Hello from Molson Indy Toronto

[Liz]

The morning was cool but the day got very warm by noon. The track was very busy when I got there -- and brother, that is one good set of sounds!

"Information" at the Toronto track is a waste of effort. Get the map they have and find your own way to where you want to go. Or ask a cop (not security). The Information guy at the front did not know where the media centre was, but a passing cop did. (Later on, the Information had never heard of Barber Dodge, much less did she know where it was!) I went upstairs and got coffee and loot and found out there was going to be a press conference with Zanardi at Noon -- so that pretty much shaped what I was going to do in the morning. There was also a press conference with Tracy scheduled in the afternoon and that was also on my agenda.

I went out briefly to look for Josh Beaulieu, Barber Dodge driver extraordinare, but though I found his car I did not see him. I'll look him up tomorrow. I did see Bruno, Cristiano, Tracy, Tags, Patrique, Mr. and Mrs. Ashley Judd, and Mario walking around loose and untended, and spoke to all of them and got nice replies and big smiles from some of them but nice replies from all. Then I had to scamper back to the media centre for the press conference, which you can read the transcript of elsewhere on this forum. It was very good, very funny, and very inspirational. Many people said it made the whole Ferrari thing dwindle down to a side show and Tony George to an irrelevance.

Then it was lunch (and believe that the Molson Indy Toronto does very very well toward its journalists!) and off to the pits to scope out the cars and follow qualifying. Now that I am the Pit Rat of Sports Cars, I can't imagine being trapped in the grandstands behind a fence while everyone else gets to be down among the cars seeing just what they are doing and how. Grandstands are for mugs.

However, I must mention that everyone in the grandstands behind the pits cheered PT to the echo and all of them said, "You're the winner, Paul! You won the IRL 500! Real fans know who won!" and you should have seen him beam. PT may say he is putting that behind him, but our support means a lot to him and if you go to a race this year, be sure to voice or sign your support.

A brief tour around the paddock and then back upstairs to see the post First Qualifying and get a look at Ronaldo and Ronaldo Lite with their terrrifying haircuts -- Cristiano is effectively bald now, and Bruno looks as if someone shaved his head in the dark. I hope it was worth it! Obviously they were best friends and were razzing each other on the dais. Some reporter asked Bruno what he had to do to beat Cristiano and Bruno said "I was thinking of locking him in the washroom!" Then Cristiano pretended to take notes and said, "Yes, tell me how you think you are going to beat me tomorrow!"

Paul Tracy was third, so instead of holding a separate press conference he just dealt with the IRL 500 thing in that PC; he was forthright and not bitter in tone, but he said it was a very sad day for racing and that he had won the race but lost the political and financial battle and it was a shame that racing had come to such a pass, that politics and money were spoiling it for everyone. I wanted to stand up and cheer! He also said that it proved what a large gulf there was between the two series and that he thought it proved that gulf would never be bridged.

Later on he said in response to a question that "I could have offered him $1 million but it was stolen from me ."

And that was essentially the end of my day. I met up with some people from the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame and one of them insisted on returning something to me that my grandson had left at Mosport, which meant I was too burdened to go anywhere else but home.

On the way home the streetcar was stopped as someone had stalled their van across the tracks and we all had to walk to the subway. No cops in sight of course. They were all at the Molson Indy.

Tomorrow I will have more to report as I will get in early and see more of the outside world of the race weekend.

[macdaddy]

Thank you, Liz.

[Liz]

Hello again -- It's Saturday and I am home from a very busy day, but did get outside more than yesterday. My friend Josh Beaulieu was running about like a madman this morning as his (Barber Dodge) car from yesterday had exploded and he was being changed to a new one; with 1/2 hour to getting on the grid for qualifying, they were still stickering the car and Josh was still in his civvies! He did make it onto the grid on time though and qualified seventh, being bumped from sixth only at the very last minute. Josh's deal to race this weekend was only completed Tuesday night and he arrived in Toronto on Wednesday, and had not slowed down since! So in the circumstances, seventh out of 20 was very good.

The champ car qualifying was boring as nobody went out until almost 25 minutes into the session -- Patrique didn't even ARRIVE until 15 minutes after the green flag flew, and Kenny Brack was still running around on his paddock bike well into the session. The announcer kept saying hopefully that "some cars will be going out any minute now ... " as if he hoped it would be true.

The VIP Pitwalk happened just before Qualifying and made me wonder why some people pay Big Bucks to get into the pits when they very clearly have no idea what they are looking at. I was standing by a young Yuppie couple at the Pioneer pits when Zanardi went by in a golf cart (slowly as everyone recognized him and he was busily signing autographs on the roll) and I nudged the guy and pointed out Zanardi silently. He stared, pop eyed, and then his vapid lady companion asked "Do you know who that was?" I told them who it was, but clearly I might as well have said "That's Porky Pig." *SIGH*

Another amusing sidelight happened up at the firelane, where a group of us were standing and watching the cars being towed in. A father with a son in his late teens was photographing the cars, and pointed out Christian Fittipaldi (with another bad Ronaldo haircut) and said, "Why don't you go and get an autograph?" The boy said disdainfully, "I don't do that." "You'll be sorry," said the father, concentrating on his film, "if he gets killed." You couldn't make that up.

In roaming the pitlane I got some excellent photos including one of Jimmy Vasser on his bicycle that ought to be really cute if it comes out.

The post-qualifying press conference was hysterical. Cristiano was late -- very late -- and Bruno started saying "Can Cristiano get a fine? Can you fine him $10,000 for being late? He's always late!" They started without him. Bruno reported that he was not sitting in the pits until the last 5 minutes because he thought he was Schumacher, but because when he had his little off early in the session an overzealous marshall foamed his car under the impression that it was on fire! It took that long for the crew to clean the car up so he could go out. By that time he was tenth. He went for one banzai lap and shot up to third before the chequers flew. "Yesterday I was not happy with second," he said. "Today I am very happy with third!"

Paul Tracy finished 2nd and was very happy with that position. "I am not any good at qualifying," he said candidly. "Dario is good at qualifying, Bruno and Cristiano are good at it. I am good in a race, but I can't get the hang of qualifying! I think we're where we need to be and I'm happy."

Questions were pretty general except for the usual boring question, "What do you guys have to do tomorrow to beat Cristiano?"

Bruno instantly replied, "Finish the race in front of him!" Big laugh, point taken.

Finally they asked about why the guys had shaved their heads and thus erased the Ronaldo look. "I went into a restaurant, " said Bruno, "and everyone was looking at me. I thought to myself hey, you were already ugly enough, why make it worse? so I shaved it off."

Tracy was then asked if he'd shave his head if he won tomorrow. "I'd be as bald as this guy," pointing to Cristiano, "if I got a haircut like that! My hair's receding fast enough already. So don't count on it."

After some business conversations and a check of the schedule for tomorrow, I set off for home. Tonight the streetcar was delayed by a big road accident, but fortunately today we did not have to walk home.

I will be at the race track early tomorrow as the Barber Dodge practice is at 8;45 am!

More to follow.

[f1manoz]

Sounds like you're having a ball. I really need to get to IndyCarnival this year.....

[Jay]

Just got back... overall for me it wasn't the greatest of weekends, but the highlight for me definately came Friday afternoon when I got to meet Alex Zanardi... People(fans, media, crew, other drivers) we're so emotional it was unbelievable! I was pretty choked up about the whole thing. He was obviously enjoying being back at the cart track and just looking at his face brought a smile to mine.. I'll write more about this later.

Liz, I almost met Josh Beaulieau on Friday at the autograph session, except we were both getting signatures from Zanardi at the time and I wasn't paying attention to Josh. I only knew it was him when I looked up and saw "To Josh..." written on his autograph book.

Funny moment of the weekend: Waiting in line and hearing a man with a very heavy southern accent say: "Look, there's nobody inline for Machael Jordan, let's get his autograph!"..refering to Jourdain...

Anyway, I think I'll write more on Zanardi's return later...

[Jay]

Also, Liz, I'm very sorry I didn't find you at this time, I sent you a PM earlier in the week. I was always keeping an eye out for you in the paddock area.

[Missy]

Thank you for the report Liz. It made me feel like I'd been there. Looking forward to your photos!

[Liz]

I only caught up with Martha on Sunday -- thanks to the wonder of cell phones -- it was hard to find anybody this year for some reason. I spent a lot of time running from here to there and then got home last night and was up til 1:00 a.m. getting my homework done! Three races in a month is a lot of work.

Now it's a month until I'm on the road to Trois Rivieres so maybe I can get caught up.

[Jay]

Originally posted by Liz
Grandstands are for mugs.

Hey, Liz, no insulting us that don't have media credentials.

I want to go to Trois Rivieres too, but I may end up going camping beside a lake rather than a race track, damn friends!

[Liz]

Jay,it's under new management and they are much better about dealing with credentials. Let me know if you want the app form for Montreal and I'll e-mail it over. Of course you'd have to do some work if you got credentials but that would not be hard, would it?

[f1manoz]

Thanks for the info Liz

I just watched the race (like usual, a day delayed) and I didn't think it was too bad, particularly the last third of the race when everything seem to happen, particularly to the TKG cars!!!

da Matta, in my opinion, is almost unbeatable and is certainly my tip for CART champion (gee that took guts to predict!)

[Missy]

Originally posted by Jay
Hey, Liz, no insulting us that don't have media credentials.

I want to go to Trois Rivieres too, but I may end up going camping beside a lake rather than a race track, damn friends!

You need new friends Jay And yes, credentials can spoil ya for sure. BUT if not credentialed I'd rather be in the grandstands any day than watching the race from my living room!