Category: Featured Other Series

[media-credit name=”Photo Credit: AP/Jeffrey Phelps/indycar.com” align=”alignright” width=”195″][/media-credit]On July 8, Ryan Hunter-Reay won his third IZOD IndyCar series race in a row.  The remarkable accomplishment hasn’t been done by an American in any major open wheel series since AJ Allmendinger attained the feat during the 2006 Champ Car season.  Sure, all we have to do is look back to Will Power earlier in the 2012 season to find the last time someone has won three in a row.  But that was for the powerhouse of Penske Racing and on road courses where Will has been exceptional for years.  With all due respect to Will, RHR’s streak sparks many talking points for those amongst the racing community.

The long tenured team of Andretti Autosport (back then, Andretti Green Racing) hasn’t accumulated three victories in a row since Dan Wheldon won at St. Petersburg, Motegi, and Indianapolis in 2005.  With his 3 victories this season, RHR has plunged himself into championship contention currently leading the standings by 34 points over Will Power.  If the #28 DHL/Sundrop team were to bring home the championship this season it would be Andretti Autosport’s first since Dario Franchitti’s title in 2007.

The notable impact this streak may have on the season is this is the first time in years that the premier American open wheel racing series has seen an American driver with a legitimate shot to win the championship since 2006 saw Sam Hornish Jr. beat out Dan Wheldon in a tie breaker.

Critics should be hesitant when thinking of dismissing RHR’s run as just another swing of momentum for the racer.  Hunter-Reay pushed his way through to finish P1 in all three of the outings and was never a favorite to win any event.  These three victories came on a combination of two ovals and one street circuit.  On June 16th in Milwaukee, Hunter-Reay started second behind Chip Ganassi’s #10 entry of Dario Franchitti.  With Franchitti leading the early laps of the race and Helio Castroneves assuming the lead for 50 laps shortly after, RHR soared through the field to take the lead and never look back.

In the Iowa Corn Indy 250, Ryan was posed with a much bigger challenge.  Castroneves was the car to beat throughout the first half of the race leading twice for a total of 133 laps.  As the race drew on, new opponents presented themselves, Scott Dixon put himself in a clear shot to win by leading 76 laps during the closing half of the race and Marco Andretti (Iowa’s 2011 winner) challenged Hunter-Reay all the way to the final green flag laps of the race.

Honda Indy Toronto provided the IZOD IndyCar series with a return to the road and street courses on the calendar.  Coming off two wins, RHR was looking strong and keen on continuing his success.  With a weekend full of rain and limited practice, Hunter-Reay qualified 6th behind street course heavy hitters Franchitti, Power, Wilson, Bourdais, and Dixon.  Per usual, Power dominated the race early on, but an unlucky caution on lap 24 caught him out early and spoiled the rest of his race.  By pitting before the first caution flag flew, RHR leaped forward a few spots towards the front.  As the race drew on, the pace of RHR’s car stayed consistent and enabled him to acquire the lead.  By fending off passing attempts from Charlie Kimball and Mike Conway due to late race cautions, Hunter-Reay found himself in victory lane for the third time in a row.

At the end of the day, Ryan Hunter-Reay’s impressive streak of victories proves to be astonishing.  This season has now seen an American winning three races consecutively in an American racing series and vying for a championship for the first time since 2006.  The winning streak that RHR has amazed us with may soon be etched in the history books as one of the components that contributed to the success of America’s latest open wheel star.

[media-credit id=4 align=”alignright” width=”266″][/media-credit]Ryan Hunter-Reay would take the lead on lap 57 after his pit stop, drive away from the field and hold Charlie Kimball off on a late race restart to win the Honda Indy Toronto for his third straight win in a row. Hunter-Reay won the previous two oval races – Milwaukee and Iowa.

“This is awesome,” he says. “There’s a champion run going on right now. I’m a part of it as much as everybody on this team and they did excellent pit stops. They gave me the car to win today. We had it when it mattered again – at the end. We don’t need to win the beginning of the race. We need to win the end and it’s been such a pleasure. I can’t even believe – three races. This is going to take a second to settle in.”

It marked the eight career Indy car win for the American. It also marked Andretti Autosport’s first win in Toronto, though team owner Michael Andretti has won in Toronto seven times as a driver.

Hunter-Reay would take the lead for the first time in the race on lap 49 and lead six laps, before making his pit stop. He would then get the lead back after J.R. Hildebrand pitted on lap 56.

Charlie Kimball would hold off Mike Conway for second for his best career IndyCar finish.

“I know that there was only 25 of us out there, but with the amount of times I passed people there felt like there were about 50 cars, so a lot of credit to the Novo Nordisk Chip Ganassi Racing crew, the 83,” he says. “It was quick and all I had to do was turn and make a couple of moves when they were there. That last restart got pretty busy, but at the end of the day we came home with a clean results and all credit to Ryan.”

Mike Conway would complete the podium with a third place finish for his best finish of 2012.

“The guys at A.J. Foyt Racing have been working really hard all year,” he says. “We’ve been getting in there, getting in there, and this weekend I felt we started off better than we have before, so we just kept dialing in and come warm-up this morning, I was pretty happy with it.”

Tony Kanaan and Oriol Servia rounded out the top five. Kanaan came back to finish fourth after a drive through penalty on lap 22 for hitting pit road equipment.

Helio Castroneves finished sixth, followed by Hildebrand, James Jakes, Takuma Sato and Alex Tagliani.

The first full course yellow would come out on lap 24 for Graham Rahal making contact with the wall on the exit of turn one.

The second full course yellow would come out on lap 79 when Josef Newgarden would try to make the pass on Simon Pagenaud for third, though not be able to clear the corner and stall the car when he tried to stop it. Pagenaud would receive a penalty for blocking.

“I am eager to watch the replay,” Pagenaud says. “I have no doubt on what I did. I think I respected the rule, which is to keep your line. I kept my line, but Newgarden went into a hole where there was no space. If I didn’t move back, he was never going to stop. I had to move back to make sure he wasn’t going to take me out. So, I don’t see why I got penalized.”

“Unfortunately at the end I attempted a pass on Pagenaud that I don’t think I should have tried,” Newgarden says. “I went into the tires and that was the end of our fantastic run today. We showed that despite missing two practice sessions and qualifying in the back of the pack we have the ability to move up the field and threaten for a podium finish.”

Then on the restart with five laps to go, all heck would break loose with seven cars spinning/wrecking in three separate incidents. In turn one, Kimball makes light contact with Sebastian Bourdais, who makes contact with the wall while Ruben Barrichello spins behind them.

“I passed Kimball on the restart….I don’t know what he did,” Bourdais says. “Mistake….completely lose mind. If I didn’t give him the room, it was going to throw me in the tires, so I avoided the contact. I saw him coming so suddenly, I had to open the steering like super quick. I got on the marbles, and there was no way I could make the corner from there. Very disappointing because we should have finished on the podium, whatever place that was.”

In turn three, Franchitti would make contact with Briscoe entering the corner, while Marco Andretti stops mid-corner, collecting Pagenaud and Ed Carpenter. The race would go under full course caution and finish under yellow.

“We finally got the yellow we needed on the last restart,” Franchitti says. “There were massive amounts of marbles and cars going three-wide, and I went for a gap that was closed. It was just one of those things today.”

Championship contender Scott Dixon would have a mechanical issue early in the race on at lap eight, ending his day early.

“I think it was the engine,” Dixon says. “It was definitely something mechanical. I’m not very happy of course, but Team Target will do a lot between now and Edmonton.”

Hometown hero James Hinchcliffe would also be out of the race with mechanical problems on lap 28. It just continued to add to his disappointing weekend after having to change the motor after the first practice on Friday.

“We had a mechanical issue and started losing power in the engine and it’s too bad,” he says. “We started off a bit on the back foot, we lost out pit lane speed limiter so I had to do that first stop watching the speed – the guys had a great stop and I think our tire strategy was good. We got some good passes done early and then that yellow came out, and finally it was a stroke of luck our way and we got up to fourth to there. Another great strategy call by these Go Daddy guys.”

Justin Wilson would also have a disappointing weekend as he would have problems during practice on Friday and then he brushed the wall on lap 66, retiring two laps later as the car continued to slow.

“About half way round that last lap I started to lose power, but it was intermittent, so it would just die and accelerate, die and accelerate,” Wilson says. “Eventually I got to Turn 11 and it died as I entered. As I got to the apex suddenly it gave me full power back. It spun the wheels, the rear came out and clipped the wall and bent the suspension. So I’m very disappointed. We’ve found the part that failed which caused the power loss and we’ll just have to learn from that.

The win for Hunter-Reay would allow him to take the points lead by 34 points as Will Power ran into problems during the race. Hunter-Reay becomes the first American to lead the point standings since Sam Hornish Jr. in 2006.

Power would lead 20 laps early in the event, though damage after getting into the wall and a flat tire would result in a 15^th place finish.

“Today’s finish for the Verizon car is certainly a shame because I felt we had one of the quickest cars,” he says. “We did a good job on fuel but unfortunately we stayed out and got caught. I really enjoy racing here, just a tough brake. It is going to be a tight finish with only five races to go.”

The next IZOD IndyCar Series race is the Edmon Indy on July 22 at Edmonton City Centre Airport. The race will be broadcast live by NBC Sports Network at 2:30 p.m. (ET).

[media-credit id=4 align=”alignright” width=”266″][/media-credit]At the end of the qualifying session for the IZOD IndyCar Series, Dario Franchitti would set a quick time of 59.351 seconds to win the pole. It marked his second pole in the last four years at the Honda Indy Toronto.

“These Target boys have given us a really fast car all weekend,” he says. “They have taken very good car of both Scott (Dixon) and I. The times have all been so close all weekend – we happy to be a the top.  The Firestone Reds have felt really good and we hit the rhythm and got really good grip during qualifying to get to the top. That was a really hard earned pole. Track position will be very important tomorrow and it is great be up front in Toronto again, the same place I won my first pole 15 years ago in 1997!    Tomorrow is going to be a really good race for all the fans that come out to see us.”

Penske Racing’s Will Power would set the second quickest time at 59.3757 seconds after getting through the previous two rounds of qualifying barely.

“I didn’t have anything [in the end for Dario], but very happy to be second,” he says. “We’d struggled to get through every round and made it in each time. I just had one good lap, I could see I was slow on the out on my first set, so I had to put everything together and that was as good as we could possibly do. We’re happy to start on the front row, we all know what this race is about, a lot of crashing and bashing so we’ll stay out of that and be in good shape.”

Texas race winner Justin Wilson would qualify third after his issues during practice yesterday at a time of 59.4506 seconds.

“The Sonny’s BBQ car was really good in qualifying and the first round we thought we had a pretty good balance, made a couple of small adjustments and in the second round it was great,” he says. “We’re just really happy, we didn’t change anything into the third, and just didn’t quite get the lap I was looking for. You know, I think it was there, we just didn’t get it all together, so we’ll start and that’s good enough for tomorrow. It’s all about the crashing and bashing so hopefully we can stay out of that from now on, keep our heads down and have a good solid race.”

Sebastian Bourdais and Scott Dixon would round out the top five. Canadian Alex Tagliani would qualify sixth, though will start 16th as a result of a 10-grid spot penalty due to changing the motor.

Ryan Hunter-Reay qualified seventh, followed by Helio Castroneves and James Hinchcliffe. Hinchcliffe, who considers Toronto his home track, will suffer the same fate as Tagliani and will start Sunday’s race from 19th.

“Obviously yesterday didn’t go our way completely – the first session was a bit rough and then no running in the second session, so overnight we took a bit of a swing at it and definitely made the car a lot better for this morning,” he says. “It’s a big credit to the Go Daddy guys and everyone at Andretti Autosport, I think we made all our cars a bit better. It’s tough out there – this is IndyCar – it’s a lot of good drivers and it’s only a tenth-of-a-second that sort of makes a difference. Our big thing is we were using up our tires quicker than other guys. I think the second lap was always my quickest and I didn’t have a chance to improve on that so it’s too bad. We have to take the penalty so we’ll start 19th and see what we can do from there.”

Rookie Simon Pagenaud rounded out the top 10.

Both Takumo Sato and E.J. Viso would suffer penalties due to “qualifying interference”. They would get their two quickest times removed.

[media-credit name=”Johnathan Ferrey/Getty Images” align=”alignright” width=”304″][/media-credit]Three-time IZOD IndyCar Series Champion Dario Franchitti would lead the final practice for the Honda Indy Toronto at Toronto’s Exhibition Grounds. He would run a total of 11 laps for the session, leading with a lap of 1:00.2786 and an average speed of 104.813. The lap was six tenths quicker than the lap he ran to lead the opening session.

Rookie Simon Pagenaud would run second, a tenth off of Franchitti’s time. Franchitti’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon would be third, two tenths of a second off.

Following his practice one problems in turn eight followed by pit lane issues, Justin Wilson would bounce back to finish the second session fourth. However, the practice didn’t go without problems as he would make contact with the tire barrier in turn eight.

Penske Racing’s Ryan Briscoe rounded out the top five, followed by teammates Helio Castroneves and Will Power.  Mike Conway was eighth, followed by Ryan Hunter-Reay and Takumo Sato.

Josef Newgarden would run into more problems this practice to go along with his first practice problems as the car would stop in turn four. Newgarden says that the team suffered a fuel issue problem, the same problem as experienced in the opening practice.

“Conditions should be quite a bit different for the rest of the race weekend though so hopefully we haven’t lost much,” he adds. “The team’s going to find the problem tonight and we’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”

Graham Rahal would also find trouble as he would spin in turn six.

“Overall, I would say, it’s been a tough day,” he says. “We’re struggling to find a balance in the car. This is a place we always run well, and I think we will get stronger tomorrow. I feel we just have a lot to improve on. We didn’t quite get a new tire-run in there at the end after we spun. It just kind of hurt the tires and we had to go from there.”

Hometown hero James Hinchcliffe would miss the second session following problems in the first session as he would have an engine failure. As a result, the team was forced to change motors and he will now suffer a 10-grid spot penalty come qualifying on Saturday.

“Unfortunately, today is a day to forget really,” Hinchcliffe says. “It’s too bad what happened in the second session because with the first session not going smoothly, we were really looking to make some gains.”

He added that he will look towards teammates Marco Andretti and Ryan Hunter-Reay’s notes to get ready for qualifying tomorrow. Despite the disappointment on the day, there is a positive thought….

“Last time we got an engine penalty we were able to come back and finished on the podium,” he comments. “So we may be down but we’re certainly not out.”

Also suffering a 10-grid spot penalty for unapproved motor changes are Simona De Silvestro and Tagliani.

[media-credit name=”ARCARacing.com” align=”alignright” width=”345″][/media-credit]While everybody wants to win the overall ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards points championship, there’s also another award that every drivers wants and that’s the Bill France Four Crown Award.

The Bill France Four Crown Award is a four-race series that comprises of a superspeedway (Michigan International Speedway), a road course (New Jersey Motorsports Park), a dirt oval (Illinois State Fairgrounds) and a short track (Salem Speedway). The driver who earns the most points in those four races is crowned the Bill France Four Crown Award winner.

So far this year two races down out of the four, Roulo Brothers Racing teammates Chris Buescher and Brandon Davis lead the standings.  Both teammates posted top five finishes at Michigan before finishing third and fourth at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

“It was a lot of fun,” Buescher said after New Jersey. “The Roulo Brothers did a nice job, coming home third and fourth with Brandon. It was a lot of fun racing with him. I knew he’d be really quick there. I always love coming to New Jersey. Each year, it’s something different. It’s like the dirt. We get to break it up and try something different. You know, we ran really well again. We’ve had good runs every year.”

Buescher now leads with 390 points while Davis has 365 points. Frank Kimmel sits third with 340 points while Alex Bowman is fourth with 335 points. Buescher likes his chances moving forward as he says they’ve got some good cars ready for the next two races.

“We’ve got a good piece for Iowa and Brandon is going to come run with us as well, at the first two of those,” Buescher says. “I’m looking forward to them. We’ll be really competitive at all three. I’ll take this off week and try to relax and catch up a little bit and go enjoy the Fourth of July.”

Meanwhile, Davis is riding a wave of momentum as he posted a career-high fifth-place at Michigan before posting a fourth on Sunday at New Jersey. It was a hard fought finish for Davis with how hot it was on Sunday.

“It got real hot,” he said. “My feet were burning and it was kind of hard to see straight there. These guys made a call, and it didn’t quite work out. We had too many yellows for it to work, but that’s racing and we took a shot at it. It was a good day. Obviously, we would have liked to come away with a win. It didn’t work out and we’ll move on to the next one.”

The race also meant for a late race battle with teammate Buescher as Buescher passed him with five laps to go, though Davis couldn’t find a way back by him.

“Chris was coming hard,” Davis said. “They told me he was on fresh tires and I tried to hold him off as long as I could. These cars, you just work so much and I gave everything I had left but he was able to go past me. He’s a great teammate. I’m happy for him and I know he’s got to be close to the points lead. Overall, it’s a good day.”

[media-credit id=4 align=”alignright” width=”274″][/media-credit]In the first two events of the 2012 OSCAAR Modified tour, Gary McLean won them both. Though he would have his work cut out for him in Peterborough after trouble in one of the qualifying heats.

OSCAAR Modified Points Leader Gary McLean would win the first heat, followed by Ted Patterson, Brent McLean and Justin Demelo.

Darren Kearnen would win the second heat, followed by Brad Pearsall, Josh Gruntz, Steve Smith, Tim Burke, Dave Hassel and Adam Adams.

Demelo would win the third heat, followed by Brandon Crumbie, John Harper, Patterson, Brent McLean, Brian McLean and Dave Terry. Gary McLean would get spun off turn four by Brent McLean and collect some damage to the right side, including a flat tire.

Burke would win the third heat, followed by Smith, Pearsall, Gruntz, Darren Kearnen, Hassel and Adams.

Virtue of his qualifying effort, Justin Demelo would start on the pole, followed by Darren Kearnen, Tim Patterson, Bill Pearsall and Steve Smith.

There’d a caution right away on lap one as Pearsall would send Demlo into the grass while Brent McLean went for a spin. As a result, Kearnen would take over the lead, followed by Smith, Patterson, Tim Burke and Gary McLean.

There’d a caution on the restart as Brent McLean and Dave Hassel would make contact.

On the next restart, Kearnen would get the jump to keep the lead, now over Pearsall, Burke, Smith and Gary McLean.

The third caution would come out on lap five as Brian McLean would get into the grass.

On the restart, the action would pick up quickly in the battle behind Keanon as Pearsall, Smith and Burke would go three-wide for second. Smith was able to pick up two positions to now run second behind Kearnen. Meanwhile, Gary McLean was up to third by lap 10, followed by Brent McLean and now Newman back to fifth.

At the halfway mark on lap 15, Smith and Gary McLean would both get by Kearnen for first and second. On lap 16, Pearsall fell out of the top 10 as he would passed by John Harper for fifth, followed by Josh Gruntz, Demelo, Patterson, Davey Terry and Adam Adams.

Meanwhile, Brandon Crumbie would pit with a flat tire. The caution would come out as Crumbie was on pit road for Gruntz hitting the turn one wall hard with the backend after contact from Patterson.

On the restart, Smith kept the lead over Gary McLean, Brent McLean, Demelo and Kearnen. Demelo would try to get by Brent McLean for third on lap 21, but wasn’t able to make the pass. Gary McLean would get beside Smith for the lead on lap 25, as the caution came out for Terry spinning.

On the restart, Gary McLean would get the lead while Brent McLean and Smith would spin battling for second. Brian McLean would also spin on the backstretch, though would be deemed after the caution so he got his spot back.

With five to go, this would set Gary McLean as the lead over Demelo, Kearnen, Crumbie and Brian McLean.

On the final lap, Patterson would pit with a flat tire as Gary McLean would take the checkered flag for his third straight win. Justin Demelo would finish in the second position. They will now start the Autumn Colors OSCAAR Modified feature first and second in October.

Darren Kearnen and Brandon Crumbie finished third and fourth so they will start no furhter back than 13th and 14th come October. They will have an opportunity to improve their starting positon through the qualifying heats.

Brian McLean finished fifth, followed by Brad Pearsall, Dave Terry, Steve Smith and Adam Adams.

The next race for the OSCAAR Modifieds is a 30-lapper at Sauble Speedway on July 7th.

[media-credit id=4 align=”alignright” width=”145″][/media-credit]Did you know that on average, 500 Canadians will be diagnosed with cancer every day? According to cancer.ca, out of those people, an average of 200 will die due to cancer each day.

With it affecting that many people on a daily basis, there are those are taking a stand to raise money and one of thoe people is Sunset International Speedway racer Taylor Holdaway.

For the second straight year, Holdaway and Holdaway Motorsports are doing their Race For The Cure fundraiser.

Holdaway started the fundraiser last year as he wanted to do something different.

“Same paint scheme every year, gets kind of boring,” he says. “I know some cars in the (United) States tried to do something like me – like they did their numbers pink or something. I wanted to go a little bit more wild than them and paint the car pink.”

In the second year doing it, Holdaway is hoping to raise over $2500 through donations from fans. Fans are welcome to make a donation of any amount that they can, and certain amounts have special perks involved.

For a $10 donation, fans can sign a ribbon that will be put on the car, once it is painted pink at the beginning of September. The No. 41 ImageFactor.ca, OntarioOval.com, Downing Roofing Ltd., Vortex Brake Pads and Holdaway Automotive Late Model will debut its pink paint scheme on September 1st.

For a $5 donation, fans can get a raffle ticket that gives them the chance to win a one of a kind diecast car of last year’s car.

On September 1st, Sunset Speedway will host “Race For The Cure” night, where Holdaway and team will be doing a 50/50 draw to continue to collect donations.

Fans who would like to get in touch with Holdaway Motorsports about donating money towards cancer research and learn more about Taylor Holdaway, can either like their facebook page ‘Holdaway Motorsports’, follow Taylor on twitter @41holdaway, see Taylor in the pits after racing on the weekend, or e-mail Holdaway Motorsports at Holdawaymotorsports@hotmail.com.