Norm Ellefson flew into Toronto from Spokane, Wash. (via Minneapolis) last weekend to be inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame (photos, report on page 26 of Saturday’s Wheels section).
The one-time supermodified and sprint car driver (my kinda racer) talked about the days in the 1960s when he drove on the amazing, but long-gone, Canadian-American Modified Association (CAMRA) trail that ran on speedways from Edmonton in the north to Phoenix in the south and over to Salt Lake City and Victoria, B.C., east and west.
The talent in that series was mind-boggling and I had a grin from ear to ear as Ellefson rhymed off the names of legends he raced against — all of whom either made it to Indy or had a good shot at the “Champ Cars” at one time or another:
Tom Senva and his brother Jerry Sneva, Eldon Rasmussen, Billy Foster, Cliff Hucul, Dick Simon, Jim Malloy, Art Pollard, Ed Kostenuk, Roy Smith (before he went to stock cars and Daytona), Ken Hamilton (Davey’s dad), Frank Weiss and on and on.
“I lived in Edmonton and would have to drive a thousand miles to go racing and then have to turn around and drive a thousand miles home,” he said. “I moved to Spokane so I could be in the middle.”
We got talking about how big-time racing has always been a money deal — you either had to have deep pockets yourself or an angel writing cheques.
“I had a chance to go to Indy with Rolla Volstedt (a Canadian-born American Indy car owner who took Foster to the 500 in 1966 and Janet Guthrie a decade later), but he told me he wanted me to pay him $2,500 first. I said I didn’t have that kind of money (average income for a working man back then was maybe $6,500) so I didn’t get to go. Billy (Foster) came from a racing background — his father and grandfather both raced — so he had connections who put up the money and he got his chance.”
We laughed about how the California drivers nudged the mid-western Americans out of their rides at Indy. The Midwesterners (Pat O’Connor, Johnny Thomson, Tommy Hinnershitz — those guys) would race for 40 per cent of the purse plus expenses. The Californians — Bill Vukovich, Roger Ward, Parnelli Jones — came along and said they’d only take 20 per cent plus expenses, so guess who got to race?
"Not much has changed," said the winner of major races in Victoria, Edmonton and a huge Labour Day sprint car showdown at the state fair in St. Paul, Minn.
“I had a lot of fun and made a lot of friends,” Ellefson said. ‘Racing was good to me.”
Now, I have to make a public apology.
Two weeks ago, in this very column, I said that if anybody purchased tickets to the Hall of Fame gala as a result of reading my column, I would introduce them from the audience as I am always the emcee.
So eight people bought tickets. I was supplied with the names. I then got carried away trying to be Mr. Entertainer and completely forgot about those people and my promise to them. I was reminded at the end of the evening but by then it was too late.
I shrugged it off but when I got home and my wife asked how the evening had gone, she was aghast. “They spent a lot of money,” she said. “You should be ashamed.”
She’s right. As a result, I want to say, today, to the following people, that I am really sorry.
If Fritz Haefele, Margarete Haefele, Peter Haefele, Shirley Haefele, Linda Jachtschutz, John Jachtschutz, Bev Gordon and John Klecker should attend the gala next year, I promise to introduce them then.
Meantime, I'm confused (Part 2).
Caterham used to be Lotus, but now it's Caterham. Renault used to be Renault, but now it's Lotus. Lotus is supplying engines to a dwindling number of IndyCar teams but they're not really Lotus engines, being built, as they are, by John Judd and Jack Brabham. In short, there are just too many Lotuses to keep straight - or Loti, as I imagine the plural to be.
CanadianTire Motorsport Park (formerly Mosport) unveiled its new logo this week in advance of the Victoria Day SpeedFest Weekend presented by Castrol Edge on May 18-20 that will kick off the 2012 racing season there.
The feature race that weekend will be the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series opener — Scott Steckly, defending champion — with support from the Trans-Am Series, Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge, Formula cars and the Canadian Touring Car Series.
“We wanted the new logo to reflect our new partnership with Canadian Tire as well as incorporate the historical aspects of the park with use of the track outline,” said Myles Brandt, President and General Manager of the facility.
NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart, who was presented the 2011 Mario Andretti Trophy Sunday night for his amazing end-of-season charge that saw him win five of the 10 Chase for the Championship races, is returning to where it all began, Ontario’s Ohsweken Speedway, next summer.
Stewart was having a less-than-stellar season in 2011 until one night in July when he drove in a World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series race at the dirt oval on the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford and won not only his first Outlaws feature but his first race of the year in any series.
After that, he seemed buoyed and his NASCAR season turned around.
According to my friend Dean McNulty of the Sun, Stewart displayed the oversize cheque for $10,000 that he received for winning the Ohsweken race from the rear window of his motorhome for the rest of the summer. He said, according to Dean, that it served as inspiration for him to buckle down and win the Sprint Cup.
I was told late last week by a World of Outlaws regular that Ohsweken owner Glenn Styres received a commitment from Stewart at the Chili Bowl midget race in Tulsa in January – both Styres and Stewart were competing in the annual mid-winter indoor classic – to return to Ontario in July to defend his race championship.
I’ve said on many occasions that if you haven’t seen a World of Outlaws race in person that you are missing one of the great spectacles in sport, not just racing.
And with Stewart returning to take on the King of the Outlaws, Steve Kinser, and the rest of the band led by Joey Saldana, Jason Myers and Craig Dollansky, you can bet it will be thunder and lightning at Ohsweken next summer.
Check the Ohsweken Speedway website for additional details and advance ticket information.
Andretti presented his namesake trophy to Stewart on Sunday night’s edition of the Speed Center motorsport news program, acknowledging the three-time champion’s Chase run as the difference maker among a very impressive field of finalists for the annual SPEED Performer of the Year presented by ACE
Runner-up in the 2011 season was Moto GP ace Casey Stoner. In 2010, the winner was F1 world champion Sebastien Vettel with five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson second. Johnson dominated from 2006 to 2008, with drag racer Tony Schumacher winning for 2009.
If Rubens Barrichello likes the KV Racing Indy car he’s testing for two days at Sebring – the final day of his test is today (Tuesday) – there is funding in place for him to run a full season, team co-owner (with multimillionaire Kevin Kalkhoven) Jimmie Vasser said Monday.
Barrichello took just a few laps to get his bearings before ripping off laps that were just a shade short of the times being turned in by his best friend and countryman Tony Kanaan, whose email of support to the F1 star last week triggered the tryout.
Barrichello was dropped from the Williams F1 lineup when Sir Frank opted to sign Bruno Senna. Kanaan’s email suggested there was life after F1 - in the IZOD IndyCar Series.
Said Barrichello: "I don't have anything else (in competitive driving in 2011), so we'll see."
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.
This entry originally appeared on this site in November, 2009. From time to time during the off-season, when legitimate auto racing news is in short supply, I will re-publish items about subjects that I particular enjoy. This one got a lot of response - a day in the life of a couple of warriors, when racing was racin' and men were men.
When there’s no more racing to go to, or watch on TV, I spend my spare time reading about it.
I have magazines and books coming out of my ears.
And they’re all over the place: bookcases upstairs, bookcases downstairs and boxes and boxes of magazines. I never throw anything out, so there’s lots in the garage.
I should be more organized. My wife will see me going down to the basement, and up to my home office, and out to the garage and back in to do it all over again and she knows not to ask because she knows I’m looking for a book or an article to check a fact, recall an incident or find a quote because I know the damn thing is around the house somewhere.
I have three favourite motor racing journalists. Nigel Roebuck (isn’t he everybody’s favourite?), who writes about all things Formula One – the races, the racers and the politics. I bought Autosport magazine for years just for his column and articles. The CBC, back whenever, telecast a history of F1 that I was really lucky to tape and I found out later that he was the narrator. Now he’s editor of Motor Sport magazine. It is a pleasure – a pleasure – to read his stuff.
Then there is John G. Sawyer, an American educator who freelanced to the long-gone Open Wheel magazine a series of incredible profiles of old-time Indianapolis drivers who also raced midgets and sprint cars on dirt. He also wrote three books about those legends of the speedways.
I read his stuff again and again and again and never, ever, get tired of it. I know what the next sentence will be and I keep reading anyway.
Joe Scalzo is my third favourite. His beautiful book, The American Dirt Track Racer: 1951-1971 (he’s written more than a dozen in total but this one stands out), contains outstanding writing like this:
"There were not one but two possible final destinations for the dirt-track warrior. One was the Indy 500, where everybody wanted to go. The other was the marble orchard, where nobody wanted to go."
I love a great line, and that one about the cemetery – the "marble orchard" – is right up there.
In any event, last week I was reading an article by Roebuck in the latest Motor Sport in which he interviewed Mario Andretti about the years when he was just starting out as a professional midget and sprint car racer.
In the Roebuck piece, Andretti talks at length about the late U.S. Auto Club sprint and champ car driver Don Branson, who didn’t taste success until he was nearly in his 40s – which was ancient for the times.
In the article, Andretti professes great affection for Branson and discussed a particular incident involving the two of them: he’d run into Branson and spun him out during a race at Williams Grove Speedway in Pennsylvania, following which he suggests he received some fatherly advice from the grizzled veteran.
"Couple of days later, in Indianapolis, I’m having breakfast and I see Don’s at another table and he calls me over – Jesus, I knew what was coming. ‘Mario,’ he says very quietly, ‘how much money did you make at the Grove the other night?’ Not much, I says. ‘I know, Mario,’ he says. ‘You made about as much as I didn’t make because you took me out. Now, listen,’ he says, ‘let’s cut out that sort of crap, and we’ll both get to eat much better, right?’
"He never raised his voice, but I was shaking. ‘Do you hear me, Mario?’ he says. And you’d better believe, I heard him!’ "
That’s a great little yarn, I thought to myself, and then my long-term memory kicked in:
Wait a minute. I’ve read that story before, somewhere. The version I read was similar, but if I recall, Branson wasn’t being nearly as charitable. In fact, he was giving Andretti a warning.
So away I went – upstairs, downstairs, out to the garage and so-on – and there, finally, in the July 1988 issue of Open Wheel magazine was a story entitled "Gramps," which was the first of a two-part series by Sawyer on the life and times of Branson – "a simple, unpretentious man with the Illinois heartland written all over his face."
So I started to read Sawyer’s piece – man, what a way he had with those words – and in a part in which he interviewed Branson’s long-time crew chief, Jud Phillips, I found these passages:
"There was one . . . altercation with a newcomer that nearly pushed Don to violence. Mario Andretti was that newcomer and I never saw Don more angry. . .
"I’ll kid you not, Don was furious. However, he smoldered in silence. But you knew he was really hot – about as close to throwing fists as he ever got. Still, he said nothing.
"On the following Tuesday, Don and I were having breakfast at the Cove Restaurant in Indianapolis. In walks Mario with a couple of Clint Brawner’s people. And they sat right next to us.
"Now, ol’ Don hadn’t forgotten about all those slide-jobs from the previous weekend. He was still mad about it and upon seeing Mario, he turned bright red. ‘Uh-oh,’ I said to myself.
"Don just sat there, playin’ with his breakfast. Finally he spoke – and the tone was hardly friendly. ‘Hey, Mario,’ he says, ‘how much money did you make over at the Grove?’ Mario didn’t answer right away but eventually he said he hadn’t made very much. ‘Yeah, I know,’ ol’ Don growled. ‘About as much as I didn’t make when you spun us both out. So – let’s cut out that kind of crap and we’ll both eat better.’ Then he said:
" ‘Do you hear me, Mario? No more of that crap,’ and that closed the subject. But Don had made his point."
The incident is the same and the quotes are almost the same. But two versions of the same story paint an entirely different picture of what went on between Mario Andretti and Don Branson in an Indianapolis restaurant all those years ago.
As we go through the winter, waiting for the Daytona 24 and then the 500, we’ll visit with all three of these writers from time to time.
It’s a pleasure for me to write about them. I hope you’ll get the same pleasure reading about them and the people and races they wrote about.
A high-profile professional athlete has found out what things are like in the real world.
No more pampering, no more putting up with temper-tantrums, no more embarrassing the boss or the sponsor who pays the bills.
Kurt Busch has been told by Roger Penske not to let the door hit him in the butt on the way out. He’s been fired, canned, downsized, whacked.
And not a minute too soon.
Penske fired driver Busch late Sunday as the result of a public meltdown following his elimination from the season-ending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway earlier this month.
Penske waited until the weekend's end-of-season ceremonies in Las Vegas were over before handing Busch the pink slip. According to Charlotte.com, which broke the story Sunday night, the official announcement would be made some time Monday (Penske link here).
(Both Busch and a spokesman for Penske Corp. said Monday afternoon that Busch was not fired but that there was an amicable parting of the ways. Both Busch and the Penske executive couldn't have said nicer things about each other if they'd been written . . .)
The reason for the firing - er, amicable parting of the ways - was Busch's tirade directed at ESPN/ABC pit reporter Dr. Jerry Punch when the network was slow to leave race action in order for the driver to be interviewed after he was forced out of the race because of transmission problems.
After asking "why can't we tape this?" Busch became agitated and swore at both interviewer Punch and a camerman. Eventually, Punch said to "forget it" and walked off. Busch went into the Penske hauler but the scene was recorded on video by a fan with a cellphone (see the video below).
Warning: Strong language
This was the third or fourth incident this season in which Kurt Busch - not to be confused with his younger brother Kyle Busch, who escaped being fired recently by Joe Gibbs Racing after losing his temper during a Camping World Truck Series race and deliberately wrecking an opponent - lost control of his emotions.
He dressed down his crew and swore at his crew chief during a race (the profanity over the team radio was heard on live television), had to be restrained from attacking a television reporter who asked him a charged question and refused to answer questions when confronted by another journalist.
Some of these transgressions may appear to be minor (I sympathized - somewhat - with Busch when I saw the cellphone video of the Punch incident; he had just suffered a major disappointment and had to wait, and wait, and wait to be interviewed when, I'm sure, he just wanted to get out of there) but in the commercial world of NASCAR, where the teams and drivers are paid millions to represent corporations who are providing those millions, you can't behave like a Saturday night dirt car jockey just starting out.
As professional football, baseball, basketball, hockey and golf players are not allowed to behave like jerks, racing drivers aren't either. Both Busch brothers have lost sight of this throughout their careers and it is to Roger Penske's credit that he said enough is enough, and pulled the plug.
You wonder if executives at Mars Inc., which agreed with Joe Gibbs to continue to support Kyle Busch in 2012 after removing their wraps from his cars in the last two races of 2011, might be wondering today if they should have done the same thing.
Of course, Mars has an executive board and those things are quicksand when it comes to making a decision. Penske runs Penske and his word is law. Although Roger has a board of directors, it's clear that he calls the shots. And he calls those shots pretty well.
It's also clear that Kurt Busch didn't see the dismissal coming. He gave a press conference in Las Vegas on Friday in which he talked about working through some issues with a sports psychologist but then veered off on a tangent and said some pretty strong things about a previous employer.
He must have known he was walking on thin ice and yet he still kept going further and further out from shore.
The ice finally broke Sunday night.
There are few, if any, good rides available for 2012, so Busch could be in some trouble - unless he takes his personal millions and purchases the Red Bull team, which is in the process of going out of business, and runs his own entry.
On the other hand, this might turn out to be good news for Sam Hornish Jr. Hornish was a highly successful Indy car driver for Penske but has had trouble adapting to stock cars.
However, Penske has never wavered in his support for Hornish, who won the second-last Nationwide Series race this year (his first in NASCAR), and announced plans to run him for a full season in the Nationwide in 2012.
Might Penske move Hornish up to the big team? We'll see.
Meantime, last week was not a good one for promising young Canadian racing drivers.
Two, in particular.
Ironically, they're both profiled in the current issue of Sportsnet magazine as young guys on the way up.
Robert Wickens, 22, of Guelph and Toronto, was the first one to get a kick in the stomach when he found out, at the Grand Prix of Brazil, that a Formula One ride in 2012 that he had been led to believe he had a shot at was being given to a young European driver whose curriculum vitae is nowhere near Wickens’s.
There was Wickens, at the Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo, site of the last F1 race of the 2011 season, in his role as official reserve driver for the Marussa-Virgin F1 team. He was reigning champion of the World Series by Renault and had been told by his sponsor, the Marussia supercar company, that all they were looking for in a potential F1 driver was results.
He had kept his part of the bargain and delivered, in spades. He had won the 2011 Renault F3.5 title after two seasons of finishing second in two other European F1 feeder series, Formula 2 and GP3.
So right in the middle of the Grand Prix weekend, Wickens find out – as did the world – that a young French driver named Charles Pic, who in six years of racing in comparable series to Wickens had never finished higher than third in the standings, would become a Formula One driver in 2012 as a teammate to the underachieving Timo Glock.
Of course, the Marussia-Virgin F1 team – like most of the teams in F1 these days (McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari excepted) – never saw a cheque it didn’t like. Despite what Wickens had been told, that all Marussa was looking for was results, in the end they went for the money and not the talent.
So that was disappointment No. 1. Here comes No. 2.
In mid-week, James Hinchcliffe of Oakville, who had won the Sunoco Rookie of the Year title in the IZOD IndyCar Series this year, found out that he was suddenly unemployed as a result of his team, Newman/Haas Racing, announcing it would not be participating in the IZOD IndyCar Series in 2012.
Hinchcliffe, who turns 25 today (Monday), had paid his dues and was enjoying his success. A veteran of the Formula BMW, Star Mazda, Champ Car Atlantic, A1-GP and Indy Lights series, Hinch put all his eggs in one basket over the winter of 2010-11 and made it plain that it would be the Big Leagues or nothing by the time spring and summer arrived.
Thank goodness that the Toronto investment firm Sprott Inc. opted to sponsor him. Despite missing the opening race of the season, Hinchcliffe went on to finish 12th in points, won the rookie title and looked to be well on his way.
But then came Thursday’s announcement and despite putting his best face forward – "I'll have to regroup but there are still some seats available on good teams," he told me on the phone – he had clearly been gobsmacked.
"Hinch," like Wickens, is the perfect driver for a modern-day racing team: fast in the car but – just as important – social media savvy. He’s just the ticket needed to connect with young fans.
Although not officially disappointment No. 3, the fact that two young tiger Canadian drivers are now looking for rides in 2012 does not bode well for Paul Tracy in his quest to land full-time employment in 2012 (I still maintain Wickens would be better off trying Indy cars than continuing to try to make an impression in Europe).
It was going to be an iffy proposition in any event. Love him as we all do, Tracy is just not as fast as he was when he was a kid and when push comes to shove, and the choice comes down to a Wickens or a Hinchcliffe or a Tracy, some car owner is going to nod toward the first two before he sticks out his hand to the veteran who's third in line.
And that, as Stone Cold Steve Austin would say, is the bottom line.
Notebook:
– Tony Stewart was crowned NASCAR Sprint Cup champion in Las Vegas at the weekend and that pretty much wraps up the 2011 season. The Red Bull stock car team is kaput (although there is a rumour around that someone still wants to buy it . . . Jacques Villeneuve, perhaps? . . . but just what is left to purchase?) The employees have all been let go and what infrastructure remains is anybody’s guess.
On the driver front, Kyle Busch is being urged to just be a Sprint Cup driver in 2012; the thinking being that trying to race in three series might be contributing to his periodic meltdowns. Meantime, his brother, Kurt Busch, has let it be known he's working with a sports psychologist to try to get his emotions under control.
– Autosport magazine threw a gala in London Sunday night and handed out a pile of awards. Sebastien Vettel was named international racing driver of the year and Jenson Button was honoured as British driver of the year. Dan Wheldon was given a posthumous award to recognize his lifetime achievements in motorsport, which was accepted by his father, Clive, and his IndyCar friend and rival, Dario Franchitti. F1 driver Paul di Resta was named Rookie of the Year.
– French driver Sebastien Ogier won the Race of Champions over Tom Kristensen at the Esprit Arena in Dusseldorf. Michael Schumacher and a whole bunch of racing people were there. In Brazil, F1 driver Jaime Alguersuari won Felipe Massa’s annual go-kart celebrity race with Lucas di Grassi and Rubens Barrichello second and third. Jules Bianchi, a soon-to-be-Ferrari driver (development program) actually won but was disqualified for being underweight. His car was too light, that is.
– The World of Outlaws sprint cars will race four times in five nights in Canada next July, kicking off their "northern swing" at Autodrome Granby, Autodrome Drummondville, Cornwall Motor Speedway and then the Brantford-area Ohsweken Speedway, where the feature this year was won by none other than Tony Stewart. Trust me on this: if you have never seen the Outlaws in action, go.
MONDAY NIGHT UPDATE: NASCAR fined Kyle Busch $50,000 and put him on probation until Dec. 31 for actions detrimental to stock car racing as a result of the incident with Ron Hornaday at Texas Motor Speedway last Friday night.
Earlier . . .
You have to wonder which of his sponsors refused permission for Joe Gibbs to fire Kyle Busch, because at least one of them did or else Busch wouldn’t have been allowed to watch Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race from the comfort of the team’s pit box at Texas Motor Speedway.
What made it worse is that Busch was allowed to sit down to watch the race; owner Gibbs had to stand behind him the whole time.
(Or else Busch hopped up there first and sat down and put on the headphones, just like anyone who feels entitled would do. And Gibbs, ever the gentleman he is, didn’t want to create a scene by tapping him on the shoulder and saying something like, "Hey, Junior – you’re in my seat.")
Seeing Busch sitting there – calm, cool and seemingly unware that he escaped being on Death Row for doing something Friday night that very well could have resulted in the death of another racing driver – was disappointing, to say the least.
The question all weekend – at least ever since Busch lined up a Camping World Series truck being driven by Ron Hornaday on Friday night and deliberately sent it slamming into the outside wall at that same Texas Speedway – had been whether Gibbs would fire Busch.
As NASCAR had earlier handed down the stiffest penalty it had ever levied against a driver, and said so when it suspended Busch from competition for the rest of the weekend’s Nationwide and Sprint Cup races, it’s unlikely there will be anything further – although it remains an option.
But when Gibbs said after the suspension was announced that he would be "talking to sponsors," you got the feeling he was asking permission to set Busch down, either for the rest of the season or even longer.
The former coach of the Washington Redskins, Gibbs is a person who has the patience of Job. He previously put up with Tony Stewart’s temper tantrums when "Smoke" drove for him (he made him take anger management counselling) but all Tony ever really did was be rude to reporters.
Kyle Busch, however, has always been a handful. He once threatened to kill Denny Hamlin on national television (it was a radio transmission but there was no doubting his fury), he refused to speak to the media (there was one famous race a year ago when he ran away from reporters by ducking in and out of transporters in the paddock and then made his final escape by running across the track and out a gate) and generally made a royal pain of himself.
That, of course, was the old Kyle Busch. The new Kyle Busch arrived on the scene at the beginning of this year and butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. He was kind, friendly, funny, cooperative and just about completely opposite from the jerk we used to know.
I put it down to his marriage; others said he’d obviously spent time with the Gibbs-contracted anger counsellors. Whichever, he was a different guy. Even when Richard Childress put him in a headlock and punched him, Busch kept his cool (and that must have been a true test).
Everything was wonderful until Friday night, early in the truck race, when Busch and Hornaday were running side-by-side and came across a slower truck. Hornaday had to move up the track to avoid a collison and sideswiped Busch in the process.
It was the sort of thing you see dozens of times over the course of a season in any kind of racing. It was no big deal.
But if you ever want to see road rage in action, take a look at the video and see what happened next.
Now, trying to explain intent is a very difficult thing to do because nobody really knows what’s in another person’s mind.
Did Busch simply try to send a message to Hornaday, along the lines of "don’t do that again?" Or did he try to do something more sinister?
I don’t know.
Did Todd Bertuzzi mean to break Steve Moore’s neck when he sucker-punched him in that hockey game? Did that guy who ran the yellow light in Mississauga the other day mean to kill two people? Did the guy who got into a bar fight in Toldedo mean to kill that other guy?
I don’t know.
But it doesn’t matter. When something bad happens, there have to be consequences – even when somebody "didn’t mean to do it (as Busch seems to imply in his letter of apology to the world)."
Kyle Busch got off easy because Ron Hornaday walked away from that accident. But what if he hadn’t?
NASCAR sent its message and it’s highly unlikely it will do anything further. Joe Gibbs might have sent a message but the sight of Kyle Busch sitting in that pit box Sunday, with his boss standing behind him, was symbolic in more ways than one.
It was, to be blunt, an opportunity missed.
WEEKEND RACING:
– Tony Stewart won his second Cup race in a row at Texas (and fourth in eight Chase races) when he held off Carl Edwards and Kasey Kahne to win the Sprint Cup race there Sunday. Edwards now leads the points race by three over Stewart. Although many of the other drivers are still mathematically in the Chase, the championship is now down to those two. Only two races remain – Phoenix next Sunday and then Homestead-Miami. It will go right down to the wire. Full story here.
– Trevor Bayne won the Nationwide Series race on Saturday and became the fourth Nationwide driver to win a race in the series, the 29 other victories all going to Sprint Cup regulars who dropped down. Denny Hamlin (driving Kyle Busch’s car) finished second and Carl Edwards was third. Danica Patrick qualified 11th and finished 11th. Full story here
– Donny Schatz won the final race of the World of Outlaws sprint car season on the Dirt Track at Charlotte. Steve Kinser finished second and Craig Dollansky was third. Schatz won the A-Main on Friday night, too. And Tim McReadie of Watertown, N.Y. (yeah, he’s Barefoot Bob’s kid) won both Super DIRT Series races at Charlotte on the weekend.
– Luca di Montezemolo unleashed a barrage at the FIA over the weekend, saying in effect that if Formula One wanted Ferrari to continue in the category, it had better ease off on testing rules and third cars, in general, and technical regulations in particular. "We are here as constructors, not sponsors," he told media covering Ferrari’s World Finals event at Mugello, suggesting that F1 had to be cutting edge again while still keeping an eye on costs. He suggested F1 is the only sport in the world that doesn’t allow practicing, which is wrong, and said fans would rather see three competitive cars from one marque in a race rather than some underfunded, uncompetitive entry from another that’s being passed every three or four laps.
– In other F1 news, the FIA has officially confirmed that Virgin, Renault and Team Lotus will all have new names for 2012. Renault becomes Lotus. Lotus becomes Caterham. And Virgin becomes Marussia. Clear as mud, right? Who wants to bet that at least two of those teams have new names again within the next two years?
– Casey Stoner beat Ben Spies by 0.015 seconds in the MotoGP event at Valencia in Spain. Full story here.
BACK TO KYLE BUSCH:
Here's an interesting take on the weekend's going-on in NASCAR. The author, Carol Einarsson, dumps all over Michael Waltrip for firing David Reutimann and suggests that if Joe Gibbs wants to get rid of a problem, there's a driver available . . . the good read is here.
Ron Hornaday (and you can't blame him) had some interesting things to say about Kyle Busch and Friday night's little incident:
"If NASCAR doesn't (park Busch), I'm hanging around, and I'm going to buy Tommy Baldwin's ride and that guy will never finish another race. . . We'll see what NASCAR does. If they don't handle it right, I'll be over at his house Monday morning.''
AND . . . IS STEWART'S NASCAR TEAM REALLY HENDRICK'S?
BUT FIRST: REWARDING SUCCESS
Huge breaking news this afternoon for Canada's Formula One hope, Robert Wickens of Guelph and Toronto.
Wickens, the Marussia Virgin F1 team's reserve driver, will take part in the first Free Practice session of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix next Friday morning as a reward for winning the 2011 World Series by Renault Formula Renault 3.5 Championship.
It's another step in the process of the 22-year-old's march to become the first Canadian to race in Formula One since Jacques Villeneuve.
Wickens's Renault campaign was sponsored by the Marussia car company, who decided that his success in securing the title was deserving of the opportunity to test theF1 car in a race weekend environment.
It's particularly good news for Wickens, because the man he defeated for the Formula 3.5 title, Jean-Eric Vergne, will be running the free practice in one of the Toro Rosso team cars and this puts them on an even footing, so far as showing their talent is concerned.
Of course, the Toro Rosso is a better car than the Marussia Virgin entry, but Vergne's performance will be measured against regular driver Sebastian Buemi's and Wickens's will be held up for comparison to regular Virgin driver Jérôme D’Ambrosio, so although they'll be on track together, the competition will be within their individual teams.
Wickens has been in the Virgin F1 car before. He took part in a straight-line test in September in Vairano, Italy, where he helped the team gather data for its aerodynamic evaluation program. His role next Friday will be to provide a continuation of this experience but in the more critical context of a Grand Prix, where his feedback will have a direct benefit on the team’s race weekend performance.
Wickens will run in car No. 25 alongside Timo Glock and in place of D’Ambrosio. It will be business as usual in the afternoon with D'Ambrosio back in the cockpit.
Said John Booth, team principal of Marussia Virgin Racing: “Robert has had a fantastic season in Formula Renault 3.5 and was the deserving victor of a hard-fought championship. One of the founding principles of our Young Driver Program was that we would reward success with important seat time to aid the progression of our rising stars through the ranks."
Said Wickens: “I’m thrilled to be given the opportunity to test with the team in a race weekend context and at a track like Abu Dhabi. This year just keeps getting better and better and I can’t thank Marussia enough for their continued support.
"The Vairano test was a good grounding for me but the opportunity to kick things up a gear in a free practice session is obviously the next big step in my career and I hope my feedback will have a positive benefit on the team’s performance there.”
Now, heading into this weekend’s Sprint Cup race at Fort Worth, Tony Stewart is only eight points behind leader Carl Edwards in the Chase for the Championship and really seems to have the bit in his teeth. Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski and Matt Kenseth are running third through fifth in the Chase and all could end up winning it and the last three races promise to be really exciting.
But I have a question: how much of Stewart’s success is because of his Stewart-Haas Racing team and how much of it belongs to Rick Hendrick?
Stewart-Haas has a “working” relationship with Hendrick. Tony gets his cars and his engines from Hendrick and actually works with Hendrick’s organization on race setup for his car and Ryan Newman’s. Of course, he and Newman then race the cars and have pit crews to change tires and gas up the car during pit stops but – for all intents and purposes – this sure seems to be pretty much a Hendrick team.
Of course, it couldn’t be. NASCAR has a limit on the number of cars each team can enter in races — four — and Hendrick is full up with Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Dale Jr.
But Stewart doesn’t hold a lot back when talking about the partnership. In an interview with Dave Rodman of NASCAR.com, he said this:
"I don't think that there's anything that they (Hendrick) are holding back from us that we could ask for, to be honest. We work very closely with them every week with the setups. Our engines — I have the ability, and Ryan does, too — if we feel like we aren't getting a good enough engine, we can sit there and look at all six dyno sheets for our engines and handpick the one we want if we so desire.
"I have confidence that our relationship with Rick and his whole group is very solid and that we are getting everything that we need from them. It's just our job to execute it and finish it out on the weekend."
Three of Hendrick’s drivers are in the Chase (Martin’s the only one out) but none are currently in the top five. There have been suggestions, as a result, that Stewart-Haas has been receiving A-list equipment of late in an effort by Hendrick to do all he can to help this “satellite” team win the championship.
Speaking of Rick Hendrick, his injuries as a result of that plane accident he was in earlier this week were more serious than first thought and he’s in hospital in Charlotte where doctors feel they can manage his pain better. He wasn’t badly hurt but broken ribs can really hurt and he suffered four of them
As I am one of the few people alive who actually watched the Toronto Maple Leafs win their last Stanley Cup (quick now: what year?) I have a most difficult choice to make about what to watch on Saturday night because I am also a huge fan of the sport of auto racing.
So, should I watch the Amazin’ Leafs? At time of writing, they are tied for first place overall in the National Hockey League (when was the last time that happened? 1902?) and they will be playing the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins at the ACC.
Or should I watch the season finale of the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series, live and in colour, on Speed Channel? Although Jason Meyers has already won the championship, the World Finals being held on the dirt track at Charlotte Motor Speedway will still be frantic, with bench-racing boasting and serious money on the line.
I think I have a solution: the hockey game will start at or about 7:10 p.m. Eastern. I can watch the first period and at least part of Coach’s Corner before the sprint car races start at 8 p.m. on Speed.
Problem solved.
By the way, the guy starting on pole Friday night at Charlotte (no TV but Friday time trials are always a harbinger of things to come) is none other than the driver who won the Canadian Sprint Car Nationals at Ohsweken Speedway a little while ago, Sam Hafertepe Jr. of Sunnyvale, Tex.
“Having a good car tonight (Thursday) means a lot and also means we will probably have a good car for the rest of the weekend,” said Hafertepe, whose crew chief is a Canadian, Daryl Turford of Brampton.
Steve Kinser, Donny Schatz, Joey Saldana and Craig Dollansky are other Outlaws regulars who will be at Charlotte.
I’m getting worked up just writing about it.
More than $200,000 has been raised by that Graham Rahal-promoted online auction to help the widow and two young boys of Dan Wheldon.
Many “big-ticket” items have yet to come up for bidding, including the last race-worn helmet in the possession of Graham’s father, Bobby Rahal. Memorabilia from other Indy drivers, NASCAR and F1 stars is all on the block.
Joey Saldana is what those of us in this biz call a “good news” story.
A front-running sprint car star with the World of Outlaws (they took a swing through Canada earlier this summer, touching down at Ohsweken Speedway on the Six Nations Reserve as well as race tracks in eastern Ontario and Quebec), Saldana has been knocking on the door of the series championship for several years now.
The son of “Little” Joe Saldana, who won the Knoxville Nationals in 1970 and who made two starts in the Indianapolis 500, Saldana Jr. was running particularly well this year before disaster struck when he flipped during the Kings Royal race at Eldora Speedway in Ohio and really did a number on his right arm and some ribs. He also suffered a punctured lung.
Out of action for several months, Saldana returned to action Wednesday night at Hartford Motor Speedway in Michigan to go up against all the regular Outlaw runners once again — the Kinsers, the Dolanskys, the Schatzes and the rest of those guys — and promptly won his first race back.
According to a release from the Outlaws, many people told him it was too soon. His family and friends cautioned him against it. Joey Saldana, though, knew Wednesday night at Hartford Motor Speedway was his time to strap himself back into harness.
With support from his car owner, NASCAR star Kasey Kahne, he got aboard the No. 9 Red Bull Maxim sprint car for the first time in nine weeks. He won the pole position and dominated the 25-lap feature.
“This was way more than I expected tonight,” said Saldana, of Brownsburg, Ind. “My family thought it was too soon but I kept telling them I was ready.
“I wanted to come back and be competitive and build something for next year. That’s why I came back for these races. I know and respect racing. Several drivers have been in accidents like mine and will never crawl back into a car. I’m very lucky and blessed to be here tonight and to come away with a win is huge.”
Saldana is an intelligent and philosophical race driver, as those quotes above showed, and in things he said when I interviewed him several years ago for a Toronto Star Wheels column.
On children racing: "My dad didn't push me (into racing). I have a 5-year-old son and I won't push him either. There are too many kids who really don't want to do it; their fathers make them. I was in my middle teens before I decided to try racing and my first race was in a go-kart. That's when I started to get interested.”
On rainouts when the tour is in Canada: "To go all that way, to go through the trouble of clearing customs and then not get to race can be very frustrating. Yes, we race a lot (about 80 races a year) so we're on the road a lot. But a night off really isn't welcome. We'd rather be home if we're not doing our job, which is to drive in and win sprint car races."
On making it to Indy: "I'm in my late 30s and a professional sprint car driver with the World of Outlaws. I think they're looking for young guys who can bring money. That doesn't mean I wouldn't jump at the opportunity, but at this time of my life, I'm real happy to just be where I am."
And where he is, is at the front of the pack. Where he belongs.
WICKENS STILL LEADS IN RENAULT F-3.5; SPENGLER SLIPS IN DTM
Here is a quick look at other races this weekend:
– Toronto driver Paul Dalla Lana was honoured Sunday night at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland for winning the Grand Sport title in the Grand Am Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. Dalla Lana finished sixth in this weekend’s EMCO Gear Classic at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course to score enough points to wrap up the championship. Congratulations!
Scott Maxwell of Toronto finished 10th in a Multimatic Motorsports Mustang; Taylor Hacquard of Vancouver was 23rd overall and third in the ST class; Ashley McCalmont of Dundas was 48th overall and 28th in class.
Meantime, Scott Pruett and Memo Rojas wrapped up the 2011 Grand Am Rolex Sports Car championship be finishing second in the Daytona Prototype class at Mid-Ohio to Ryan Dalziel and Enzo Potolicchio.
– Scott Steckly of Milverton, Ont., stretched his NASCAR Canadian Tire Series championship lead by winning the Komatsu 300 presented by Wilson Equipment at Riverside Speedway near Antigonish, N.S., on Saturday.
Pete Shepherd III of Brampton battled former series champion Steckly, who started from pole, for much of the race but fell back in the closing laps to finish second. Third place went to hometown favourite Donald Chisholm of Antigonish while defending series champion D.J. Kennington of St. Thomas wound up fourth.
Kerry Micks of Mt. Albert was fifth with J.R. Fitzpatrick of Cambridge, Jason Hathaway of Appin, Ont., Ron Beauchamp Jr. of Windsor, Chris Raabe of Napanee and Mark Dilley of Barrie rounding out the top ten.
The victory was Steckly’s third of the 2011 season and the 11th of his NASCAR career.
"It was the best day possible," said Steckly, driver of the No. 22 Canadian Tire/MotoMaster Dodge. "We were the fastest car in practice, won the pole and won the race. I can’t ask for much more than that."
The caution flag only waved twice during the event while the lead changed eight times among four drivers with Steckly leading a race-high 194 of them.
Steckley leads the standings with 1,785 points, followed by Kennington with 1,691 and Fitzpatrick with 1,604.
The season will conclude, and a champion will be crowned, next Saturday at Kawartha Speedway in Fraserville, near Peterborough.
- Ex-National Speed Sport News reporter Mike Kerchner reports that Sam Hafertepe Jr. won the Canadian Sprint Car Nationals at Ohsweken Speedway on Saturday. Hafertepe won $11,000 and added the Nationals to his 2011 curriculum vitae that includes his first World of Outlaws Series victory.
Shane Stewart and Dustin Daggett won preliminary features leading up to the Nationals.
Warning to racers: yet another hauler and trailer complete with sprint car and touring equipment has been stolen, this one from the Days Inn in Brantford. Load up your rigs with alarms, people. Or have somebody sleep in the cab.
– Canadian F1 hope Robert Wickens of Guelph and Toronto still leads the World Series of Renault championship by two points over his Carlin Motorsports teammate Jean-Eric Vergne but it was a near-disastrous double-header weekend for the young Canadian at Circuit Paul Ricard in southern France.
Wickens finished second to his teammate in the opening race on Saturday (he was third on track but a penalty moved him up to second) and then was 19th in the race Sunday (Vergne finished third) after he suffered a puncture while duking it out with another rival, Sergio Canamasas of Spain.
The championship will now be settled in the final double-header of the season on Oct. 8-9 in Barcelona.
– At Mazda Raceway in California Saturday, Dyson Racing, with Chris Dyson and Guy Smith driving, won the 2011 American Le Mans Series LMP1 Drivers and Team championships.
In addition, Mazda won the Engine Manufacturer’s title and Dunlop took won the Tire Championship with one race to go in the ALMS season, the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
Dyson and Smith won the championship but actually finished second in the race to the Lola P1 trio of Adrian Fernandez, Harold Primat and Stephan Mucke. Canadians: Kyle Marcelli of Barrie finished seventh overall and third in the Prototype Challenge class; Tony Burgess of Toronto was 26th in a Lola P1; Kenny Wilden of Oakville was 33rd, driving in the GT class.
– Audi driver Mattias Ekström won the German Touring Car Championship race Sunday at the Motorsport Arena Oschersleben in Germany. Canadian Bruno Spengler, driving for Mercedes, slipped to second place in the standings when he was forced to retire with suspension problems.
Go Canada Racing team owner Steve Meehan and Michael (Pinball) Clemons with the race car.
Lots of racing going on this weekend. Here’s some info you’ll need to plan, but first . . .
J.R. Fitzpatrick of Cambridge will be driving the No. 67 Go Canada Racing Ford in Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series at Watkins Glen and instead of corporate logos on the car there will be several promoting charities.
Canadian businessman Steve Meehan, who owns the team, is using the race car to drive awareness and raise funds for charitable causes not only at the Glen this weekend but at Montreal next week when the Go Canada team will compete in the NASCAR Nationwide Series event at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.
Fitzpatrick’s car at both races will be decked out with logos for the Michael (Pinball) Clemons Foundation (MPCF) and the Rally for Kids with Cancer Scavenger Cup in support of SickKids Foundation.
Said Meehan: “The NASCAR team is a great way to raise funds and awareness for good causes. Given the huge popularity of NASCAR in Canada and the potential exposure a team can receive, it creates a great opportunity to help other organizations and inspire others to be philanthropic in their community.”
Sad news. One of the founders of the Deutscher Automobil Club and a sports car racer in his own right back in the Fifties and Sixties, Rudolf (Rudy) Mueller, died on Monday and his funeral is planned for today (Friday) at noon at the Marshall Funeral Home, 10366 Yonge St., Richmond Hill. He leaves his daughter Margaret and his brother Inge. He was predeceased by his wife, Norma. Rudy, who’ll be buried at Holy Cross Cemetery, was 77. A trophy honouring the DAC Women’s Champion is named for him.
Okay, the racing.
As mentioned, Fitzpatrick will be driving the 67 car in the Nationwide race Saturday afternoon (pre-race show at 1 on TSN2, with the race to follow at 2). Ron Fellows will be partnering Jimmie Johnson on Dale Jr.’s JR Motorsports team. Said Fellows this week about driving the 5 car at the Glen:
“You can bet our Canadian Tire team will be ready to go this weekend. We came so close to winning at Road America. It was an emotional rollercoaster for everyone after that race. As a racer, it’s so difficult to have the win seemingly in your grasp and then be told you’re runner-up instead. And unfortunately, there is no trophy for second place. So we’ve got a lot of motivation on our side heading up to Watkins Glen.
“I’m confident in this team. I’m thrilled to be back with (crew chief) Tony (Eury) Jr. and all these guys. Their hard work and dedication showed when we unloaded at Road America as fast as we were. I know they’ll do the same this week at the Glen.”
By the way, Brad Keselowski’s injured ankle is still hurting him, so he’s stepped out of his Penske Racing ride in the Nationwide race and will be replaced by Kurt Busch.
That puts Kurt Busch and Johnson on the track together for the first time since their little dust-up on the final lap at Pocono last weekend, following which there were angry words exchanged.
As someone wrote in the last day or two, this could set up a little joust in which these guys can “have at it” without worrying about being penalized and losing points in the Sprint Cup series.
We’ll see.
In any event, Fellows, second Canadian Andrew Ranger and all the Cup regulars in addition to Busch the Elder and Johnson will be lining up for the Sprint Cup race at the Glen that will go at 1 on Sunday on TSN2 with the pre-race show coming on at noon.
Tony Stewart – who says he’s broken up with his girlfriend, sprint car driver Jessica Zemken – has won this race at the Glen about six times, so I suggest he could be a favourite.
If you’re interested in watching practice and qualifying in both the Nationwide and Sprint Cup series, all of which are on Speed TV, go to www.racefantv.ca for the schedule of times. Oh, and by the way: the Grand Am Rolex Sports Car Series race from Watkins Glen can be seen on Speed at 6 p.m. on Saturday.
Later on Sunday at 4 p.m. on TSN2 (unless the Cup race goes late), the IZOD IndyCar Series return to New Hampshire Motor Speedway will be covered and it’s great to see James Hinchcliffe’s name on the entry list. For a rookie, he does pretty well on ovals: he finished seventh in Iowa and sixth at Milwaukee.
Having said that, IndyCar hasn’t raced at New Hampshire for eons and Hinchcliffe hasn’t even seen the place. Ergo, he was planning to watch some old videos of races there (I would suggest the ’93 duel between Paul Tracy and Nigel Mansell as one place to start).
“Certainly old videos help a lot,” Hinchcliffe said. “They give you a sense of what the place looks like from onboard and also the old race footage can teach you a little bit about how the track races. I wish I had a simulator that had this track! That would help a ton!”
A big field – 27 cars – will take the green flag for that New Hampshire race. Besides Hinchcliffe, Alex Tagliani is the other Canada entered.
One quick thing before we go. Sprint Car racing’s biggest show, the Knoxville Nationals, are on this weekend but for the second year in a row there is no live TV coverage.
The people who run the Nationals noticed several years ago that crowds were declining and reacted by taking the live show off TV but showing the Saturday night final heats and the A Main a couple of weeks later.
Boo. Hiss.
For the sake of a couple of thousand tickets sold (the place is still pretty much packed for the Nationals), a potential TV audience of millions is blacked out.
If I’m a sponsor of World of Outlaws sprint car racing, I’m not happy.
And regardless of how terrific a race (or the racing) might be, I do not watch something that is two or three weeks old, whether it’s baseball, hockey, football or auto racing.
The folks who produce tape-delay events always seem to be able to come up with glowing viewership numbers and I’ve never been able to figure that out. I could understand it in 1991 but in 2011, forget it.
