Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

Weekend rdp: F1, Kyle Busch and Bob McCown

For those of you who emailed wondering where I was, my real newspaper job sometimes gets in the way of my fun newspaper job and the fun newspaper job (this) has to take a back seat.

So, after a week’s absence, here are some random thoughts about the state of the sport following a weekend of ho-hum racing (at least the offerings on television).

1. The people who run Formula One have outsmarted themselves once again. To make the sport more exciting – they didn’t really have to do this; it was exciting enough – they ordered the one tire supplier, Pirelli, to build degradation into the product so the drivers would have to make more pit stops.

Now, everybody is either up in arms (if you’re a fan) or "concerned" (if you’re one of the people in F1 who thought this stuff up) because the tires are coming apart faster than anybody expected.

Most teams had to make four (count ‘em, four) pit stops during Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix (click here for story and results) and critics (including 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve) were making fun of the spectacle rather than marvelling at the skill of the pit crews in getting the tires changed so quickly.

Said Villeneuve: "At this rate, F1 is going to become a pit-stop contest with a few race laps thrown in."

Every time anybody in any sport starts monkeying around with the thing to make it more "appealing" or more "exciting," they are just inviting trouble. Has baseball gone to four strikes to enable more hitters to reach base? Or moved the mound back a foot? Has hockey gone to four quarters instead of three periods? Of course not.

But F1 now has tires that disintegrate and drag reduction systems and kinetic energy recovery systems and, as a result, except for the opening laps there is very little racing going on any more.

Memo to F1: Stop this.

2. See second last paragraph above. The first lap of Sunday’s Spanish GP was edge-of-your-seat stuff with everybody reacting so quickly to lights out that analyst David Coulthard suggested at least one driver had jumped the start.

And although Mercedes pole-sitter Nico Rosberg held the lead to the conclusion of that first lap, everybody else was either charging to the front or sliding back.

Eventual race winner Fernando Alonso went from fifth to third in his Ferrari and passed two cars on the outside of one corner. Lewis Hamilton, who started second for Mercedes, dropped to fourth. Kimi Raikkonen, who went off third for Lotus-Renault, dropped to fifth. Three-time world champion Sebastian Vettel moved from third to second in his Red Bull-Renault and Felipe Massa went from ninth to sixth in his Ferrari. But the best of all was Adrien Sutil rocketing from 13^th place to eighth in his Force India-Ferrari and that, ladies and gentlemen, was an incredible example of car control and balls.

Oh, before I forget, Mark Webber had his usual crappy start and dropped out of the top ten from his seventh starting position and – I ask you – why should we be surprised? I suggest they put Webber in the simulator for a week and not let him out until he can make flying starts in his sleep.

3. In winning the Grand Prix, Alonso joined Vettel as two-time winners this season. Raikkonen is the only other winner, scoring his victory at Australia. Rosberg has now won two poles on the year but both times, in Bahrain and again at Spain, he faded out of the top five. He finished fifth in Spain and ninth at Bahrain.

And Esteban Gutierrez was the best of this year’s rookie crop, finishing in 11^th position for Sauber-Ferrari and beating his more experienced teammate, Nico Hulkenburg, who was 15^th. More impressive was the fact that Gutierrez qualified 16^th but was penalized three places for blocking Raikkonen during qualifying. Racing from 19^th starting position to 11^th earns him the McDonald "Hard Charger Award."

Elsewhere this weekend, Carlos Muniz – an Indy Lights driver – was fastest of the IZOD IndyCar Series drivers who went out to practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as the track opened for practice and qualifying leading up to the 97^th Indy 500 in two weeks.

Muniz recorded a speed of 223.023 miles an hour Sunday (it took him 40.3545 seconds to drive a lap of the 2.5-mile speedway; click here for details). James Hinchcliffe of Oakville was sixth fastest of the 23 drivers who turned time, recording a lap of 220.907 mph. Qualifying and bumping (if any) is scheduled for next weekend.

Speaking of Hinchcliffe, I was pleasantly surprised last Monday afternoon when, while driving home, I heard everybody’s favourite afternoon drive sports talk radio show host Bob McCown wax eloquently about James’ victory the previous afternoon in Brazil (which he won on the last corner of the last lap).

I haven’t heard McCown talk about car racing before, although I’m sure he has at one time or another. He simply said he’d tuned in the race to check it out with 15 or so laps to go and Hinchcliffe was running fifth and that he "had a feeling" and stayed till the end.

He went so far as to call the finish one of the most exciting moments in recent live sports television history (or words to that effect).

He brought it up with a couple of his guests – neither had been watching, by the way – and opined that he would be keeping an eye on young Mr. Hinchcliffe, whom he later interviewed (although I didn’t hear that).

Now, I realize that Bob McCown works for Sportsnet, and that Sportsnet is televising this year’s IZOD IndyCar Series races as well as the Indianapolis 500 and some "cross-promotion" is to be expected.

But I honestly think McCown was impressed with the finish (who wouldn’t have been!) and saw the potential that Indy car racing and Hinchcliffe both have. Good stuff.

One last thing: he said he didn’t like cars racing on ovals because ovals are for horses. Then he hesitated, and mused: "I wonder how horses would do on a road course?"

Okay, moving right along, I have two things to say about the NASCAR Southern 500 at Darlington Saturday night (for story and results, click here)

1. That Matt Kenseth won was the perfect revenge for Joe Gibbs Racing, which had been put through the wringer in recent weeks by NASCAR over nothing. I hope Kenseth wins every race between now and the end of the year and that Joe Gibbs rubs NASCAR’s nose in it when he stands up to accept accolades at the season-ending banquet.

Joe Gibbs is a religious, God-fearing man. NASCAR, which cast the first stone, should brace itself for what’s coming.

2. NASCAR loves to go around penalizing and fining drivers and teams enormous amounts of money in order to show them who’s boss. I think it’s time Kyle Busch was fined something like – oh, off the top, I‘d say – $200,000 for having a snit yet again because he didn’t win a race.

All the others losers of the Southern 500 – all 41 others – made themselves available to TV and other reporters after the race because that’s what they’re supposed to do as representatives of the sport of stock car automobile racing.

They are on the top of the mountain and they owe it to their fans and sponsors to address the media after the races, win or lose. Kenseth won the race but Jimmie Johnson went on TV, as did Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick and a couple of the others.

But not Kyle, because he was off somewhere having a hissy fit. He was only too happy to talk on Friday night, after he won the Nationwide Series race, but not Saturday because he lost.

I can remember several years ago everybody making great fun of Danica Patrick stamping her feet in anger after being edged out of a win in the Indy car series. But after she did what competitive people do - which is to work out their frustrations and then take a deep breath and calm down - she went to the post-race press conference and answered questions like a true professional.

But not Kyle and I think it’s time NASCAR brought him to heel. Every professional sport demands its performers be accountable to the media. Win or lose, the hockey players and coaches have to talk to reporters. Baseball managers and players are contractually obligated, and so on.

The next time Kyle Busch doesn’t win and then pulls one of his disappearing acts, he should be hit in the pocketbook.

And told to grow up.

Other racing: Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf won the American Le Mans Series race at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on Saturday. Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia were first in GT, with Marino Franchitti and Scott Tucker first in P2. Mike Guasch and Luis Diaz won the Prototype Challenge race while Nick Tandy and Henrique Cisneros were first in GT Challenge.

Ryan Briscoe finished fourth overall and second in P2 before heading off the Indianapolis where he is among the favourites to win this year’s Indy 500. Townsend Bell also raced in ALMS before flying to Indy.

Kyle Marcelli of Barrie was eighth overall and fourth in PC. Kuno Wittmer of Montreal didn’t do all that well this weekend and was well back.

Okay, I have to say it: sometimes sports car racing doesn’t make any sense. We all know that all the classes – five of them this season – all go out and race together. And that the first three finishers in every class make it onto the podium, which means 15 or more drivers can sometimes be on the podium in a sports car race.

Saturday evening, I got an email that trumpeted "Delta Wing car on podium in ALMS race in California." Hey, I thought. That’s damn fine. And Katherine Legge, who’s been run out of Indy car, must be feeling pretty good about making it onto the podium in her first ALMS race.

Then I looked at the results. There were 36 cars in total in that race Saturday and the Delta Wing finished 32^nd. I don't care about rules or tradition. That is not a podium.

The Southern Ontario Sprints will start their 18^th season next Saturday night at Brighton Speedway. Lee Ladouceur of Alexandria will try for his third consecutive championship this season. Other top runners expected to be on hand include Glenn Styers, Keith Dempster, Chris Jones, Adam West and Warren Mahoney. I betcha Warren's Dad, Dick Mahoney, will be out there too.

Indy car driver and partner in the Schmidt-Petersen Indy car team, Davey Hamilton, won the supermodified feature at Oswego Speedway on Saturday night. At Merrittville Speedway outside Thorold, Erick Rudolph and Kevin Knapp scored their first 2013 wins in the Bobcat of Hamilton 358 Modified and Hoosier Stock Divisions respectively. In Lucas Oil Weekly Racing Series action, Kyle Pelrine, Josh Sliter and Brad Rouse won in the Turn 4 Collision 4 Cylinder, J&S Heating and Air Conditioning Modified Lites and the Rick’s Delivery Sportsman Features.

Most southern Ontario oval facilities will be in action next weekend and the Victoria Day Speedfest is on tap at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park but that’s not all. Attention all you drag racing fans out there. Toronto Motorsports Park near Cayuga has got a monster lineup scheduled with 300 mph jet dragsters, the Pro Modified Racing Association, the Quick 32 top dragsters and sportsman plus pro bikes and sleds. They get going out there on Friday night and plan to blast all the way through till Sunday. Go to torontomotorsportpark.com for more info.

Speaking of "most southern Ontario oval facilities," if you head on out to Peterborough Speedway, it won’t cost you anything to sit in the grandstand. Country 105 radio station is picking up the tab for the season-opener. For info, go to peterboroughspeedway.com.

Related articles

Hinchcliffe's profile raised by hot IndyCar start

Hinchcliffe wins on last corner of last lap in Brazil

Farewell Dick Berggren, ace pit reporter

Dick Berggren, who will retire Sunday as a pit road reporter for NASCAR on FOX  at the completion of the FedEx 400, is a journalist in the true sense of the word.

And what’s my definition of a journalist? Someone who is interchangeable among the media.

Yes, that means most of the "journalists" you encounter during your daily lives – the radio and TV reporters, the anchors, sports editors on newspapers, editors-in-chief of major magazines – aren’t, even if they like to call themselves that.

Like the late Pierre Berton, who wrote newspaper columns, books of Canadian history and magazine profiles, conducted interviews on radio and was host of any number of television programs – and he did much of that simultaneously – Berggren, who turned 70 last weekend, has a lengthy list of accomplishments in his curriculum vitae.

Besides being a writer and photographer (and a former college professor, by the way), he was the editor of Stock Car Racing magazine and the late, lamented, Open Wheel magazine before taking his talents and knowledge to television.

And do you know what sets him apart from most of the other reporters covering auto racing (and most other sports, come to think of it)? Like the original ABC pit road reporter and colour commentator, Chris Economaki, he actually asks questions of the people he’s interviewing.

I don’t believe I’ve ever heard Berggren start a question with the worst four words in the English language:

"Talk to me about . . ."

So where did Berggren (known for years as "Dr." Dick Berggren because of a PhD in psychology he earned at Tufts University in Boston) come by his knowledge of virtually every kind of car racing going?

Because he’s a fan, primarily, who inhales everything he reads or hears about the sport. Second, unlike most "journalists" covering racing, he’s been Out There: for more than 20 years, he raced stock cars, sprint cars and (regular readers of this column know what’s coming next . . .) supermodifieds.

In fact, Berggren was one of a number of owners and drivers – future NASCAR stars Geoff Bodine and Tim Richmond among them – who were caught out in the late 1970s (he was building one) when Oswego Speedway in northern New York banned rear-engine supers, a decision (along with one made by the U.S. Auto Club to ban rear-engine sprints and midgets) that had a profoundly negative effect on the progression of short-track oval racers to Indianapolis.

But I digress.

Berggren was inducted into the U.S. National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2002 - he's also a proud member of other halls - and says that among the projects he’s got planned for his post-NASCAR career (as well as visiting as many short tracks as he can) is the building of an auto racing museum at New Hampshire Motor Speedway to celebrate the accomplishments of the racing community in the U.S. northeast.

Talking about accomplishments, I think his personal biggest and best was the founding in 1980 of the magazine Open Wheel. As I write this, I’m holding in my hands Vol. 1, No. 1 that is, as the cover says, "a collector’s first edition."

The cover photo was taken by Mike Arthur at Ascot Raceway in Gardena, Calif., and shows Ronnie Shuman in full flight in a sprint car on the dirt (which means sideways). Inside are features on Steve Kinser, Sammy Swindell, Gary Bettenhausen, Roger Penske’s racing operation and lots and lots of some of the greatest racing photographs you’ll find anywhere.

Berggren, in his job during the Seventies as editor of Stock Car Racing, had increased – over time – the number of articles and features on open wheel racing appearing in that publication. At some point, the people in charge of Lopez Publications, which published Stock Car and other titles, gave him the co-ahead and Open Wheel was born, first as a quarterly and then monthly.

I don’t have a complete collection, but I have lots and lots. And all of them, in one way or another, trigger a memory.

– Vol. 1, No. 3, published in early 1981, has a striking cover photo of the late Stan Fox at the wheel of his Pabst Blue Ribbon beer-sponsored midget. Several months later, at Indianapolis Raceway Park for the Night Before the 500 midget races, I got to meet Fox. I’d consumed a little too much of his sponsor’s product, though, and in my enthusiasm I made an offer to buy the car. He was very polite about it, but told me to get lost.

– The May 1994 issue has a photo of Mares Stellfox on the cover. She ran with the ARDC midget club. When I announced at Oswego Speedway in the Nineties, I was sometimes a wise guy. One night I was interviewing her and I said, "So tell me Mares, what’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?" And she got me good. "Norris, " she said, "I might be a girl to you but when I put on my helmet, I’m one of the boys."

– In the May 1986 magazine, Berggren himself wrote an incredible story about an incredible racer named Jan Opperman who’d twice suffered grievous head injuries and was confined to his parents’ home, requiring constant care. Opperman was one of the most interesting people you’d want to meet - a pot smoker who was a serious Christian. Before his second accident, I saw him at a sprint car race at the New York State Fairgrounds. It was delayed by rain. To fill in the time, Opperman borrowed the infield announcer’s microphone and delivered a sermon.

– The November 1988 Open Wheel contains a pleasant surprise. There, on Page 16, is an article about Canadian supermodified racer Gary Morton by – wait for it – me. Over the years, I was fortunate to have three articles published in Open Wheel (one on Warren Coniam and another about one of the great women of our time, Proud Mary Copeland of Indianapolis, Ind., who is now Mary Walsh of Knoxville, Tenn., who held up the start of a midget race at IRP one night by – well, use your imagination).

But enough about me. The really great writers who appeared in Open Wheel were John Sawyer (his stuff brings tears to my eyes every time I read it; in what other publication could you read Sawyer writing about Langhorne Speedway, or Don Branson, or Eddie Sachs? Bruce Ellis, Andy Fuscoe, Terry Reed (he wrote a great piece about the widow of Jerry Hoyt, who was killed at Oklahoma City about two weeks after they were married, after only knowing each other for about a month; she still visited his grave every day – years later) and Al Stilley, who wrote so lovingly and well about Indy cars.

And yes, Open Wheel’s racing photography was breathtaking: how about Jim Hurtubise powering out of four at Terre Haute in 1976 (photo by Steve Ellis) , or Steve Chassey at Springfield in 1986 (photo by Don Figler). You could frame those pictures and hang them on the wall in your living room because they were art.

Sure, there were the really bad times, too, and Berggren handled those stories with dignity and grace. His farewell to supermodified king Jimmy Shampine, an innovator like no other who was killed in, of all things, a modified race, still brings a lump to my throat.

I could go on and on – but it’s time to stop, just as Open Wheel itself was stopped shortly after the turn of the century when the publication changed corporate hands and the new owners killed it off.

So when Dick Berggren walks away from Dover International Speedway on Sunday afternoon, after completing his last assignment for NASCAR on FOX, I hope there’s something else on his mind besides that auto racing museum in New Hampshire.

Yes, I know he’s got Speedway Illustrated magazine going, and probably a book or two to write (an autobiography would be nice) but unless there’s a non-compete clause floating around in a contract he signed somewhere, I think he should give serious thought to reviving that much-missed magazine.

How does Open Wheel 2012 sound, Dr. Dick?

Here's how F1 teams get their money

Of all the motorsport journalists writing for all the motorsport publications in all the world, I trust maybe three or four more than everybody else.

Nigel Roebuck is at the top of my list for Formula One. Joe Saward is close behind.

Saward was mentored by Roebuck when they both worked at Britain’s Autosport magazine back in the 1980s. He left Autosport to write for F1 News magazine (which is where I became a fan) and when it ceased publication, he went on to write for other motoring magazines and, in recent years, Internet sites. As well as also being the author of books, he writes for, and maintains, his own racing web site.

Now, a lot of motorsport journalism suffers from sameness. There are many journalists out there who write the same way about the same subjects as everybody else does. There is very little to set them apart.

So, if you’re a fan, you go looking for things that will separate a particular reporter from the others: great writing, great insight or opinion – that sort of thing. In the case of Roebuck, you will get great detail and historical context in everything he writes. In the case of Saward, you will get exclusive reporting in areas where the average reporter wouldn’t stand a chance.

Case in point. Where does the money come from in Formula One?

We know it is a multi-billion-dollar enterprise (yes, that "b" on "billion" is correct). We know it is just a humongous amount of money.

But who ponies it up? Who writes the cheques? Where (and how), for instance, does Ferrari come up with its hundreds of millions of dollars to do battle each year?

Saward has been around F1 since the mid-1980s. Since 1988, he has covered every single Grand Prix. He knows people. As a result, he’s able to stitch together facts and figures from nearly a quarter-century of covering the sport and write definitively about something that most journalists would consider a mystery and only able to guess at.

He posted this "primer" on F1 financing on his blog in recent days. I repeat it here, with full credit. I do so, because it’s fascinating. But it also explains why so many people (and corporations) go into F1 full of bravado and soon find themselves heading for the hills.

Read Saward’s story and you will realize why there are only four or five teams (Ferrari, McLaren, Williams and one or two others) that are still around after all these years.

And dozens that are not.

Writes Saward:

"People often ask how Formula 1 teams are funded. It is not a subject about which there is much information available. Most of the teams have annual tax returns which become public but these do not (generally) give breakdowns of where revenues were generated.

"Teams gain money from different sources: notably sponsorship, merchandising and in some cases from selling their expertise to others teams, or using them in other industries.

"Sponsorships are not always what one sees on the side of the car. There are, for example, title sponsorships where a company buys the naming rights for the team (such as AT&T Williams or Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro). There are also "off-car" deals in which companies are allowed the right to use an association with the team to sell their products. In most cases the sponsorship is the primary source of revenue for an F1 team. Merchandising is still underdeveloped in F1, with only Ferrari really enjoying big revenues.

"Under the terms of the 2009 Concorde Agreement, the big Formula 1 teams make a lot of money from the prize fund. This is made up of 50 per cent of the revenues of the sport, which means around $500 million at the moment. Ferrari has a special deal and gets 2.5 percent of the overall figure ($12.5 million) and the rest is then split into two different prize funds: the first is divided equally between the top 10 teams; this means that they get around $25 million apiece. The second is based on the performance of the previous season and is divided up on a scale that is detailed in the Concorde Agreement.

"The World Champions get around $47 million, with runners-up getting $40 million, third-placed getting $32.5 million, fourth place $27.5 millon, fifth place $25 million and so on down to 10th, which gets $10 million. Thus Red Bull Racing will be picking up around $72 million this year, based on its performances in 2011, while Ferrari will pick up $70 million despite having been beaten to second place by McLaren, which will get around $65 million.

"There is believed to be side deals for McLaren and Williams, but it is not clear how much that is worth, although it is unlikely to be more than $5 million apiece. If that.

"At the bottom end of the scale, the numbers are less impressive. By finishing 10th for the second consecutive season, Caterham F1 Team has jumped from earning $10 million as a new team to earning $35 million in 2012. This is why the battle at the back of the grid is so intense. HRT and Marussia, which finished 11th and 12th, remain with $10 million apiece. All the teams also get some of their freight and travel bills paid for as part of the deal.

"If the teams were better organised and could gain control of the commercial rights, they would make considerable gains in the longer term, based on the current system, although loans to acquire those rights would take a few years to pay off.

"If, after that, the teams were to share 85 per cent of the revenues, rather than the current 50 per cent, the World Champions would make more than $120 million a year and the 10th placed team would get nearly $60 million. With sensible cost restrictions in the future this would mean that with other incomes from sponsorship, merchandising and so on, even the smaller teams could always be profitable.

"Given that the absolute minimum that a team can be run on at the moment is in the region of $40 million, there is still a good amount of money that is required to allow the little teams to survive.

"A pay-driver these days will need to be able to bring $10 million, although one or two of them turn up with a lot more. Despite this, the smaller teams still struggle to break even. In part this is because they do not get much TV exposure. However, increasingly this is not the goal of the sponsorships as companies buy teams (or buy into teams) in order to promote their brands, so it is part of their marketing budgets and they have the added benefit of being able to use F1's corporate hospitality as a place to entertain their corporate customers and to do deals.

"What the small teams really need is investors who are willing to swallow losses for a few years in order for the teams to move up the F1 ladder and then either enjoy the profits, or cash in and sell up. This is what is going on at Marussia Racing, with Virgin and Lloyds Development Capital, and – apparently – at HRT with Banco Popular aiming to recoup the loans it made (unwisely) to the Carabante Family before selling the business at a later point.

"Ultimately, however, it all depends on performance, which is why Marussia (for example) is buying technology from McLaren."

Canadian Motorsports Expo moves to mid-February

The Canadian Motorsports Expo, a mid-January staple in the Toronto area for a number of years now, has been moved to February in 2012 to coincide with Daytona Speedweeks – the unoffical start of the North American racing season – which kick off in Florida with the 24 Hours of Daytona road race and culminate with the biggest stock car race of the season, the Daytona 500.

Powered by organizers Inside Track Motorsport News, the sixth annual Expo will take place Feb. 10, 11 and 12 at the International Centre in Mississauga, which is adjacent to Pearson International Airport on Dixon/Airport Road.

Organizers say the new date was chosen to fall in between the 50^th anniversary of the Daytona 24 weekend (Jan. 21-29) and the 54^th annual Daytona 500 on Feb. 26 when "Canadian racers and rans are making their plans and purchasing decisions for the upcoming racing season."

In addition to the new date, the Expo – which originated in 2007 at the Toronto Congress Centre – is moving to a bigger hall at the International Centre. Hall 6 (80,000 square feet) is more wide open than the show’s former space, which means the exhibition will be able to accommodate more exhibitors, tracks, series, vendors and racing vehicles.

"We’re just inside of two months to go until show time and the response to the 6th annual Expo has been fantastic," said organizer Greg MacPherson.

"So far, almost 80 per cent of the available exhibitor space has been sold. The racing industry is really getting behind the CME and has responded positively to the new February date and the move to Hall 6. We have some great new partners and features to announce in the coming weeks."

On opening day, (Fri., Feb. 10), highlights will include the presentation of the Inside Track Readers’ Choice Awards and Spencer Lewis’ Ontario Asphalt Power Rankings Top 10 Awards.

Saturday’s schedule will feature the celebrity racer Q&A and autograph sessions and the Meet the Media Fan Forum, among other presentations.

(Although the identities of this year’s special celebrity guests have yet to be announced, the Expo has a reputation for attracting top-drawer talent. In previous years, drivers like Jacques Villeneuve, Matt Kenseth, Paul Tracy, Brad Keselowski, Dario Franchitti, Max Papis, Derek Daly, Miguel & Yvon Duhamel, Ron Fellows and others have made appearances.)

On the Sunday (Feb. 12), a CASCAR reunion is planned. Fans, owners, drivers and crew members from the series that recently became the NASCAR Canadian Tire Seires are invited and CASCAR founder Tony Novotny and several well-known racing personalities will take a trip down memory lane.

The Expo has also featured world-famous racing machines, including the NASCAR Sprint Cup cars of Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon, as well as F1 and IndyCar racing machines.

With awards presentations as well as equipment suppliers and collectible vendors displaying their wares, the Expo has something on offer for every racer and fan and is an ideal venue for businesses looking to jump start their sales, marketing and promotional campaigns in front of their most motivated customers.

"For this year’s show, we’ve introduced an online, interactive floor plan that lets exhibitors and sponsors see what space and properties are still available, on a real-time basis," said the Expo’s Mike Galipeau.

"We encourage anyone who thinks their business could benefit from being part of the show to check out the ‘Exhibitor Info’ page at www.CanadianMotorsportExpo.com and then contact us at 416-962-7223 or info@canadianmotorsportsexpo.com

It's always a great show. Hope to see you there.

Will resignation impact TV coverage of F1?

A couple of weeks ago, shortly after Mark Webber won the Brazilian GP and Britain’s Sky TV announced plans for an HD channel dedicated solely to Formula One starting in 2012, I contacted TSN about their plans for next year.

TSN has been showing F1 races and qualifying rounds for years, most recently by picking up the feed from the BBC. But the Beeb will only televise 10 of next year’s 20 scheduled races live while Sky will have them all (plus all practice sessions, etc.) and, in fact, has hired Martin Brundle to head up its broadcasting crew.

Now, I haven’t heard back from TSN. I suspect there are any number of reasons for this, all of them legitimate. When they have something to say, I’m sure they’ll call. The season doesn’t start till mid-March, so there’s plenty of time.

But I was discussing the situation with a friend of mine yesterday afternoon and, at the end of the chat, he said this: "Maybe TSN won’t have any F1 next year. Maybe we’ll get to watch it on Speed TV."

I agreed with him (although I stressed that I thought it highly unlikely). But then I got an email later in the day that contained some unsettling news.

Hunter Nickell, president of Speed since 2005, has resigned and will leave at the end of the year.

Now, I don’t know Hunter Nickell from Adam, but I do know that in recent years the Speed weekend racing coverage during the season has gone from a one-hour Sunday night wrapup program to pretty much wall-to-wall coverage of the sport during the weekend, starting Friday.

Host Adam Alexander would pop up before the first race of the weekend, usually the Friday night NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, with an update on that weekend’s racing calendar (sports cars, motocross, Moto GP, Formula One and IndyCar races, as well as NASCAR) and then would update with other pre-race reports and results through Saturday and on into Sunday evening.

Kind of a mini-CNN on wheels.

As well as his work strengthening motorsport news coverage in general, Nickell also beefed up coverage of, and solidified relationships with, F1, Supercross and Grand Am in particular.

Now, on the surface, his resignation might not seem like that big a deal. But every time there’s a change at the top of just about anything, the new guy (or woman) moves to put his or her stamp on things.

For instance (and I bet you didn’t know this), the minute the president of a major film studio is replaced, every movie in production at that time goes straight to digital. They are not released in theatres. Why? Because the new head honcho doesn’t want to have to take the blame for any turkeys in the bunch and he/she sure doesn’t want to have to pass on any praise to the guy who was fired.

It’s the same with TV.

It’s highly unlikely that the new president of Speed is going to leave everything as it is. Maybe he/she won’t be that big a racing fan. So maybe the weekend racing coverage, or some of it, gets whacked.

Maybe the new person loves NASCAR and isn’t much of an F1 fan. Uh-oh, I can hear you say. But it’s possible this change could have an effect on Speed's F1 coverage.

Or maybe not. (It really doesn’t matter to us in Canada now, because Speed’s F1 race coverage has been blacked out in recent years. But if TSN or Sportsnet passes on F1 in 2012, and Speed’s coverage is altered, we could be in a fix . . .)

What I am saying is that Speed TV under the leadership of Hunter Nickell has been a good friend of all motorsports and fingers should be crossed that this across-the-board approach continues.

Now, speaking of Formula One, it’s really interesting to watch how Lotus-Renault CEO Dany Bahar is now speaking out of both sides of his mouth so far as the return of driver Kimi Raikkonen is concerned.

Bahar had some of the world’s motoring press over for lunch in London on Monday and said that he fully expects Raikkonen to have some difficulty adjusting to F1 after being away from the sport for two years (ya think?) but that the team is quite prepared to give him all the time he needs.

Said M. Bahar: "You cannot expect from a driver that was absent for two years to come back and adapt to the new tyres and new regulations from day one, so he needs his time. But whether this time is three days, six races or 20 races, we will see. What is important is to see how his tendency goes towards the performance. If it is always improving, then of course we will give him the time."

All very well and good. But then, he said this:

"He knows he has to deliver. . . He is not the same kid as he was at Sauber and at McLaren. These are different times, he has to deliver and he realises that."

Well, which is it? Is it, "We will give him the time?" or is it, "He knows he has to deliver?"

This guy Bahar won’t last long if Raikkonen doesn’t live up to what’s expected of him. And on top of that, he’s about to record an even bigger loss in the arena of public opinion.

The contract Renault has with Robert Kubica, the popular Polish driver who was nearly killed in a rally accident at the beginning of the year and was unable to return to F1 racing as hoped, is about to expire and Bahar seems content to let him go.

As a good friend of mine noted a few weeks ago, when that happens, Kubica will become a test driver with Ferrari and if he can recapture his old speed, will be a very good bet to replace Felipe Massa in 2013.

And if that happens, Dany Bahar’s career in F1 could come to screeching halt.

More on Kurt Busch's firing; Peter Gethin dies (video)

Several things to ponder today – the death at 71 of four-time F1 Grand Prix of Canada driver Peter Gethin and more fallout from the dismissal Monday by Roger Penske of NASCAR star Kurt Busch.

Busch first.

Kurt Busch gave every indication Monday night, in an appearance on Speed TV, that he still really doesn’t get it.

Yes, Penske Racing said in a statement Monday that it was a mutual decision for Busch to leave the team in mid-contract and Busch put out a statement to say that discussions about a parting of the ways had been going on for some time.

But anybody with a brain knows that those platitudes were all just PR baloney and the fact of the matter is that Roger Penske fired Kurt Busch because, despite his race victories and Chase appearances, he had become a liability to Penske Racing and its sponsors.

But rather than putting his tail between his legs, where it belongs, and admitting – and accepting – defeat, Busch was talking on TV as if he, in fact, instigated the whole thing because - well - he just wasn’t a good fit at Penske Racing.

Now, any addict will tell you the only way to begin a recovery is to admit to hitting bottom. This should have been Kurt Busch’s bottom. But to hear him tell it, that deal Sunday night in Las Vegas, when Penske sent the pink slip Special Delivery to his house, was just another bump in the road.

"I’m excited about the future," Busch said "This is a fresh start for me. I’ve got a champion’s provisional that will guarantee me a spot in any race that I want to go to. There’s all types of other racing options, so it’s been a unique day. It’s going to be a unique week and month to figure out the next direction."

Way to go, Kurt.

This is what he should have said.

"I am truly sorry that it has come to this. I have sought the services of a psychologist to help me gain control of my emotions so that I can be a better person off the race track as well as on. I realize that my actions have been selfish and self-centred and that I have let down the sponsors that have made it possible for me to drive race cars in NASCAR for a living.

"Today is the first day of the rest of my life and I intend to take the first step of tens of thousands that will eventually see me welcomed back to this great sport. In the meantime, I plan to take a sabbatical and start to work on myself.

"I hope, when I return, that the slate will be clean and we can all go forward together. Thank you."

Instead, it was business as usual – a sign, I suggest, that means nothing will ever really change.

Jimmy Spencer, who had a few run-ins with Kurt Busch over the course of his career (he punched the elder Busch brother in the shnozz once), had this to say:

"Kurt is a hell of a driver and a past champion but he thinks he’s above everyone and everything. You can’t treat people the way he has – I don’t care who they are. Kurt has disgraced NASCAR and his sponsors.

"He obviously needs to get some help managing his anger and hopefully he will. If he does, maybe he can survive being let go from Penske, but it will be hard for another top-notch team to pick him up without him demonstrating a complete overhaul and true remorse.

"My gut feeling, though, is that he can’t truly come back from this. He won races this year, made the Chase and is a former champion, and yet he still was let go. That does not bode well for his future.

"Ironically, I think people are overlooking the Pennzoil situation. Pennzoil left Richard Childress Racing and Kevin Harvick for a lot less offensive behavior from Harvick due to Harvick’s bickering with his crew over the radio and fighting with Richard Childress over his contract.

"In my opinion, Roger Penske is the most honorable man in motorsports and he has the utmost respect of everyone in NASCAR and IndyCar. But Busch has treated him with the most disrespect I’ve ever seen a driver treat an owner.

"Kurt has blown up and shown his rear end to the point that I think Roger’s hands were tied and he had to fire him not just for the sponsor but for the morale and betterment of the organization."

I suggest that somebody cut out what Jimmy Spencer just said and give it to Kurt Busch and have him take those words to heart. Because Spencer is bang on.

But he probably won’t. He’s Kurt Busch, don’tcha know.

And it’s everybody else’s fault.

Okay, I won’t repeat everything in the official obituary (link here) but Peter Gethin, the son of a jockey who died Monday, was more interested in horsepower than horses and enjoyed a wonderful career in sports cars, Formula 5000 and Formula One.

He drove in four Canadian Grands Prix as well as several races in the original Can-Am Series (Edmonton in 1970, for instance). The "break" (if you want to call it that) that got him into F1 came when Bruce McLaren was killed and Denis Hulme was injured and Teddy Mayer recruited him to drive the McLaren-Ford F1 car for the second half of the 1970 season, starting at Holland.

His Grand Prix of Canada race at Mont-Tremblant on Sept. 20 brought him his best result in this country, where he finished sixth behind the Ferraris of Jacky Ickz and Clay Regazzoni (they were first and second in the race), Chris Amon in a March-Ford, Pedro Rodriguez in a BRM and the Surtees-Ford of John Surtees.

In 1971 at Mosport, he finished 14^th driving for BRM, completing 59 of 64 laps (Jackie Stewart was the winner). After that, he fell out of the 1972 race after 25 laps with a broken suspension (Stewart won again) and in 1973 he only went five laps before an oil pump belt broke. He was in a BRM for both those races. Peter Revson won that ‘73 race, incidentally, although results weren’t made official for several hours after the checkers.

Gethin won his one and only F1 race for BRM at the Grand Prix of Italy in 1971 in which 0.61 seconds separated the top five finishers (watch the video here).

He had been ill for some time.

NASCAR back in Montreal after all

The NASCAR Nationwide Series race in Montreal is back on for 2012 and it will be held, as usual, in August.

It will be the only Canadian race. There had been speculation that the Nationwide race might either leave Montreal or an additional Canadian race added to the schedule after Mosport International Raceway changed hands last June and improvements to the circuit were started.

François Dumontier, president of Octane Management, said today (Wednesday) that his company, which also promotes the Grand Prix of Canada, will become the new promoter of the NAPA Auto Parts 200, presented by Dodge, on Aug. 17-18 at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.

Between 2009 and this past August, Octane acted as the delegated promoter of the event under the auspices of Stock-Car Montreal. With SCM no longer involved (having failed to secure provincial government funding to cover an operating deficit), Octane is taking over.

In order to stage the race, Octane had to make a deal with La Société du parc Jean-Drapeau for the rental of Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.

“As president of the Board of Administration of La Société du parc Jean-Drapeau, I have spent a lot of time and energy to ensure the presentation of a NASCAR race in Montréal for 2012,” said Normand Legault, who has promoted races in Quebec for years.

“I am very happy that today's announcement guarantees the coming of a second international motorsports event on Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve."

The Nationwide schedule was nearly a month late being posted. When Jayski, a NASCAR Internet site operated by ESPN, “released” a speculative Nationwide schedule in September, it had the Montreal race taking place in October.

We'll have to wait for Senna DVD

The good news today is that the marvelous documentary on Ayrton Senna will be issued on DVD in the U.K. next Monday. 

The bad news is that Senna won’t be available in Canada until at least January, or so champion racing driver and Mini Grid book and hobby shop proprietor, Scott Maxwell, has been told.

Said Scott, in reply to a query I sent to him Tuesday:

"Ironically I spoke to the distributor today about this. In true Canadian style, they have told me ‘sometime in early 2012’…

"So my guess is we (Mini Grid) will have it in January. We have plenty on order."

Now, I saw the documentary earlier this year and had mixed emotions. I loved it, of course, but I was bothered by some of the things that were left out and a focus placed on one individual in particular that I thought was unfair.

Be that as it may, I will be among the first to go out and buy it when it does become available here because, at the end of the day, it is a "must have" for any motorsport fan.

Here is an interview with the film’s creator, Manish Pandey, that I’ve taken from James Allen’s F1 website

Of particular interest are the "extras" that will come with the DVD that were not part of the film shown in theatres, among them an interview with Senna conducted by F1 journalist and author Gerald Donaldson, who is no stranger to readers of the Toronto Star. Gerry has covered F1 races for the Star over the years, up to and including the 2010 season.

Here is Pandey’s take on what’s included in the film, and why.

"There is a film maker’s commentary which is well worth listening to with the film going. . . Asif (Kapadia, director), James (Gay-Rees, producer) and I did it in one take, because we were so into the material and had so much knowledge of each frame. That shows what each of us brought to the table on that film.

"We’ve added in many of the interviews we filmed; we show them as extended talking heads. There is a lot of Alain Prost, Ron Dennis, a lot of the key journalists. . . 

"Another key feature is the whole of Gerry Donaldson’s interview with Ayrton from 1989, when he was quite down, which culminates in his speech about Monaco 1988 (note: when Senna talked about an ‘out-of-body experience’ he had during qualifying), which takes in his spirituality and his philosophy as a driver.

"There is also a two-and-a-half-hour version of the film, where you can see the film with the talking heads cut in like a conventional documentary."

Warning: Be careful about ordering a DVD from Britain or purchasing one that might make its way into some stores early. It might not be compatible with your North American DVD player or your computer. People who purchased Jackie Stewart’s autobiography, Winning is Not Enough, which was printed and bound in the U.K. and which included a DVD of racing highlights, found out the hard way.

Here’s how many people watched the Honda Indy Toronto

I was halfway through an interview about this year’s Honda Indy Toronto with Jim Ralph and Bill Watters on AM 640 when the inevitable question was asked: how was the race day attendance?

And I answered as honestly as I could – since the event has chosen once again to not release a figure.

I said on the radio that I thought it was about the size of a "BMO Field" crowd – 20,000 to 25,000, maybe a tad more. I based this on a seat and head count.

I went to the Honda Indy website in the days leading up to the race and I clicked on "tickets." That eventually took me to the seating pattern for the grandstands. For instance, Section A in one grandstand had 18 seats across and was 20 rows high; I clicked on all the sections of all the grandstands and did the math. I tabulated the totals and got a figure of just under 16,000 seats – most of which were filled on race day.

Then I added an estimated 2,000 to 2,500 suite seats, 1,000 general admission seats along Lake Shore Blvd., 1,000 or so drivers, team members, volunteers, paid workers, security, etc., and then a whole bunch of people just wandering around and came up with the 20,000-to-25,000 figure.

Now, that was not for the weekend – Free Friday attracted a ton of people and since there was no admission and nothing was reserved, there was no way to estimate a total. And Saturday and Sunday had lots of people on and about the grounds and inside the Direct Energy Centre. So maybe my estimate was low – although not by much. I mean, I’ve been around.

But in the end, so what?

Right now, today, the Toronto Blue Jays are attracting an average crowd of just over 21,000 fans per game. Mostly, they get between 11,000 and 16,000 a game and the average gets bumped up by things like opening day, Roy Halladay, the Yankees and the Red Sox. The rest of the time, you can shoot a cannon through the place and not hit anybody.

But does anybody in the media go on about attendance at Blue Jays games?

Nope.

I’ve cited this stupidity before and I’ll do it again. The Toronto media routinely report that a million people show up for the Gay Pride parade every year. It is mathematically impossible for this to happen but it gets reported anyway. In fact, CFTO, on Gay Pride parade night, bumped that figure up to an attendance of "1.5 to 2 million (which would have meant just about every man, woman, child and infant in the entire city showed up)."

Total nonsense, but reported anyway.

Same with the Scotiabank Caribbean Festival (nee Caribana), the Taste of the Danforth and so-on. They all allegedly attract a million people.

If the promoters of the Honda Indy made an initial mistake, it’s this: they should have announced that a million people attended the first race in 2009. That way, the race attendance would have fit in nicely with all the other exaggerated attendance figures around here and, as is the case with the other events, nobody would have questioned it.

In the end, however, does it really matter how many people were actually there?

The TV figures were over the top. TSN announced that an average audience of 559,000 watched the race and that, overall, more than 1.2 million tuned in. The peak came as Dario Franchitti held off Scott Dixon to win; at 4:46 p.m., 735,000 were watching.

TSN said it was the best-watched Indy car race on the network since 1997, when CART was the sanctioning body and the race was known as the Molson Indy (and yes, those days are gone, never to return, just like the every-day sellout that was the norm at SkyDome before the baseball players' strike in 1994).

In the U.S., the little-known cable network Versus drew a .41 rating, which translates into a shade more than 400,000. So between one million and 1.6 million in North America watched the race, or some of it. (It would have been more if the race had been on a major U.S. network, which is something that IndyCar simply cannot ignore much longer.)

Corporate support for the event, meantime, is solid. The U.S. retailer Target, which sponsors Chip Ganassi’s racing team with Franchitti and Dixon driving, flew in all its top U.S. executives and introduced its Canadian management team to the media before the race on Sunday and emphasized its commitment to the IZOD IndyCar Series and the Toronto Indy.

They had "Target ambassadors" handing out free stuff on the grounds and they’re not even opening for business in Canada till 2013!

And several hundred media members – newspaper, magazine and website reporters and photographers from all over North America and several from Europe and Asia – sent stories and pictures about the race back to their publications and Internet sites.

So when you look at the big picture, you have solid TV numbers (which is what advertisers are really looking for), solid media interest and serious corporate support and commitment. What more can an event like this ask for?

Toronto, and the Indy car race through its streets last Sunday, looked pretty darn good in the eyes of the world.

Which is cause for celebration, not criticism.

Racing roundup: NASCAR awaits Kimi

 
WEEKEND HEADLINES:

1. Matt Kenseth off to great NASCAR start

2. Kimi’s NASCAR debut coming Friday

3. Rain stops Indy practice; Canadian results

SYNOPSIS:

It was not the greatest of weekends for Robbie Wickens of Guelph and J.R. Fitzpatrick of Cambridge but Karl Thomson and Paul Dalla Lana of Toronto and Bruno Spengler of Saint-Hyppolite, Que., were very pleased with their results, thank you. Meantime, Paul Tracy and James Hinchcliffe, both of Toronto, turned very competitive times in practice at Indianapolis before the rains came. Ike Maier of Tottenham was very happy to qualify for the NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta. Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards won the weekend’s NASCAR races and everybody is looking forward to Friday when 2007 World Driving Champion Kimi Raikkonen makes his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut. What?

Kenseth wins Dover NASCAR race

Matt Kenseth is off to one of the best starts of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing career. If he keeps it up, he could very well wind up being the driver to finally end Jimmie Johnson’s streak of championships at five straight.

Kenseth won Sunday’s FedEx 400 at Dover, Del., when he opted to take just two tires on his final pit stop with 34 laps remaining and went on to beat Mark Martin and Marcos Ambrose for his second victory of the 2011 season (he won at Texas in April). Full race story here.

It was a pit-stop call for just two tires. Martin opted to stay out and not stop for rubber; Kenseth knew Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards, who’d dominated the race all day, were both going to get four new ones.

"So I thought we could compromise and I suggested just two and it worked out," said the race winner, who captured the Cup championship in 2003.

Although fresh rubber normally pays dividends, particularly with that amount of time left in a race, it didn’t Sunday in Delaware. Johnson was only able to make up two positions in his run to the front, eventually finishing ninth.

Kenseth now sits sixth in the Chase for the Championship standings, behind Kevin Harvick (fifth), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (fourth), Kyle Busch (third), Johnson (second) and the leader, Edwards.

Kenseth’s two victories so far in 2011 match his season’s total in 2004 and 2007. His best year for wins came in 2002 when he was in Victory Lane five times. He won four times in 2006.

The year he won his championship, he only won one race.

Edwards finished seventh on Sunday (behind Kyle Busch, who was fourth, Bryan Vickers, fifth, and Clint Bowyer, sixth) and his race was downright uneventful compared to Saturday’s Nationwide race, which he won but only after escaping a huge last-lap pileup which was one of the most spectacular in recent memory. Full race story here.

On a late-race restart – one of those green-white-checkers deals – Edwards and Joey Logano were battling coming out of the fourth turn when Logano lost control and hit the outside wall, bouncing down directly into the path of Bowyer who – in a blink – was on his side and heading directly for the inside wall.

Before everybody finished crashing, a half-dozen cars were destined for the scrap yard. No one on the speedway was hurt but a member of Harvick’s pit crew was hit in the leg by a flying spring that came off Bowyer’s car and he had to go to the hospital.

Notebook Jottings:

– Joey Logano reported to the infield care centre for a checkup after his Nationwide crash and emerged carrying his ever-present bottle of cola that isn’t Pepsi.

I guess that’s normal, isn’t it? For everybody to leave Emergency after seeing your life flash before your eyes and the first thing you do is open a bottle of pop? With the label pointed directly at the TV camera?

Do you still think that hockey player drank from that bottle of pop on the bench because he - like - just felt like it? If so, I have some swampland in Florida I’d like to talk to you about.

– J.R. Fitzpatrick of Cambridge finished 21^st in the Nationwide race after crashing out of the Camping World Trucks series race on Friday. Fitzpatrick spun at least once during the car race. He'd qualified 35th.

– Have to say it: there are just a lot of empty seats at NASCAR races these days. The TV ratings are up, however, which means the racing still has value. But the lack of bums in the seats has got to be of some concern.

- Trevor Bayne is out of the hospital and improving but has still not received the green light from Roush-Fenway Racing to resume his NASCAR career. There's a possibility he might be back in a race car for the Nationwide race at Iowa next weekend but it remains a big maybe. He's the young Daytona 500 winner who was bitten by an insect, or something, and hasn't been feeling 100 per cent since.

Kimi Raikkonen to make NASCAR debut

Almost lost in the shuffle of the weekend’s racing, and still only getting a 15-second mention here or a brief mention there, is the fact that Kimi Raikkonen will be making his NASCAR debut this Friday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway in a NASCAR Camping World Series pickup truck race.

That’s right. You did not read that incorrectly.

Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 World Driving Champion, will race a truck for Kyle Busch’s team at Charlotte on Friday night and, if you’re interested, you can watch him either acquit himself as you would expect an F1 champion to do, or else make a fool of himself.

It could go either way.

Kyle Busch has been quoted as saying that he’s honoured Raikkonen chose his team for his NASCAR debut and that the ex-F1 star was "adamant" about running his first race at Charlotte.

I suppose it makes sense. If you’ve never done this sort of thing before – as was the case with another ex-F1 champ, our own Jacques Villeneuve – then the truck series is a good entry point. The trucks are built for safety and don’t go as fast as the Nationwide or Sprint Cup racing cars.

And since next weekend is the All-Star Weekend in Charlotte,, why shouldn’t a star take centre stage Friday night while all the other stars of NASCAR are also in town for their race Saturday.

I suggest Raikkonen will probably keep a low profile and drive to survive. If he makes it to the finish without crashing – a trick whenever the trucks race – he’ll consider it a success and start plotting a career change.

If he doesn’t finish, and doesn’t enjoy himself (as in, he’s piled up or winds up in one), it’s quite possible he’ll chalk it up to experience and move on back to Europe.

Whichever, it will be fun to watch. The truck race can be seen on SPEED Friday night at 8 o’clock.

Other weekend racing, in short:

– It’s May in Indiana, which means rain. They got some practice in on the opening day Saturday for the 100^th Anniversary of the Indianapolis 500, which is scheduled for May 29^th, but only 32 of the 40-plus drivers entered got to run laps. Sunday was a complete washout, which means there are only five days of practice left before qualifying is conducted next Saturday.

Remember, you can watch practice at Indy on your computer. Go to http://racecontrol.indycar.com/ between noon and 6 p.m. every day this week and anything and everything that happens at the Speedway will be onscreen.

Ed Carpenter, driving for Sarah Fisher, turned the fastest lap on Saturday – 40.0380 seconds for a speed of 224.786 miles an hour. Defending champion Dario Franchitti was fourth fastest at 224.107 mph; Paul Tracy was 11^th fastest at 222.295 (40.4868 seconds) while James Hinchcliffe was 17^th fastest at 2221.454 (40.6406 seconds).

Danica Patrick was fastest of the four women who practiced, turning a time of 40.4982 seconds and 222.232 mph – good for 12^th fastest.

Alex Tagliani didn’t turn a wheel Saturday.

Qualifying next weekend will be a frantic affair. Qualifications open at 11 a.m. on Saturday and the fastest 25 to turn time that day will be locked into the field of 33. At 4:30 p.m., the fastest nine cars will go out and try to better their times. The fastest among them will win the pole.

Sunday, the remaining eight places will be filled. Bumping will then begin and continue until a gun is shot off at 6 p.m., signalling the end of qualifying.

Most of the qualifying will be available on TSN2 next Saturday and Sunday. Don't miss the bumping next Sunday starting at 4:30. It could be as exciting - or more exciting - than the race.

– Canadian Bruno Spenger pf Saint-Hyppolite, Que., started on pole for Mercedes but finished second in the German Touring Car Championship race at Zandvoort behind Mike Rockenfeller, who was driving an Audi.

– Robert Wickens of Guelph had a horrible weekend in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series stop at Monza (a.k.a. the World Series by Renault). He started on pole Saturday and was leading the race until his clutch failed with four laps remaining.

Sunday, he won pole but was penalized three grid places for running into another car in the Saturday race. Then, early in the contest Sunday, he got clobbered by another car and was forced to call it a day.

The kid is fast and obviously the cream of the Renault series’ field. But he has bad luck. There’s no getting around it. A little black cloud follows him around. He could have won the Formula 2 series title two years ago if he hadn’t had so many mechanical DNFs.

Be that as it may, it remains quite likely that he will be in a reserve driver role – if not in an actual race seat – by the time F1 comes to Canada for the Canadian Grand Prix in June. He'll race through the streets of Monte Carlo first, though, as the Renault series is on the undercard for the Grand Prix of Monaco.

- Ike Maier of Tottenham, who qualified for an NHRA licence only months ago, qualified for the NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta but was eliminated in the first round by Tony Schumacher.  

Maier qualified the Paton Racing Top Fuel Dragster in 12th spot in the 16-car field, with a 3.931-second, 307.44-mph posting. Leading the qualifying in the class at Atlanta, the sixth event in the 2011 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Race Series, was Spencer Massey with a 3.825, 323.19 attempt. 

 

Schumacher qualified with the No. 5 spot, and took out Maier in the first round with a 3.852, 319.69 run against Maier’s 3.992, 258.57.

Maier was at Atlanta to race his Pro Modified Corvette as well, but was unsuccessful at qualifying. The Atlanta event was the second venue where he has driven both the Top Fueler and the Pro Mod.

– Perry Bortolotti of Ottawa capped a perfect weekend, winning both races in the inaugural Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada at Calabogie Motorsports Park northwest of Ottawa. Each race was quite different at the start, with rain in the morning and perfect dry, cool conditions in the afternoon - but both races had similar outcomes.

Said Bortolotti: "This really is a dream come true. It’s the highpoint of my racing career - to win the first-ever Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada race and to win it at home."

– Paul Dalla Lana of Toronto continued his excellent season by finishing second, with Bill Auberlen, in the Bosch Engineering 200 race in the Continental Tire Series at Virginia International Raceway at the weekend. The race was won by Jack Roush Jr. and Billy Johnson.

Karl Thomson of Toronto, with Ryan Eversley, drove his Compass 360 Honda Civic to victory in the ST Class.

Said Thomson: "We won on strategy and driving talent during the last 10 minutes. We didn't have the fastest car. Fortunately, Ryan (Eversley) had enough car left to battle with Nico (Rondet) at the end. I was on the edge of my seat the entire final 10 minutes."

Other Canadians: Ashley McCalmont of Ancaster finished seventh in the GS Class. Kenny Wilden of Oakville was tenth. Scott Maxwell of Toronto was 15^th.

In the glamour-puss Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series Bosch Engineering 250, that $25,000 bounty put on the heads of always-winning Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas worked first time out as Joao Barbosa and Terry Borcheller beat them in a very wet race at Virgina.

Mark Wilkins of Toronto and American Burt Frisselle, driving the AIM Autosport of Woodbridge’s No. 61 Gamma 88 BMW-Riley, did not have a good outing, finishing 22^nd.

Oh, Chip Ganassi, who owns the Pruett-Rojas Grand Am car (as well as cars in the NASCAR and IndyCar series), received an honorary Doctor of Science and Technology degree from Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University during its commencement ceremonies at the weekend. Pittsburgh is Ganassi’s home town.