In this week’s Motion Motorsport Report, Dave kicks off with some interesting memories before wrapping up the recent weekend of racing.
I received a neat e-mail last week from Lisa Hyde, Pete’s wife and Spencer’s mom. Spencer, if you recall, was on the cover of Inside Track a few issues back after winning a huge Pro Mod drag race down in Florida. She was raving about another up-and-coming racer in the Hyde family. Ari, grandson of Jack Hyde, is winning a lot of go kart races and championships. One that really impressed me was the ‘2022 Junior Lite Ron Fellows Karting Champion.’ Neat!
Lisa reminded me that when Spencer was 15-years-old, Wayne Huber (of the Huber and Hyde racing team, way back in the ‘60s) brought him down to St. Thomas Dragway. Wayne asked me if Spencer could make a pass in Hub’s Marauder. I said, ‘if his name is Hyde, that’s good enough for me!!’ And he did make the pass and the rest, as they say, is history!! LOL.
We normally associate the hills leading up to the Styrian Alps, in Austria, with the beloved music from the ‘Sound of Music.’ Unfortunately, last week we were abused by the ‘Sound of Stupidity,’ courtesy of the FIA and Formula One. What professional sport, anywhere in the world, would openly admit that they had twelve hundred infractions of their rules? Think about that – twelve hundred.
And the irony here is that there is a very simple and cost-free fix to the problem. Do away with the goofy, club racing style ‘track limits’ that have caused so much embarrassment to the sport. Problem solved; racing all of a sudden gets much better, the show is improved and the stewards are not vilified each and every week. And a certain team (Aston Martin) won’t get criticized for just asking Race Control to do their job properly. Will it happen? Highly unlikely.
Ah, the awesome Honda Indy Toronto returns again this weekend. I got invited to watch the original race from the Toronto Sun suite in 1986 and was blown away, even though I had been to several Indy 500s and many races at Michigan International Speedway, including the very first one in October 1968. I still remember Dale Coyne’s stock block Chev coming down towards start/finish at full song, sounding much louder than the rest of the CART field. I think that car was the actual catalyst for the complaints about the noise from the ‘neighbours,’ as well as Eddie Cheever revving way higher than all the other cars and not blowing up!
Full marks to young Ben Kennedy for steering NASCAR in this wonderful new direction. They hit a home run at Chicago, with thousands and thousands of first-time fans. And the L.A. Coliseum deal was, reportedly, his idea as well. Keep thinking ‘outside the box’ Ben. Chicago has definitely put some of the long-established tracks on notice – step up your game!!
Denny Hamlin, NASCAR’s constant whiner (and part owner of a car driven by another whiner), complained that they shouldn’t have shortened the Chicago race from 100 to 75 laps. I guarantee he would have complained about how dark and unsafe it was on the 99th lap!! Let your right foot do your talking Denny, NOT your mouth.
Tony Stewart is knocking it out of the park this week at his Eldora (Ohio) Speedway. He is putting on not one but two BIG dollar sprint races. The Eldora Million, Wednesday and Thursday on FloRacing, and the King’s Royal, Friday and Saturday on DIRTVision.
NASCAR CUP SERIES: That was pretty cool watching Richard Childress drive the #29 car that Kevin Harvick drove after the death of Dale Earnhardt. He was pacing the field, along with Harvick in the #4 car, prior to the start of the Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Richard tried to do a burnout when he returned to pit road. FAIL!! LOL.
Aric Almirola won the pole, ahead of Ryan Blaney and Chase Briscoe, all in Fords. Eight of the top-ten starters were Fords. Would it last?
On lap 18, Harrison Burton got loose coming out of turn two, spun and rolled down to the bottom of the track, without hitting anybody or getting hit himself. Blaney won Stage 1 by inches over Kyle Larson.
On lap 80, William Byron had a flat right-rear tire and spun down onto the apron, after a slight tap from Corey LaJoie. Which came first – the tap or the flat? Hmmm.
On lap 92, Larson got loose and got a tap from Erik Jones. He spun down the track, with Austin Hill and Briscoe spinning to avoid hitting him. The right-front tire came apart as Larson came to pit road and did a lot of body damage.
I was watching the weather radar and it looked like the storm was going to go south of Hampton. On lap 123, Jones and LaJoie got together, spinning LaJoie and collecting Ross Chastain. On lap 155, Alex Bowman got loose and slid up into Hamlin, just five laps before the end of the stage. Brad Keselowski won Stage 2.
On lap 173, Harvick spun but got to the bottom of the track. No caution!! And rain was at the door!! Five laps later, Ryan Preece spun and collected Bubba Wallace. On lap 185, they brought the cars down pit road as there was light rain falling.
Finally, NASCAR called the race complete with Byron getting the win over Daniel Suarez and A.J. Allmendinger. Three Chevs!! Byron leads the points by 21 over Martin Truex Jr. and by 36 on Kyle Busch. Their next race is New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Sunday on TSN 3 & 5 at 2:30 p.m. ET.
NASCAR XFINITY SERIES: Chandler Smith (Chev) grabbed the pole for the race at Atlanta on Saturday night. John Hunter Nemechek and Sammy Smith were second and third, both in Toyotas.
I’m not sure if it was just me but the pace car looked painfully slow. On lap 28, Parker Kligerman had a flat tire, spun and brought out a yellow. Riley Herbst picked up the Stage 1 win. On lap 51, Parker Retzlaff got very sideways after getting hit by Nemechek but saved it and kept going. Nevertheless, they ‘put it out.’ On lap 63, Greg Van Alst had a flat tire and got into the wall. Sheldon Creed won Stage 2.
Lap 88 saw Herbst get loose and lose a tire; there was chaos behind him as Ryan Sieg, Kyle Weatherman, Brandon Jones, Creed and Anthony Alfredo all got collected. On lap 101, Weatherman got a flat tire for another caution. On lap 162, Austin Hill spun for a yellow. On the green/white/checkered finish, Nemechek was able to get around Daniel Hemric and Cole Custer to grab the win.
In the points, Nemechek leads Hill by 16 and Custer by 45. Their next race is New Hampshire, Saturday on TSN 2 at 3 p.m. ET.
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS: Corey Heim (Toyota) won the pole for the road course race at Mid-Ohio, ahead of Ty Majeski (Ford) and Nick Sanchez (Chev). Stewart Friesen (Toyota) started 35th. The start was delayed for about half an hour for rain.
On the first lap, Jake Garcia got into the sand trap, while others spun on the wet track. The drivers had their windshield wipers working, as well as their defrosters. Several drivers spun!! They ran under yellow for a good part of Stage 1, which was won by Ben Rhodes. Stage 2 was more of the same, with slipping, sliding and trucks going off track and back on, although the track was drying up nicely. Majeski won Stage 2.
The following restart was two-wide for the first time. Suffice to say, it was bump, spin, restart, repeat!! A good time was had by all!!! At the checkers, it was Heim ahead of Zane Smith and Christian Eckes. Friesen came from the back of the pack to finish a very impressive fourth. I think Friesen’s strong result was due to his dirt racing background.
Heim leads the points by 26 over Smith and by 51 over Majeski. Friesen sits 11th. Their next race is Pocono, Saturday, July 22 on Fox Sports Racing at 12 p.m. ET.
FORMULA ONE: Qualifying was interesting, apart from the fact that Max Verstappen (Red Bull) won the pole at Silverstone. The two McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri qualified second and third.
Norris parked in his starting box on quite an angle and it worked, as he beat Verstappen into turn one. It took a full five laps before Max was able to get back out front. Also, on lap 5, Sergio Perez, who started a brutal 16th, made a banzai pass on Nico Hulkenberg, who tried to hold him off. It didn’t end well for Hulk, as he lost the ‘winglet’ from the left-front and had to pit for a new nose. Lewis Hamilton, who started seventh, dropped back to ninth.
On lap 33, Kevin Magnussen’s Haas blew up and stopped on track. This brought out the Virtual Safety Car but, due to the slow action by the safety crew, a full course yellow came out. On the restart, Hamilton was up to third and running softs!! With 14 laps to go, the green finally came out and it was a spirited battle between Norris and Hamilton. And, in typical F1 manner, the ugly Track Limits appeared out of the darkness once again. Lance Stroll received a five-second penalty for unsafe track re-entry. Ferrari had another bad day at the office!!
At the flag, it was Verstappen, Norris and Hamilton. The first time two British drivers had ended up on the podium at the British Grand Prix in a very long time. Stroll ended up 14th.
In the Drivers Championship, Verstappen has a ‘send me the cheque’ 99-point lead on teammate Perez and 118 on Fernando Alonso. Not surprisingly, Red Bull has an eye-popping 208-point lead in the Constructors Championship over Mercedes and 230 on Aston Martin. Their next race is Hungary on Sunday, July 23.
INDYCAR: Their next race is Toronto, Sunday on TSN 4 & 5 at 1:30 p.m. ET.
IMSA: First and foremost, thank you, thank you, thank you to IMSA for NOT subjecting us to the brutal commentary we have been exposed to in the past. What a pleasure to watch without hearing “Jeremy, Jeremy, Jeremy” every other minute!!! Well done.
Having said all that, the series dropped into the drop-dead gorgeous facility known as Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (formerly ‘Mosport’). There were nine P cars, six LMP3 cars, five PRO entries and a stout 14 GTD cars.
The Acura of Blomqvist/Braun nabbed the P pole, the Riley team of Robinson/Fraga got the LMP3 pole, the Lexus of Hawksworth/Barnicoat got the PRO pole and the Aston Martin of DeAngelis/Sorenson picked up the GTD pole. The Pfaff Porsche started fifth in PRO.
The PRO Aston Martin of Ross Gunn got almost destroyed on lap 58, when he got ‘hip checked’ by the WeatherTech Mercedes and went hard off track.
On the restart, the LMP3 car of George Staikos overcooked the last corner coming to the flag and spun onto the grass, just before the line. No prob – local yellow. BIG prob – he pulled out on track and then stopped, sitting across the track just before the starting line. Full course caution. I see a visit to Race Control in his near future!!
Another full course yellow came on lap 86 for the stranded GTD BMW of Robby Foley, who had gotten body slammed off track going into turn five. With five minutes to go, the Caddy P car of Renger van der Zande hit the tires hard for a full course caution, causing the race to end under yellow. Good race!!
At the flag, it was the Braun Acura winning P class in his polesitting car. Fraga won LMP3. The Corvette of Garcia/Taylor won PRO, followed closely by the Pfaff Porsche of Pilet/Bachlar. GTD was won by the BMW of Sellers/Snow. Their next race is at Lime Rock on July 21 & 22.
NHRA: Their next race is Denver on Sunday.
NASCAR PINTY’S SERIES: Their next race is Grand Prix of Toronto on Friday.
APC SERIES: Their next race is the London Recreational Racing 100 at Flamboro Speedway on Saturday.
ONTARIO SPORTSMAN SERIES: Their next race is Delaware Speedway on Friday.
SUPERSTAR RACING EXPERIENCE (SRX): Their season starts Thursday at Stafford Motor Speedway. Unfortunately, they have switched from CBS to ESPN for this year, so not good news for Canadians.
DELAWARE SPEEDWAY: Fifty, count ‘em, fifty Bone Stocks, along with a bunch of Super Stocks and V/8 Stocks, filled the entire front straightaway (three-wide) and pit road (two-wide) on Friday night. Most tracks can only dream about having that many entries.
Who would have guessed that there would be a caution on the first lap of all three Bone Stock heat races? Ian Levac won Heat 1, Jason Lovie won Heat 2 and Jo Lawrence picked up the win in Heat 3. Points leader Jay Cox won the Last Chance Qualifier. Lawrence used a last lap, last corner pass to win the main, ahead of Lovie, Matt Langford, Jeremiah Rabideau and Cox.
In the V/8 Stock class, Jordan Morris won Heat 1, Doug Stewart won Heat 2 and Morris won the main over Jeremy Taggart, Steve Book, Stewart and Jerry Broom.
The Super Stocks saw Ryan Bright take Heat 1 and Brody Rickwood winning Heat 2, while Carson Nagy and Lane Zardo put on a show reminiscent of the old Hanley/Biederman battles, with Nagy getting the win. Ryan Dyson was third, Jay Doerr fourth and Trevor Collver fifth, after coming from the back on his sponsor’s night.
In Bone Stock points, Cox leads Rabideau by 13 points and Langford by 18. In V/8 Stocks, Paul Fothergill leads Stewart and Jeff Ferguson by 13 points. Zardo has a two-point lead over Nagy and Doerr in Super Stock. Their next race is the Ontario Sportsman Series, Late Models and V/8 Stocks on Friday.
FLAMBORO SPEEDWAY: Their next race is the APC Series Pro Late Models on Saturday.
OHSWEKEN SPEEDWAY: Their next big race is the Southern Ontario Sprints this Friday. This past Friday, NASCAR Pinty’s Series dominator Treyten Lapcevich took a shot at driving a Sprint Car on the dirt. This kid can do anything!
SOUTHERN ONTARIO MOTOR SPEEDWAY (BUXTON): Their next race is Saturday.
GRAND BEND SPEEDWAY: Their next race is the Brad Clark Memorial and Reunion this Thursday and the Grand Bend Ribfest on Saturday.
GRAND BEND DRAGWAY: Their next race is the Summer Smash next weekend.
ST. THOMAS DRAGWAY: Their next race is the Can-Am Stock/Super Stocks this weekend.
EAST LONDON TIMING ASSOCIATION LittleBigGo: Friday, August 11, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Be there!!!
TORONTO MOTORSPORTS PARK: Their next race is the Canada Heads Up Shootout Series this weekend.
SHANNONVILLE DRAGS: Their next race is this weekend.
CAN AM STOCK/SUPER STOCK SERIES: Their next race is at St. Thomas Dragway this weekend.
Any comments, question, complaints or suggestions can be sent to Dave Mathers via email at motionman@rogers.com or by Facebook Messenger.
Discussion about this post