Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

Button, Audi win in Australia, Sebring

Jenson Button went from pole position in his McLaren to the top step of the podium at the Grand Prix of Australia Sunday (Sebastien Vettel was second for Red Bull and Lewis Hamilton was third for McLaren) and Tom Kristensen, Dindo Capello and Allan McNish finished first in an Audi at the 60th annual 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race Saturday.

Full details, analysis and links in tomorrow's Monday Morning Racing Roundup.

WATCHING RACING ON A COMPUTER

I have seen the future – and it’s your computer.

Right now, right at this very moment at 3:52 p.m. EDT Saturday, I am watching the 12 Hours of Sebring on the American Le Man Series website and the NASCAR Nationwide Series race on the NASCAR.com site.

In fact, I’m riding around with Danica Patrick at this very moment, courtesy of an in-car camera (and we’re really mixing it up out there, I might say).

This is fantastic. I'm free, at last, from the people who run television, who like to dictate when I can watch something (the Nationwide race won’t be on TSN till midnight Saturday; it'll be a recording, obviously. The NCAA basketball tournament is more important, apparently).

Now I just have to get my youngest son to show me how to connect my laptop to my big-screen TV and I’ll really be in business.

P.S. Nationwide race is over now. Elliott Sadler was first, Kasey Kahne finished second and Brad Keselowski was third. We (Danica and me) were 19th.

Okay, saying that qualifying results for Sunday’s Grand Prix of Australia were a surprise would be an understatement.

While it’s not a really big surprise that the McLaren-Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button will start first and second in the 2012 Grand prix season opener Down Under, or that the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher will go off fourth, it is flat-out astounding that comeback kid Romain Grosjean qualified third in his Lotus-Renault and even more surprising that the Ferrari cars of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa are so far back.

Yes, Sebastien Vettel’s sixth-place raised eyebrows, particularly since his teammate, Mark Webber, outqualified him and will start fifth. But it was pretty much expected that Red Bull would be in for a fight this season after pretty much dominating things the last two years (two drivers’ and two manufacturers’ titles) and negative conclusions shouldn’t be reached too quickly on the basis of the year’s first qualifying session.

Alonso will go off 12th but suggested he could have eventually qualified third if he hadn’t spun off during the second session and didn’t even make it into the top ten. His teammate, Felipe Massa, had a miserable session and nearly didn’t get out of the first session. He will start 16th.

Kimi Raikkonen’s return to F1 started off negatively and he will start 18th. Although there was a mixup in communication, in which he thought he had time for another qualifying try in Q1 when he didn’t, he didn’t really have the speed anyway.

It was a great day for Australian Daniel Ricciardo, who got his Toro Rosso into the top ten, but then the team gave the finger to the Australian crowd by not sending him out at all in Q3. So Formula One, eh?

Finally, the HRT team of Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Kathikeyan won’t be allowed to start because their qualifying speeds – if you want to call them that – were beyond the 107% per cent of pole time rule.

Several quick observations:

– Michael Schumacher will make quick work of Grosjean at the start. It won’t be surprising if the seven-time world champion scores his first podium since his comeback. It will put an exclamation mark on his finest qualifying effort for Mercedes.

– Felipe Massa won’t last more than a couple of races for Ferrari in 2012 if he can’t do better than he’s shown so far in Australia.

F1 QUALIFYING RESULTS

Pos  Driver                Team                  Time          Gap  
 1.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes      1m24.922s
 2.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m25.074s  + 0.152
 3.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault         1m25.302s  + 0.380
 4.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes              1m25.336s  + 0.414
 5.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m25.651s  + 0.729
 6.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m25.668s  + 0.746
 7.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m25.686s  + 0.764
 8.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault      1m25.908s  + 0.986
 9.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes  1m26.451s  + 1.529
10.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    No time
Q2

11.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m26.429s  + 0.960
12.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m26.4942  + 1.025
13.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari        1m26.590s  + 1.121
14.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault      1m26.663s  + 1.194
15.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m27.086s  + 1.617
16.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m27.497s  + 2.028
17.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari        No time
Q1                            
18.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault         1m27.758s  + 1.576
19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault      1m28.679s  + 2.497
20.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault      1m29.018s  + 2.836
21.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth     1m30.923s  + 4.741
22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth     1m31.670s  + 5.488
23.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth          1m33.495s  + 7.313
24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth          1m33.643s  + 7.461

107% time: 1m32.214s

Paul Madder's fantastic racing photos

BUT DOES ANYONE KNOW AN ARTIST NAMED 'OAKLEY?'

I am fortunate to know many people in the world of auto racing and the motor sport generally. Inside the circle are some I consider to be real friends.

One of them is Paul Madder, a brilliant photographer who has an extensive catalogue, a few examples of which are published below.

In addition, he collects racing memorabilia: prints, in particular. Which is the real reason for this post today.

Among the photographs he’s taken himself is one that shows a young James Hunt in all his glory, surrounded by beautiful women.

Another shows two legends of the glory days of F1 in the 1960s and ‘70s – Ken Tyrrell and Colin Chapman – in conversation at a Grand Prix in Europe.

Three others are connected to that awful day in 1976 at the Nurburgring in Germany when Niki Lauda was nearly burned to death. One shows a grim Brett Lunger, who was one of four drivers to pull Lauda out of his car, riding on the back of a wrecker that’s returning his damaged car to the garage area (Lauda and Lunger had collided, starting the accident). Another is a portrait of little Arturo Merzario who, along with Lunger, Harald Ertl and Guy Edwards, saved Lauda’s life that day. The last one is a photo Madder took of Lauda before the race that nearly killed him.

The real reason I’m posting this photographic blog today, however, is to publish four racing and rally prints from the 1960s. Two of them are signed by an artist named 'OAKLEY.'

Paul is keen to find out about Oakley. Who he (or she) is? Where he lives and so-on. It's a long time ago, but the prints might trigger a memory.

If anyone knows, or has suspicions, I would ask them to email me at nmcdonald@thestar.ca and I will pass on the correspondence to Paul. And if 'Oakley' is identified, I will report back on that.

Meantime, I have been working on a book about Canadian motorsport for the past six years, which I will finish one of these days, and Paul has kindly given me some of his best photos to use as illustrations.

I’d better get cracking and finish that book. If these photos serve to whet your appetite - well, as they say – you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

WILL THE NEW MOVIE 'RUSH,' ABOUT THE HUNT-LAUDA RIVALRY IN '76, INCLUDE A SCENE LIKE THIS? (PHOTO, COPYRIGHT PAUL MADDER)

TWO OF THE GIANTS OF FORMULA ONE RACING IN THE 1960S AND '70S, TEAM OWNERS KEN TYRRELL (LEFT) AND COLIN CHAPMAN. (PHOTO, COPYRIGHT PAUL MADDER)

 

NIKI LAUDA IS SEEN ON AUG. 1, 1976, BEFORE THE START OF THE GERMAN GRAND PRIX IN WHICH HE WAS CRITICALLY INJURED. (PHOTO, COPYRIGHT PAUL MADDER)

"LITTLE" ARTURO MERZARIO, RIGHT (REAL NAME ARTURIO MERZARIO), STOPPED TO HELP PULL NIKI LAUDA FROM HIS BURNING CAR AT THE GERMAN GRAND PRIX IN 1976. OTHER DRIVERS TO HELP WERE BRETT LUNGER, HARALD ERTL AND GUY EDWARDS. (PHOTO, COPYRIGHT PAUL MADDER)

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

 

 

 

AMERICAN F1 DRIVER BRETT LUNGER RETURNS TO THE PITS WITH HIS DAMAGED RACE CAR AFTER THE NIKI LAUDA ACCIDENT. (PHOTO, COPYRIGHT PAUL MADDER)

 
THIS MINI WOULD HAVE BEEN COMPETING IN THE CANADIAN WINTER RALLY. IS THAT JOHN BIRD DRIVING? DID 'OAKLEY' PAINT THIS?

THIS RED VOLO WOULD HAVE BEEN COMPETING IN THE RALLY PERCE NEIGE IN QUEBEC

PAUL MADDER IS NOT SURE WHERE THE NO. 96 McLAREN IS RACING (OR WHO IS DRIVING) BUT THE PAINTING WAS DONE BY 'OAKLEY'

THESE TOURING CARS HAVE JUST TAKEN THE GREEN FLAG TO START A RACE AT THE AIR STRIP IN GIMLI, MAN.

Canadian Motorsports Expo on this weekend

Carl Edwards, Robert Yates, Randy Lajoie, James Hinchcliffe and Ron Fellows are just some of the many racing greats who will be in attendance at this weekend’s sixth annual Canadian Motorsports Expo at the International Centre in Mississauga.

Adjacent to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, the Expo, now presented by Inside Track Motorsport News, will kick off Friday at 1 p.m. and continue through until Sunday afternoon at 5 p.m.

Doors open Saturday and Sunday at 10 a.m.

The action will be just about non-stop throughout the weekend.

The Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship is planning a major announcement shortly after the show opens Friday. And the Honda Indy Toronto display — and it’s nice to see that event involved with the Expo — will unveil one of the new-for-2012 Dallara DW12 Indy cars that will be in action at the CNE in July.

Friday evening, the Inside Track Readers’ Choice Awards will be presented, as well as Spencer Lewis’ Ontario Asphalt Power Rankings Top 10 Awards. Special guest will be former NASCAR racer Lajoie.

Saturday at noon, sharp, NASCAR superstar Carl Edwards will take Centre Stage for a question-and-answer period followed by an autograph session. But listen up: if you want an autograph, you will have to get to the Expo early in order to get one of the 150 autograph “badges” that will be handed out. The rules are too complicated to go into completely here, but don’t say you weren’t warned. For complete details of the Edwards appearance, which is being timed to the minute, go to the show’s website.

After the Edwards riot — I mean, appearance — the annual media panel discussion will take place. This is when Toronto's racing reporters try not to insult each other too much. In my case, I really try to look as if I know what I’m talking about, which - as anybody who knows me knows - can sometimes be difficult. Thank goodness F1 expert Gerald Donaldson, Toronto Sun reporter Dean McNulty and Jeff Pappone of the Globe and Mail will be there to add some dignity (and legitimacy) to the proceedings.

At some point on Saturday afternoon, Fellows — one of three people who purchased Mosport International Raceway last summer — will discuss plans that he and his partners have for the legendary circuit north of Bowmanville. There has been all sorts of speculation as to what’s going to happen there, so just about everybody will be keen to hear what he has to say.

Sunday, IndyCar rookie of the year Hinchcliffe, of Oakville, will be the special guest. As well, a reunion of CASCAR officials, racers, crew and fans is planned for 3 p.m. following a NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Q & A and autograph session. CASCAR founder Tony Novotny, five-time national champion Don Thomson Jr., Dan Shirtliff, Alex Nagy and Kelly Williams are among the former racers who’ve confirmed their attendance.

Also on tap:

— Legendary NASCAR engine builder Robert Yates will be at the Canadian Tire booth and on the Mazda Stage Saturday.

— Seminars, from “how to get involved in karting” to expert technical seminars featuring guys like Darrick Dong, Performance Friction Brakes’ Director of Motorsports, will be held.

—   Sunday morning, a technical forum will be held on stage with Grand Am racing star Scott Maxwell and several other experts discussing what it takes to do a fast lap around Mosport, considering the balance you need to strike between the tires, chassis, suspensions, brakes, driver feedback, etc. Steve Scala will moderate, and participants will include Dong, Larry Holt of Multimatic Motorsports, Ian Willis of AIM Autosport and others.

- Mazda Canada will unveil details of a Canadian grassroots contingency program for Canadian road racers. They’re also putting on a sponsorship and marketing seminar.

- And a little bird told me that up-and-coming Canadian Formula One driver Robert Wickens might drop in on Saturday.

Wow. See you there!

‘Racer’ to jail headline caught my attention

The headline in the Mississauga News stopped me cold:

“Racer sentenced to nine months in jail,” it said.

“Shut the front door,” I said to myself, as I searched for the name of the race car driver who’d been sent to jail for — what?

It turned out not be someone who races at Mosport or Toronto Motorsports Park or any of the many southern Ontario speedways where real racers race.

It was a report about a street race in which the defendant, who was charged with dangerous driving causing death, was sentenced to nine months but, with time served, will be back on the street in a little over six.

The original charge was criminal negligence causing death but it was dropped to driving dangerous on a plea bargain.

Nine months for racing on the street? An illegal act, in which a 20-year-old guy was killed, and probably many more people scared out of their wits at the sight of this happening?

How about 10 years?

I don’t care, as the story said, if the accused pulled out of the race early, and tried to help the mortally wounded fellow (how nice of him). Racing on a public highway is the height of selfishness, irresponsible and illegal, and somebody is dead and that is worth a lot more than nine months in my book.

Of course, I’m talking to the wind here. People are appointed to the bench in this country and then they get sent to Judge School where the emphasis in sentencing is on rehabilitation rather than revenge. Some judge somewhere along the line determined that nine months for a death caused by street racing is an appropriate penalty, and this precedent thus became the norm.

So, if some brave judge somewhere in Canada actually sentenced somebody to 10 years for committing this heinous act, it would be overturned on appeal because the law of the land says a life lost as the result of street racing isn’t worth more than nine months.

Only when an influential cabinet minister, or a member of the judiciary, loses a loved one like this will anything ever change.

Meantime, the guilty man — who, according to his lawyer, is now very involved with his church (care to bet how long that will last?) — won’t be allowed to drive legally for the next two years.

That won’t mean he won’t drive, of course. He didn’t care about the law this time; who’s to say he’ll care about it in the future?

NASCAR driver Allmendinger wins Rolex 24

TRACY SAYS HE'S CLOSE TO INDYCAR DEAL - BUT IS HE?

NASCAR driver A.J. Allmendinger hadn’t won a race in either the Sprint Cup stock car series or the old Champ Car Indy car series in five years but that drought came to an end Sunday afternoon at Daytona International Speedway when he drove the Michael Shank Racing Ford-Riley Daytona Prototype sports car past the checkers to win the 50^th anniversary Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.

Allmendinger, who shared his drive with IndyCar and ex-F1 racer Justin Wilson and two "gentlemen drivers," John Pew and Oswaldi Negri, defeated second-place finishers Ryan Dalziel (who started the marathon from pole), Allan McNish, Lucas Luhr, Alex Popow and Enzo Potolicchio by 5.198 seconds, which was pretty close after a complete day of racing that started at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.

The second-place car was also a Ford-Riley, as was the third-place finisher – also entered by Michael Shank Racing – that was driven by Felipe Nasr, Mike McDowell, Jorge Goncalvez and Gustavo Yacaman.

Allmendinger led the first-place finishing car in the Grand Touring class – a Porsche GT3 driven by Andy Lally, John Potter, Rene Rast and Richard Lietz – by 9.412 seconds at the checkers in a race that saw an average speed of 126.300 miles an hour for the prototypes and 118.031 for the GTs. There were 13 caution periods for a total of 64 laps.

Here is a link to the complete story but I have these observations:

– I know it’s an iconic race and that they said there was a record crowd in the infield (75,000, they say . . . ) but there’s something the matter when a speedway has seating for 165,000 people and the winning driver gets out of the car and waves to the crowd and there is absolutely nobody there.

Yes, in the middle of the night at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, nobody is watching that race either. They are too busy partying. But when the race starts and when the race ends, there are thousands of people in the grandstands on both sides of the track, waving and cheering.

Not in Daytona, boy. I felt sorry for Allmendinger. He even had an American flag to wave and the only people standing in front of him in Victory Circle as he jumped out and let go with a winning war whoop were about 50 photographers.

It felt like a club race.

There were NASCAR drivers, IndyCar drivers, ex-F1 drivers and legendary sports car drivers in that field and yet it is obvious that there is next to no interest in that race so far as it being a spectator sport is concerned.

Which is really too bad. It was a good race and an exciting one. I mean, after 24 hours of racing there was five seconds between the winner and the second-place car and it can’t get much better than that.

– I love the holier-than-thou attitude experessed by many top racing drivers. Nothing is ever their fault or of their own doing. They are perfect.

Although I tried, I couldn’t watch the whole 24 hours of that race. I was dragged away, kicking and screaming, to go out for breakfast Sunday morning with my sweetheart and our youngest son. I got back just in time to see an interview with Allan McNish in which he shook his head and said (in so many words) what a numbskull Allemdinger was for running into him at 180 miles an hour.

A replay of the incident appeared to show Allmendinger moving up the track and clipping McNish, who was running beside him on the high side. "I don’t know what he was thinking," said the totally innocent-looking McNish.

So I thought to myself: "Maybe the Dinger should have been a bit more careful."

But lo and behold, 20 minutes later, Speed TV (which did its usual excellent job of televising the race) showed a replay of something that happened an hour or so earlier when Allmendinger pulled alongside McNish in the infield and made a move to pass, only to be pushed off the road by McNish.

"Aha," I said to myself. "So that’s it. McNish, the Innocent, started the fight. Allmendinger is a NASCAR driver now and that business on the high banks was just a little payback. And Mr. McNish is lucky the Dinger didn’t just ding him right up into the wall. What's that they say about, 'people who live in glass houses . . . ?' "

– Every time I hear Ryan Dalziel’s name (it’s pronounced Dee-all), I think of that town north of Pembroke on the Ottawa River called Des-Joachims. It’s pronounced "De Swisha."

– Although the Rolex 24 is a very important motor race, they mix and match drivers right up until the last minute. Although Mark Wilkins of Toronto was on the official entry list, his name was missing from the results. And Marco Andretti seemed to be added to the driver lineup of one car after the race was started.

What was scary is that Marco had never raced at Daytona before, had never sat in the car he was going to race, and wouldn’t arrive till 8 p.m. after testing an Indy car at Sebring earlier in the day. I know Marco is a good race driver, but doesn’t that seem a little ridiculous?

– It will be interesting to see if the cable commercials that played non-stop on the Speed Channel throughout the Rolex 24 ever make it onto network TV – the ones dealing with prostate problems and low male testosterone.

(By the way, every time I see Joe Theismann – he did the prostate pitch – I think of his rookie year with the Toronto Argonauts in 1971 when he was just 22. He came into the Globe and Mail, where I worked at the time, for an interview with the late sports editor, Jim Vipond. He looked like a million bucks, unlike most of the young athletes who play for the Leafs these days. He was in a three-piece grey suit and carried a briefcase. All the 30-something secretaries, who’d known for a few days that he was coming in, were all dolled up. He was greeted by a woman named Nancy, who was Vipond’s assistant. She took him into an office and when she came out, she looked somewhat cross. "What’s the matter?" I asked. "Aw, he’s just a kid," she snapped, as she stomped past.)

– Okay, here is the news of the day.

Paul Tracy was interviewed by the racing press corps and announced that he is "close" to signing a one-year deal with Michael Shank Racing for a full-time ride in the IZOD IndyCar Series that will, in fact, be a farewell tour.

However, Tracy also revealed that they are still working on a sponsorship deal and an engine deal for the season, which will start in less than two months.

Most IndyCar teams will be testing at Sebring this week, which means that even if things come together as hoped, this particular rookie team will be way behind everybody else.

Now, the significance of the timing of Tracy’s announcement is twofold:

First, he identified Michael Shank Racing as the team he would like to drive for if things can be worked out. That eliminates rumours about a return to Dale Coyne Racing, where he started his Indy car career at Long Beach in 1991.

Second, he essentially said that if he can’t run Indy cars, he would move immediately into sports cars and Michael Shank’s Grand Am team needs a driver of Tracy’s calibre, seeing as the two guys who won the Rolex 24 for Shank this weekend, Wilson and Allmendinger, won’t be available.

Paul Tracy is my favourite race driver and I want to see him wind up his career with dignity and class. But it’s very much a long shot because – if you read his quotes from the interviews he gave in Daytona at the weekend – he’s pretty much admitting he won’t be competitive.

"I still want to compete and drive," he said. "I still have the passion to drive. But at the level that it takes to run in IndyCar, at my age, 43, I think I could be more competitive and be able to compete and be in good equipment in sports cars."

If I was a sponsor being pitched to spend several millions of dollars to put him into an Indy car, my pen might run out of ink after reading that quote.

On the other hand, maybe he was pitching Shank to put him into the Daytona Prototype full-time . . .

Incidentally, Tracy finished ninth in the Rolex, driving - with others - a Doran Racing Dallara-Ford Daytona Prototype for 748 laps in 24 hours compared with the winning car’s 761 laps.

Here are where other Canadians finished:

– AIM Autosport of Woodbridge’s Ferrari 458, driven by full-season drivers Emil Assentato and Jeff Segal with the help of two others, finished eighth in the GT class (and 20^th overall) after starting second in class. It was the team’s first race in GT after a successful run in the prototypes. Look for them to do better as the Grand Am season progresses.

– IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe of Oakville finished sixth in GT and 18^th overall in a Mazda RX-8.

– Paul Dalla Lana of Toronto, who won the GT season championship last year, was 16^th in the GT class (29^th overall) in a BMW M3.

– Darryl O’Young and Brett Van Blankers of Vancouver finished 20^th in GT and 33^rd overall in a Porsche owned by Steve Paquette’s Bullet Racing out of Vancouver.

– Chris Cumming of Vancouver was 24^th in GT in a Porsche, good for 39^th overall.

– Taylor Hacquard of Vancouver was classified 37^th in GT and 52^nd overall in a Mazda RX.

Barrichello IndyCar test will just be the first

Although Rubens Barrichello reportedly told his wife once that he would never race Indy cars — the memory of fellow Brazilian Nelson Piquet’s trip into the Indianapolis wall still vivid — the news that he will test a KV Racing Dallara-Chevrolet at Sebring next week should come as no surprise.

When Emmerson Fittipaldi’s F1 career ended, he went to CART.  So did Raul Boesel, Cristiano da Matta, Christian Fittipaldi, Mauricio Gugelmin, Roberto Morena and Alex Ribeiro.

Non-Brazilian F1 drivers who’ve switched to the Indy car ranks include Sebastien Bourdais (a back-and-forth, actually), Juan Pablo Montoya, Timo Glock, Alex Zanardi (ditto), Justin Wilson and, perhaps the most famous, Nigel Mansell in 1993, the year after he won the world championship.

Tony Kanaan drives for KV Racing, so there’s the link. As well as being fellow Brazilians, Kanaan and Barrichello are close friends and even switched helmet liveries once with Barrichello wearing Kanaan’s in the 2006 Grand Prix of Monaco and Kanaan wearing Rubens’ in that year’s Indy 500 (both races were on the same day).

And just the way Rubens has been talking indicates he is not yet ready to stop race-driving. “I have a lot of speed left in me yet,” he said as recently as last weekend after finding out that Bruno Senna would replace him at Williams.

If Barrichello makes the move, I suggest other F1 drivers without a ride in F1 this season will take a strong look at the IZOD IndyCar Series. Why? Because CART was once considered a viable alternative to F1 and today’s IndyCar series is looking very much like that again.

Although there is just once chassis, the Dallara, there are now three engine manufacturers in the primarily road-and-street circuit series and there are not really any weak teams. Yes, Penske, Ganassi and Andretti will be expected to lead the way but none of the teams expected to run the full series will really be also-rans so an unemployed F1 driver like Jaime Alguesuari, say, would not be out of line taking sponsorship money to Dale Coyne Racing, which announced this week it will run with Honda power and Justin Wilson aboard one of its two cars.

Vitaly Petrov is also without employment at the moment and is too young and too good to be content driving in one Friday practice session as a reserve.

It’s better to do what guys like Montoya, Zanardi and Bourdais did — stay active and dominate — than to hover around F1 in the background like an obedient puppy.

There are only a few seats left in IndyCar at the moment but if Barrichello is sniffing around, the chances are very good that there will be others.

The first race of the Rolex 24 at Daytona weekend will go to the post Friday. About a dozen Canadians are entered in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge BMW Performance 200 (whew — what a mouthful!).

They are:

Ashley McCalmont of Ancaster in a Camaro; Emmanuel Anassis of Montreal in a Mustang; Jean-Francois Dumoulin of Trois-Rivieres in a Porsche; Scott Maxwell of Toronto in an Aston Martin Vantage; David Empringham of Toronto teaming with John Farano, also of Toronto, in a Porsche; Frank Rossi of Kleinberg teaming with Fraser Wellon of Mississauga in a Porsche; Paul Dalla Lana of Toronto in a BMW; Brad Wood of Brantford in a Honda Civic; Taylor Hacquard of Vancouver in a MazdaSpeed3 and Michael Valiante of Vancouver in a Honda Civic.

Now, Multimatic Motorsports of Markham has cars entered, as does Karl Thomson’s Compass360 Racing team of Toronto. Speaking of Compass360, the following release arrived in my emailbox this week:

“Compass360 Racing is no stranger to winning on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway, having been on the Street Tuner podium four straight years from 2007 to 2010. To extend that impressive result the team has assembled a driver roster for this weekend's Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge race that's arguably the strongest it's ever had, counting three former series champions and one runner-up in the squad.

“Grand-Am's 2007 ST Champion Adam Burrows will share the #74 Dr. Kimberly Henry / Speed Secrets / HPD Honda Civic Si with Andrew Novich, who impressed the team in his rookie year the previous season.

"I'm excited to be back with Compass360 Racing and all the guys, especially Andrew, who I think is going to impress a lot of people this year," noted Burrows. "Coming into a series this competitive as a rookie is a real challenge, and I know Andrew finished fourth here last year, so we're shooting for a podium finish in 2012."

“Burrows last ran with C360R in 2008, co-driving with 2007 ST Champion Trevor Hopwood, who will drive the #77 Joe Marina Honda / Luna-C / HPD car with Bo Roach.

"Like Adam, I'm thrilled to be back in a C360R Honda after a couple of years in other cars." remarked Hopwood. "These guys have always been at the front, and I have a really good feeling about this race."

The Daytona event is particularly meaningful as Roach, promoter of Midnight Drags at Tulsa Raceway Park, is returning to Grand-Am racing after a two-year absence. "Running this race, with support from Joe Marina Honda in Tulsa, on the 50th running of the Rolex is just so amazing," enthused Roach, who turns 50 this weekend. "It's a 50-50 race for me!"

David Thilenius, the third former champ in the line-up, won the Grand-Am Street Tuner in 2010 with Compass360 Racing. He's returning for his third straight season with the team, sharing the #76 Metropolitan Foods / HPD Honda with John Kuitwaard, who after a number of years doing select races has signed on for a full campaign.

"I'm looking forward to driving last year's car without the restrictor!" laughed Thilenius. "The Hondas have always been good cars at Daytona, and although we know the rest of the field is very strong I'm hoping to get a good points haul this weekend."

Last year's Street Tuner battle was a fight to the finish in the season finale, and if not for being spun out in the closing stages by a Mazda, Ryan Eversley might have won the title for C360R. As it was, he finished second, one better than in 2010.

This year he's aiming for the top spot, co-driving with veteran Grand-Am competitor Ray Mason in the #75 Columbus Truck / Children's Wish Foundation / HPD car.

"Ray (Lee) and the Compass boys have been working on this new 2012 Civic for the past six months and at the test a few weeks ago, I was really impressed," exclaimed Eversley. "For a new car, I think it's going to be ready to go right out of the box."

The Continental Tire Daytona race starts at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, and will air on the Speed TV channel  Feb. 4 at noon.

Kimi admits he'll need time to adjust to F1

DANICA OFFICIALLY OUT OF INDY 500

Kimi Raikkonen, who's well into Day 2 of his return to Formula One by driving a 2010-spec Renault around the Valencia circuit in Spain, said following Monday’s session that he expects he’ll need a little time to get readjusted.

Ya think?

The 2007 world champion, who spent two years competing in the World Rally Championship and took a detour to North America in 2011 for a couple of NASCAR races, is now back in F1 with Lotus (which used to be Renault, remember?) and said that while he didn’t have any real trouble driving the car Monday, he expects it will take some time to get used to the team and to the spec Pirelli tires.

Raikkonen said he’d enjoyed his short time in NASCAR, which convinced him he really wanted to go circuit racing again and "if you want to go racing, then you want to be in F1."

The second day of the test Tuesday was geared to getting him ready to step into the 2012 car at the first F1 pre-season test at the Jerez track, which starts on Feb. 7.

Good luck to him and it's good to have him back. But if Michael Schumacher had trouble adjusting to the new reality that’s F1 after his time away from the sport, it’s very likely that Raikkonen will find it a struggle too.

At least he has the courage to admit it.

By the way, it comes as absolutely no surprise that Danica Patrick has officially ruled out trying to drive in this year's Indianapolis 500.

She made it official Monday at Daytona International Speedway, where she's preparing to make her full-time stock car racing debut next month.

Instead of Indy, she'll drive in NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Both the 500 and the 600 are scheduled for May 27.

"I hope to do it (the Indy 500) in the future," she told reporters. "At this point, after a lot of conversations, it's just going to be the Coke 600. I think it's going to be a big challenge, but I'm looking forward to it."

Patrick left the IZOD IndyCar Series to drive in NASCAR this season. She'll run the entire Nationwide Series for Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s JR Motorsports team and for Tony Sterwart's Stewart-Haas Racing team in 12 Sprint Cup races, starting with the Daytona 500 on Feb. 26.

She left the door open to returning to Indy, where she's raced the last seven Mays, at some time in the future - perhaps even trying "the double," in which a driver runs both Indy and the Coke 600.

Although some may disagree, her absence could affect Indy 500 attendance and TV ratings. Anybody who has spent any time in Indianapolis around 500 time knows that Danica Patrick is the star of that race, so far as everybody from local TV weathermen to morning disc jockeys on radio are concerned.

The purists might not like it, but it is fact.

I don't have any news to pass along about TSN's plans for Formula One coverage this year (rest assured, I have asked) but here’s some of what SpeedTV has lined up for auto racing generally in 2012.

Speed Center, the Sunday evening motorsport news program that covers NASCAR, IndyCar, F1 and the short tracks, will return on Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. to report on the 50^th anniversary running that weekend of the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.

In addition, the presentation of the Mario Andretti Trophy to the 2011 Speed Performer of the year will be made on that edition of the show. (I suggest the winner will be Tony Stewart.)

It is sincerely hoped that Speed Center will continue on the schedule it carved out for itself last racing season when it would kick off racing weekends with a Friday night edition and insert updates throughout the weekend leading to the wrapup Sunday night program.

No definitive word on that, though.

In any event, at 8 p.m. that evening (Jan. 29), the 10^th season of Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain will go to air and everybody who’s watched that show in the past knows it is a must-see program.

Incidentally, Despain – who really should do more specials like the one he's done on Carroll Shelby; his profile of Chris Economaki a few years ago was a masterpiece and I wish Speed would make it available on DVD – says his easiest and most colourful interview has always been drag racer John Force, his best interview has always been Jeff Gordon and his most challenging interview has always been Tony Stewart – will anchor the 535^th episode of Wind Tunnel when the red light goes on that night.

Wow.

Oh, before I forget. SpeedTV and speedtv.com will cover the Daytona 24 live around the clock. Here’s how.

The pre-race program will go to air at 2:30 p.m. Eastern on Sat., Jan. 28, with the green flag expected an hour later, at 3:30 p.m. Full coverage of the race on Speed will continue until 11 p.m., at which time coverage will switch to speedtv.com and continue there overnight. Television coverage will resume at 9 a.m. on Sunday and continue through to the checkers and the post-race celebrations and interviews.

The Rolex show will be anchored by Bob Varsha and Leigh Diffey with help from colour commentators/analysts and pit/paddock reporters David Hobbs, Tommy Kendall, Dorsey Schroeder, Calvin Fish, Brian Till, Justin Bell and others.

Here’s something a little different. Jim Clarke, who handles PR for Kawartha Speedway, sent this out late last week:

"Sometimes things just happen. At Kawartha Speedway’s 2011 award’s banquet – Sat., Jan. 14^th – the rookie of the year honour in the Hasiuk Trailer and Container Rental Mini Stock division was presented to seventh place point finisher Alex Lees, who won three main events during the year. After checking statistics for the season, the track has announced that the award should have actually belonged to Ryan Oosterholt, who picked up only one feature race win but finished second in points. General Manager/Promoter Derek Lynch says the track regrets the error and will be sending a trophy to Oosterholt."

Tagliani to drive for Brian Herta in 2012

This email popped into my mailbox this morning. I'm printing it in its entirety:

Bryan Herta Autosport is proud to announce that Alex Tagliani will pilot the team’s entry in the 2012 IZOD IndyCar Series.
 

Last year’s Indianapolis 500 winning team sought out the Canadian driver because of his experience, technical ability and overall proficiency in the racecar. In 2011, the veteran driver earned back-to-back pole positions, first during the 95^th running of the historic Indy 500 and then at Texas Motor Speedway, adding to the list of his many accomplishments as an open-wheel racer.

 

Just last week, the team announced a joint venture with Bowen & Bowers Motorsports. Paired with the team’s solid racing operations, Tagliani is the final piece to the puzzle enabling Bryan Herta Autosport to position itself as a top-tier program in 2012 and beyond.

 

BHA has previously been announced their status as a Factory Partner Team to Lotus, which will result in the car being run in the iconic black and Gold Lotus livery. An announcement is expected on Thursday to reveal the identity of the team’s primary sponsorship.  Veteran race engineer Todd Malloy has been re-signed to lead the team’s engineering efforts and focus on the car driven by Tagliani.

 

“We are very proud to have Alex Tagliani join our team for our first full season of Indycar competition. He brings a wealth of experience and enthusiasm to the program, and is the perfect fit for us and our sponsor partners,” stated Herta. “Together with Todd Malloy and Brian Page in engineering, and the Don Lambert led crew, Alex has the full support of a very talented group of professionals behind him.”

 

Tagliani echoes Herta’s enthusiasm, saying, "I'm really happy to drive for BHA. Having known Bryan for a long time, I recognize that he's a nice guy with genuine integrity. I believe that he and Steve Newey deserve to own a great IndyCar team, and I'm honored to be part of the building of BHA's 2012 program.  It's also a great honor for me to represent the Lotus brand as a factory partner. Lotus has so much history in the world of motorsports. As a team, we have a lot of work in front of us and while challenging, it will be fun to be at the core of both engine and team development. BHA has a great group of people and I'm looking forward to working with them."

 

Tagliani’s first task will be to lend his experience to the Lotus engine testing program, followed by team testing scheduled to begin in early February.  The IZOD IndyCar Series kicks off the 2012 season March 25 on the streets of St. Petersburg, FL.

 

 

About Bryan Herta Autosport

Founded by veteran driver Bryan Herta and noted race engineer and team manager Steve Newey, Bryan Herta Autosport (BHA) has been a race-winning team in Firestone Indy Lights competition since 2009 and recently won the 2011 Indianapolis 500 with driver Dan Wheldon in only its second IZOD IndyCar Series start. The Indianapolis, Ind.-based squad made its IndyCar debut in 2010 contesting the Indianapolis 500. Herta, an accomplished racer, has won in every series he has contested including the IZOD IndyCar Series, American Le Mans Series and CART in addition to garnering Skip Barber Formula Ford, Barber Saab and Firestone Indy Lights championship titles. Amongst his career highlights are a third-place finish in the 2005 Indianapolis 500 and victory in the LMP2 class at the Twelve Hours of Sebring in 2007. Newey’s racing career spans over 20 years and includes design and race engineering positions in Formula One as well as team manager/technical director roles in IndyCar, American Le Mans and Grand-Am competition. Among his highlights are the 1992 Champ Car World Series title as the race engineer for Bobby Rahal, the 2006 Grand-Am Daytona Prototype Driver’s Championship with Krohn Racing’s Jorg Bergmeister and victory in the Twelve Hours of Sebring in 2007 as race engineer for Andretti Green Racing and drivers Bryan Herta, Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan. He was also instrumental in assembling the Patrick Racing Firestone test team and served as team manager for drivers Scott Pruett and Adrian Fernandez. For more information, visit www.bryanhertaautosport.com.

 

About Bowen and Bowers Motorsports, Inc.

Based in Toronto, Ontario, Bowen and Bowers Motorsports, Inc. is the coming together of leading sports and entertainment property development professionals, Chris Bowers and David Bowen, along with the financial management experience of Trapeze Asset Management Inc, with the mission of providing innovative commercial platforms and funding alternatives to developing sports and entertainment properties. David Bowen has more than 20 years experience in sports marketing, business development and client service. From his time at the CFL to his marketing management of Chevrolet’s factory supported efforts in LeMans and IndyCar, Bowen has set the standard for relationship management and creating innovative B2B, B2E and B2C platforms. Chris Bowers has more than 22 years experience in the sports and lifestyle marketing industry. During his career he has created, directed and or executed programs for some of the worlds leading companies and brands from Philip Morris to Coca-Cola. He has been credited with revitalizing Panther Racing and securing one of the largest sponsorship’s in IndyCar history. Bowen and Bowers Motorsports, Inc. is headquartered at 22 St. Clair Avenue East, 18^th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M4T 2S3, Canada. For more information call (416) 915-1367. 



Legge signing would be step back for IndyCar

KATHERINE LEGGE (WITH ALEX TAGLIANI, A.J. ALLMENDINGER AND JUSTIN WILSON) IN 2006.

I got an email the other day from a guy who writes me frequently, and this is what he said:

"Now that Danica’s gone, who is going to replace her?"

So I wrote back and said: "I hope whoever it is turns out to be is a really good racing driver – as good a driver as she’s been."

And he wrote back and said, "No! What I mean is, who is going to replace her as a woman racing driver?"

I didn’t continue the debate because I was too busy shaking my head and thinking to myself, "I thought  we were over all that."

You know, once upon a time, a female racing driver was a curiosity. There weren’t that many. Janet Guthrie was the first to drive through the glass ceiling in the modern era. She was the first woman to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, in 1977. What a lot of people don’t know, or have forgotten, is that she qualified for what was then the NASCAR World 600 a year earlier. And she was an accomplished sports car racer.

Since then, Indy car, USAC, NHRA and NASCAR and CASCAR lineups have included names like Lynn St. James, Arlene Hiss, Kathy Rude, Shawna Robinson, Shirley Muldowney, Kat Teasdale, Bev Griffiths, Kelly Williams, Kathy Muller, Teri MacDonald-Cadieux, Juliana Chiovitti, Melanie Troxle and Desire Wilson, among others

In recent years at Indianapolis there have been - in addition to Patrick - Milka Duno, Pippa Mann, Ana Beatriz, Simona de Silvestro and Sarah Fisher.

In short, women racing drivers are no big deal any more.

But my friend’s note is not the only one around. There seems to be a feeling out there that the IndyCar Series has to have "another Danica."

At the moment, there doesn’t seem to be one. Mann has shown that while she was a good Indy Lights racer and passable in an Indy car on the big track at Indy, she was way over her head in races on shorter ovals.

Beatriz is an okay racer but will likely never challenge for a victory. So is De Silvestro (an okay racer) but she hasn’t been near the front very often and while Patrick had only the one Indy car victory before leaving for NASCAR, she was frequently in the hunt for others, particularly on ovals.

Fisher, who was also a potential race-winner, has retired as a driver to concentrate on being a team owner and the series made it clear to Duno that she wasn’t welcome back.

A name that’s been bandied about recently as being in line for a ride in 2012 is that of Katherine Legge. There seems to be a consensus that she has a sponsor and will drive in the series next year and if it turns out to be true, I say it will be a step backward.

This has nothing to do with Katherine Legge, the person. I’ve met her a few times and she’s very nice; she’s good looking and personable.

It has very much to do, however, with her ability as a racing driver and she’s simply not good enough.

One of the things people asked following the disaster at Las Vegas that killed Dan Wheldon was whether some of the drivers were sufficiently talented, or experienced enough, to have been allowed to start that race. One of the results of the subsequent inquiry was expected to be a more vigilant examination of drivers licensed to race in IndyCar.

Legge was introduced to the Champ Car World Series in 2006 by series owner Kevin Kalkhoven, who - frankly - was looking for a woman driver to counter Patrick’s celebrity in the then-rival Indy Racing League.

Legge had won three races the year previous in the Atlantic series but before anyone points to that grand achievement as proof of her ability, it should be noted that only four drivers ran the entire series (she tied for third place in the standings . . . ) and the average starting field was less than a dozen cars.

I interviewed her prior to her Champ Car rookie season and here is how she described her career:

"Here I am today and what's amazing to me is that I've still only done about 30-35 races in my whole life. I always believed I had the talent, but I never really had anyone behind me who believed in me. I had my dad, but he's not a millionaire who could afford to send me racing.

"So I did a handful of races in Formula Ford and then I had the opportunity to try Formula Renault for a few races. . . I met Kevin Kalkhoven and my world changed. I did Atlantics for a season (he sponsored her and she won those three races) and now here I am in Champ Car (his team). I'm surprised. But I knew I could drive the car; I knew I could be fast in the car."

As it turned out, she wasn’t particularly fast in the car. She did two seasons in Champ Car, never got near the podium and stood 16^th in points her first year and 15^th the second. She then did three seasons in the German Touring Car Championship with similar results – 19^th place, 18^th and 18^th. She didn’t race at all in 2011.

To repeat, Katherine Legge is a nice person but with that record, she has no business racing an Indy car on the same track as Dario Franchitti, Will Power, Scott Dixon and the rest (including currently unemployed drivers James Hinchcliffe, Oriol Servia, Justin Wilson and Paul Tracy).

This is a series whose president boasts that it wants to feature the best drivers in the world. It already put the boots to Marty Roth and Milka Duno because of safety concerns and I'm sure there are now some others on their "discourage list."

If Katherine Legge isn't on it, she should be.

Seven named to Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame

Seven more Canadian organizers and competitors will be inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame at a gala ceremony in Toronto in April, it was announced Monday.

Richard Foley of Montreal, the first Canadian to race in the Daytona 500, leads the list that includes sports car racer Rudy Bartling of Courtice, rally competitors Robin Edwardes of L’Orignal, Ont., and Paul Manson of Toronto, Calgary organizer Ben Docktor, supermodified and stock car racer Norm Ellefson of Edmonton and Spokane, Wash., and Maritimes stock car champion Greg Sewart of Halifax.

They will officially be welcomed into the hall at the 18th annual gala banquet and ceremony April 21 at On The Park in Toronto.

Said Hall of Fame chairman, Dr. Hugh Scully: “These new honourable members have earned recognition for their accomplishments and contributions to Canadian motorsports and it is an honour to confirm their entry into our Hall. We are particularly pleased that we have representation from Western Canada , the Maritimes , Ontario and Quebec, further reflecting the true national scope of the CMHF.”

The Hall of Fame was first organized in 1993 and now has more than 100 inductees from across Canada as well as several in the International Category that was added two years ago.

Tickets for the 2012 gala can be purchased by calling 905-852-6764 or by email at galatickets@cmhf.ca.