Round 11: Honda Indy Toronto. Exhibition Place, Toronto. July 12-14.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 11: Honda Indy Toronto. Exhibition Place, Toronto. July 12-14.

Originally a CART event, this is the second longest running street race on the calendar after Long Beach. In the spring of 1985, Molson Breweries in-house promotional division, Molstar Sports & Entertainment, proposed the running of a CART race at Exhibition Place in Toronto, as an alternative to the Candian F1 Grand Prix, which was sponsored by rival brewers Labatt's. The race was first held the following year on July 20, 1986 and was known as the Molson Indy Toronto. It was won by Bobby Rahal, driving a March 86C-Ford Cosworth DFX for Truesports.

With the demise of CART, the race morphed into a Champ Car World Series event, changing its name to the Molson Grand Prix of Toronto, continuing until 2007, after which Molson dropped sponsorship of the event. The Steelback Brewery signed a multi-year, multimillion-dollar deal to become the event’s title sponsor, renaming it the Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto and though unification of the Champ Car World Series and the Indy Racing League was announced on February 22, 2008, the race that year was cancelled. It returned in 2009, after Andretti-Green Racing, acting as the event organiser and promoter (later Green-Savoree Promotions), had purchased the assets of the former Grand Prix of Toronto, as well as signing a multi-year agreement with Honda Canada Inc.

Since then the event has remained on the calendar and although the race had been traditionally held in mid-July, there were concerns that the 2015 race might be cancelled, as it would clash with the Pan-American games also being held in mid-July. However it was moved to June but unlike the two previous years there was no double header. Like year's event, it is back to it's traditional mid July slot and remains a single race.

Some Trivia:
The driver with the most wins: 7, Michael Andretti: 1989, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001.
The team with the most wins: 8, Newman/Haas Racing: 1989, 1991, 1992, 1995, 2000, 2002, 2004.

The original 1986 track length was changed from 1.784 miles (2.871 km) to 1.755 mile (2.824 km) in 1996, due to construction of The National Trade Centre building, which led to the pit straight being lengthened and last turn being altered. Last year, major changes were made to the track. The Pit Lane was been moved to the North side of the track, starting at Turn 9 and extending back onto Princes' Boulevard, past Turn 11. The hospitality suites have also moved to the North side and the Turn 11 grandstands are now on the south side of Pit Lane. However, the paddock remains in its original location, linked by a pedestrian bridge.

1986 original track layout:


1996-2015 rack layout:



2016 track layout:


Length: 1.755 miles - 2.824 km
Turns: 11

Lap record:
Gil de Ferran. July 17th, 1999. 57.143 seconds, 110.565 mph (177.937 km/h).
Walker Racing, Reynard 99i-Honda HRS V8t, CART FedEx Championship Series.


Last year's race:
Josef Newgarden claimed his third pole in a row. At the start he took the lead, as Will Power made a dramatic flick to the inside of teammate Simon Pagenaud to move up into third but almost immediately went down to fourth, when Ryan Hunter-Reay got both of them, around the outside to move into third behind Scott Dixon. Alexander Rossi tried to make a move around Power in the final complex but lost momentum and Takuma Sato passed him around the outside of Turn 9 to snatch fifth. Rossi tried to fight back but couldn’t find a way through.

Pagenaud had fallen to seventh, just ahead of battling Schmidt Peterson Motorsport teammates, Robert Wickens and James Hinchcliffe, who were split on the second lap by a charging Marco Andreti, up from 14th on the grid.

After 10 laps, Dixon still lay within one second of Newgarden, with Hunter-Reay around 1.5 seconds ahead of Power.

Ed Jones pitted early but stalled as he tried to leave. He came out on the track right in front of Newgarden, eager to stay on the lead lap and backing up Newgarden in font of Dixon, in the process. With fresh tires, Jones was able to pull away from Newgarden but Dixon still couldn’t get past Newgarden.

Hinchcliffe was another early stopper, pitting on Lap 15 and teammate Wickens did the same a lap later, both of them switching from the alternates to primaries. Just four laps later Sato and Rossi had done likewise.

Hunter-Reay and Pagenaud pitted on Lap 22, Newgarden and Dixon a lap later and Power a lap after that. Those two extra good laps on his original reds, were enough to get Power ahead of Hunter-Reay, who had got caught up behind Spencer Pigot, who had started on blacks.

The first full-course yellow came out on Lap 28. Power was slow out of the final turn, possibly as result of contact with the wall and Hunter-Reay, swept past him. Rossi also tried to get past Power but dislodged his front wing on Power’s right-rear tire, as both of them arrived at the Turn 3, to discover Hunter-Reay in the tyres at Turn 3 and with the engine stalled. The caution completely ruined both Jordan King and Graham Rahal's strategies, as they were now at the front on primaries, attempting to run an extended opening stint. Hunter-Reay, Rossi and Power all pitted for repairs. Both Andretti cars needed new wings but Power had to sit there while his right-rear suspension was repaired. The incident allowed Sato, Pagenaud, Wickens, Hinchcliffe, Andretti and the two AJ Foyt cars to catch up with Newgarden and Dixon.

As the green was waved, Newgarden understeered, then oversteered into the wall at the final turn. At Turn 1, there was yet more chaos, as Rahal tagged the Carlin car of Max Chilton and a pile-up ensued, involving Rossi and Hunter-Reay again and Bourdais. Power who had just emerged from the pits, stayed offline but with nowhere to turn and no grip from cold tyres, he slid into the tyre wall, bringing out the seconf full-course yellow.

Dixon now took the lead,having avoided the chaos, while Robert Wickens dived down the inside of Pagenaud to take second place. Behind Pagenaud, were Sato, Andretti, Hinchcliffe, Kanaan, Kimball, Conor Daly making a one-off appearance for Harding Racing and Zachary Claman de Melo. Meanwhile Rossi, Hunter-Reay and Power were at the back, with Hunter-Reay one lap down and Power two laps down.

Considering the chaos, the restart was clean. Dixon pulled out a 3 second gap over Wickens who was 1.4 seconds ahead of Pagenaud who’d pulled two seconds on Andretti. Andretti and Sato went wheel to wheel, with Andretti getting the better of it. However just four laps later came the final caution, as Binder spun his Juncos car at Turn 8.

The final round of stops came on Lap 53 of 85, as Sato ducked into the pits from fifth place, with Jones, Hinchcliffe and Veach doing likewise the following lap. Wickens did the same on Lap 55 and Dixon and Pagenaud followed suit on successive laps. Pagenaud’s pit crew got him out just ahead of Wickens at Turn 1. Hitting the push-to-pass, Wickens drew alongside the Pagenaud into the brakeing zone at Turn 3, then tried to cut in sharp but the Penske driver would have none of it, elbowing Wicken’s car, which rubbed along the wal on the exit of the turn. This left Pagenaud seven seconds behind Dixon, although he set about trying to cut that down, with Wickens just one second behind.

On Lap 68, Sato lost control of his car at the final turn, costing him fifth place, though another full-course yellow was avoided, as he went down the escape road.

Hunter-Reay, desperately trying to stay on the lead lap, held up Dixon in the closing stages letting Pagenaud had cut into Dixon's lead from 7 seconds to 1.4. However, Hunter-Reay eventually pitted on Lap 73, which allowed Dixon to extended his lead to 2.6 seconds over Pgenaud.

The top four was now, Dixon, Pagenaud, Wickens and Andretti but Andretti was running out of fuel and had to make a splash and dash, putting Hinchcliffe and Kimball into fourth and fifth respectively, where they remained until the checkered flag. Kanaan scooped sixth.

Pole position:
Josef Newgarden, 59.4956, 108.068 mph (173.918 km/h).
Team Penske,
Dallara DW12-Chevrolet IndyCar V6

Last year's winner:
Scott Dixon,
Chip Ganassi Racing,
Dallara IR18-Honda HI18TT V6 Indy

Laps: 85
Distance: 151.81 miles (244.314 km)
Race Time: 1:37:00
Average Speed: 93.898 mph (151.114 km/h)

Cautions: 3
Laps: 12

TV Coverage: NBCSN, July 14, 3:00pm ET.

[NaBUru38]

Toronto is always entertaining, don't miss it.

[HighParker]

I heard Simon Pagenaud on a local radio station this morning.
Since the Molson involvement stopped, there seems to be very little promotion until the week before the race, and few people in the city seem to know or care that it's happening, except for complaints about Lake Shore Blvd being closed for the weekend.

[BudLightJaguar]

Originally Posted by HighParker

Since the Molson involvement stopped, there seems to be very little promotion until the week before the race, and few people in the city seem to know or care that it's happening, except for complaints about Lake Shore Blvd being closed for the weekend.

That's sad to read. I was there in 2015 and that year it was a commercial failure largely due to being held in June instead of the traditional mid-July date.

On Friday I even had to ask "is this the Exhibiton Place" on a stop since there were no other fans using the TTC streetcar. Heavy rain on Friday didn't help either as did not overcast skies on the race day. Racing was superb, though and I also met briefly Mr. rwintle

But it was totally different in Long Beach this year. There were roadside advertising everywhere and local pubs, diners and night clubs had "Welcome, race fans" signs.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Qualifying

Pagenaud takes pole with a lap time of 58.4293s, over a second faster than last year's pole sitter Josef Newgarden's time of 59.4956s.

1 Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 58.4293s
2 Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 58.5948s. 0.1655s
3 Felix Rosenqvist, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 58.6793s. 0.2500s
4 Alexander Rossi, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 58.9215s. 0.4922s
5 Josef Newgarden, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 59.3103s. 0.8810s
6 Ed Jones, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 59.5353s. 1.1060s
7 Marco Andretti, Andretti Herta. Dallara/Honda. 58.7663s. 0.3370s
8 Sebastien Bourdais, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 58.7781s. 0.3488s
9 Spencer Pigot, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 58.8221s. 0.3928s
10 Takuma Sato, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/HondaL 58.9110s. 0.4817s
11 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 59.0444s. 0.6151s
12 Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 59.0985s. 0.6692s
13 Max Chilton, Carlin. Dallara/Chevrolet/ 59.4811s. 1.0518s
14 James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 58.9293s. 0.5000s
15 Will Power, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 59.5508s. 1.1215s
16 Colton Herta, Harding Racing. Dallara/Honda. 59.0549s. 0.6256s
17 Santino Ferrucci, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 59.9761s. 1.5468s
18 Zach Veach, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 59.2890s. 0.8597s
19 Matheus Leist, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m00.1853s. 1.7560s
20 Marcus Ericsson, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 59.6299s. 1.2006s
21 Sage Karam, Carlin/ Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m01.1134s. 2.6841s
22 Tony Kanaan, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 59.7317s. 1.3024s

[bjohnsonsmith]

Great to see Wickens behind the wheel of the pace car.

[bjohnsonsmith]

That was a clean and uneventful start but it all goes wrong at Turn 8. Looks like Power clipped Rahal.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Dixon has really caught up with Pagenaud. Looks like Pagenaud may have over done it with the push to pass.

[bjohnsonsmith]

FCY on the final lap as Power goes into the wall at Turn 8, handing Pagenaud the win.

[gert]

More than Pagenaud I think Power's crash saved his other teammate Newgarden. He was losing more than 4 seconds a lap to Rosenqvist after he brushed the wall

[NaBUru38]

The race promised more than it delivered, but it was ok.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Result

That's Pagenaud's third win of the season and now puts him 39 points behind Newgarden, with six races to go.

1 Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1h30m16.4388s
2 Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1h30m16.5761s. 0.1373s
3 Alexander Rossi, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 1h30m20.8108s. 4.3720s
4 Josef Newgarden, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1h30m35.1110s. 18.6722s
5 Felix Rosenqvist, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1h30m37.1820s. 20.7432s
6 James Hinchcliffe, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 1h30m44.1098s. 27.6710s
7 Colton Herta, Harding Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1h30m49.0428s. 32.6040s
8 Sebastien Bourdais, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1h30m49.9803s. 33.5415s
9 Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 1h30m51.7992s. 35.3604s
10 Marco Andretti, Andretti Herta. Dallara/Honda. 1h31m01.8566s. 45.4178s
11 Santino Ferrucci, Dale Coyne Racing. Dallara/Honda. 1h31m09.9330s. 53.4942s
12 Ed Jones, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1h30m17.3388s. 1 Lap
13 Zach Veach, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 1h30m18.6432s. 1 Lap
14 Max Chilton, Carlin. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1h30m19.3908s. 1 Lap
15 Spencer Pigot, Ed Carpenter Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1h30m32.6122s. 1 Lap
16 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport. Dallara/Honda. 1h30m37.8585s. 1 Lap
17 Tony Kanaan, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1h30m38.8452s. 1 Lap
18 Will Power, Team Penske. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1h28m36.1455s. Contact
19 Matheus Leist, AJ Foyt Enterprises. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1h30m44.9078s. 2 Laps
20 Marcus Ericsson, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Dallara/Honda. 1h31m26.4753s. 4 Laps
21 Sage Karam, Carlin. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1h30m25.3677s. 6 Laps
22 Takuma Sato, Rahal Letterman Lanigan. Dallara/Honda. 1h11m57.1482s. Mechanical

[HighParker]

Originally Posted by BudLightJaguar

That's sad to read. I was there in 2015 and that year it was a commercial failure ...

They've done a good job of making improvements over the last couple of years, including better viewing locations. There may be no sign it's happening once you get a few blocks away, but when you're there on race day it's back to feeling like you're at a successful event with many thousands of people and a lot of sponsors.