2010 IRL Rd.10--Honda Indy Toronto

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As the dust settles from the IndyCar Series' 4th of July foray at the Glen, the series moves north of the border to the first of its' two Canadian rounds, Exhibition Place in Toronto and the Honda Indy Toronto..............


Past Winners...........................
~~Michael Andretti, 1989, 1991-92, 1994-95, 2000-01(7)
~~Al Unser, Jr., 1988 & 1990(2)
~~Paul Tracy, 1993, 2003(2)*
~~Bobby Rahal, 1986(1)
~~Emerson Fittipaldi, 1987(1)
~~Adrian Fernandez, 1996(1)
~~Mark Blundell, 1997(1)
~~Alex Zanardi, 1998(1)
~~Dario Franchitti, 1999, 2009(2)*
~~Cristiano da Matta, 2002(1)
~~Sebastien Bourdais, 2004(1)
~~Justin Wilson, 2005(1)*
~~A.J. Allmendinger, 2006(1)
~~Will Power, 2007(1)*
*--current active IndyCar Series competitor
note......series did not compete in Toronto in 2008 following the merger of the IRL and ChampCar


Weekend Schedule.......................
--Practice Session 1, 9:55-10:55am, 16 July 2010
--Practice Session 2, 1:50-2:50pm, 16 July 2010
--Practice Session 3, 9:10-10:10am, 17 July 2010
--Knockout Qualifying, 12:50-2:20pm, 17 July 2010
--Final Practice, 8:35-9:05am, 18 July 2010
--Honda Indy Toronto, 12:30pm, 18 July 2010

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Track Map, Exhibition Place-Toronto

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Entry List, Honda Indy Toronto
Raphael Matos, #2 HP-Luczo Dragon
Helio Castroneves, #3 Team Penske
Dan Wheldon, #4 National Guard
(R)Takuma Sato, #5 Lotus-KV Racing
Ryan Briscoe, #6 Team Penske
Danica Patrick, #7 GoDaddy.com
E.J. Viso, #8 PDVSA
Scott Dixon, #9 Target
Dario Franchitti, #10 AirWick
Tony Kanaan, #11 Nestle
Will Power, #12 Verizon
Vitor Meira, #14 ABC Supply Co.
Paul Tracy, #15 Make-A-Wish Foundation
Milka Duno, #18 CITGO
(R)Alex Lloyd, #19 Boy Scouts of America
Justin Wilson, #22 Z-Line Designs
Tomas Scheckter, #24 Mona Vie
Marco Andretti, #26 Team Venom Energy
Mario Moraes, #32 KV Racing
(R)Mario Romancini, #34 Conquest Racing
(R)Bertrand Baguette, #36 RAC Belgium
Ryan Hunter-Reay, #37 IZOD
Alex Tagliani, #77 Bowers & Wilkins
(R)Simona de Silvestro, #78 Team Stargate Worlds
Graham Rahal, #02 QuickTrim
Hideki Mutoh, #06 Formula Dream

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-----Graham Rahal will drive for a fourth team this season in the Honda Indy Toronto, but who's counting? The 21-year-old Ohio native/resident would compete in 17 different cars if it meant he could drive the full IZOD IndyCar Series season. As it is, Rahal will return to Newman/Haas Racing and be behind the wheel of the No. 02 Quick Trim entry at Toronto this weekend. He'll also compete at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Infineon Raceway, Twin Ring Motegi, Chicagoland Speedway and in the finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Rahal, the youngest race winner and pole sitter in series history, has lent his abilities to Sarah Fisher Racing (St. Petersburg, Barber, Long Beach), Rahal Letterman Racing (Indianapolis 500) and Dreyer & Reinbold Racing (Iowa) -- the latter filling in for the injured Mike Conway. Rahal transitioned to the IZOD IndyCar Series with Newman/Haas Racing in 2008. He won in his series debut on the streets of St. Petersburg, Fla., and finished 17th in the championship standings. Last year, Rahal improved to seventh in points off nine top-10 finishes (high of third at Richmond and Twin Ring Motegi). He also had two pole starts.

“It’s nice to be back with Newman/Haas Racing, a group that I have been with for so long and have a lot of fond memories with, and it’s also great to be reunited with Quick Trim who made this possible,” said Rahal of the diet system that was the primary sponsor of the No. 30 car for the Indy 500.

“Quick Trim really enjoyed their experience in May and we had a great run. We have been talking about this for a long time and I’m happy we were able to extend the deal. I’m looking forward to getting back in the car and back in the series. To know what I am going to be doing for the rest of the season feels so good. The plan is to go out there and pick up where we left off."

When Rahal joined Newman/Haas Racing in 2007 at the age of 18, he became the youngest driver to join the team and first true rookie. Previous drivers that were officially classified as rookies included Nigel Mansell, who joined the team as the reigning 1992 Formula One World Champion, and Sebastien Bourdais, who joined the team as the reigning 2002 Formula 3000 champion.

“We are delighted to have Graham back with the team,” said Carl Haas, co-founder of Newman/Haas Racing with Paul Newman. “He has been an important part of our team over the past few years and we are proud of the history-making results we have accomplished together. We are also looking forward to returning to a two-car team and all of the benefits it provides.” Rahal will join Hideki Mutoh, who is in his first year with the team in the No. 06 Formula Dream Panasonic car, at Toronto.

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Toronto Practice Session 1 Top-5
1. 9 Scott Dixon Chip Ganassi Racing 1:03.9149 98.850
2. 22 Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 1:03.9804 0.0655 0.0655 98.749
3. 77 Alex Tagliani FAZZT Race Team 1:04.0220 0.0416 0.1071 98.685
4. 3 Helio Castroneves Team Penske 1:04.0355 0.0135 0.1206 98.664
5. 10 Dario Franchitti Chip Ganassi Racing 1:04.3344 0.2989 0.4195 98.206

Toronto Practice Session 2 Top-5
1. 37 Ryan Hunter-Reay Andretti Autosport 1:02.1433 101.668
2. 22 Justin Wilson Dreyer & Reinbold Racing 1:02.1839 0.0406 0.0406 101.602
3. 3 Helio Castroneves Team Penske 1:02.2550 0.0711 0.1117 101.486
4. 12 Will Power Team Penske 1:02.3439 0.0889 0.2006 101.341
5. 2 Raphael Matos de Ferran Luczo Dragon Racing 1:02.3894 0.0455 0.2461 101.267

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-----A pair of 60-minute practice sessions on the 1.75-mile Exhibition Place circuit suited Vitor Meira just fine. It wasn’t the heat (topping 90 degrees Fahrenheit) or even the physical demands of the 11-turn street course. Meira, driver of the No. 14 ABC Supply car for A.J. Foyt Racing, will be making his debut in the Honda Indy Toronto so incremental sessions were beneficial.

“It is better to have the practice session broken up into three one-hour sessions over two days the way they have it now because we can sit down and go through what needs to be done between each session,” said Meira, who was recovering from a back injury last year during the running of the IZOD IndyCar Series event. “And myself, I can go through the data and think about what to do the next session.

“A street course changes a lot because it doesn’t have any rubber at all on the surface, so the more the cars run, the more rubber it gets. It gets grippier and faster. You need to change the car accordingly because if you have a good car with the track not rubbered, that car will not be a good car in qualifying when the track is rubbered.”

Meira totaled 70 laps in the two sessions July 16, and the 26-car field will have another one-hour session preceding the three rounds of qualifying for the PEAK Performance Pole Award (12:50 p.m. ET). Meira was 16th on the combined time sheet with a best lap of 1 minute, 3.3250 seconds (101.668 mph).

It’s another tightly packed field -- the top 13 cars separated by less than a second -- with Ryan Hunter-Reay bolting to the top of the time chart with a lap of 1:02.1433 (101.668 mph) late in the second session. Justin Wilson, driving the No. 22 Z-Line Designs car for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, was second quick (1:02.1839; 101.602) and Helio Castroneves in the No. 3 Team Penske car was third (1:02.2550; 101.486).

“I love this place and it is great to see the fans turn out here in Toronto,” said Hunter-Reay, who won on the Long Beach street circuit in mid-April. “This is our first street course since then and our car is still good. Tomorrow is a new day. Most teams took new tires at the end of that session and so did we. We will see where we stack up, but I think we will definitely be top five (in qualifying).”

Wilson, runner-up on the street circuits of St. Petersburg and Long Beach earlier this season, agreed that there are areas to improve the lap times. “It’s always good to come back to Toronto,” he said. “It’s a track that I really like and always have fun driving on. It’s obviously not the smoothest track we drive on, but I think that adds character to the course. (Dreyer & Reinbold Racing) gave me a good car today. It works really well and feels really good, but obviously we have plenty of room to improve. We have one area that we need to change, but hopefully after making those improvements tonight we’ll be able to go a little faster tomorrow.”

Alex Tagliani of Montreal was sixth on the time chart in the No. 77 Bowers & Wilkins/Hot Wheels entry for FAZZT Race Team and Paul Tracy of Toronto was 25th in the No. 25 Make-A-Wish car for KV Racing Technology. “We started out pretty well this morning," said Tracy, competing in his second race of the season. "But we had a little issue with the car in the afternoon. We really only got about five laps of running. We got the car back out to the pits with about two minutes to go. But we weren’t going to get the tires up to temperature in that amount of time. So we didn’t run.

"Right now, we’ll baseline off of E.J. (Viso’s) car in the morning. Our cars were pretty similar to begin with and he ended up in the top seven. He thinks the changes they made were quite good. That puts us up an extra set of tires on the rest of the field for Saturday. We’ll be ready to go in the morning.”

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-----TORONTO – Justin Wilson earned his first IZOD IndyCar Series pole and set a series track record in the process. Now all the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing driver has to do is hold off 25 challengers over 85 laps in the Honda Indy Toronto.

“Easier said than done,” acknowledged Wilson, who posted a quick lap of 1 minute, 0.2710 seconds (104.827 mph) in the Firestone Fast Six on the 1.75-mile, 11-turn street circuit at Exhibition Place to win the PEAK Performance Pole Award. It was the second pole earned for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing – the first by Sarah Fisher in 2002 at Kentucky Speedway.

Team Penske’s Will Power will join Wilson, who has a pair of runner-up finishes this season on street courses, on the front row. Power had a best lap of 1:00.4563 in the Firestone Fast Six, but his team’s streak of eight consecutive pole starts came to an end (Power had five in that span).

Helio Castroneves (1:00.8159) in the No. 3 Team Penske car and Ryan Hunter-Reay, driving the No. 37 IZOD car for Andretti Autosport (1:00.8397), will share Row 2. Target Chip Ganassi Racing’s Dario Franchitti (1:00.9477) and Scott Dixon (1:00.9541) will be on Row 3. Dixon extended his series record to 42 consecutive top-five starts.

All but Wilson are race winners this season. He obviously intends to become the eighth different winner. “We’ve had a couple of tough races so to come back and get the pole here is just fantastic,” said Wilson, who saved a set of Firestone Firehawk alternate tires in setting the track record. “Everyone at Dreyer & Reinbold has worked so hard. I’m very pleased for Z-Line Designs. We’ll keep pushing for the race. It’s easy in this stage to sit back and relax, but we have a lot of work to do. It’s great that this is the team’s second career pole and I want to get their second career win. That’s the big picture we’re looking at but this is a great moment.

“After the difficulties at Watkins Glen (lost four spots to finish 10th) and Iowa (dropped 13 positions to finish 24th), it’s been tough. We’ve been working so hard, trying to stay focus and stay on track and not go off on a tangent.”

Power, a three-time race winner this season who has advanced to the Firestone Fast Six in each of the 10 races he’s competed for Team Penske, was less than two-tenths of a second off Wilson’s best lap.

“We definitely got the car better for qualifying today, but Justin was very quick and tough to beat,” he said. “I am not sure I could have beaten him this time. I know I made a mistake at the end of my lap, but that was a tough qualifying session and I am exhausted. I feel good about tomorrow; I am not sure what will happen with the weather. Rain always stirs things up, but we will take it as it comes.”

That’s just another potential factor team’s will face. The top 11 are separated by one second on the tricky, slippery and bumpy course that has concrete barriers on both sides of the drivers.

“It was exciting; we didn't know if the rain was coming or not,” Castroneves said. “So we decided to keep going as fast as we could. We certainly had the car to get up there, but we just wanted to play it safe and to be in the top six. But in the top three is certainly a good position to win a race from.”

His other teammate, Ryan Briscoe, will be on Row 4 with Tony Kanaan in the No. 11 Team 7-Eleven/Nestle Pure Life entry for Andretti Autosport. Montreal’s Alex Tagliani in the No. 77 Bower & Wilkins/Hot Wheels car for FAZZT Race Team and Marco Andretti, driving the No. 26 Venom Energy car for Andretti Autosport will start on Row 5.

Raphael Matos in the No. 2 HP de Ferran Dragon Racing car, coming off a fourth place at Watkins Glen International, will start 11th and Danica Patrick posted her highest road/street course starting position (12th) since Infineon Raceway (11th) last August. Paul Tracy of Toronto will start 24th in the No. 15 Make-A-Wish KV Racing Technology car. “I was pleased with our qualifying run today,” Patrick said. “It was great to advance out of our group, which had a lot of good cars in it. Today was a good step in the right direction. I’m happy with the GoDaddy car and hopefully we can have a decent day tomorrow.”

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-----TORONTO – Justin Wilson had it all in his corner with 20 laps left in the Honda Indy Toronto: Firestone alternate tires on the No. 22 Z-Line Designs car, plenty of ethanol in the tank and a 3.1-second lead over Team Penske’s Will Power. Then, one of the worst things to beset a race leader – a full-course caution on Lap 65 for contact on the tight street circuit – opened the door for Power to challenge Wilson on the restart. That he did in Turn 1 of Lap 72, overtaking the pole sitter of Dreyer & Reinbold Racing to mark the sixth lead change.

“Will got by me and I thought, ‘OK, I’m fine with that.’ I thought we could pass him back,’ Wilson said in sizing up the situation with 13 laps remaining on the 1.75-mile, 11-turn Exhibition Place course. “I was sideways all the way through the last corner. I just couldn’t get my tires warmed up. I ended up sideways through Turn 11, which gave the rundown into Turn 1. Will nearly overshot Turn 1 so I thought I’d have a chance to get back. I had the pace.”

Unfortunately for Wilson, who led the most laps, there was more slipping and sliding on the course marked by patches of concrete mixed with the asphalt. The No. 22 car spun entering Turn 8, ending Wilson’s pursuit to become the eighth different winner in 10 races. “We had the pace,” Wilson said. “I got sideways through Turn 7, got on the brakes, locked the rears and just couldn’t get them unlocked in time for the corner. I felt like I had a left rear puncture, but the guys came on the radio after and said the car was OK.”

Power still had to get through another restart on Lap 76 (two-lap delay for contact between the cars driven by Alex Tagliani and Tomas Scheckter) in the race of attrition (six cars knocked out by contact, including Helio Castroneves and Scott Dixon). That he did, holding off Dario Franchitti’s green No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing car by 1.2757 seconds to increase his IZOD IndyCar Series championship points lead to 42 over the reigning series champion. It was the 150th open-wheel racing victory for Penske Racing.

“We worked really hard and this is the end result,” said Power, who started on the front row for the seventh time and won for the fourth this season (two sets of back-to-back races). “I knew just from the marbles and the pick-up that the restart was going to be really slippery. I saw (Wilson) make a mistake coming off the straight so I got a run on him and pulled it off. I would say it was a calculated but risky move to pass him on the outside because I wasn't sure I'd make it out the other side.

"It was close, but sometimes you have to do that in racing if you want to win, and that's what happened. It was a key to winning the race.” Wilson recovered from the spin, gaining five positions in as many laps, to finish seventh. Seven different teams were represented in the top 10.

“It was a great race for the fans. They saw a lot of action,” said Tony Kanaan, who finished a road/street course season-best fourth in the No. 11 Team 7-Eleven Nestle Pure car. “Fans come out here to see cars make passes and I think we had plenty of those today. For sure, it was one of the hardest races I’ve run this year. We were basically qualifying from lap one until Lap 85. I would have liked to have had a little faster car, but I had a pretty decent race. I tried to battle a lot of people and had to because it was very competitive out there.”

Andretti Autosport teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay, who won at Long Beach, was third in the No. 37 IZOD car for his sixth top 10 of the season. Graham Rahal – making his season debut with Newman/Haas Racing in the No. 02 Quick Trim entry, was fifth. Danica Patrick finished sixth – the same as last year. “It’s a great confidence-booster not only for me, but the whole No. 7 GoDaddy.com team," Patrick said. "It’s the best finish we’ve had on a street course this season. We were really happy with the way the car was performing throughout the whole race. This is a good way to end a great weekend since we head to another road course next week in Edmonton. Overall, we were strong as a team with the four of us in the top 10.”

Marco Andretti was eighth in the No. 26 Team Venom Energy car. Simona de Silvestro advanced 12 positions to finish a season-high ninth in the No. 78 Team Stargate Worlds/HVM Racing car, and Dan Wheldon was 10th. He recovered from contact on the green flag lap in which the nose assembly of the No. 4 National Guard Panther Racing car was damaged.

Paul Tracy of Toronto, driving the No. 15 Make-A-Wish car for KV Racing Technology, led early based on fuel strategy. But after having to duck in for fuel and tires on Lap 34 and also spinning in Turn 3 late in the race, Tracy fell a lap down. He jumped in to 13th. “At the end, we could have probably been a top seven or eight, but we struggled the first little bit,” said Tracy, who also will compete in the Honda Indy Edmonton on July 25. “But then the car just seemed to come alive. My pace at the end of the race was the same as the leader, so I was pretty happy about that. I just wish we could have qualified better. But we learned some things today and we’ll get better for Edmonton. This was a great week back home with all of the appearances for Make-A-Wish and Honda Canada. I was hoping for a better finish though.”


Top-10 from Exhibition Place...................
1} #12 Will Power, 85 laps
2} #10 Dario Franchitti, -1.276 sec
3} #37 Ryan Hunter-Reay, -1.761 sec
4} #11 Tony Kanaan, -3.539 sec
5} #02 Graham Rahal, -9.735 sec
6} #7 Danica Patrick, -11.944 sec
7} #22 Justin Wilson, -12.379 sec
8} #26 Marco Andretti, -16.336 sec
9}(R)#78 Simona de Silvestro, -21.533 sec
10} #4 Dan Wheldon, -23.154 sec