2014 Honda Indy Toronto
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Indycar returns to Exhibition Place in Toronto, Canada for the 28th year, retaining 2013’s double-header format. The support races include (among others) monster trucks, Porsche GT3 Cup, and Indy Lights.
Now here’s a proper street track. Not too long, decent passing spot at turn three, always gets a good crowd. It’s also the last one of the season – just four races left after this, two road courses and two ovals.
Even at this late stage we’ve still got five drivers solidly in the hunt for the title, with the last race another 500-mile double-pointer, and many other drivers on the periphery who could get in the thick of it with a little luck:
1. Helio Castroneves – 471
2. Will Power – 462
3. Ryan Hunter-Reay – 439
4. Simon Pagenaud – 421
5. Juan Pablo Montoya – 405
6. Carlos Munoz – 358
7. Marco Andretti – 337
8. Scott Dixon – 331
9. Ryan Briscoe – 307
10. Tony Kanaan – 305
11. James Hinchcliffe – 294
12. Sebastien Bourdais – 282
13. Mikhail Aleshin – 272
14. Justin Wilson – 270
15. Josef Newgarden – 260Also interesting to note Ed Carpenter has scored more points in his four starts (168) than Mike Conway has in his eight (152), though Carpenter has done two of the double points rounds. Combining their efforts would put them ninth in the standings on 320.
11th and 15th are not where the series’ most popular young drivers should be sitting in the points, but there it is.
I’m not gonna lie – nothing would please me more than Montoya bouncing back from Iowa with two good finishes and putting himself right back on the verge of title contention. Then again, I think the top 2 are well overdue for a series championship, and it would also finally establish Pagenaud as a top driver if he were to win it.
I’m really looking forward to this one, as I do with all the double-headers. It’s not just Hinch who qualifies well but slips back in the races by unnecessarily getting involved in contact a lot, but Takuma Sato. Despite two poles he’s last of all the regular drivers and hasn’t finished the last five races.
Given how unpredictable IndyCar has been since the DW12 was introduced, I reckon any one of five drivers have a realistic shout if they get a good run of top fives.
Power will probably choke again. Pagenaud can’t finish high enough on ovals with his current team. That leaves Castroneves vs Hunter-Reay.
We’ve got Bourdais on pole position for today’s race for the first time since his Champ Car days:
1. (11) Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Chevy, 58.9479 (107.179)
2. (12) Will Power, Dallara-Chevy, 59.1025 (106.899)
3. (3) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevy, 59.1499 (106.813)
4. (28) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 59.2672 (106.602)
5. (77) Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 59.3972 (106.369)
6. (10) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevy, 59.9987 (105.302)
7. (16) Luca Filippi, Dallara-Honda, 59.2753 (106.587)
8. (19) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 59.3406 (106.470)
9. (27) James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Honda, 59.3526 (106.449)
10. (8) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Chevy, 59.5319 (106.128)
11. (2) Juan Pablo Montoya, Dallara-Chevy, 59.8201 (105.617)
12. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Chevy, 1:00.2193 (104.917)
13. (67) Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Honda, 59.4455 (106.282)
14. (15) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 59.9495 (105.389)
15. (14) Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 59.5367 (106.119)
16. (20) Mike Conway, Dallara-Chevy, 59.9904 (105.317)
17. (34) Carlos Munoz, Dallara-Honda, 59.5708 (106.059)
18. (98) Jack Hawksworth, Dallara-Honda, 1:00.1856 (104.975)
19. (17) Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Chevy, 59.6806 (105.864)
20. (83) Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Chevy, 1:00.2304 (104.897)
21. (18) Carlos Huertas, Dallara-Honda, 59.7244 (105.786)
22. (7) Mikhail Aleshin, Dallara-Honda, 1:00.2379 (104.884)
23. (25) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 59.9816 (105.332)Poor decision by ESPN UK to cut off the coverage for a programme that was out of date just as they were considering restarting. Hope they get this thing under way safely though.
Race 1 postponed and we will see two races in one day. The first race will take place at 10:30 AM local time in yesterday’s qualifying order with a rolling start. Race 2 will run at 4:15 PM, standing start, starting order determined by entrant points. Race distances both reduced to 75 laps each. I’m quite surprised by this decision but can’t fault them for giving the fans their money’s worth.
According to the Indycar website, Race 1 will run on CNBC at 10.30am Eastern (3.30pm GMT) Race 2 will run on NBCSN at 3pm Eastern (8pm GMT).
As I understand it, the visibility going into turn 3 was very poor (the trackside workers reported they could hear but not see cars when they arrived at speed).
RESULTS RACE 1
1. Sebastien Bourdais, Dallara-Chevy, 65, Running
2. Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Chevy, 65, Running
3. Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Chevy, 65, Running
4. Simon Pagenaud, Dallara-Honda, 65, Running
5. Scott Dixon, Dallara-Chevy, 65, Running
6. Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 65, Running
7. Charlie Kimball, Dallara-Chevy, 65, Running
8. James Hinchcliffe, Dallara-Honda, 65, Running
9. Will Power, Dallara-Chevy, 65, Running
10. Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 65, Running
11. Mikhail Aleshin, Dallara-Honda, 65, Running
12. Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Chevy, 65, Running
13. Jack Hawksworth, Dallara-Honda, 65, Running
14. Carlos Huertas, Dallara-Honda, 65, Running
15. Mike Conway, Dallara-Chevy, 65, Running
16. Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 65, Running
17. Carlos Munoz, Dallara-Honda, 65, Running
18. Juan Pablo Montoya, Dallara-Chevy, 64, Running
19. Sebastian Saavedra, Dallara-Chevy, 64, Running
20. Josef Newgarden, Dallara-Honda, 63, Contact
21. Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 39, Contact
22. Luca Filippi, Dallara-Honda, 17, Contact
23. Takuma Sato, Dallara-Honda, 10, ContactRESULTS RACE 2
1. Mike Conway, Carpenter/Chevy 1h20m35.5420s
2. Tony Kanaan, Ganassi/Chevy +3.5418s
3. Will Power, Penske/Chevy +5.1545s
4. Charlie Kimball, Ganassi/Chevy +5.4857s
5. Takuma Sato, Foyt/Honda +6.6210s
6. Jack Hawksworth, Herta/Honda +7.8701s
7. Scott Dixon, Ganassi/Chevy +7.9350s
8. Marco Andretti, Andretti/Honda +10.1765s
9. Sebastien Bourdais, KV/Chevy +12.0212s
10. Justin Wilson, Coyne/Honda +15.7853s
11. Ryan Briscoe, Ganassi/Chevy +15.8671s
12. Helio Castroneves, Penske/Chevy +16.2205s
13. Josef Newgarden, Fisher/Honda +20.9127s
14. Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti/Honda +22.6140s
15. Carlos Huertas, Coyne/Honda +29.2715s
16. Luca Filippi, Rahal/Honda +46.4382s
17. Carlos Munoz, Andretti/Honda -4 laps
18. James Hinchcliffe, Andretti/Honda -4 laps
19. Juan Pablo Montoya, Penske/Chevy -4 laps
20. Graham Rahal, Rahal/Honda 50 laps
21. Sebastian Saavedra, KV/Chevy 49 laps
22. Simon Pagenaud, Schmidt/Honda 47 laps
23. Mikhail Aleshin, Schmidt/Honda 11 laps
Championship Points-
1.Helio Castroneves-533
2.Will Power-520
3.Ryan Hunter-Reay-464
4.Simon Pagenaud-462
5.Juan Pablo Montoya-428Considering how composed Montoya looked in the wet at Barber, I did not expect to see him be the first to stuff it in the wall when it rained. The other Colombians in the field had a poor day as well, especially Huertas being in the middle of that melee near the end.
Poor weekend for Hunter-Reay too, he lost a lot of ground with the mistake in race 1 and then the penalty in race 2 put him back in the pack (leading to being caught up in Huertas’ mess).
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