- Details
- Category: Opinion
June 8 2021
|
This is going to be a bit of an abridged column for this week. Unfortunately we suffered a failure of our main hard drive last night, as I was trying to back it up. All of my notes from the weekend, as well as the 95% of this article that was written, was lost. I have to work this from memory, so my apologies if I get some of the numbers wrong.
Delaware Has New Ownership Group
Delaware Speedway in Ontario has announced a new ownership group. The group has a lot of racing experience, which should bode well for the future of the facility. Among the first upgrades the new owners plan include track resurfacing at the end of this season.
The first race of the 2021 season at Delaware will be the APC Late Model opener on July 2, along with the Quickwick Fire Starter Super Stock Series.
Read the full press release about the announcement here
Azerbaijan Grand Prix – Oh So Sergio
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix showed exactly why Red Bull went with Sergio Perez over Alex Albon in the off season, can anyone see Albon, not only holding off Hamilton all race, but forcing him into a mistake?
And while the votes for Driver of the Day went to Vettel, Perez is my Driver of the Day. I like Vettel and I'm really happy to see the Canadian-owned Aston Martin team score a great result, but Vettel spent a lot of his race by himself, essentially driving to a number. Perez on the other hand was under pressure from Hamilton all race long and didn't put a wheel wrong under all that pressure. Because of Perez and his pressure-packed drive, along with Bottas showing why Mercedes Benz will Albon him at the end of the season, Red Bull was able to leave Baku with a larger lead in the Constructor's Championship, while Verstappen was able to leave with his lead over Hamilton in tact. I can't see any of that happening with Albon in that seat.
Of course, there are two bigger talking points coming out of the race, tires and brakes.
The tire failures of first Stroll, then Verstappen, changed what was a fairly uneventful race into one of the most talked about races of the year. Stroll went out in the biggest way when a tire failed after 29 laps, well within Pirelli's 40 lap recommendation, while Verstappens failure happened at lap 45, on his second set of tires, and still within Pirelli's recommendation. A lot of fingers are being pointed at Pirelli, and we all know, regardless of the outcome, the random sim racers on Twitter will absolutely know better than F1 and Pirelli.
To me, if only 2 tires fail over the course of the weekend I think it's more likely that two drivers ran off-line somewhere, possibly in the same place, and damaged the tire, or went through the same debris. When tires are defective, like F1 at Indy or NASCAR, also at Indy, there isn't a problem with only two tires, there are dozens, and it doesn't only show up in the race, it shows up in practice and qualifying. And those tires weren't defective per se, they were improperly designed and built for the forces the cars were generating at that track. It was like putting a bicycle tire on an F1 car. It will fail, but it's not defective. We'll see what Pirelli says, it's certainly possible there was a defect in the tire, but I will be surprised if that's the case, and not because of some cover-up conspiracy theory, but because two drivers damaging their tires just makes more sense.
The other problem being talked about was Hamilton and his magic brakes. It seems the current Mercedes has a device that will quickly, and exactly, change the brake bias up to the front during warm up laps and safety cars to help keep the front tires hot, and then back again when it's time to race, and from what I've heard at Baku, it was 86.5% front. (normally a race car wants a little more front brake than rear, from 52 to 55%, unless it's raining)
The idea for the increased front bias is to keep the temperature in the front tires by increasing the work the front brakes do, thereby increasing the heat that goes from the brakes, through the wheel rims and from the wheel rims into the tires. It seems Hamilton turned the magic off after the sighting lap before the final restart, but accidentally hit the button on the steering wheel when Perez began moving over on him. So, with 86.5% of the brakes now on the front, and possibly overheated brakes judging by all the smoke on the grid, there was no chance Hamilton was going to make that corner. Hamilton took full responsibility for the mistake, proving that, sometimes, even the best get it wrong.
In the end, Baku was a pretty good race, with no points for the top 2 in the title fight and Bottas, all the championships tightened up, and the next few races should be good.
There is also some talk, with the recent cancellation of Singapore, and both Mexico and Brazil questionable at this point, that there may be room for Canada to find it's way back on the calendar in late September or early October. As Norris McDonald points out in his column here, the race was cancelled out right, and not simply postponed, so he feels there is zero chance of it returning this year. While that's certainly possible, especially if new promoters Bell Media decide they want a full 12 months to prepare for their first race, at the end of the day, F1 needs to put on 23 races to fulfil all of it's contractual obligations and if squeezing Canada into a hole that has opened up works for all involved, it's still a possibility. I would think if both Mexico and Brazil are cancelled, then teams might want a second North American date to help offset the travel.
NASCAR Cup & Xfinity
Both NASCAR classes were on the road course this weekend, although Cup was on the west coast at Sonoma, while Xfinity was closer to home at Mid-Ohio.
AJ Allmendinger staged a great comeback from a pitlane speeding penalty with 25 laps to go to take the win, while Alex Labbe was running in the top 10 when the final green flag came up, but was pushed off the track shortly after the green, falling out of the top 20. A great drive got Labbe to back to 11th place at the finish, along with points in both stages made for a pretty good day.
In the Cup race, I could almost just cut and paste my thoughts from last race, where Kyle Larson again left little doubt as to who was the fastest out there. It's quickly turning in to the Kyle and Chase show, with another 1-2 finish for the Hendrick drivers.
This was the fourth straight 1-2 finish for Hendrick Motorsports, tying the record of four straight set by the iconic Chrysler 300's of Carl Kiekhaefer set way back in 1956. We'll see if Hendrick can now hunt down Kiekhaefer's record of 16 straight wins.
Canadian Racing
While there still isn't much going on in Canadian racing, an email from Canadian Tire Motorsport Park indicates that the VARAC Grand Prix is a go for June 19/20, although we are still waiting to hear if media will be allowed, fingers crossed, and I would think no spectators still.
On the track, ST Racing's Samantha Tan was in action at VIR where she took her BMW M2 to third place on Sunday in the TCX class, her third podium finish from four TC America starts so far in 2021. You can read the teams race report here.
Sportsnet
Sportsnet was busy doing Sportsnet things again this past weekend. For at least F1 Friday Practice and Saturday Qualifying, the Sportsnet guide had the racing listed as starting an hour later than it actually did, causing many people to miss large amounts of the Friday and Saturday action. This has happened so many times with Sportsnet, showing wrong times or not at all, that I'm getting to the point where I don't believe it's accidental any more.
When you factor in the fact that they are the only major carrier that doesn't carry REV TV and that their own Indy Car coverage has been less than stellar, you have to wonder if some of the people who run sportsnet really don't like racing.
Next Week
F1 is off for a couple of weeks when they roll into France, skipping the Canadian Grand Prix. At least Canadian race fans can comfort themselves with the fact that hockey players can pop back and forth across the border without any issues.
NASCAR has their All-Star race at Texas next weekend, with all 3 national series racing, trucks and Xfinity on Saturday and Cup on Sunday. As usual, Fox Sports Racing has the truck race live on Saturday at 1pm, with TSN carrying the Xfintity race at 4pm. On Sunday, Cup pre-race starts at 5:30, and the racing action at 6pm, also on TSN.
Indy Car rolls into Detroit for their annual double header, and the closest to Canada the series will race this year. And in a surprise to us all, Sportsnet 360 is actually showing both races, at 2pm on Saturday, and noon on Sunday.
Both motorcycle series, MotoGP and World Superbike are off for a couple of weeks.
That's it for this week, hopefully next week I'll have a full set of notes to work from.
Add a comment
- Details
- Category: Opinion
June 1 2021
|
Memorial Day weekend in the US is always one of the biggest and most anticipated racing weekends of the year, but this year things got off to a tragic start when 19 year old Swiss Moto 3 rider Jason Dupasquier succumbed to his injuries early Sunday morning (Toronto time) from a terrible accident he suffered the day before at the MotoGP Italian Grand Prix.
And the conversation that happens after all race track fatalities was sparked again when MotoGP rider Frencesco Bagnaia, according to an article in Motorsport.com here, said he feels the race shouldn't have gone on. “We have lost a 19-year-old rider, so this is very difficult to accept and very difficult to accept the decision of someone to let us race” he's quoted in Motorsport.com as saying.
In the same article Valentino Rossi notes that not racing does nothing to change what happened, and this is the side of the argument I come down on.
While I didn't race anything as big or fast as these guys, I did race and instruct for almost 10 years and I have got to know hundreds of race car drivers over the years, and can't recall a single driver, on the rare occasion we talked about this kind of thing, ever saying he wanted a race to be cancelled if anything happened to them on the track, myself included. Perhaps that's an attitude that may be changing.
I'm not sure what stopping races do, as Rossi noted, it can't change anything that has happened, and, for me, I wanted my friends and competitors, who I know have worked hard and spent a lot of money to get to the track to go out show just how great motorsports can be, put the darkness behind us and go out and put on the best damn show they can.
For another, well written, well thought out view on this, check out Max Oxley's column here.
One thing seems certain, there is no consensus on this matter, and races run under these circumstances will continue to be controversial.
In the race itself, Fabio Quartararo took an impressive win on his Monster Energy Yamaha and leaves Mugello with the points lead, 105 to 81 over the Pramac Ducati of Johann Zarco. Francesco Bagnaia slips to 3rd in the championship with 79 points after crashing on the second lap.
Staying on two wheels, the World Superbike Championship ran round two of the 2021 season at Esstorill and it looked like it might be a bump in the road in Jonathan Ray's quest for his 7th championship title.
Ray took his 100th career win in the round 1 Saturday opener in Spain, while Scott Redding took victory in the Sunday race, then repeated the victory in the round 2 Saturday race in Esstorill, putting him solidly in the title hunt. Redding led early in the Sunday race, but crashed out shortly after losing the lead to Ray, dropping him to 3rd in the championship hunt, behind Ray and Toprak Razgatlioglu.
Remember you can catch all the MotoGP and World Superbike action in Canada live on Rev TV.
Stateside, the two biggest races of the year are memorial day weekend staples, the Indy 500 and the Coca Cola 600, or the World 600 to those of us of a particular vintage.
This was maybe the best Indy 500 in a decade, culminating in an improbable win by 46 year old Helio Castroneves, in a one-off ride with Meyer Shank Racing. And good on Michael Shank for this win. While I don't know Shank, I know several people who do, and he's one of those guys that nobody can say a bad word about. And seeing a 46 year old win one of the biggest races of the year has inspired me, I think it's time to come out of retirement, maybe the dream isn't dead after all...
One interesting thing from this years 500 I'll be following up on was all the cars spinning on pit road, all seemingly having no brake pedal. It will be interesting to see if there are any connections between the incidents and the teams involved.
The night cap, the Coca-Cola 600, was a fairly typical NASCAR race, minus the big one. The Hendrick cars running up at the front as usual, with some Kyle Busch thrown in to make things interesting. In fact, Kyle Larson's incredibly dominant performance made the race a bit of a bore, and somewhat anticlimactic. Larson was never really challenged over the last hundred miles and now has to be among the favourites, if not the favourite, for the Cup championship this year.
In the Xfinity race on Saturday, Alex Labbe had a pretty good night, running in the top 10 as the final green flag fell, eventually finishing 14th , while in the Truck race Friday night, Stewart Friesen had a great run, finishing 4th.
It's a bit depressing sitting here in Toronto, seeing the Indy 500 with 135,000 fans and a full crowd at Charlotte, while watching race after race in Canada get cancelled, knowing we've been failed by every politician, of every political stripe at every level all across Canada. I don't think a more complete and utter failure could be possible if it was planned.
And on the Canadian racing front, there has been a mix of good and bad news coming this past week.
The bad, though we hoped against hope, was finally announced as official, the NASCAR Truck series will not be coming north of the border to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, although the track did say they are working on a spectator event for the Labour Day weekend.
An all-Canadian weekend that would include the NASCAR Pinty's Series, the new FEL Sports car and Radical series, Canadian Touring Car Championship, Nissan Sentra Cup and Toyo Tires F1600 could make for a pretty nice event. Shades of the late 80's and early 90's where a Canadian national weekend included F1600 and F2000, Rothmans Porsche, Players GM, Firestone Firehawk and Honda/Michelin.
Some good Canadian Tire Motorsport Park news, the Motomaster Ron Fellows Karting Championship announced their 2021 schedule, getting under way on July 17 & 18, and wrapping up a four round, eight race championship on September 25 & 26. The Motomaster Karting Nationals will take place August 19 to 22.
It also looks like the VARAC Vintage Grand Prix is going ahead, albeit without fans, so good news for the drivers, unfortunately the fans will have to wait a little longer.
The APC Late Model series also announced their return to racing calendar this past week, opening Friday July 2 at Delaware. The entire schedule consists of eight races and will close out the season where it opened, at Delaware Saturday September 25.
Early Sunday evening, Merrittville Speedway confirmed their re-opening schedule, with a test, tune & inspection taking place on Saturday June 19th, and opening the Bobcat Equipment of Hamilton weekly racing series on Saturday June 26. Karting at Merritville will have 2 weeks of practice starting June 22.
While there isn't much racing going on in Canada yet, there are a few Canadians racing in the US and further abroad.
Thomas Nepveu has moved up from karting to the Road To Indy US F2000 championship this season, and this past weekend Nepveu got his first taste of oval track racing at Lucas Oil Raceway. Nepveu started his Cape Motorsports machine in 16th place, and moved up a couple of places during the race to come home in 14th spot. You can read his race report here. Nepveu's next race will be June 19-20 at Road America.
Meanwhile, overseas last weekend, Samantha Tan's ST Racing team was in Hockenheim for round 5 of the 24H Series. Nick Wittmer guided the ST Racing BMW to pole position on Saturday, giving the team a clean sweep in qualifying so far this season. Unfortunately after a huge lead following day one, mechanical issues plagued the team on day two, though they managed to fight back to a second place finish, moving the only Canadian team in the series up to 4th place in the championship standings. You can read the ST Racing Hockenheim race report here.
Next Week
It's road racing week for the NASCAR series, with the Cup cars on the west coast at Sonoma and the Xfinity series at Mid-Ohio (this could be fun...) while the Trucks take the weekend off.
F1 heads to Baku for what I'm sure will be another riveting race. At least the championship is truly up for grabs after the yawner at Monaco last week, so I guess there's that.
Indy Car is off until the 12th when they return to Detroit, reminding us that our street race in Toronto was again cancelled.
MotoGP is back again next week at the Circuit Catalunya for round 7, while the World Superbike Championship returns for round 3 in two weeks at Misano.
Add a comment
- Details
- Category: Opinion
It’s a MultiScreen Weekend
FIA WEC, IMSA and FIA Formula 1 all take to the track – and all on your TV screens
by Chris Jameson
March 13, 2019
While I was completely aware that the IMSA 12 Hours of Sebring was coming up this weekend, it was a prodding text our fearless leader that mentioned, “Hey, the WEC Sebring 1000 is being broadcast live on Friday!” Well a quick scan of the cable guide and there it is – The Sebring 1000 from green to checkers! Imaging that!
Now if we sound a little bit excited about that, it’s because following the broadcast debacle that was Indycar’s Grand Prix of St. Pete’s, the fact that both the WEC and IMSA races will be broadcast live and complete on a cable carrier, is pretty amazing stuff. And with that, we’ll just add Formula 1 from Australia with not just qualifying and the race, but the pre and post session shows as well.
Thank you Bell Media (I know that some of you just spit like you heard me say “Woolerton”)
Bell is the parent company of Discovery Velocity and TSN, the two networks who will be broadcasting these events (WEC & IMSA on Velocity; F1 on TSN) and while TSN has been the network of choice for showing F1 in Canada for a long time, it was encouraging last year when Velocity broadcast the complete 24 Hours of Le Mans. It was nice to see then, that the network was going to pick up additional events in 2019.
Now some will argue that Velocity is a premium channel, it is a darn sight cheaper on a monthly basis that the choice for viewing Indycar races in Canada, and it has plenty of programming than does not involve guys in shorts chasing a ball around a rather large pitch and faking near-death injuries when another player walks within ten feet of them.
For the record, Velocity is approximately $5/month. In my particular cable package I pay $2.50 – and I sure as heck get my money’s worth (although I sometimes want to punch Mike on Wheeler Dealers … he can be really annoying). The only caveat – it is available only using an HD box.
Depending on your cable package, you can either get Velocity as a standalone channel or (in my case) a bonus channel.
Oh yeah … and you can use the PVR!
As for TSN, there is a possibility that the actual channel broadcasting the race (they have five I think) might, or might not be part of your channel package as well. I have been told by some looking forward to a race that the channel is not in their package … “We get TSN1 and TSN2 but the race is on TSN5” … or some similar combination. You should check your channel listings – and then check if the full range of TSN is available to you – although you might want to decide if you want to pay for all those darts matches.
TSN does get one thing right, especially for the “middle of the night races” from the other side of the globe, by replaying the race at a much more reasonable time in the early morning to enjoy with your coffee and bagel. These rebroadcasts do not however, include the pre and post shows. But hey, that’s what PVRs are for.
So this weekend will see something in the range of nearly 25 hours of racing (plus an hour of F1 qualifying) on live television with no bandwidth or data limit issues – and that should keep everyone happy. That said, I do have a preference to watch online on multiple screens for live streams, timing and scoring and social media feeds and to do that, I bit the “unlimited” bullet years ago as a cost of doing business. A necessary evil if you will, in a house that (the last time my son … er technician checked) has about thirteen devices connected to the network (Ground Control to Major Tom). Thing is, with my provider I can also watch TV online – and I believe all have that option, so I can sit in my office surrounded by numerous glowing panels of light emitting diodes while the sounds of racing are fed into the audio system. (Note to Self: always remember to turn off the outdoor speakers when watching F1 at 3 in the morning)
So Gear Up and Game On this weekend. I’m just wondering is anyone over at Sportsnet will be looking at the viewing stats.
Add a comment