Norris McDonald's Auto Racing Blog

Racing: Thomson, Stewart back in harness

Great news. Two of the real "pros’ in Canadian motorsport, Don Thomson Jr. and Brian Stewart, are back for the 2011 season.

Thomson, a five-time CASCAR Super Series champion who’s come close (but no cigar) in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, has reached agreement to partner driver Jason Hathaway in the Team 3 Red/Ed Hakonson Racing team out of Stouffville for the 2011 NCTS season.

Thomson, of Hamilton, was released by Fitzpatrick Racing of Cambridge at the end of 2010 and stock car racing fans from coast-to-coast have had their fingers crossed ever since that Thomson would land a competitive ride for 2011.

Best known for piloting the Home Hardware-sponsored No. 4 for Fitzpatrick, there is no official word on sponsorship for the 2011 season but whoever puts their support behind Thomson will get their money’s worth: since the start of the 2007 season, he’s won six races and scored 11 pole positions.

The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series will open its 12-race season at Mosport Speedway on May 28.

Stewart, meantime, is back in harness after putting his Sutton-based Indy Lights racing team on ice for the 2010 season following a disastrous outing at Kansas Speedway in 2009 when both of his cars were destroyed.

His Brian Stewart Racing is running 15-year-old Matthew DiLeo of Innisfil, Ont., in the U.S. Formula 2000 series this year and the team and driver recently finished third in the inaugural Cooper Tires Winterfest Series held in Florida.

Two races were held at Sebring International Raceway and three at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The championship was won by Andretti Autosport’s Zach Veach of Stockdale, Ohio.

The first two races of the 2011 season for the F2000 cars will be at Sebring March 17 and 18 as part of the American Le Mans Series’ 12 Hours of Sebring weekend.

Steward plans to re-establish his team as a contender in 2011 and return to Indy Lights by 2012, if not sooner.

IN OTHER RACING NEWS

– Marc Coma of Spain won his third Dakar Rally for motorcycles, Alejandro Patronelli of Argentina was best in quads, Qatar native Nasser Al-Attiyah in cars became the first Arab to win a Dakar and Vladimi Chagin of Russia won the trucks division as the 33^rd Dakar concluded Sunday in Buenos Aires.

Ninety-four bikes, 14 quads, 55 cars and 41 trucks made it to the finish.

Volkswagens swept the first three positions in the auto class and the victory was the third consecutive in that class for the VW marque.

– In Tulsa, Okla., Kevin Swindell of Germantown, Tenn., just nipped his father, Sammy, at the wire to win his second consecutive Chili Bowl Midget Nationals. Between them, father and son have won the Nationals seven times. Michael Pickens of New Zealand finished third.

It must be asked: is the Chili Bowl losing its luster? For the first time, no NASCAR Sprint Cup driver was entered, nor were any of the "name" NHRA drag racers. Tony Stewart, it seems, preferred to race in Australia. Strange, considering the Chili Bowl was celebrating its 25^th anniversary and has long been a mid-winter "gathering of the clan."

– Jonathan Legard is out as the play-by-play announcer for BBC Formula One telecasts (seen here in Canada on TSN) and ex-colour commentator Martin Brundle will take over.

I’d warmed to Legard and am sorry to see him go. And it will be interesting to see how Brundle does, considering there’s a big difference between filling in the blanks with "colour" and painting the whole picture.

Brundle’s place will be taken by David Coulthard.

Now, it’s curious to see that the BBC has gone to lengths to assure viewers/listeners that they are sure there will be no conflict of interest with Coulthard working the F1 broadcasts while still employed by Red Bull Racing as a consultant.

In fact, here's a direct quote from the Daily Record newspaper of Scotland:

"David Coulthard will not be asked to drop or suspend his ties with Red Bull in the interests of impartiality," a BBS spokeswoman said.

"We take steps to ensure that none of the off-air relationships that our talent may have can compromise on-air activity," she added.

Oh? Now, just how do you do that? David Coulthard is paid by Red Bull. While announcing for the BBC, all he says about Red Bull and the Red Bull drivers is positive and wonderful. How does anybody know that his BBC words are not being compromised by his Red Bull pay packet?

Brundle was Coulthard’s manager when Coulthard was racing and Brundle was commentating and if that’s not a conflict of interest, I don’t know what is.

And whether they ever signed a contract, I don’t know, but Brundle was in the running last year to manage Lewis Hamilton and although there might not have been a direct conflict, there was certainly the appearance of one because you can bet that Brundle wouldn’t slag Hamilton on-air if there was any chance he would soon be chosen to guide the young driver’s career.

I have said time and again that the BBC has been playing fast and loose with conflicts of interest when it comes to its F1 broadcast team and it’s still happening.

And by the way, who negotiated David Coulthard’s contract to be an F1 colour commentator for the BBC?

Martin Brundle?

Keselowski, Waltrip coming to Canada

If having IZOD IndyCar Champion — and two-time winner of the Molson/Honda Indy Toronto — Dario Franchitti at next month’s Canadian Motorsports Expo wasn’t enough, the news today is that NASCAR Nationwide Series champ Brad Keselowski is coming too.

Fans will be able to meet, greet and get an autograph from Keselowski — who’s a pretty good NASCAR Sprint Cup Series star as well — on Sun, Jan. 23, at the International Centre out by Toronto Pearson.

Franchitti will be the headliner at the Expo the day before. The show opens on the Friday evening with a special Ontario stock car racing show built around a late model car belonging to the late — and legendary — “Daytona” Don Biederman and a panel featuring Junior Hanley.

From humble beginnings five years ago, the Canadian Motorsports Expo has become a must-attend event. Held in the dead of winter, the Expo features special guests like Franchitti and Keselowski, manufacturer and speedway displays, panel discussions (translation: arguments) and other attractions that always help to get the juices flowing.

Keselowski — who’s also raced for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports — made headlines in 2010 with his intense, head-to-head battle with Carl Edwards. In fact, he set an altitude record at Atlanta last spring when Edwards gave his car a love tap exiting turn four, sending it up, up and away.

When Keselowski won the Nationwide title, it gave his car owner, Roger Penske, his first NASCAR championship — which is pretty hard to believe, considering how Penske cars have dominated Indy car racing for much of the last  30 years. Next year, the Michigan native will pilot Penske’s “Blue Deuce” No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge in the Sprint Cup Series.

Just before travelling to Toronto, Keselowski will take part in pre-season testing at the newly-resurfaced Daytona International Speedway, in advance of Speedweeks 2011 and the Daytona 500.

By the way, he won’t be the only NASCAR star appearing north of the border that Jan. 21-23 weekend. Michael Waltrip, who’s now trying to become a standup comedian (there are some who would say that his stock car racing career was pretty much a big joke), will be the headline act at the Caesars Windsor casino on the Saturday night.

The star of Michael Waltrip’s Comedy Garage will undoubtedly have the audience rolling in the aisles as he shoots off one-liners about starting in the NASCAR Cup series in 1985 and not winning a race until 2001 — a record of (what?) zero for 540?

Tony Kanaan to drive Indy cars for Gil de Ferran

One of the most popular – and talented – drivers in the IZOD IndyCar Series, Tony Kanaan, has signed on to drive for de Ferran Dragon Racing in 2011.

Built like a middleweight prize fighter and tough as nails at 200 miles an hour, Kanaan was cut loose from Andretti Autosport at the end of the 2010 season, ostensibly when the Seven-Eleven convenience store organization dropped its sponsorship of his car.

But there had to be something else goin’ on, as they say, because team owner Michael Andretti opted to sign similarly unsponsored driver Ryan Hunter-Reay to a multi-year contract after telling Kanaan he couldn’t afford to keep him around.

I supposed Andretti’s reasoning was that, a) Hunter-Reay is an American (it’s no secret there’s a push on to get more drivers from North America into that series) and, b) he’s younger. But Kanaan’s contribution to that team is immeasurable because he set up the cars for all the other racers on that team to drive. Yupper, Marco Andretti, Danica Patrick and anybody else who stepped into a car owned by Andretti Autosport was driving a car that Tony Kanaan had set up for them.

Michael Andretti had better hope his drivers and their respective team managers were paying attention because Tony ain’t gonna be around to perform that little task for them anymore.

In any event, although there was some concern Kanaan wouldn’t be able to land a competitive ride in time for the ’11 season, the signing announcement today didn’t really come as any surprise. Team co-owner Gil de Ferran has been a fan of Kanaan’s for years (they also have a cultural connection, as both come from Brazil)  and the other team co-owner, Jay Penske (like his father), knows talent when he sees it.

And let there be no doubt, Kanaan has talent. And owners love him because he's easy on the equipment. When he won the Indy car championship in 2004, for instance, he became the first driver in major auto racing history to complete every lap of every race.

“This is a great signing and a major coup for de Ferran Dragon Racing,” said de Ferran, in a release. “It is fantastic that we have Tony on board; he is a proven champion and brings with him a great record of successes on the track. Tony has consistently placed at the sharp end of the field for more than a decade and shows no signs of letting up. I am sure his contribution to the team, both in terms of speed and experience, will be invaluable to our development and future success.”

 “I am really excited to be working with de Ferran Dragon Racing,” confirmed Kanaan. "I know that the owners have a passion for the sport and a dream of being among the best in the series and will assemble all the right skills to turn this team into something really special and I want to be around for that!”

Raphael Matos, who drove for the team the last two seasons, is now unemployed. A super nova who arrived at the Indy car level two years ago after spectacular seasons in Formula Atlantic and Indy Lights, Matos was never able to find the magic necessary to do well in the big league. His two best finishes came just this year, when he was fourth in Brazil and again at Watkins Glen.

The 2011 IZOD IndyCar series begins March 27 at the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, Fla. The season will include a stop in Toronto for the Honda Indy, July 8-10.

Notes: Hamlin, Alonso are ‘best' drivers?

The problem with popularity contests is not that they’re usually wrong but that they’re completely cockeyed, particularly when it comes to sports.

In NASCAR, for instance, the fans get to vote on the most popular driver and they always pick that loser, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Fair enough.

But in a recent poll of Sprint Cup owners, drivers and crew chiefs, the question was: who is the best driver?

The winner was Denny Hamlin.

Now, I ask you: How can any group of people in their right mind pick anybody over the driver who has won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship the last five times, Jimmie Johnson?

If Denny Hamlin was the best driver, he’d have won the championship this year. He didn’t. He couldn’t handle the pressure. Johnson did.

Johnson is the best driver in the Sprint Cup series and will be until somebody beats him, at which time the new guy will be the best.

That might very well turn out to be Denny Hamlin, but until that happens, he’s not No. 1.

Now Formula One has done the same thing. Autosport magazine asked the 12 team principals to rank their top 10 drivers and they picked Fernando Alonso as the best.

Excuse me?

If Fernando Alonso is the best driver, why isn’t he world champion?

He had a Ferrari, which makes it even worse.

If he is the best driver, why couldn’t he at least have gotten past rookie pay driver Vitaly Petrov at the last race in Abu Dhabi?

They also voted the current world champion, Sebastien Vettel, second-best in F1.

Nuts.

The team principals also picked Nico Hulkenberg as the eighth best driver (out of what? Twenty four?).

If that’s the case, how come he’s unemployed?

Briscoe job safe at Penske

Roger Penske said during the 2010 season that he was unlikely to run three cars in the IZOD INDYCAR Series in 2011 and when you counted noses it looked like Ryan Briscoe would be the odd man out.

But Thursday’s press release announcing the official partnership between Penske Racing, Shell and Penzzoil — Kurt Busch will drive the No. 22 Shell-Pennzoil Dodge in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series — said that the gas and oil companies had signed on as associate sponsors of the Penske Indy cars driven by Helio Castroneves, Will Power and — ta-da — Ryan Briscoe.

The press release also said that the companies would be the primary sponsors of Castroneves’s No. 3 Shell V-Power-Pennzoil Ultra Dallara/Honda in next May’s Indianapolis 500.

Butt to manage Mosport Speedway

Glenn Butt, who left Mosport in 2007 to launch the Canadian Motorsports Expo, is returning to the fold as manager of Mosport  Speedway and will be responsible for all on-track aspects of competition, rules and race events, along with sales, marketing and promotions at the paved, half-mile oval.

Butt has been involved in motorsports for more than 30 years as a racer, track announcer, broadcaster and businessman.

He was director of marketing for Mosport International Raceway going back to 1999 before leaving to start the Expo, which will be held this year at the International Centre in Mississauga Jan. 21-23.

Mr. Kennington goes to Charlotte

NASCAR Canadian Tire Series 2010 champion D.J. Kennington of St. Thomas will be honoured in Charlotte, N.C. next Saturday (Dec. 11) when NASCAR presents its Night of Champions Touring Awards Gala in the ballroom of the new NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Fans in Canada will be able to watch the festivities via a live webcast on nascarhometracks.com.

Then, the 2011 NASCAR Toyota All-Star Showdown will return to the Toyota Speedway at Irwindale (Calif.) on Jan. 28-29.

The eighth running of the event, which brings together the top racers from across North America and has grown into the "Daytona 500 of short-track racing," will be highlighted by the 225-lap NASCAR K&N Pro Series All-Star Race.

Kennington has a guaranteed starting position in that event, which is broken up into three sections — two 100-lap segments preceding a 25-lap dash to the finish.

 

Johnson wins NASCAR title the right way

Weekend headlines:

1.     Johnson wins NASCAR Chase for the Championship

2.     L’Estage and Nathalie Richard are Canadian rally champs

3.     Big day for Canadian karters

NASCAR:

As was the case a week ago in Formula One, when Sebastien Vettel won the world championship of drivers by going out and winning the final Grand Prix of the 2010 season, so it was with Jimmie Johnson on Sunday, who put his head down and drove to his fifth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Although Carl Edwards won the Ford 400 season finale, Johnson finished second in the race, which was good enough to win the title over Denny Hamlin, who was 39 points behind when the final figures were tallied, and Kevin Harvick, who ended up trailing by 41.

Johnson was enormously excited at the checkers, whooping and hollering over the radio to his crew chief and team members: "Unbelievable! Yeah! You guys are the best!"

One reason why Johnson was overly elated was because he had to come from behind to win his fifth straight championship – a record, incidentally, that will likely never be matched as three consecutives were the most anyone could put together before.

Going into the final race, Hamlin was leading the championship with Johnson second (15 behind) and Harvick third (46 in arrears). It was a situation that Johnson and his crew chief, Chad Knaus, had not  faced in winning their four previous championships.

So they had to hunt down Hamlin and pass him and then keep him behind, which they did successfully. As Knaus said: "We had to come down here and beat ‘em, and we beat ‘em."

Hamlin didn’t do his own cause any good by, first, qualifying poorly (he started the race in 37th place) and, second, running into Greg Biffle’s car on the 24th lap, which resulted in a spin and damage to the front of his car.

Although he initially complained to his crew that "the 16 came right down on me (which was not true, as TV replays showed)," he’d calmed down enough following the race to explain that the accident had knocked the toe out (toe settings determine straight-line stability and corner handling) and "the car was never the same after that."

Harvick, on the other hand, did everything he said he’d do, which included sending Kyle Busch for a ride into the inside guardrail when Busch the Younger drifted up into his path, expecting Harvick to lift,  which didn’t happen.

While Harvick’s aggressiveness was admirable, his speeding ticket on pit road was not and it likely cost him second place in the championship. If he hadn’t been sent to the rear of the field as penalty, he might either have won the race or finished ahead of Johnson, which might not have won him the overall title but would have had him ahead of Hamlin in the final points (6583 for Hamlin, 6581 for Harvick).

Oh, well. As he said: "We went down swinging."

Unlike last Sunday’s F1 race, which was a bit of a bore after Vettel went into cruise control and Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber appeared content to trundle around behind Vitaly Petrov (except for a couple of half-hearted attempts to pass by Alonso), the Sprint Cup race was full of tension until the final checkers.

Yes, Johnson was in second place and in the catbird seat for the last 20 laps, but this is NASCAR and one never knows when a tire will go flat or a leader will come upon a wreck happening back in the pack.

Anyone who remembers Dale Earnhardt apparently winning the Daytona 500 in 1990, only to have a tire go down midway through the third turn on the last lap, knows you don’t count your chickens in NASCAR until you cross the finish line for the final time.

Okay, one of these years, somebody driving for some other team will beat Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus.

But they’ve been saying that since he won his first title and it hasn’t happened yet.

Maybe — maybe — next year.

Notebook jottings:

– Sebastien Vettel is world F1 champion, Dario Franchitti is the IZOD IndyCar Series champion and Jimmie Johnson is the NASCAR Sprint Cup champion.

For all intents and purposes, racing is finished for 2010 (although the German Touring Car Championship remains to be determined, with the final race of the season scheduled for next Sunday in Shanghai. Canadian Bruno Spengler is in the lead, so cross fingers for him).

Which means, however, that for the first time since last February, there will be no live racing on television next Sunday afternoon.

What ever will we do?

– NASCAR should find a way to end the season in a place other than Homestead, Fla. The track is okay, but as a tourist destination, it is the pits.

The best thing about Homestead is that it’s only 60 miles away from Fort Lauderdale.

– Kevin Harvick was interviewed post-race while holding the ever-present bottle of Coca-Cola — a product placement that is the most irritating of all product placements.

When the interview was over, but while the camera was still on, Harvick handed the Coke to someone and accepted a bottle of water.

The drivers might have to hold it but they won’t drink that stuff and that might tell you something.

– It looked like a full house at the Homestead-Miami Speedway but NASCAR’s final race of the season wasn’t on network TV in the U.S. and that is another problem for the sanctioning body.

As attendance has fallen, and TV ratings have dropped, long-time sponsors are turning away from the sport. For instance, Sunday was Jeff Gordon’s last race with DuPont on his car; next season, he’ll be racing in support of U.S. food banks (yes, it’s come to that).

As NASCAR falters, IndyCar seems to be gathering momentum with more and more announcements being made concerning 2012.

It’s like a boxing match. The challenger knocked the old champ down and has been dancing around the ring, arms upraised in triumph.

But the old champ is getting up off the canvas. The challenger has been too busy mugging to the crowd to notice.

He’d better be careful. If he doesn’t watch it, the old champion’s going to deliver a knockout punch.

Ask anybody in the fight game about that scenario. It’s only happened in the ring – oh, about a thousand times before.

Triple Crown for Canadian rally champions

Antoine L'Estage and Nathalie Richard of Ste-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., drove their Rockstar Energy Drink-sponsored Mitsubishi to a decisive win in Saturday’s 40^th Rally of the Tall Pines, the final round of the Canadian Rally Championship Presented by Subaru and supported by Yokohama.

The win is their third Canadian Rally Championship and combined with their Rally America and North American Rally Cup titles makes them only the second team ever to win all three titles in the same year.

"I'm so happy that we've done it," L'Estage said after the event, which is held each year in Bancroft.

"The car was so good all season, and my family and sponsors have all been very supportive. I am so happy that I can show my appreciation by winning every rally title there is in North America."

Second place in both the event and the championship went to Craig Henderson and Lyne Murphy of New Richmond, Que. By finishing second, the team won the manufacturer’s title for Subaru.

Bruno Carré and Yvan Joyal of Lavla, Que., who won the opening round of the six-rally 2010 season and led the point standings for much of the year, finished third.

Pat Richard of Squamish, B.C. and Alan Ockwell of Toronto were forced out with a broken suspension. They had gone into the rally in second place, only two points behind L’Estage and Nathalie Richard.

"Congratulations to Antoine and Nathalie on their win," said Pat Richard, who was seeking his third consecutive national championship.

"We've done so well in the past, it's tough not to be able to continue that trend. This rally was really hard on us, and we wanted to win, but sometimes that's just not how things go."

Antoine L'Estage and Nathalie Richard have developed into one of the most dominant teams in North America, winning six of the last seven rallies they entered and earning the U.S. title in their first full season south of the border.

The 2011 Canadian Rally Championship season will start in Maniwaki, Que., with the Rallye Perce Neige next February.

The Canadian Rally Championship is made up of six events held nationwide in a season that extends from February to November. The series is presented by Subaru Canada, supported by Yokohama Tire Canada and features contingency programs from Subaru Canada and Mitsubishi Canada.

The Canadian Association of Rallysport (CARS) is the official sanctioning body for rallying in Canada.

My thanks to Keith Morison, who’s in charge of media relations for the championship, for supplying the information published here.

As well as an excellent journalist, Morison – of Calgary – is also a pretty good rally competitor himself, finishing fourth in the Tall Pines with Martin Rowe of Whistler, B.C. driving.

Canadian karters show the world

It was an unbelievable day for Canadian karters at the world championships in Muro Leccese, Italy, as Canadians won two of the four world titles at the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals.

Scott Campbell of Sakatoon held off Dennis Kroes of the Netherlands to win one championship and Daniel Morad of Markham, after starting 13^th on the grid, charged through the field to win the second.

Congratulations!

As was the case a week ago in Formula One, when Sebastien Vettel won the world championship of drivers by going out and winning the final Grand Prix of the 2010 season, so it was with Jimmie Johnson on Sunday, who put his head down and drove to his fifth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Although Carl Edwards won the Ford 400 season finale, Johnson finished second in the race, which was good enough to win the title over Denny Hamlin, who was 39 points behind when the final figures were tallied, and Kevin Harvick, who ended up trailing by 41.

Johnson was enormously excited at the checkers, whooping and hollering over the radio to his crew chief and team members: "Unbelievable! Yeah! You guys are the best!"

One reason why Johnson was overly elated was because he had to come from behind to win his fifth straight championship – a record, incidentally, that will likely never be matched as three was the most anyone could put together before.

Going into the final race, Hamlin was leading the championship by xxx, points, with Johnson second (xx behind) and Harvick third (xx in arrears).

It was a situation that Johnson and his crew chief, Chad Knaus, had never faced in winning their four previous championships. Previously, they’d gone into the final race of the year already in first place.

So they had to hunt down Hamlin and pass him and then keep him behind, which they did successfully. As Knaus said: "We had to come down here and beat ‘em, and we beat ‘em."

Hamlin didn’t do his own cause any good by, first, qualifying poorly (he started the race in xxth place) and, second, running into Greg Biffle’s car on the 24^th lap, which resulted in a spin and damage to the front of his car.

Although he initially complained to his crew that "the 16 came right down on me (which was not true, as TV replays showed)," he’d calmed down enough following the race to explain that the accident had knocked the toe out (toe settings determine straight-lin stability and corner handling) and "the car was never the same after that."

Harvick, on the other hand, did everything he said he’d do, which included sending Kyle Busch for a ride into the inside guardrail when Busch the Younger drifted up into his path, expecting Harvick to let off, which didn’t happen.

While his aggressiveness was admirable, his speeding ticket on pit road was not and it likely cost him second place in the championship. If he hadn’t been sent to the rear of the field as penalty, he might either have won the race or finished ahead of Johnson, which might not have won him the overall title but would have had him ahead of Hamlin.

Oh, well. As he said: "We went down swinging."

Unlike the F1 race, which was a bit of a bore after Vettel went into cruise control and Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber appeared content to trundle around behind Vxxx Petrov, the Sprint Cup race was full of tension until the final checkers.

Yes, Johnson was in second place and in the catbird seat for the last 20 laps, but this is NASCAR and one never knows when a tire will go flat or a leader will come upon a wreck happening back in the pack.

Anyone who remembers Dale Earnhardt apparently winning the Daytona 500 in 1990, only to have a tire go down midway through the third turn on the last lap, knows you don’t count your chickens in NASCAR until you cross the finish line for the final time.

One of these years, somebody driving for some other team will beat Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus.

Maybe.

Notebook jottings:

– Sebastien Vettel is world F1 champion, Dario Franchitti is the IZOD IndyCar Series champion and Jimmie Johnson is the NASCAR Sprint Cup champion.

For all intents and purposes, racing is finished for 2010 (although the German Touring Car Championship remains to be determined, with the final race of the season scheduled for next Sunday in Shanghai. Canadian Bruno Spengler is in the lead, so cross fingers for him).

Which means, however, that for the first time since last February, there will be no live racing on television next Sunday afternoon.

What ever will we do?

– NASCAR should find a way to end the season in a place other than Homestead, Fla. The track is okay, but as a tourist destination, it is the pits.

The best thing about Homestead is that it’s only 60 miles away from Fort Lauderdale.

– Kevin Harvick was interviewed while holding the ever-present bottle of Coca-Cola – a product placement that is the most irritating of all product placements.

When the interview was over, but while the camera was still on, Harvick handed the Coke to someone and accepted a bottle of water.

The drivers might have to hold it but they won’t drink that stuff and that might tell you something.

– It looked like a full house at the Homestead-Miami Speedway but NASCAR’s final race of the season wasn’t on network TV in the U.S. and that is another problem for the sanctioning body.

As attendance has fallen, and TV ratings have dropped, long-time sponsors are turning away from the sport. First instance, Sunday was Jeff Gordon’s last race with DuPont on his car; next season, he’ll be racing in support of U.S. food banks (yes, it’s come to that). \

As NASCAR falters, IndyCar seems to be gathering momentum with more and more announcements being made concerning 2012.

It’s like a boxing match. The challenger knocked the old champ down and has been dancing around the ring, arms upraised in triumph.

But the old champ is getting up off the canvas. The challenger has been too busy mugging to the crowd to notice.

He’d better be careful. If he doesn’t watch it, the old champion’s going to deliver a knockout punch.

Ask anybody in the fight game about that scenario. It’s only happened in the ring – oh, only about a thousand times before.

Triple Crown for Canadian rally champions

Antoine L'Estage and Nathalie Richard of Ste-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., drove their Rockstar Energy Drink-sponsored Mitsubishi to a decisive win in Saturday’s Rally of the Tall Pines, the final round of the Canadian Rally Championship Presented by Subaru and supported by Yokohama.

The win is their third Canadian Rally Championship and combined with their Rally America and North American Rally Cup titles makes them only the second team ever to win all three titles in the same year.

"I'm so happy that we've done it," L'Estage said after the event, which is held each year in Bancroft.

"The car was so good all season, and my family and sponsors have all been very supportive. I am so happy that I can show my appreciation by winning every rally title there is in North America."

Second place in both the event and the championship went to Craig Henderson and Lyne Murphy of New Richmond, Que. By finishing second, the team won the manufacturer’s title for Subaru.

Bruno Carré and Yvan Joyal pf Lavla, Que., who won the opening round of the six-rally 2010 season and led the point standings for much of the year, finished third.

Pat Richard of Squamish, B.C. and Alan Ockwell of Toronto were forced to drop out with a broken suspension. They had gone into the rally in second place, only two points behind L’Estage and Nathalie Richard. Their DNF, however, knocked them well down in the final standings.

"Congratulations to Antoine and Nathalie on their win," said Pat Richard, who was seeking his third consecutive national championship.

"We've done so well in the past, it's tough not to be able to continue that trend. This rally was really hard on us, and we wanted to win, but sometimes that's just not how things go."

Antoine L'Estage and Nathalie Richard have developed into one of the most dominant teams in North America, winning six of the last seven rallies they entered and earning the U.S. title in their first full season south of the border.

The 2010 edition of the Rally of the Tall Pines marked the event's 40th anniversary, making it one of the oldest events in the championship.
"With the 40th anniversary this year, we've been focused on making this the best Tall Pines ever," said Mike Koch, rally co-ordinator. "We were able to improve some of the roads over previous years to make things better for the competitors, and have continued to foster great spectating . . . and I am really happy with the results."

The 2011 Canadian Rally Championship season will start in Maniwaki, Que., with the Rallye Perce Neige next February.

The Canadian Rally Championship is made up of six events held nationwide in a season that
extends from February to November. The series is presented by Subaru Canada, supported by
Yokohama Tire Canada and features contingency programs from Subaru Canada and Mitsubishi
Canada.

The Canadian Association of Rallysport (CARS) is the official sanctioning body for rallying in
Canada.

My thanks to Keith Morison, who’s in charge of media relations for the championship, for supplying the information published here.

As well as an excellent journalist, Morison – of Calgary – is also a pretty good rally competitor himself, finishing fourth in the Tall Pines with Martin Rowe of Whistler, B.C. driving.

NASCAR, rally titles on line this weekend

Just about the last two remaining motorsport championships of 2010 will be decided this weekend and only one will be available on live TV and then only if you get TSN2.

The televised event, of course, will be the Grand Finale of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase for the Championship from Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday at 1 p.m. Three drivers are in contention for the title — four-time title holder and defending champion Jimmie Johnson, and Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick, both of whom are hoping to win their first.

As was the case in Formula One last weekend, there are all sorts of scenarios in play so far as who can win the championship and how. I think it’s pretty safe to say, however, that the winner of the NASCAR championship is going to have to win that race, just as Sebastien Vettel did in F1 at Abu Dhabi.

And who might that be?

Well, as of today, Hamlin — who leads Johnson by 15 points and Harvick by 46 — has done more winning this season than the other two. He’s taken eight checkered flags to Johnson’s six and Harvick’s three. As it’s the end of the road, and points going forward don’t matter, Hamlin would look to be in a better position because of his winning record.

But Hamlin has never been this close to the title before. He’ll be feeling the pressure, for sure, and Johnson, in particular, has taken great pleasure this week in needling his opponent about his lack of experience in this area.

Harvick could win the title but he has to win the race as well as the bonus points for leading the most laps and hope that the other two melt down totally for that to happen.

It probably won’t. I think the championship is really down to two drivers, Hamlin and Johnson, and I won’t be surprised at all if Johnson wins his fifth title.

He’s a marvelous driver who’s been there before — the last four times, to be exact. And his crew chief, Chad Knaus, is a ruthless businessman who does what has to be done to ensure his driver has all the tools necessary to be successful — witness his “firing” of Johnson’s crew in mid-race two weeks ago and the elevation of Jeff Gordon’s crew to service Johnson’s No. 48 car, a decision since made permanent.

It will be a nail-biter to the end on Sunday. Some say the Chase could go down to the last lap.

We’ll see.

Oh, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the Nationwide Series both close out their seasons at Homestead-Miami too, with the truck race available tonight at 8 on Speed Channel and the Nationwide race tomorrow at 4 on — yep — TSN2.

Meantime, at Bancroft this weekend, the 2010 Canadian Rally Championship season will come to an end with the annual running of the Rally of the Tall Pines and it will be another nail-biter with two teams going into the final separated by just two points.

The leading team is the duo of Antoine L’Estage and co-driver Nathalie Richard of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que. Two points behind are Richard’s brother, Patrick, of Mission, B.C., and Alan Ockwell of Toronto. Whichever team wins this rally will win the championship.

There’s more at stake for L’Estage and Nathalie Richard, however. If they win the Canadian title, they will have won the Triple Crown of North American rallying – the Canadian national title as well as the Rally America series and the North American Rally Cup.

They are the most successful team in the history of Canadian rally racing. He has won three North American championships, two Canadian championships, an American title and 24 overall victories in Canada and the U.S. His parther Nathalie Richard holds five overall national championships (Canada and the U.S.) and has won 30 rallies on both sides of the border. She clinched her sixth North American title in seven years in September.

The rally tomorrow (Saturday) will be the longest of the six-event national championship. Starting at 9 a.m., competitors will be on the road for 13 hours  and cover 488 kms with 188 scrambled over 15 speed stages.

Want to watch in person? Bancroft is located in eastern Ontario, about mid-way between Peterborough and Pembroke and is about a 4-hour drive from Toronto.

The rally will be on TV at some point in the future. However, if you can’t drive to Bancroft tomorrow and still want to follow the rally, go to flatovercrest.com for live updates.

Vettel won world championship the right way

Weekend headlines:

1. Vettel wins Grand Prix and world championship

2. NASCAR: One race for all the marbles

3. IndyCar: Chevy’s back in the fold

Sebastien Vettel is new world champion

The nice thing about Sunday’s world championship-deciding Formula One race in the Middle East is that the man who won the title did it the way it should be done: he won the race.

So often in recent years, the championship has been decided by a variety of scenarios involving finishing positions.

Not this time.

Sebastien Vettel of Germany took the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in his teeth and shook it. He was fastest in first practice Friday, won the pole on Saturday and the race Sunday (full story here), scoring maximum points to vault from third place at lights out to first at the checkers.

His determination and subsequent performance so demoralized his Red Bull-Renault teammate, Mark Webber, that the Australian could only qualify fifth on Saturday and eventually finished eighth in the Grand Prix, 44 seconds behind the winner.

Fernando Alonso, who went into the final race weekend leading in points, could only qualify third although many F1 experts chose him for pole.

Then, because of a very questionable decision by Ferrari to bring him in for tires right behind Webber instead of waiting for the leading driver, Vettel, to stop, he was stuck for the remaining distance of the Grand Prix behind Russian Vitaly Petrov, who held the two-time champion at bay and drove the race of his young life in the process.

Alonso finished seventh and Webber was eighth – shocking results for two drivers who were one-two in the championship when the race started.

Lewis Hamilton finished second in the race and fourth in points. He came within a couple of markers of stealing third place from Webber. His McLaren teammate, Jeson Button, finished third to make up a podium of world champions – the newly crowned Vettel and the last two title-holders.

The new champion – at 23, the youngest in Formula One history – was overcome with emotion when his country’s national anthem started to play and he broke down on the podium. But he quickly recovered and joined with the others in the spraying (if you could call it that) of apple juice (no booze allowed in Arabia).

Red Bull Racing thus swept the world championship of drivers and manufacturers, an amazing feat considering the team only won its first-ever Grand Prix in April of 2009 when – who else? – Vettel captured the Grand Prix of China.

When the race started, four drivers were in contention for the championship – Vettel, Webber, Alonso and Hamilton. It was the first time in the history of F1 that so many drivers could win the title at one showdown.

Vettel finished second behind Button last season and vowed to win the championship this year.

He delivered – and it’s undoubtedly safe to say that the sky’s the limit for this kid.

All of Michael Schmacher’s records – starting with his seven world championships – once looked unbeatable. Not so much now.

His 10 poles and five race victories that led him to the world championship in 2010 show that Sebastien Vettel has the right stuff. Just watch him go.

Notebook jottings:

– Toronto’s connection to Red Bull Racing was front and centre on TV shortly after the podium ceremony. As the cameras showed a very excited Red Bull garage, with everyone on the team shouting and jumping around in celebration, there was Gavin Ward, a young man from the Beach and one of the team’s race engineers, right in the middle of it all.

– You wonder what would have happened at the weekend if Alonso hadn’t won two world championships previously. Yes, I’m sure he wanted to win this year and I’m sure he did what he thought was his best but it really didn’t look like he had his heart in it.

On the gird, while camera shots of the other contenders showed them in intense concentration, Alonso was casually looking about and chatting with his team. Then, at the start, he literally pulled over and let Button pass him going into the first corner, dropping him to fourth from his starting position of third.

Yes, I know, he didn’t want to risk an accident and as long as he stayed in front of Webber. he would likely win the title. But a champion has to fight and he didn’t fight at that moment, which was an omen of things to come.

Then, after Ferrari had him pit two laps after Webber, which meant both drivers were caught up in mid-pack traffic when they rejoined, he found himself behind Petrov. And twice from that point until the end of the race, he tried to pass the Russian, only to go wide and have to scramble to stay in front of Webber.

But two attempts to pass Petrov in – what – 40-plus laps?

As I watched Webber tootling around behind Alonso, and Alonso tootling around behind Petrov, I kept thinking of Jacques Villeneuve’s pass of Michael Schumacher at Jerez in 1997, his world championship year.

Yes, I kept waiting for either Webber or Alonso to pull a JV. Didn’t happen.

If Alonso had never won a championship, I think we would have seen fireworks Sunday and not the firecrackers we got

– I’m surprised the stewards didn’t take a look at the brake test Vettel gave Lewis Hamilton as he brought the field around for the restart at the end of the safety car period following the Luizzi-Schumacher accident.

Hamilton had to go off the circuit to avoid hitting Vettel and by the time he recovered, Vettel was long gone on the restart.

– Mark Webber lost the world championship when he spun and hit the wall on the second lap of the Korean Grand Prix. For a guy in a position to win the world championship, zero points was a huge hit.

Whether it was trying too hard or else he got careless like he did in Korea, but Webber hit the wall with his right rear wheel fairly early in the contest Sunday and who knows what that might have done to upset the balance or the handling of his Red Bull?

Nobody said anything, much less Webber, but you can’t whack a wall at over 100 miles an hour and have absolutely no consequences. Even if he was lucky, and there was either no damage or minimal damage, you can bet he was racing on eggshells after that and it undoubtedly had an effect on his drive.

– As mentioned in the intro, Petrov drove the race of his life keeping Alonso behind him but he was also in a Renault and Red Bull is powered by Renault. So, although they are allegedly competitors, Renault and Red Bull are in business together, which helps to explain the lengths Petrov went to to stymie Alonso as well as the presence at the Red Bull post-race victory party of Renault team members.

– Good for TSN. Somebody was paying attention Sunday morning and when it looked like there would be a lengthy caution period following the huge crash between Antonio Luizzi and Michael Schumacher, they ran about four minutes of commercials. Then, when racing resumed, there were no commercial interruptions for more than an hour. Great stuff!

– The Yas Marina Circuit really is the new Monaco, isn’t it? Yachts, beautiful women, incredible architecture: Abu Dhabi has it all. (Okay, there’s no champagne but is that really all that important?)

– Vettel went into the race with 231 points and scored 25 for the win, giving him 256. Alonso had 246 going in and scored six, giving him 252. Webber had 238 and scored four for 242. Hamilton had 222 and tallied 18 for a final score of 240.

– I cringed – as I’m sure you all did – when Luizzi creamed the stationary Schumacher after Schumi spun out on the first lap. That was really scary and Schumacher is a really lucky guy that he wasn’t badly hurt.

TV commentator Martin Brundle did his best to blame Nico Rosberg for Schumacher’s spin, saying initially that Rosberg had run into his Mercedes teammate and then, after the replay showed no contact, still insisted there had been a "kiss" to start the incident.

Schumacher, himself, straightened out the record afterward.

"I went off the line, spun, and because of the dirt there, the back of the car just came around. It's a shame, obviously, as I would have liked to finish the season with a more positive ending."

– According to the Autosport website, there are 118 days until the first Grand Prix of 2011 at Bahrain. Meantime, Merry Christmas, everybody.

NASCAR championship down to the wire

Denny Hamlin went into the second-last NASCAR Sprint Cup race of the season at Phoenix on Sunday in first place and proceeded to dominate the Kobalt Tools 500, leading 190 of the 312-lap event.

But he had to pit for fuel late in the running and dropped to 12^th place at the finish. The race was won by Carl Edwards, with Ryan Newman second and Joey Logano third (full story here) but the guys who finished fifth and sixth were the real story.

When the dust settled, four-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson (fifth) had pulled to within 15 points of Hamlin with Kevin Harvick (sixth) 46 behind.

Next Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway will be pretty much a winner-take-all contest between Hamlin, Johnson and Harvick.

It should be a thriller.

Sunday’s race was a nail-biter, not so much because of the racing but whether or not the leaders would all run out of fuel before the finish. One, Juan Pablo Montoya, did – and that was a surprise because the announcers kept saying he had more juice on board than many of the others running up front. In the end, he finished 15^th.

Edwards, in addition to performing his signature back flip off the top of his race car – he had some practice on Saturday when he won the Nationwide race, too – grabbed the checkered flag and walked right into the crowd on the main straight at Phoenix.

That took guts, because just about everybody at that place – a full house, incidentally – wanted a piece of him

Chevrolet to join IndyCar in 2012

They had another big announcement the other day in Indianapolis, this time for Chevrolet’s return to the Indy car series, which will happen in 2012.

I just have one question. They keep talking about 2012 – new cars and new engines. But what about 2011?

What am I supposed to get excited about then?

2011 NASCAR Canadian Tire schedule unveiled

When J.R. Fitzpatrick heard that Quebec’s Circuit ICAR would host a race in next year’s NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, he immediately decided to take another crack at winning the national championship.

Fitzpatrick, a 22-year-old from Cambridge who finished second in this season’s points race behind champion D.J. Kennington of St. Thomas, had decided to focus his 2011 efforts on racing primarily in the United States, where he’s had some success the past two years in the NASCAR Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series.

To that end, Fitzpatrick’s father, John, put two of the race team’s  cars up for sale and laid off long-time employee — and five-time CASCAR champion — Don Thomson Jr. in order to more fully concentrate on marketing and promoting his son’s career down south.

All that changed for J.R. when he heard the news about Circuit ICAR, which has been developed at the old Mirabel Airport site, north of Montreal.

“I can safely say that I’ll more than likely be back here (in the Canadian Tire series), young Fitzpatrick said yesterday at a VIP Reception hosted by NASCAR at the Fermenting Cellar in the Distillery District where details of the 2011 season were released.

“I’m pretty bumped up seeing that one road course there (ICAR). You can bet your ass I’ll be up there come April, testing that place. As soon as I heard the news, I texted one of my good friends who has online racing games. I told him to find that place and I got him to load it up for me and I’ll tell you, I can hardly wait to get out there practicing.”

Details for a 12-race series for the national championship were issued during the reception.

The season will start at Mosport Speedway on May 28 and conclude at Kawartha Speedway on Sept. 24. In between, the series will travel to Circuit ICAR (June 5), Delaware Speedway near London (June 11), Mosport’s road course (June 26), the Honda Indy Toronto (July 9), Motoplex Speedway near Vernon, B.C. (July 23), Auto Clearing Motor Speedway at Saskatoon (July 27), Trois-Rivieres for the Grand Prix there (Aug. 7), Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve (Aug. 20), Barrie Speedway (Sept. 10) and Riverside Speedway near Antigonish, N.S. (Sept. 17).

Missing is the Honda Indy Edmonton, originally scheduled for July 23. But since negotiations to get that event back on the IZOD IndyCar Series schedule have resumed, the NASCAR Canada race — which would be part and parcel of that weekend — could fit in if the race in Vernon, B.C. was moved back a week.

Only time will tell about that, however.

Mosport President and General Manager Myles Brandt appeared pleased that Mosport Speedway would kick off the 2011 season — a position on the calendar that’s been occupied in recent years by Delaware Speedway.

“We did want the opening race,” he said. “We thought it would be something special, particularly with D.J. (Kennington) and Castrol being the champion. And we’re hoping to use the oval race to drive people to the road course event (a month later).”

Drivers and series officials had plenty to say about all the locales but Circuit ICAR, the new track on the block, kept cropping up in conversation.

“Airport road courses are good for car owners,” said Jim Bray, veteran NASCAR race driver and current owner of two entries in the Canadian Tire Series.

“They have a lot of ‘egress,’ as they say downtown, so there’s not a lot of walls to get into.”

Fitzpatrick, after he finished praising ICAR, cautioned that nothing was “set in stone just yet,” but did say he liked racing in the Canadian Tire Series.

“Obviously, I’d like to come back and race (in the Canadian Tire Series). We had a fairly good year, considering a lot of things broke. Getting down in the States — and D.J.’ll tell you the same thing — is really hard; it takes a lot of money and the money’s just not there right now. I have people working on that stuff for me and they’re doing a good job. If that does not happen for the States, then I’ll be 100 per cent focused on winning this championship.”

Fitzpatrick, who's had some memorable dices with two-time series champion Andrew Ranger — who’s been trying his luck mostly in the U.S. this year — said he wished his opponent would come back to Canada to race more.

“Him and I, we might not get along, but we put on a good show together," Fitzpatrick said. "He’s probably one of the best in this division and we both know it. We run each other hard and it’s a lot of fun.

“Is he coming back next year? I hope so. I bet he’s been at that track before (ICAR), so I’ll have to do my homework.”

NOTES:

— It’s Canada, folks, and someone from NASCAR should have checked on the pronunciation of the names of some  pretty important Canadian racing figures. One NASCAR executive up from the U.S. could not pronounce the name of the patron saint of Canadian motorsport, Gilles Villeneuve. Not good. . . .

— There was a second announcement of great importance yesterday. The Ferrari Challenge series, for owners of those magnificent, exotic sports cars, will be racing next July as part of the program at the Honda Indy Toronto. Usually seen only at the Formula One Grand Prix of Canada in Montreal, the Ferrari drivers put on a great show.

One of them, former Montreal Canadiens defenceman Patrice Brisebois, could do double duty. As well as the Ferrari Challenge, Brisebois could also find himself racing in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series event, which is also on the Honda Indy program.

Leafs fans could turn out en masse and boo . . .

— Don Thomson Jr., who lost his ride when the Fitzpatricks decided to scale back their racing team, is “looking around.” Thomson said at the reception that he’s got a meeting scheduled with long-time sponsor Home Hardware, and after that he’ll have a better idea of what he’ll be doing in 2011.

2011 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Schedule

Sat., May 28         Mosport Speedway (.5-Mile)                                      Bowmanville, Ont.

Sun., June 5          Circuit ICAR (1.86-Mile road course)                         Montreal, Que.

Sat., June 11         Delaware Speedway (.5-Mile)                                    London, Ont.

Sun., June 26        Mosport Int'l Raceway (2.459-Mile road course)       Bowmanville, Ont.

Sat. July 9             Toronto Exhibition Place (1.755-Mile road course)    Toronto, Ont.

Sat., July 23          Motoplex Speedway (.5-Mile)                                    Vernon, B. C.

Wed., July 27        Auto Clearing Motor Speedway (.333-Mile)               Saskatoon, Sask.

Sun., Aug. 7          Circuit de Trois-Rivieres (1.53-Mile road course)      Trois-Rivieres, Que.

Sat., Aug. 20         Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (2.709-Mile road course)     Montreal, Que.

Sat., Sept. 10        Barrie Speedway (.333-Mile)                                      Barrie, Ont.

Sat., Sept. 17        Riverside Int’l Speedway (.333-Mile)                          Antigonish, N. S.

Sat., Sept. 24        Kawartha Speedway (.375-Mile)                                Peterborough, Ont.

 

Tentative - Subject to Change

 

Edmonton council votes to restart Indy talks

Perhaps none of the area paving companies will kick in the asphalt for free, or else somebody in Edmonton read Frank Lowe's suggestion published here yesterday that to keep the Edmonton Indy going they should run it backwards a week later in Toronto.

In any event, the Edmonton Indy – as I suggested - is not dead. Yet.

The Edmonton Journal is reporting today that Edmonton city council has decided the race is worth keeping and to start negotiating with Octane Management of Montreal to get the event back on the 2011 IndyCar schedule.

Here is the Journal's report:

"Edmonton city council is fighting to keep the Indy alive.

 "In a meeting Tuesday night, council put forward a motion instructing city administration to leave no stone unturned in their efforts to restart the Indy’s engine.

 “ 'It instructed the administration to talk to Octane and negotiate as vigorously as possible to allow the Indy to continue,' said Bryan Anderson, Ward 9 councillor.

 "The fate of the event has looked grim since negotiations between the city and Octane Racing Group turned sour in late October.

"In July, council approved $5.5 million in funding for the Indy over the next three years, as well as $1.5 million in transit and emergency services.

 "However, the two sides couldn’t agree on how to cover an additional $3 million in costs, which arose from the need to move the race to the east side of the City Centre Airport.”

The race is just not important to the city, but to the IZOD IndyCar Series, the sponsor, Honda Canada, and the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, which counts on the Edmonton Indy as being its signature event in Western Canada.

Cross fingers they find a compromise.

Here's how to save the Edmonton Indy

Although Octane Management of Montreal and city officials in Edmonton have declared the Honda Indy Edmonton dead (earlier blog item here), business people in the community are still trying to save the event by getting one of the local paving companies to put down the asphalt for nothing.

But my friend Frank Lowe has a better idea. Why not hold the race in Toronto — a week after the Honda Indy race here?

Allow him to explain.

“The facilities are already up in Toronto and the roads are closed. Everything’s ready. The teams won’t have to drive all the way to Edmonton, saving them thousands of dollars in travel costs.

“To differentiate between the two races, run the Toronto Indy clockwise (as normal) and the Edmonton Indy counter-clockwise. Turn One as we now know it at the Princes’ Gates would be the last turn for the Edmonton Indy.

“It can’t miss.”

I don’t know about that, Frank, but it’s definitely interesting.

Meantime, in my Monday Morning Racing Roundup (above), I suggested that Formula One doesn’t need Brazil any longer because, frankly, it’s a dangerous country. Jenson Button had a close escape last weekend. Some Sauber mechanics weren’t so lucky.

Others are thinking the same thing (read more here).