In this week’s Motion Motorsport Report, Dave Mathers airs out his disdain for track limits and other silly racing rules.
We saw another head-scratching officiating decision at the IMSA race at the Glen a week ago. Penalizing a team for having a component one millimeter short of the spec is brain numbing. But then again let’s look at some of the other calls of late that seem to defy logic.
Formula One Race Control allowing lapped cars to pass the pace car effectively handing the World Championship to Max Verstappen, has to be the biggest. Then Formula One penalized a car three spots that they did not want starting on the front row for ‘exceeding a minimum’ speed by 1.5 seconds in a race car on a race track under a red flag?
NASCAR penalized a team a quarter of a million dollars for not using a ‘single source’ part that would have no bearing on performance? Now this? Has the sport gone completely mad?
Did anybody else hear the instructions that the GTP drivers had to follow to exit their race cars? I heard they were not to swing out and touch the ground but rather to climb up on the rear quarters and jump off. Apparently, there is possibility of electrical shock? That is kind of scary.
The Formula One stewards strike again!! On Friday, the announcers at the Austrian GP were talking about the multiple track limit ‘violations’!! During Q2 Sergio Perez (Red Bull) went slightly off track and the stewards then imposed their ‘kindergarten’ rules against ‘colouring outside the lines,’ DQing his lap for ‘exceeding track limits’ and thus not allowing him to advance into Q3.
When will the insanity stop by having F1 hire competent, professional and full time officials? And they also called Max Verstappen in for a ‘chat’ over possible blocking of Kevin Magnussen. Why does F1 allow their ‘clown show’ to ruin every race?
After all, don’t they advertise that these are the ‘Best Drivers in the World’?? Get rid of both ‘track limits’ and the stewards and let them race!! Remember Liberty, you are NOT selling racing, you are selling entertainment!!
NASCAR CUP SERIES: Denny Hamlin grabbed the pole for the Chicago Street Race followed by Tyler Reddick, both in Toyotas and Shane Van Gisbergen (who???) in a Chev. A deep dive finds that Van Gisbergen is from New Zealand and is an Australian Supercar star hired by Trackhouse for this event.
After a delay for all the rain, the green flag finally came out. The best line so far was Rick Allen saying the drivers were ‘cleaning their tires’!! On a wet track!! Good one.
Where to start? It seems almost everybody had some kind of moment!! There were spins everywhere including polesitter Hamlin getting into the wall. On a wet street course? That’ll separate the road course ringers from the rest!!
On lap 3 Kyle Busch buried his car windshield deep into the tire barrier bringing out a full course caution. And ‘the crowd went wild’ when they pulled him out!!
Christopher Bell finally got around leader Tyler Reddick on lap 9. On lap 13 Noah Gragson stuffed it into the tires bringing out another caution. And Gragson is sponsored by Wendy’s so maybe, just maybe, he was just using the new Wendy’s drive-thru program? LOL
On lap 22 Joey Logano got into the tires but was able to back out on his own. Jenson Button got spun by Chris Beuscher trying for pit entry but kept going down pit road.
Christopher Bell won Stage 1 with the New Zealand super star Van Gisbergen second!! Teams were switching from rain tires to slicks. On lap 26 Chase Elliott got into the tires right after putting on slicks. He kept going. On lap 30 Gragson did it again creating another yellow!!
Two inches of rain Sunday in Chicago! Ouch.
Denny Hamlin tagged Alex Bowman spinning Bowman on lap 41 for another caution.
It appeared that Bowman’s motor expired on lap 45 for yet another yellow. Bell won Stage 2.
The track was getting very dark so I doubted they would get in all 100 laps. Yup, the race would end at lap 75. On lap 49 there was a massive pileup almost completely blocking the track. Byron had slid into the tires on a corner again. Harvick got spun by LaJoie and collected a bunch of cars.
On lap 57 Reddick hit the tires for yet another yellow. Austin Dillon overcooked the corner and hit the wall hard. He kept going then hit the wall again. On lap 64 Truex and Harvick got together for another caution.
Meanwhile, the SuperCar star from the other side of the globe was putting on a clinic!! For his first time in a Cup car, he was awesome!! He passed Haley for the lead with 8 to go. Truex got into the tires again for yet another yellow. This gave the lead back to Haley. The green came back out with five to go.
Van Gisbergen got around for the lead and then Haley came back. Rinse and repeat and Van Ginsbergen began pulling away. With two to go, Bubba Wallace took out Ricky Stenhouse setting up a green/white/checker finish.
On the restart, the New Zealand star checked out on the field. The battle was for second. At the flag, it was ‘SVG,’ as they were calling him, ahead of Haley and Elliott.
My opinion of the race: It would have been much better had there been no rain. But it was still a fun race. Some changes to the circuit would make it better.
Some of the sections appeared too narrow for any real passing. Hopefully they will return next year.
Memo to Cup team owners: Send your drivers ‘down under’ in the off season and let them run a couple of Aussie V/8 Supercar races. Climbing Mount Panorama at Bathurst will be an experience they will never forget!! AND they will learn road racing in a format different from anything in the USA.
In the points, Truex leads Byron by 9 and Chastain by 18.
Their next race is the Atlanta, Sunday on TSN 5 and NBC at 5 P.M.
NASCAR XFINITY SERIES: Cole Custer (Ford) picked up the pole for the Xfinity Chicago Street Race followed by Sheldon Creed (Chev) and John Hunter Nemechek (Toyota). Canadian Alex Labbe started 19th.
Things went smoothly on the all-new track until lap 5 when the oil pan failed on the Justin Marks Chev and it couldn’t hold in all the oil and parts!! LOL On lap 17 Andre Castro climbed the tire barrier for the second yellow. Custer won Stage 1.
With lightning too close to the track, the red flag came out on lap 25 and the race was rescheduled to Sunday morning. Sunday morning arrived and so did the rain so yet another delay.
Early in the afternoon NASCAR made the decision to call the race as complete due to continued rain in the Chicago area. This gave the race win to Cole Custer. John Hunter Nemechek was second with Justin Allgaier third. Labbe finished 21st.
And in an ‘only in Chicago’ scenario some idiot drove out onto the race course Saturday night. I doubt he got to see Sunday’s race.
In the points Nemechek has a 16-point lead on Austin Hill and 44 points on Custer.
Their next race is Atlanta Saturday on TSN 2 at 8 P.M.
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS: Their next race is Mid-Ohio, Saturday on Fox Sports Racing at 1.30 P.M.
FORMULA ONE: Ferrari’s brutal season continued in Austria. Carlos Sainz encountered regenerative brake problems at the start of the Shootout 1 qualifying and got back out with less than two minutes to go. However, the one lap he got in was good for P1!! And, once again, the stewards were deleting times for ‘track limit’ violations. Reportedly 47 incidents/penalties. Brilliant!!!
This race featured Sprint qualifying as opposed to the traditional method and surprise, surprise Max Verstappen (Red Bull) got the pole. The race started under a threat of rain, and it was basically a wet track. At the flag it was Max in a different area code over teammate Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), Canadian Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso both in Aston Martins.
And in the ultimate raised middle finger to the stewards, the teams of both Kevin Magnussen and Nyck de Vries who were starting 19th and 20th worked on their cars prior to the race. This meant that they both broke ‘parc ferme’ rules to the horror of the stewards!! And their punishment you ask? They will be forced to start from pit lane in, wait for it, 19th and 20th!! Love it.
Well, that didn’t take long. The yellow came out on the second lap for an incident with Tsunoda making contact with ‘others’ and leaving a bunch of carbon fiber debris on the racing surface.
And then to put the icing on the cake, Tsunodo overcooked corner entry and beached it in the runoff area. On lap 14 a local yellow came out in sectors one and two when Hulkenberg blew a motor and pulled off the track.
To move the car, they were forced to put out a full track virtual safety car. Many cars pitted. And the UGLY penalties for ‘exceeding track limits’ returned!! Sad.
Things went amazingly drama free to the end other than some great on track passes for position. Max had a big enough lead that with two to go he pitted for a fresh set of softs and went out and set fast time picking up an extra point. It was no surprise then that Max won ahead of Leclerc and Perez who recovered very well from his 15th place starting spot. Stroll finished either 9th or 10th depending on which result is read.
The race was a spark of hope for Ferrari who have struggled this year. And about that rule against ‘smoke bombs’ in the stands? It was an orange haze many times during the race. I guess the stewards weren’t involved in enforcing that rule? LOL
It was stated that there were, wait for it, more than 1,200 reports of drivers ‘exceeding track limits’ during the race. In a 71 lap race? That’s about 17/lap. And take a wild guess what the vaunted stewards did? They revised the results. I kid you not.
EIGHT drivers received ‘time penalties.’ It has been said that good companies are brought down by people INSIDE the business, not by external forces. This is clearly the case here. F1 and the FIA with their misguided stewards program and track limits idiocy have become the laughing stock of the motorsport world. Sad.
And to make it worse, the FIA has blamed the Red Bull Ring circuit saying that they should have added gravel traps instead of asphalt at Corners 9 and 10. As the track also runs MotoGP races, that is not an acceptable option. Don’t blame the track, blame the rules and the rules enforcers.
In the points Max leads teammate Perez by 81 and Alonso by 100. Red Bull leads the Constructor’s Championship by a mind-numbing 199 over Mercedes and 205 atop Aston Martin.
Their next race is Britain, Sunday on TSN 1 at 8.55 A.M.
INDYCAR: First and foremost, a very special thank you to TSN for picking up the race at Mid Ohio. Much appreciated!!
Colton Herta won the pole ahead of Graham Rahal and Kyle Kirkwood. Is it just me or are those three names that you would not have bet on to start at the front? Canadian Devlin DeFrancesco started 24th.
Simon Pagenaud suffered a major moment in practice when, reportedly, his brakes failed at the end of the long straight and he did a full ‘Fosbury Flop’ (Google it!!), somersaulting off the track. That caused him to miss qualifying and forced him to start last. In fact, Conor Daly ended up subbing for Pagenaud as he could not get medical clearance to race.
I had forgotten how pretty Mid-Ohio is with all the trees and hills. We last visited the track way back in 1978, 45 years ago. Ouch! The track was owned then by Jim Trueman who owned the Red Roof Inn chain and sponsored Bobby Rahal. I made it a point to stay in Red Roof motels whenever possible.
And it did not take long for chaos to commence!! Marcus Ericsson and Felix Rosenqvist tangled right after the start taking out both cars. On lap 20 Alex Palou passed Kirkwood for third but appeared to chop him just a bit causing Kirkwood to spin and continue.
Believe it or not, the race went green all the way to the checkers after that caution period with lots of exciting passes in the pack and at the front. Alex Palou picked up the win over Scott Dixon and Will Power. DeFrancesco finished a stout 14th.
Their next race is Toronto, Sunday, July 16.
IMSA: Their next race is at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park – the track formerly known as Mosport – this Sunday.
NHRA: Their next race is Denver, Sunday, July 16.
NASCAR PINTY’S SERIES. In the points standings, Treyten Lapcevich leads Kevin Lacroix by 23 and Alex Guenette by 32. Their next race is Friday, July 14 at the Grand Prix of Toronto. A fun race!!
APC SERIES: The series put on a two night show at Delaware Speedway with the Super Stocks, Mods and Hot Rods running Friday and the Late Models, Mods and Hot Rods Saturday.
Lane Zardo had fast time for the Super Stocks with Carson Nagy second and Ryan Dyson third. Unfortunately, Dyson had to change a tire after qualifying and was forced to start from the back. With the inversion Shawn Chenoweth started up front.
Four laps in, Trevor Collver grabbed the lead. The action was behind those two with Zardo and Nagy putting on a great race. Nagy finally got around Zardo and then passed Chenoweth. Collver won the race over Nagy, Chenoweth, Zardo and Pete Vanderwyst. Nagy has a five-point lead in the points over Zardo and 11 points on both Collver and Chase Pinsonneault.
The Friday night Mods saw Bryan Batty win Heat 1, Jamie Cox win Heat 2 and the rocket ship of TJ Edwards win the main ahead of Jake Watson, Marshall Schrenk, Cox and Steve Trendell.
The first night for the Hot Rods saw Steve McCaw win Heat 1, Dalen Martin take Heat 2 and Martin take the main over McCaw, Tyler Hawn, Steve Book and Mat Hopkins. There was some drama after the checker as McCaw had a medical emergency stopping against the inside front straight wall with the engine at full song. He was evacuated from the car, given medical assistance (from a local racer who is also an EMT) and transported to hospital for further treatment.
Saturday saw a sense of urgency as bad weather was coming. Heat 1 for the Hot Rod class was won by Jeremy Taggart with Dalen Martin winning Heat 2. Martin again won the main over Tyler Hawn, Cole Weber, Rob Bromley and Mat Hopkins.
Marshall Schrenk won the Mod Heat 1, Bryan Batty won Heat 2 and Jamie Cox won the main over Schrenk, Bryan Batty and TJ Edwards.
PHOTOS – TOP TO BOTTOM: Jake Sheridan, Jamie Cox and Tyler Hawn, by Chris Culos Jr.
Track photographer and ‘gate keeper’ Chris Culos had the honour of giving the ‘Start Your Engines’ command for the 100 lap Late Model feature. With the inversion Tyler Di Venanzo started from the pole followed by Josh Stade, Jake Sheridan, J.R. Fitzpatrick and Kyle Steckly.
On lap 23 local veteran Pete Vanderwyst blew a tire and hit the wall going into corner one hard bringing out the yellow. On the restart it’s fair to say that ‘they killed the cone’!!
They were using a cone for the ‘choose line’ and 3rd and 4th place restarters Sheridan and Fitzpatrick hit the cone and got sent to the back of the pack. On a later restart, a car whose driver shall remain nameless came out of the pits and also hit the cone. You could see a ‘thought bubble’ above his car saying, ‘what are they gonna do to me, I’m already at the back of the pack’!! LOL
I realize NASCAR calls it a ‘commitment cone’ but in the big show it is actually a V-shaped mark painted on the track and not an actual cone. Dirt races use a cone on restarts but they are pulled off with a rope negating the need for an official to go, unsafely, onto a LIVE track to retrieve the cone.
On lap 39 fast qualifier Connor Pritiko blew a motor. At the halfway mark, Steckly led Stade, Jo Lawrence, Ray Morneau and Di Venanzo. Two laps later Erik Dalla Riva got into the wall on the back stretch. Meanwhile the two cars of Sheridan and Fitzpatrick were coming through the pack.
On lap 80 Sheridan got the lead. On lap 92 Morneau stopped in Turn 2 after sparks came out from under the car. At the flag it was Sheridan, Lawrence, Fitzpatrick, Steckly and Shae Gemmell.
In the very tight Late Model points Lawrence now leads Danny Benedict by 1, Kyle Steckly by 3 and Jake Sheridan by 4.
Their next race is Flamboro, Saturday, July 15.
ONTARIO SPORTSMAN SERIES: Cory McAllister came home in front of Connor James in the OSS race at Sauble Speedway on Saturday night. Their next race is at Delaware on Friday July 14.
SUPERSTAR RACING EXPERIENCE (SRX): Their season starts Thursday, July 13 at Stafford Motor Speedway.
Delaware Speedway: The APC Series ran Friday and Saturday with the Super Stocks Friday, the Late Models Saturday and the Mods and Hot Rods running both days. Results in the APC section above.
Their next race is Super Stocks, V/8 Stocks and Bone Stocks Friday.
Flamboro Speedway: Their next race is Pro Late Models Saturday.
Ohsweken Speedway: Their next big race is the Strickland’s Night this Friday.
SOUTHERN ONTARIO MOTOR SPEEDWAY (Buxton): Their next race has the OTS Sprints this Saturday.
GRAND BEND SPEEDWAY: Their next race is regular racing this Thursday and Saturday.
SUNSET SPEEDWAY: It’s the Junior Hanley Classic 72 race Saturday night. $7,200 to win for the Pro Late Models. Plus Super Stocks, Hot Rods, Junior Late Models and TQ Midgets.
GRAND BEND DRAGWAY: Their next race is the Berlin Klassik Euro Car Show this weekend.
ST. THOMAS DRAGWAY: Their next race is the Northern Sled Shootout this weekend.
EAST LONDON TIMING ASSOCIATION: LittleBigGo – Friday, August 11, 10 – 5. BE THERE!!!
TORONTO MOTORSPORTS PARK: TMP was rocking this past weekend with the Nitro Nationals. The rain held off Saturday and the cars lit up the night. TMP’s next race is Tim Orser’s Sportsman Series this weekend.
PHOTOS FROM TMP’S NITRO NATIONALS BY GREG MACPHERSON / INSIDE TRACK
SHANNONVILLE DRAGS: Their next race is July 15 & 16.
CAN AM STOCK/SUPER STOCK SERIES: Their next race is at St. Thomas Dragway, July 15 & 16.
Please send comments to Dave Mathers at motionman@rogers.com.
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