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 3^rd 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 7^th championship title.

Ray took his 100^th 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 3^rd 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 14^th , while in the Truck race Friday night, Stewart Friesen had a great run, finishing 4^th.

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 19^th, 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 16^th place, and moved up a couple of places during the race to come home in 14^th 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 4^th 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 12^th 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.