I’m just so happy to get the Verizon car a bigger points lead,” Power told ABC. “The whole team worked really hard—man, I just love winning!
“The tires went off so badly with pickup in those restarts. You saw what happened to Justin—I almost lost it a couple times too.
“This whole team works so well together the stops were good today we struggled in practice we worked really hard and this is the end result.”
Power qualified second behind Dreyer & Reinbold’s Justin Wilson, who had the fastest car in the race. Power took the lead from Wilson on a restart on lap 70, being a bit more ready and having his tire temps up enough to get by around the outside into Turn One. It was a bold, alert move, taking advantage of Wilson’s poor traction.
Wilson spun on the next lap after pushing too hard, dropping to 14th. He made an heroic effort to get back to seventh by the end, proving that he well could have won the race had he not made the error.
“I went through Turn Seven on the restart” Wilson said. “Will had got by me—I was fine with that, I thought, ‘Live to fight another day’— but I went through Turn Seven, as I lifted off I got sideways, so I put on the brakes and I just locked the rears. My fault I guesss.
“I think it was just pickup I had gotten on the tire and just not done a good enough t job to get them cleaned up before the restart.”
Last year’s winner, Ganassi driver Dario Franchitti, finished second; Andretti Autosports’ Ryan Hunter-Reay took third.
Endless Yellows
The Toronto course is extremely challenging, narrow and slippery, demanding a balance of control and courage.
On lap 16, KV driver Mario Moraes showed he had the balance wrong, as he pushed his teammate Takuma Sato into the wall with an over-exuberant passing attempt.
The green flag waved again on lap 19, but there corners later the yellow came out again as Helio Castroneves rammed Vitor Meira and slammed the tire barrier so hard his car was buried. Meira had been having brake problems. Helio committed, using his Push-to-Pass button, but Meira braked very early and the Penske car launched in the air of Meira’s rear wheel, slamming into the wall.
The green flag waved again but was replaced by yellow after only one corner on lap 26, as Alex Lloyd hit the tires in Turn One due to a mechanical failure.
The race managed another three corners on lap 31 when Mario Moraes put Mario Romancini into the wall, earning Moraes a drive-through penalty for avoidable contact.
Canadian hero Paul Tracy, much to the delight of the fans, had taken the lead by staying out on the first yellow, but was forced to pit on lap 32. Refueling problems then dropped him to the back of the pack.
Finally the race got to run a few laps starting on lap 35, with defending winner Dario Franchitti, who advanced on pit strategy, leading Will Power and Justin Wilson. Wilson soon regained the lead as the first two had to pit.
This time 34 laps passed before another incident: Graham Rahal rammed the back of Ryan Briscoe entering Turn Three. Briscoe’s car wasn’t working well, and he braked very early, catching Rahal off guard. Briscoe made it up an escape road, so the race continued until lap 65.
Lap 65 saw a spate of action: first, Paul Tracy, battling Simona de Silvestro for 14th, overbraked badly into Turn Three, nearly wrecking both cars. Tracy was able to save it and continued on, eventually finishing 13th.
While the fans were watching that, Danica Patrick made a brave outside move on teammate Marco Andretti for eighth. Raffa Matos tried to force his way past too, but touched and spun, skidding backwards into the tire wall. Matos bounced back into the path of EJ Viso, hitting head-on.
Lap 70 saw the restart where Power passed Wilson, and also saw another collision, as Ryan Hunter-Reay forced his way inside Scott Dixon rounding Turn Three, then pushed the hapless Ganassi driver off the course on the exit. It wasn’t malicious; Hunter-Reay simply carried too much speed into the corner. No malice offered no consolation for Scott Dixon, whose race was ended.
Lap 72 saw the next full-course caution, as Tomas Schechter pushed Canadian Alex Tagliani into the tires in Turn One, fighting for seventh place. Schechter went in too fast; his enthusiasm ended Tagliani’s day, while Schecter was able to continue.
The race went green on lap 76, and the next nine laps saw fierce racing but no more wrecks. Justin Wilson made a huge effort to get back to the front, gaining five places in nine laps, but he ran out of time.
Will Power held off Dario Franchitti for his fourth win. Ryan Hunter-Reay, who drove on the ragged edge of control for most of the race, finished in a welcome and well-deserved third (his misjudgment passing Dixon nonwithstanding.)
Hunter-Reay just found sponsorship for the rest of the season at Watkins Glen, his performance proved that his backers made a good choice.
Tweet Wars
The competition didn’t end with the checkered flag: Graham Rahal and Ryan Briscoe, and Thomas Schechter and Alex Tagliani, traded barbs on Twitter after the race.
Briscoe opened the fray with this: “I wish Rahal could have tried making a clean move instead of punting me! Guess he doesn't care about championships being a part-timer.” (Rahal has had trouble finding rides this season.)
Graham responded: “I made tons of clean moves today! @RyanBriscoe6: tough race, that's what you get for blocking and braking early!
@RyanBriscoe6 my style isn't to hit people, I hope everyone knows that. I had a run, was all the way to the right, and you blocked!”
Ryan Briscoe’s girlfriend got involved later in the exchange, as did friends and fans. Finally Briscoe said he would talk with Rahal at Edmonton to work things out.
Today’s incident was not the first high-speed meeting between Thomas Schecter and Alex Tagliani. The pair came together at Toronto last year; neither driver has forgotten that.
In a post-race interview on Indycar.com, Alex Tagliani intimited that he would seek revenge on Schechter at the next race at Edmonton.
He said, “We were in a good position to bring the car home in sixth,” Taglaini said. “Tomas just brought us into the wall in Turn One and that was it. We went from sixth to 17th, so it was pretty bad.”
"I hope he'll be back in Edmonton because I have a lot of front wings to damage,” he continued. “He was actually happy that he didn't finish the race and he took us out. Pretty long time to keep a grudge.” (Tagliani did not realize that Schechter had been able to continue.)
Tagliani said Schechter shouted curses at him as they were wedged against the wall.
On Twitter, Schechter claimed the incident was not intentional: “Had a lot of fun out there today. Pity we got together with Tag, was not my intention at all. On other hand karma’s a *****.”
Schechter continued, “I saw Tag took out Matos and Viso right in front of me. He took me out last year. U carry on like that for too long, it’s gonna come back your way.”
The exchange devolved into adolescent idiocy from there, with an exchange of insults and as challenge to a face-to-face encounter at Edmonton.
While some people might enjoy these exchanges, it becomes a bit harder to respect drivers who sink to the level of, “I know you are but what am I?” Just because you can tell the whole world your every thought, that doesn’t mean you have to. If the thumbs are faster than the brain, put the smart-phone down for a while, please.
Staying in Canada
IndyCar stays north of the border for its next race the Rexall Honda Indy Edmonton on the 3.154-kilometer (1.96 mile) course at City Centre Airport . Will Power won from the pole here in 2009—could this be Number Five for the speedy Australian?
Tickets can be purchased online through the Honda IndyCar Edmonton website ticket page .
The green flag drops at 5:55 p.m. on Sunday, July 25, 2010. The race will be broadcast starting at 5 p.m. July 25, on Versus TV in the United States. Qualifying will be on Versus at 6 p.m. on Saturday, July 24.
|
Honda Indy Toronto Streets of Toronto |
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|
|
# |
Name |
Laps |
Gap |
Diff |
Status |
|
1 |
12 |
Will Power |
85 |
–.—- |
–.—- |
Running |
|
2 |
10 |
Dario Franchitti |
85 |
1.2757 |
1.2757 |
Running |
|
3 |
37 |
Ryan Hunter-Reay |
85 |
0.4848 |
1.7605 |
Running |
|
4 |
11 |
Tony Kanaan |
85 |
1.7777 |
3.5382 |
Running |
|
5 |
02 |
Graham Rahal |
85 |
6.1967 |
9.7349 |
Running |
|
6 |
7 |
Danica Patrick |
85 |
2.2090 |
11.9439 |
Running |
|
7 |
22 |
Justin Wilson |
85 |
0.4344 |
12.3783 |
Running |
|
8 |
26 |
Marco Andretti |
85 |
3.9577 |
16.3360 |
Running |
|
9 |
78 |
Simona de Silvestro |
85 |
5.1961 |
21.5321 |
Running |
|
10 |
4 |
Dan Wheldon |
85 |
1.6216 |
23.1537 |
Running |
|
11 |
14 |
Vitor Meira |
85 |
2.7423 |
25.8960 |
Running |
|
12 |
06 |
Hideki Mutoh |
85 |
0.3918 |
26.2878 |
Running |
|
13 |
15 |
Paul Tracy |
84 |
1 lap |
1 lap |
Running |
|
14 |
32 |
Mario Moraes |
84 |
13.7625 |
13.7625 |
Running |
|
15 |
24 |
Tomas Scheckter |
84 |
4.0044 |
17.7669 |
Running |
|
16 |
36 |
Bertrand Baguette |
84 |
8.5119 |
26.2788 |
Running |
|
17 |
77 |
Alex Tagliani |
84 |
10.6510 |
36.9298 |
Running |
|
18 |
6 |
Ryan Briscoe |
83 |
1 lap |
2 laps |
Running |
|
19 |
8 |
EJ Viso |
82 |
1 lap |
3 laps |
Running |
|
20 |
9 |
Scott Dixon |
71 |
11 laps |
14 laps |
Contact |
|
21 |
2 |
Raphael Matos |
64 |
7 laps |
21 laps |
Contact |
|
22 |
34 |
Mario Romancini |
31 |
33 laps |
54 laps |
Contact |
|
23 |
19 |
Alex Lloyd |
26 |
5 laps |
59 laps |
Contact |
|
24 |
3 |
Helio Castroneves |
21 |
5 laps |
64 laps |
Contact |
|
25 |
5 |
Takuma Sato |
15 |
6 laps |
70 laps |
Contact |
|
26 |
18 |
Milka Duno |
8 |
7 laps |
77 laps |
Handling |
