Most of you know Alain De Cadenet from his work as on air talent on SpeedTV. What you may not know is that De Cadenet is somewhat of a renaissance man, with a very wide range of hobbies. Not only is he an accomplished racer, but he is a noted expert in read wine, stamps and vintage aircraft among other things. He even owns a WWII Spitfire, which brings us to this older video. Obviously the shot was set up for effect for a show on the Spit, but things were a bit closer than he expected! I wonder if this is actually his airplane.

Over the years, The Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame has moved several times while trying to find an appropriate venue to display its’ collection of historically significant race cars and memorabilia. Finally, it looks like the CMHF has found a permanent home at Legendary Motorcar in Milton, just a short drive west of Toronto. Legendary is the home base of Peter Klutt, host of Dream Car Garage on SpeedTV and the building actually houses the show studio, along with an incredible collection of cars. To showcase this new home, the CMHF is holding a Grand Opening on Saturday, June 10th. The entry fee is only $5 per car and the event runs from 11 to 3. I’d be willing to bet that they may be offering tours of the whole facility. If they do, take the tour as the place is stunning.
The Collection is home to such gems as the Mackenzie Financial Indy car that Scott Goodyear drove to victory at Indy and a Canadian built Walter Wolf Racing Formula 1 car along with a number of other cars that have won in the hands of Canadian drivers.

Along with the opening at Legendary, there is a track day at Mosport. This event will give participants the chance to experience one of the most important tracks in North American racing history. Several important Canadian drivers will be on hand including Scott Goodyear, Ludwig Heimrath and Marty Roth. Registration is limited to 50 participants and you can find more info here.

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.