If you’ve never been to a professional level race, you owe it to yourself to visit one. There really is nothing like the sights, sounds and smells of car racing. Maybe the best event of all time is the annual Champ Car World Series visit to the Toronto waterfront. While the event is easily the favorite race of most teams, it might be one of the best for fans as well.
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How crazy is a day in Paul Tray’s life when he’s at the track? One would assume that it’s action packed to say the least. MTV Canada had some cameras follow PT around for a bit to put together the Diary of Paul Tracy. The show is set to air tomorrow night on MTV and includes some footage of the whacked out Canadian driver tormenting the French Canadian drivers and public.
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Following his collision with a deer while testing his Champ car at Road America, Christiano da Matta has been working hard on his rehabilitation. Rehab from head injury can take many forms and the results are different for every patient. It sounds like da Matta is making some good progress, but I somehow doubt we’ll be seeing him doing any laugh a minute interviews like the Hamster any time soon. On a positive note, he has taken over the job of maintaining the blog on his site just last month.

British Champ Car driver Katherine Legge walked away from her very own version of Mr Toad’s Wild Ride yesterday when her Lola lost it’s rear wing at Road Atlanta. Video shows the the wing coming off at the entrance to the kink, which is a very high speed section of the famed track. The car proceeded to spin and head into the fence at about 180 mph.

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At next weekend’s Champ Car race at Road America, Katherine Legge is becoming a Road Warrior in Pink in support of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Legge’s car, and driving kit will be decked out in pink instead of the usual red, white and black and her personal safety stuff will be signed and auctioned off later in the season.

Ford will also supply a Warriors in Pink Ford GT500 pace car and a pink Ford Fusion.

Press release after the break.

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With a 21 year history in Toronto, the Molson Indy was one of the most recognizable spots on the Champ Car circuit. Even when the name was sold, it became the Molson Grand Prix of Toronto. Now, Molson has decided to bow out of the event.

The news doesn’t come as too much of a surprise, as organizers have been expecting it since Molson also dropped the Champ Car race in Montreal.

Stay tuned over the weekend for an assortment of race programs from years gone by.

Source Inside Track

Depending on your point of view, Paul Tracy is either brilliant or a fool. At yesterday’s aborted Champ Car race in Montreal, PT donned a wrestling mask and a Fleur-de-lis cape as a poke at French Canadian drivers who are afraid to have a go at him without taking off their helmet.

For all you readers from other countries who may not know, the relationship between French speaking Canada and the rest of the country has been tenuous at best over the years. A province full of whining separatists would be considered traitors in the States. This political nonsense has spilled over into some not so friendly ribbing over the years between English and French speaking Canadians.

The fact that Tracy chose to pull this prank in Montreal is HUGE! It shows how little sense of humour these whiners have. In these times of political correctness in racing though, I’d be surprised if Pauly survives this with his wallet intact. Personally, I damn near peed myself when I caught this pic in the paper this morning.
via The Toronto Star

Following Christiano Da Matta’s injuries after hitting a deer at Elkhart lake, his team has a dilemma. Rusport must have sponsor committments, not to mention team points on the line. As distasteful as it may be, they need to fill the seat while their man recovers.

Over at F1 Fanatic, they have suggested that the temp could end up being none other than 1995 Champ Car Champeen Jacques Villeneuve. While he would be a logical choice, do you think he can take time out from his busy schedule? Oh wait…he doesn’t have a job, unless you call hanging out at the local recording studio work!

I hate to say it, but I think the Justin Wilson might be a better choice.

Tonight on SpeedTV, Dave Despain was joined by Mario, Michael & Marco Andretti. Three generations of America’s premier racing family. It was an interesting interview, in that what wasn’t said was almost as important as what was. Mario showed himself to be the elder statesman, not only of the sport, but of the family as one would expect. When some insensitive viewer e-mailed the inevitable rookie question (in relation to the death of Paul Dana) both Mario & Michael were quick to say that Marco is more than ready. They actually looked like they were going to continue the topic, when Despain carefully changed the direction of the conversation like the experienced host that he is. It was also cool to watch Dad & Grandpa try to convince the youngster that Formula One is the way he needs to go, while a surprisingly mature Marco pointed out that it is most important for him to be 110 percent focused on the job at hand.

When asked about the ongoing (and perhaps impending) unification talks between the bosses of Champ car & IRL Mario coyly said he wasn’t in on the talks, but that he knew they were going in the direction that is the best for open wheel racing in North America. The wry grin said it all. Mario knows exactly what is going on, he’s just not telling.

Several times, they showed the Andretti Family lapping session that opened the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the month of May, leading up to the 2006 Indy 500. The shots of Mario in a sixties era Indy car and “the boys” in their modern cars were wonderful. Perhaps 2006 will be the year the Andretti curse at Indy is broken.