In this week’s Motion Motorsport Report, Dave Mathers covers the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, comments on IndyCar at Road America, and more.
It appears that IndyCar does NOT want to allow Canadians to watch their races. First, they were unable to get any Canadian carrier to broadcast the race.
Second, they put the race on a channel not available in Canada. Third, and the BIG one, when signing on to stream the race, I get the following message – ‘Road America Race – This livestream is not available in your country.’ Doh!!!
News flash to the tall foreheads at IndyCar World Headquarters – just this week, Canada hit the 40 million mark for population. Now, quick quiz, how many of that 40 million are race fans?
Had IndyCar hired the VERY talented crew that run the NASCAR.com Live Timing feature during the races, on all of their three national series, we would have been able to follow the action on the right hand side of the IndyCar Live Timing screen, including what caused the cautions, who passed who, who pitted, etc., etc.!!
But wait, there’s more!! Doing a deep dive into Peacock, the race broadcaster, I found the following pronouncement, “Peacock is spreading its wings worldwide. UK and Ireland, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Italy. Peacock is not yet available in your territory.”
What country is missing from THAT picture? But wait, there is even MORE!! On the IndyCar homepage, they list, amongst others, Sirius XM!! Bonus, I’ve got that, car, house and cell phones!! Click on it and, TILT, ‘Sorry, this channel is no longer available.’
Double doh! Then I clicked on USA Network, another home page listing. Nope. Meanwhile, the F1 race is on not just one, but two TSN channels, as well as CTV. Spot the difference?
It appears Marc-Antoine Camirand had a problem in post-race tech after winning the NASCAR Pinty’s Series race at Autodrome Chaudière last week.
Apparently, the trailing arm mounts did not conform to the rule book and, as a result, the team and driver each lost 18 points, while crew chief Robin McCluskey received a $2,500 fine.
My question is, why was this not discovered in pre-race tech? And more to the point, why was the victory not taken away and the win given to second-place finisher Treyton Lapcevich? That would have meant that Lapcevich had won the first three races of the season. Hmm.
Well, THAT was awkward!! P1 at Montreal lasted, wait for it, FOUR minutes on Friday. Pierre Gasly’s Alpine suffered a driveline problem, possibly a broken driveshaft, but then the track’s CCTV system went down, meaning that certain areas of the course were not visible on camera by Race Control.
This was a safety issue so the session was cancelled as they couldn’t get it fixed fast enough. This added an extra 30 minutes to P2, a session ‘won’ by the Mercedes team of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. Bragging rights!! I blame it on the smoke from the forest fires!! LOL.
Speaking of Montreal, Linda and I attended the very first F1 race there (we had seen several at Mosport and St. Jovite) 45 years ago.
We ‘brilliantly’ parked our motorhome at the far end of the parking lot, which happened to be under the Jacques Cartier Bridge. That thing shook, rattled, groaned and basically scared us all night, as it sounded like it was going to collapse!! LOL. BTW – while the basic course layout is basically the same, the facility infrastructure improvements are awesome.
I’m a little confused with NASCAR!! Years ago, I recall Mother’s Day was always off, while Father’s Day we always went to MIS. Interesting change.
NASCAR CUP SERIES: Their next race is Nashville Superspeedway, Sunday on TSN 5 and NBC at 7 p.m. ET. They had this week off for Father’s Day.
NASCAR XFINITY SERIES: Their next race is Nashville, Saturday on TSN 3 at 3:30 p.m. ET. They had this week off.
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCKS: Their next race is Nashville, Friday on Fox Sports Racing at 8 p.m. ET.
FORMULA ONE: To say that qualifying in Montreal was ugly would be an understatement, but the only blame involved would go against Mother Nature. Rain hampered events on Friday practice, as well as Saturday practice and qualifying. No surprise, but Max Verstappen grabbed the pole in his Red Bull, while Nico Hulkenberg (who??, what??) was second in his Haas and Fernando Alonso was third in his Aston Martin. Canadian Lance Stroll was a victim of the weather and started 13th in his Aston Martin.
STOP THE PRESSES!!!! The insanity in F1 continues as Hulkenberg had his second-place start revoked for, wait for it, ‘to have gone faster than the minimum delta time set by the FIA ECU on his return to the pits when the session was red flagged in Q3′ and thus driving dangerously! (How do you go faster than a minimum????) Oh, the HORROR!!!
Too fast in a race car on a race track in a rain storm!! As a result, he was handed a ‘club racing’ style three spot starting grid penalty from the part-time stewards. And how fast was he? One point five seconds too fast!! And just what advantage did he gain? Talk about picking fly dung out of pepper.
This head-scratching decision definitely adds more ammunition to the almost universal attempts to replace the current weekend rent-a-cop stewards with full-time, FULLY trained officials. Please make it happen.
It was so gratifying to see good weather on Sunday, for the race, after two days of rain and bad weather. The temperature was 19 degrees, with track temperature at a cool 31 degrees and very little wind.
On the start, Hamilton was able to pull the gun out of the holster and pass Alonso into Turn 1. On lap 12, George Russell had a major moment, slapping the wall hard and damaging his right-rear wheel. Surprisingly, he was able to replace his front wing, change the tire and return to the race. I would have lost that bet!!
Not surprisingly, Verstappen was out front seemingly on a Sunday drive, with empty rear view mirrors. And, once again, we were subjected to the multitude of standard ‘the stewards are reviewing … whatever perceived indiscretion or hurt feelings that presented itself’!!! Sad.
On lap 35, Kevin Magnussen and Yuki Tsunoda got together and both ended up going down the run-off road, but were able to return to the race. The rest of the race pretty much ran according to the script.
At the flag it was, no surprise, Verstappen ahead of Alonso and Hamilton, with Stroll finishing ninth. Max leads teammate Sergio Perez by 69 in the points and Alonso by 78.
In the Constructor’s Championship, Red Bull has a dominating 154-point lead on Mercedes and 167 on Aston Martin. Ferrari is still MIA!! Their next race is Austria on Sunday, July 2.
INDYCAR: Colton Herta nabbed the pole at Elkhart Lake, ahead of Pato O’Ward and Alex Palou. Canadian Devlin DeFrancesco started from the 12th spot.
Due to the facts posted above (i.e. it wasn’t on TV in Canada), I will only be able to give the finishing order, sorry about that. The win went to Palou over Josef Newgarden and O’Ward.
DeFrancesco finished 23rd. Palou now leads Marcus Ericsson by 74 in the points and Newgarden by 71. Their next race is Mid-Ohio on Sunday, July 2.
IMSA: Their next race is Watkins Glen, Sunday on Rev TV at 10:30 a.m. ET.
NHRA: CORRECTION. The initial version of this post included incorrect info regarding the NHRA’s next event. Hat tip to Ian McFaul for pointing it out. The NHRA will be in action this coming weekend at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio. The event is the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals. Inside Track drag racing columnist John Waldie will be in attendance and reports that many Canadians will be in action at the event. If that’s not reason enough to go there, Ian McFaul notes that “it’s the closest big NHRA race weekend to Ontario, it’s the nicest track, run by the nicest folks, AND… they sell ice cream for $1 per pound.” Sounds like great reasons for a road trip! Thanks again to Ian for reading Dave’s blog and for letting us know about the faux pas.
NASCAR PINTY’S SERIES: Their next race is Saturday in Newfoundland.
APC SERIES: Jake Sheridan qualified #1 one for the Pro Late Model race at Peterborough Speedway on Saturday, in front of Kyle Steckly and Danny Benedict. Steckly won the race, ahead of Jo Lawrence and Benedict.
Anthony DiBello grabbed the pole for the Qwick Wick Super Stock race over Shawn Chenoweth and Carson Nagy. At the flag, it was Nagy over Lane Zardo and Miles Tyson.
Benedict leads the Late Model points by four over Lawrence and by seven atop Steckly.
In the Super Stock points, Nagy leads Zardo by three and Chase Pinsonneault by six.
Results from the Modified and Hot Rod class races at Sauble Speedway were unavailable at press time. The series next race is Delaware Speedway on Saturday, July 1.
ONTARIO SPORTSMAN SERIES: Connor James won the race at Sunset Speedway, ahead of Brendan Patrick and Chad McGlynn. James now leads McGlynn by one point and Michael Hryniuk Jr. by 21 in the points. Their next race is Sauble on Saturday, July 1.
DELAWARE SPEEDWAY: Once again, there were 48 Bone Stocks in the pits. Mark Lamont won Heat 1, Jason Craig won Heat 2, Colin Willems won Heat 3, Jaden Chapman won the B Main and Jamie Cox picked up the Feature win over Jordan Willms and Colin Willems.
In the V/8 Stocks, Dave Evison won Heat 1, Derek Clark won Heat 2 and Evison picked up the Feature win, ahead of Paul Fothergill and Doug Stewart.
Patrick Freel won the Late Model Heat 1, Gary Adriaensen won Heat 2, while Connor Pritiko won the caution-filled Feature, ahead of Chase Pinsonneault and Ray Morneau. There were a LOT of damaged race cars in the main.
In the Bone Stock points, Cox leads Jeremiah Rabideau by 16 and Jordan Willms by 18. Fothergill leads the V/8 Stocks by 21 over Stewart and by 22 on Evison.
The Late Model points show Pritiko in front of Pinsonneault by 24 and Morneau by 29. Their next race is Late Models, Super Stocks and King of the Hill, Friday on Rogers TV (London) at 7:30 p.m. ET.
VARAC: The annual VARAC Vintage Grand Prix took place at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Sunday’s feature race victories went to Steve Gidman (Vintage Historic, Groups 1/2/3), Russ Bond (Classics, Group 4), Blaise Csida (Modern Classic/Classic/Vintage Historic, Group 5), Stephen Sutherland (Formula Classic, Group 6) and Brent Gernert (VS2 NA, Group 8). Logan Pacza swept the three F1600 (Group 7) races. Featured marque Mazda won the “Mazda vs the World” Rudy Bartling Nation’s Cup race.
SUPERSTAR RACING EXPERIENCE (SRX): Their season starts on Thursday, July 13 at Stafford Motor Speedway.
FLAMBORO SPEEDWAY: Their next race is the Meet the Drivers Night on Saturday.
OHSWEKEN SPEEDWAY: Their next big race is the Gale’s Auto Aftermarket Night this Friday.
SOUTHERN ONTARIO MOTOR SPEEDWAY (BUXTON): Their next race is regular racing this Saturday.
GRAND BEND SPEEDWAY: Their next race is racing this Thursday and Saturday.
GRAND BEND DRAGWAY: Their next race is the ONDR on July 2.
ST. THOMAS DRAGWAY: Their next race is Nostalgia Chaos on Saturday.
TORONTO MOTORSPORTS PARK: Their next big race is the Nitro Nationals on July 2.
SHANNONVILLE DRAGS: Their next race is July 15 & 16.
CAN AM STOCK/SUPER STOCK SERIES: Their next race is this weekend at Empire Dragway.
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