As Dave Mathers gears up for the big F1 Monaco, Indy 500 and NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 next Sunday, he gives us his take on the racing action this past weekend.
The greatest day in motorsports will happen this coming Sunday. Formula One from Monaco at 8:55 a.m. (ET) in the morning, the Indy 500 at 12:30 and the Coca-Cola (World) 600 at Charlotte at 6 p.m. AND all three races are on TSN! In the US, American fans have to channel hunt to see these races. Oh, Canada.
I found it quite interesting while visiting the websites of the two top Canadian stock car series that one of them had ALL the details of their weekend races – including a full-time schedule along with the list of entrants – while the other, five days before their race, had nothing. No details whatsoever. Hmmm.
NASCAR has announced an exciting “In-Season Tournament” for next year that will pay the winner one million dollars. That’s the good news. The not so good news is that the tournament is for races that will be broadcast on Prime Video and TNT. I hope and pray that TSN will continue to broadcast ALL the races and not force us to stream races. After all, the excellent Rogers Ignite recording system does not work with streaming.
Seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson has been picked up by NBC to help broadcast the Indy 500. Should make for some interesting commentary.
Once again, NHRA treated the Pro Mod class as that drunken uncle at the family picnic. I had all the ladders (7) and qualifying sheets printed out but no P/M. After several classes had run, somebody must have said, hey, what about Pro Mod? The most diverse class out there and probably the most popular. Sad.
The rumour mill has Stewart-Haas Racing closing its doors at the end of this season. Front Row Racing is rumoured to be buying two of the ‘franchises.’
Memo to International Speedway Corporation – watching the All-Star Race on the 5/8-mile North Wilkesboro track makes me think that another 5/8-mile track, Jukusa (nee Cayuga Speedway) in Canada would be a perfect addition to the portfolio!! Hope springs eternal!!
NASCAR: Can you get rid of that uber-annoying ad blocker pop up. I have no idea whatsoever of what kind of ad blocker I have installed on my systems!
NASCAR Canada Series: Thirty-one cars, yes, 31 showed up at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park on Sunday for the season-opening race for the NASCAR Canada Series season. The day before, Gary Klutt won the pole over Kevin Lacroix and Marc-Antoine Camirand.
Sadly, the frustration continues with their website. NO Live Timing active that I could find in spite of multiple promises of ‘we’re working on it.’ Unacceptable for the top series in Canada.
In the end, Camirand won the race after race leader Lacroix rolled to a stop, while leading, with transmission trouble. Klutt finished second ahead of L.P. Dumoulin.
InsideTrackNews.com has a full report here.
Their next race is at Autodrome Chaudière on Sunday, June 1.
United Racing Series – APC Late Model Series: Nineteen Late Models time trialed for the first APC race of the year, on Saturday night at Sunset Speedway. Taylor Holdaway nabbed the pole over Kyle Steckly and Josh Stade. Oops, that was the qualifying order. Under a ‘redraw’ Stade started from the pole, followed by Dale Shaw and Holdaway.
At the end of the competitive race, JR Farrelly earned his first career APC Series feature win, coming home in front of Dale Shaw and Blair Wickett.
Their next race is at Flamboro, Saturday, June 8th.
NASCAR Cup Series: The All-Star race saw qualifying moved to Sunday after a torrential rainstorm on Saturday. The format has the Open winner and runner-up advancing to the big race along with a driver voted in by the fans.
The starting lineup for the Open had Ty Gibbs (Toyota) on the pole ahead of Alex Bowman (Chev) and Chase Briscoe (Ford). Twenty cars started the race. Up to the mandatory caution at lap 50 of 100 it was a very calm race with no incidents other than a little ‘swapping of paint’!
On lap 58, Austin Cindric got squeezed up into Noah Gragson by Carson Hocevar and then got into the wall for the first caution of the race.
At the flag it was polesitter Gibbs ahead of teammate Bubba Wallace and Josh Berry. Gibbs and Wallace advanced to the All-Star Race along with fan pick Noah Gragson.
In the All-Star Race Joey Logano started from the pole ahead of Brad Keselowski, both in Fords, and Christopher Bell (Toyota). 20 cars were scheduled for the race plus the Open winner and runner up (Gibbs and Wallace) and the Fan Choice driver (Gragson) were added to the field.
The race was a million-dollar race and tempers would surface for that type of money. Well, that didn’t take long. On the second lap Ricky Stenhouse ‘sort of’ pushed Kyle Busch high up to the wall so Kyle retaliated and stuffed Ricky into the wall. Ricky drove into the pits, parked his car in Kyle’s pit stall and climbed up on Kyle’s crew chief’s platform and chirped. Great entertainment!! Oops, the Live Timing went nuts again. Stage 4 of 0? 0/200 on lap 105?
On lap 117 Ty Gibbs got put in the spin cycle after a tap from Busch. That’s two for Kyle!! When the camera panned around, I noticed they have added a ‘few’ more seats than the last time we were there. Wow, great job.
At lap 150 another competition caution. Logano has held the lead since the start but Larson, who took on new tires is coming. Larson had started DFL as Kevin Harvick had qualified the car for him. Kyle had been busy qualifying 5th for the Indy 500.
Logano took the checker and the one million dollars ahead of Denny Hamlin and Chris Buescher. Larson ended up fourth. GREAT scene with Joey’s boy running out to meet for the winner’s interview. I’m old enough to remember when kids (and women) were not allowed in the pits. Two pit bulls got into it in the garage area when Stenhouse and Busch traded punches. And the camera man was right in the middle of the chaos. Good stuff!
Their next race is the Charlotte, Sunday at 6.00 on TSN 5.
NASCAR Xfinity Series: Their next race is Charlotte, Saturday at 1 on TSN 5.
NASCAR Craftsman Trucks: In qualifying for the Truck Series race at North Wilkesboro Speedway it was Christian Eckes on the pole followed by Nick Sanchez and Ross Chastain, all in Chevs. Canadian Stewart Friesen (Toyota) started 11th.
Things ran smoothly until the yellow came out for sprinkles at about lap 59. Ty Majeski won Stage 1. Ten laps later, on lap 80, lightning hit the area, so the race was red flagged. Apparently, four inches of rain fell flooding the area.
It was rescheduled until Sunday morning at 11.30. Ten laps after the Sunday restart, Rajah Caruth spun trying to get under Majeski for the lead bringing out the laundry. On lap 115 Lawless Alan spun for another caution. One lap before the end of Stage 2 Bret Holmes spun.
Tyler Ankrum won Stage 2. On lap 176 Conner Jones spun for a caution. On lap 212 Dean Thompson looped it and then hit the wall for another yellow. From there it went green right to the end with Corey Heim (Toyota) getting the win ahead of Grant Enfinger (Chev) and Layne Riggs (Ford). Parity!! Friesen finished 10th.
In the points, Eckes saw his lead shrink as Heim is now only 4 points back with Majeski 3rd 64 points out.
Their next race is Charlotte, Friday at 8.30 P.M. on Fox Sports Racing.
Formula One: I’m convinced Max Verstappen was playing head games during practice and qualifying for the race at Imola. In Free Practice 1 he was 7th, in P2 he was 5th, in P3 he was 6th and then in qualifying he won the pole over the two McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. Absolutely no chance that he was sandbagging!!
But, in typical braindead F1 stewards fashion, Piastri was penalized three spots for allegedly blocking Kevin Magnussen in Q1. Magnussen qualified 18th!! Wow. Lance Stroll started 13th.
The race ran virtually incident free with no major incidents other than the occasional off. At the flag it was Verstappen, Norris and Charles Leclerc.
In the Drivers’ Championship leads Leclerc by 48 and teammate Perez by 54.
In the Constructors’ Championship Red Bull leads Ferrari by 56 and McLaren by 114.
Their next race is Monaco, Sunday at 8.55 A.M. on TSN 5.
IndyCar: The front row is set for the Indy 500 and it is polesitter Scott McLaughlin with teammate Will Power starting 2nd and his other teammate Josef Newgarden 3rd . An all-Penske front row. Awesome! And NASCAR points leaders Kyle Larson qualified 5th. He is going to do the double Sunday – Indy and Charlotte.
Their next race is on the Indianapolis 500, Sunday at 12.30 on TSN 4 & 5.
IMSA: Their next race is Detroit, Sunday, June 1.
24 Hours of LeMans: June 15 & 16.
NHRA: They dropped into Route 66 Dragway in Joliet, Illinois. It’s a really cool facility with the cars coming out from underneath the control tower. There is a NASCAR track, Chicagoland Speedway, right next door as well as a 3/8-mile dirt track right beside the strip.
We list ‘upsets’ and ‘smokers’ in the results. Upset means that the lower qualified car takes the win. Smoker means one or both cars experienced excess tire spin.
Top Fuel – 22 cars showed up including 81 year old Luigi Novelli. I fully expected the Greek Chris Karamesines, 92, to show up!! T.J. Zizzo qualified number one with a 3.735. Quebec racer Dan Mercier qualified a stout 9th in the tough field. Mercier went two rounds beating Zizzo in the second round and was running in the 3.70s. Well done.
In the final, it was popular driver Antron Brown beating Shawn Langdon. 5 upsets and 4 smokers. Justin Ashley leads the points by 69 over Shawn Langdon and by 11 over Doug Kalitta.
Funny Car – 18 entrants with Austin Prock topping the list at 3.907. Matt Hagan defeated John Force in the final. 7 upsets and 6 smokers. In the points Hagan leads Prock by 4 and Force by 42.
Pro Mod – 22 cars with Ken Quartuccio on top with a 5.718. Eric Latino qualified 10th. As well there were two B.C. racers in the field – #10 Justin Bond and #12 Jordan Lazic. Both of the West Coasters made it to round two. Eric Dillard took the win over Khalid alBalooshi who spun. 4 upsets, 5 smokers.
Pro Stock – 18 entrants and Erica Enders ran a 6.548 for number one. Stratford’s Sienna Wildgust missed out by 0.008 seconds. Ouch. Dallas Glenn defeated Aaron Stanfield for the win. That’s two runners-up for Stanfield at this event. 5 upsets and 2 smokers. Dallas Glenn leads Greg Anderson by 4 and Erica Enders by 67.
Pro Stock Bike – 18 entrants with Matt Smith on top at 6.708. Wait, what? Herrara wasn’t number one? Nope, second!! The stars have realigned!! Herrara won the final over Chase Van Sant. 2 upsets. Herrera continues to dominate the points by 142 on L.E. Tonglet and Matt Smith by 146.
Top Fuel Motorcycle – 6 entries with ‘Spiderman’ Larry McBride running 4.813 to top the list. Dave Vantine won over Elmiri Salakari. 1 upset.
Factory X – 8 entries with Greg Stanfield on top at 7.101. Greg won by a holeshot over son Aaron!! Bragging rights. 1 upset.
Factory Stock Showdown – 16 entrants and Lee Hartman ran a 7.871 for the top spot. Stephen Bell won over Hartman. 3 upsets.
Their next race is New England, Sunday, June 2.
IROC: Their first race is July 20 at Lime Rock Park.
Ontario Sportsman Series: Nineteen cars hit the track last Friday at Delaware Speedway for the tour’s season opener. In time trials, Shawn McGlynn topped the charts followed by Cory McAllister and Shawn’s brother Chad.
A couple of highlights include Mark Patrick, one of four Patricks in the field, lost a left rear wheel on lap 44 coming off Corner 4 but kept it off the wall. During the restart it appeared that leader McAllister was in the wrong gear as his engine hit the chip allowing the 2nd and 3rd place cars to get around him. On lap 48 Brendan Patrick had a solo spin on Corner 1 entry. Shawn McGlynn spun front the front of the pack on lap 58.
At the flag it was McAllister over Derek McCullough and Chad McGlynn.
Their next race is at Full Throttle, Saturday, June 1.
Delaware Speedway: See above for the OSS report from Friday at Delaware. In regular weekly action, the same night, 47 Bone Stocks made for some interesting racing. Heat 1 was won by Charlie Verhoeven, Heat 2 by William Klassen, Heat 3 by Jason Lovie, the B Main by Derek Moesker while the feature was won by Jeremiah Rabideau over Klassen and Lovie.
In the V/8 Stocks Heat 1 went to Dave Evison, Heat 2 to Jordan Morrison and the feature was won by ‘Bear’ Watson ahead of Jordan Morris and Jeff Ferguson.
Their next race is Friday with the Late Models, Super Stocks and King of the Hill.
FEL SCCC: The FEL Sports Car Championship Canada presented by Michelin (SCCC) opened its season with a pair of races at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP), during the Victoria Day SpeedFest weekend. Jack Polito (GT4), Richard Boake (TCR) and Eric Kunz (TCA) each recorded a pair of victories.
There is a full report on InsideTrackNews.com here.
Ohsweken Speedway: Their next race is the Carrier Truck Centers & Bobcat of Brantford Night Friday.
Flamboro Speedway: Their next race is Saturday.
Southern Ontario Motor Speedway (Buxton): Their next race is the OTS Saturday.
Full Throttle Motor Speedway: Their next race is the Fan Appreciation Night Saturday.
Grand Bend Speedway: Their first race is Saturday, June 1.
Grand Bend Motorplex: Their next race is June 1 & 2.
St. Thomas Dragway: Their next race is Saturday & Sunday.
Toronto Motorsports Park: TMP hosted its Victoria Day Weekend Spectacular this past weekend. The NHRA Canadian National Open series and a variety of other classes were on track. Their next race is this weekend.
Shannonville Drags: Their next is June 9.
Any comments can be sent to Dave Mathers via email at motionman@rogers.com or by Facebook Messenger.
