Round 10: Honda Indy Toronto. Exhibition Place, Toronto. June 12-14, 2015

[bjohnsonsmith]

Round 10: Honda Indy Toronto. Exhibition Place, Toronto. June 12-14, 2015

Originally a CART event and known as the Molson Indy Toronto, it is the second longest running street race on the calendar after Long Beach. It was first held in 1986 and 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 and continued until 2007. Though unification of the Champ Car World Series and the Indy Racing League was announced on February 22, 2008, the race was cancelled but returned in 2009, where it has remained on the calendar ever since.

Last year's event saw both races being run on Sunday, as rain on Saturday washed out Race 1. IndyCar officials therefore decided to run both races on Sunday, with Race 1 in the morning and Race 2 in the afternoon and both shortened to 65 laps. However, Race 2 was further shortened to a time limited race, after the rain returned.

The race has been traditionally held in mid-July but there were concerns this year's race might be cancelled, as it would clash with the Pan-American games, also being held in mid-July in Toronto but the race was moved to June and unlike the two previous years there's no double header.

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

The track length was changed from 1.784 miles (2.871 km) in 1986-95, to 1.755 mile (2.824 km) in 1996, due to construction of the Direct Energy Center, which led to the last turn being altered.

Original Track Layout:


Current Track Layout:





Length: 1.755 mi - 2.824 km
Turns: 11
Lap record: July 17th, 1999. Gil de Ferran, 57.143 seconds, 110.565 mph - 177.937 km/h. Walker Racing, Reynard 99i-Honda, CART FedEx Championship Series.

Last year's winner, Race 1:
Sébastien Bourdais
KV Racing Technology
Dallara DW12-Chevrolet

Laps: 65*
Distance: 114.075 Mi - 183.585 km
Race Time: 1:15:44
Average Speed: 90.37 Mph - 145.436 km/h
*race shortened

Last year's winner, Race 2:
Mike Conway
Ed Carpenter Racing
Dallara DW12-Chevrolet

Laps: 56*
Distance: 98.28 Mi - 158.166 km
Race Time: 1:20:36
Average Speed: 73.168 Mph - 117.752 km/h
*race shortened

TV Coverage:
NBCSN
Green flag, 3:00pm ET.

[BudLightJaguar]

My first IndyCar race ever. Never seen a DW12 in real life before and never heard how those machines really sound like. I actually did a little evening walk around the northern part of the circuit since it wasn't closed for pedestrians yet. Looks really bumpy, winter doesn't treat the streets very nicely.

[10TENTHS]

This will give you some idea:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvAeKOGWF1s

[10TENTHS]

Looks like Indycar is streaming all of the feeder series sessions now which is cool of them

[bjohnsonsmith]

Rain has stopped play, with P2 washed out. Is rain forecast for the rest of the weekend?

[BudLightJaguar]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Rain has stopped play, with P2 washed out. Is rain forecast for the rest of the weekend?

Announcers were quite sure that it'll be dry on Saturday and Sunday. It was a pity that P2 was cancelled but at least the touring car race was held. And it was very enjoyable.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by BudLightJaguar

Announcers were quite sure that it'll be dry on Saturday and Sunday. It was a pity that P2 was cancelled but at least the touring car race was held. And it was very enjoyable.

If you have any photos, please post them.

[BudLightJaguar]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

If you have any photos, please post them.

Yep, as long as I get back home (next Thursday). Didn't take a laptop with me since I'm using public transportation only and wanted to keep my luggage light-weight.

[icemachine]

Originally Posted by BudLightJaguar

Yep, as long as I get back home (next Thursday). Didn't take a laptop with me since I'm using public transportation only and wanted to keep my luggage light-weight.

Big concert this weekend out on the Toronto Islands, so you might see a bit of Toronto's crazy side out on the streetcars.

[10TENTHS]

Originally Posted by BudLightJaguar

Announcers were quite sure that it'll be dry on Saturday and Sunday. It was a pity that P2 was cancelled but at least the touring car race was held. And it was very enjoyable.

More that nobody saw a need to go out, so the session was flagged halfway through.

[10TENTHS]

Pro Mazda\Indy Lights alumnus Scott Hargrove is on pole position for the Porsche race. Not a big surprise considering he dominated the series last year in a dual campaign alongside Pro Mazda (finishing 2nd in the latter).

[bjohnsonsmith]

IndyCar are streaming qualifying at 2:30pm E.T.

Edit

Qualifying's been delayed because of an incident with the Pro Mazda race but it's now under way.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Looks like a Red flag came out and caught a number of drivers out in Round 1. Both RH-R and Hawsworth looked peed off.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Power gets pole and the Fast 6 is a Chevrolet shut out.

[BudLightJaguar]

Weather looked pretty dull in the morning but rest of the day was great. I even got rid of my Scandinavian skin tone when the Sun finally came out.

[Lanky Turtle]

Will never ceases to amaze. He wasn't really looking like he had the fastest car during qualifying, then in the last seconds....he pulls one out again.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Starting Grid:

1 Will Power, Team Penske, Dallara/Chevrolet. 59.4280s -
2 Simon Pagenaud, Team Penske, Dallara/Chevrolet. 59.6095s, 0.1815s
3 Juan Pablo Montoya, Team Penske, Dallara/Chevrolet. 59.6242s, 0.1962s
4 Scott Dixon, Chip Ganassi Racing, Dallara/Chevrolet. 59.8879s, 0.4599s
5 Sebastien Bourdais, KVSH Racing, Dallara/Chevrolet. 59.9012s, 0.4732s
6 Luca Filippi, CFH Racing, Dallara/Chevrolet, 1m00.2312s, 0.8032s
7 Helio Castroneves, Team Penske, Dallara/Chevrolet. 59.8940s
8 Takuma Sato, AJ Foyt Enterprises, Dallara/Honda. 59.9500s
9 Tony Kanaan, Chip Ganassi Racing. Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m00.0901s
10 Graham Rahal, Rahal Letterman Lanigan, Dallara/Honda. 1m00.1241s
11 Josef Newgarden, CFH Racing, Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m00.1323s
12 James Jakes, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Dallara/Honda. 1m00.4576s
13 Carlos Munoz, Andretti Autosport, Dallara/Honda. 1m00.6849s
14 Jack Hawksworth, AJ Foyt Enterprises, Dallara/Honda. 1m01.4569s
15 Charlie Kimball, Chip Ganassi Racing, Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m00.8553s
16 Ryan Hunter-Reay, Andretti Autosport, Dallara/Honda. 1m01.5959s
17 Sebastian Saavedra, Chip Ganassi Racing, Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m00.9926s
18 Marco Andretti, Andretti Autosport, Dallara/Honda. 1m01.9907s
19 Conor Daly Schmidt, Peterson Motorsports, Dallara/Honda. 1m01.2543s
20 Stefano Coletti, KV Racing Technology, Dallara/Chevrolet. 1m02.4000s
21 Tristan Vautier, Dale Coyne Racing, Dallara/Honda. 1m01.5065s
22 Gabby Chaves, Bryan Herta Autosport, Dallara/Honda. 1m02.4016s
23 Rodolfo Gonzalez, Dale Coyne Racing, Dallara/Honda 1m05.0167s

[bjohnsonsmith]

A rather wet looking Toronto and due to the rain, the cars will start the race in single file.

We've certainly had our fair share of wet races this season.

[Salamus]

They are saying it should dry up so we should expect an exciting clean finish.

[bjohnsonsmith]

A brave move by Marco Andretti but it looks to be paying off.

[bjohnsonsmith]

The first caution of the race as Jakes loses it and stalls it.

[bjohnsonsmith]

There's some really good stuff going on since the yellow.

[canamman]

This is a great track. To me this
is what indycar racing is all about
other than the Indy 500. Would like to see
another Newgarden win.

[bjohnsonsmith]

It's all happening. Pagenaud loses 4 places and Bourdais passes Power on the restart and Sato and Montoya are wheel to wheel.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Blimey, amazing stuff from Rahal.