Edwards and Fitzpatrick finished seventh.

The star of that show, though, was Jacques Villeneuve, the 1997 F1 world champion who seems intent on reviving his NASCAR career. He was second all the way at Road America but lost his alternator on the last lap and wound up 25^th or so. If not for that, two of the three places on the podium would have been occupied by Canadians.

 

Speaking of NASCAR, D.J. Kennington of St. Thomas won his third race of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series championship on Wednesday night at Auto Clearing Motor Speedway in Saskatoon.

Fitzpatrick, who’s locked in a back-and-forth battle for the championship with Kennington and held a six-point edge going into the event, charged from 14th on the grid to finish second. With the win, however, Kennington vaulted back past Fitzpatrick to take a 14-point lead in the standings.

 

Third place in the race went to Don Thomson Jr. of Ayr, Ont., with Scott Steckly of Milverton finishing fourth and John Gaunt of Barrie in fifth. Jason Hathaway of Appin, Ont., Kerry Micks of Mt. Albert, Mark Dilley of Barrie, Anthony Simone of Holland Landing and Nathan Weenk of Lethbridge, Alta., completed the top 10.

 

The NASCAR Canada series will now return to road-course action for the GP3R 100 in Trois-Rivieres, Que., on Sun., Aug. 15 as part of the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres.

 

Here’s a nice story. John Fletcher of Milton is returning to the cockpit in his No. 61 OSCAAR Outlaw late model racing car for Friday night’s 75-Lap Don Biederman Memorial at Kawartha Speedway, an event he’s won three times.

“ This race means a lot to me,” Fletcher said. “Don and I became good friends after his racing days and I have a lot of respect for him. But I really want to win this race to honour Bill Snowdon. We won a lot together with this car.”

Snowdon and Fletcher raced together from 1994 to 2007, when Snowdown died of ALS. Since then, the #61 car has sat idle. Fletcher and his team have rebuilt and rebodied the car for Kawartha. He’ll have his sights set on the checkers when they drop the green.

I wish I could be there. But I'm taking in a little supermodified action at Oswego Speedway Saturday night. If you have a hankering for the supers, however, the International Supermodified Association travelling supermodifieds will be at Delaware Speedway near London Friday and Saturday nights.

My pal Gary Morton will have his car there. If you make the trip, tell Gary that Norris sentcha.

Racing videos: The right (and wrong) way to fight fires

Two days after a near-disastrous racing car fire during its race at Texas Motor Speedway on Saturday night, in which a racing driver and a safety crew worker were burned, the Indy Racing League has issued a statement promising to do better.

For anybody who missed it, a car driven by Swiss rookie Simona de Silvestro burst into flames after hitting the wall and when the first safety truck arrived on the scene the onboard fire-fighting hose wouldn’t work.

There appeared to be some confusion as to what to do next before a member of the safety crew forced himself to go into the fire to get de Silvestro out of the car. He eventually yanked and dragged her out as she struggled to free herself.

No fire extinguishers or water hoses were made to work until after she was out of the car – which seemed like an eternity for people watching.

Here is a video of the fire. Judge for yourself.

In any event, the League emailed this statement today (Monday):

"The Indy Racing League, the sanctioning body of the IZOD IndyCar Series, issued the following statement regarding the response to the oil fire in Simona de Silvestro's car during Saturday's race at Texas Motor Speedway:

"1. First and foremost, we make the safety of our competitors a priority when on the track. The primary hose on the series' safety truck malfunctioned, so the safety team had to go to the backup of the bottles. All equipment is checked prior to going on track before every race. We are examining why the hose malfunctioned to ensure this equipment failure will not happen again.

"2. Our Safety Team consists of approximately 24 highly-trained safety personnel with a minimum of 14 attending each event – 2 trauma physicians, 3 paramedics and 9 firefighters/EMTs. Team members have an average of 20 years of experience in their respective areas. The safety team is recognized for its high standards and high performance and this problem will be addressed."

The key words are right at the end: "This problem will be addressed."

The unwritten words are these: "And will never happen again."

Now, I mentioned in my blog report of this incident (click here if interested) that sanctioning organizations like the IRL would do well to study what happens elsewhere and, in my experience, the safety crew at Oswego Speedway in New York state is the best anywhere.

A reader sent me a link to a video of a disastrous fire during the Budweiser International Classic 200 in 1999 and it is a lesson on how to properly fight a racing fire. As you will see – click here to watch the video – corner workers and the two safety trucks were on the scene in very short order and had the fire knocked down and the drivers safely out of the way extremely quickly.

When I stopped racing at Oswego, I was recruited to be trackside announcer and I was proud to ride on the No. 1 safety truck at that speedway for nearly 15 years every Saturday night during the summer, covering the activities of the best and the bravest speedway safety workers anywhere.

Which explains what I’m doing conducting the interviews at the end of the video.

Finally, sometimes a racing driver – or rider, in this case – is given a sign that maybe the time has come to hang up the helmet – or else switch to a safer form of motorsport.

Multiple motorcycle world champion Valentino Rossi’s crash last weekend at the Italian Grand Prix is frightening beyond belief and I suggest he take up Scudera Ferrari’s offer of a Formula One seat without delay.

He’s been a great champion and he just doesn’t have to do the two-wheel bit any longer.

Watch the video and decide if you agree with me.

Racing news roundup: Large car count for Brazil

For the longest time this winter, it looked like the IndyCar car count would be low and cynics (including me) suggested there would be a scramble to make fields look presentable.

Well, what started as a bit of a crescendo has become a landslide in recent days as a full field – two dozen cars – will start the Sao Paulo Indy 300 in Brazil Sunday (TSN2, 11:30 a.m.).

With 24 cars on the F1 grid at Bahrain (go to wheels.ca to listen to my podcast interview with F1 expert Gerald Donaldson) and 45 or more showing up for NASCAR Sprint Cup races, IndyCar’s 24 (which will grow to 25 or more in St. Pete's in a few weeks) indicate the economy is back or the recession is over, take your pick.

The latest signing – announced Thursday – has Mario Moraes returning to KV Racing for the complete season. KV (Jimmy Vasser and Kevin Kalkhoven are partners– it used to be PKV Racing and that was for Jacques Villeneuve’s old manager, Craig Pollock, who’s kind of disappeared since he and JV broke up) now has three full-time drivers signed: Takuma Sato and E.J. Viso, in addition to Moraes.

Which means Paul Tracy, who will drive for the team at Indianapolis as well as Toronto and Edmonton, will be joining a pretty crowded shop.

Seven of the drivers in Sunday's race are from Brazil, with Ana Beatriz the only one-off.  The Indy Lights standout hopes to raise enough money to do the full season but she’ll be at Indy for sure.

There will be mixing and matching along the way. Beatriz likely won’t be at the next race in St. Petersburg, Fla., but Graham Rahal and Jay Howard will be in cars owned by Sarah Fisher (who will drive some ovals).

And supermodified star Davey Hamilton will be on the grid for several oval races as well.

In other news:

Mark Dilley announce today that his NASCAR Canadian Tire Series team will be fielded by Scott Steckly, the 2008 National Champion, for the 2010 season.

“I am very happy to team up with Scott in 2010,” said Dilley, who’s cars were entered previously by now-retired veteran team owner Dave Whitlock.

Steckly, who’s team owner and driver for his 22 Racing Team, says he’s thrilled with the arrangement. “Mark is a great guy and a competitive racer and I’m am looking forward to fielding cars for him.”

The Steckly-Dilley team are expected to announce sponsor support in the near future.

The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series is composed of 13 races that take place on road courses, temporary street courses, and oval tracks across Canada. The events are all broadcast on TSN with at least one repeat airing.

The first race of the 2010 season will be June 5 at Delaware Speedway in London. A new addition to the schedule will be a race at the Honda Indy Toronto.

Meantime, 30 or so of the open wheel cars that made history in the Formula 1 World Championship from the late 1960s through the mid-1980s period will race on the support program at the Grand Prix of Canada, at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal June 11-13.

The Historic Grand Prix cars last appeared in Canada in 2004. Not only do the owners/drivers race the legendary cars, they showcase them in a tent that’s accessible to the public in the support race paddock.

Said Grand Prix promoter François Dumontier: “Each time the cars go on track, it is one of the most popular moments of the weekend. The list of cars entered is impressive. It is a true reflection of the history of the first decades of the Canadian Grand Prix. They include cars that our loyal fans can relate to and cars that were successful on Canadian soil."

In Woodbridge, AIM Autsoport announced this week that Maple resident David Ostella will return for a second season in 2010 to contest the Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear. The 18-year-old will be driving the AIM Autosport / Global Precast No 16 Formula Mazda and he is looking forward to the season’s first race at Sebring

Ostella had a strong debut season with AIM in 2009 – an AIM Team car won the 2008 championship – ending the year with seven top-ten results including a third-place finish at Iowa Speedway. He ended the season 13th overall out of 32 cars in the championship.

And finally, Alex Tagliani – the only Canadian racing full-time in the IZOD IndyCar Series this season – has a small speaking role in the upcoming film, “Score: A Hockey Musical.” Tags plays himself in the film along with other Canadians such as Walter Gretzky and Margaret Atwood in a scene that was filmed at a hockey rink in Toronto.

“Score: A Hockey Musical” — which combines musical numbers with Canada’s national sport — was shot in Toronto by director Michael McGowan (“One Week” and “Saint Ralph”), and features a story line about a teenage hockey phenom, played by Noah Reid, and his parents, played by Olivia Newton-John and Canadian singer-songwriter Marc Jordan, who are worried about the course the young hockey star’s life is taking.

Filming wrapped March 8. The movie will be released on Oct. 22 by Mongrel Media.