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Race #10 The Honda Indy Toronto – Recap

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Ok, wait a minute…was it not supposed to be now the moment that Will Power would leave everyone on the dust with 5 straight road and street races? Well, it surely started that way but with so many twists (pun intended!) in the race the win fell in Ryan Hunter-Ray’s lap like a kitten. He has now won THREE races in a row…yes, the AMERICAN RACE CAR DRIVER, is in the Championship lead by 37 markers. So much for Graham and Marco being the American heroes!!! We can certainly write (and be relieved!) that Dario Franchitti is done for this year’s championship as he is now 107 points out with 5 races remaining. It is just too much ground to make. Read the Official Box Score here.

Career Best for Charlie Kimball (USA) as he finishes in 2nd.

The storylines are as follows:

  • Engines – we can safely say that the THREE engine manufacturers are pushing the limits and it is also creating havoc in the races. Today’s race featured engine failure to Scott Dixon (Honda), Simona de Silvestro (Lotus), and James Hinchcliffe (Chevrolet).
  • The Sebastian Bourdais Watch – Sebastian is coming back after taking the oval portion off the schedule (commitments in 24-hours of Le-Mans) and was knocking on the win (he was 3rd at the last restart) but got pushed to the wall and ended one-lap down in 14th. I would bet that SeaBass will be a winner before the season ends. He showed his team is ready to provide him the best car possible.
  • The Ryan Briscoe Watch – Ryan once again was robed of at least a Top 5 finish when he was pushed toward the wall during turn 3 scrimmage and got into Dario Franchitti ending his race. He just cannot get a break. Maybe a win at the Season Finale at Fontana will erase all bad memories.
  • TV Partner and Ratings – as usual, ABC missed a restart, some passes (at least they went back to replay them), and there were some names misspelled by the whole crew up and down. They were off their game a bit…I would expect a 1.0 rating with a 1pm start. Hopefully it finishes at 1.2 and that should be the upswing INDYCAR needs.
  • Will There Be Some Issues at the Race? – with Toronto there are ALWAYS issues on track as Simon Pagenaud, who has raced very clean this year, just was awful blocking going into turn 3 and destroyed Josef Newgarden’s race. Josef also got into Will Power, Graham Rahal into teammate Charlie Kimball, Charlie Kimball into Sebastian Bourdais (although Charlie was not at fault but SeaBass had another perspective!) and Tony Kanaan had a run into a tire in pit lane. Great all-around action!!!

Race Winner: Due to my grandma’s passing I was not able to do this race’s preview and I did not pick a winner but RHR would have not been my pick. Yet, he has shown that he is poised to be reckoned with the Championship run. He was my pick at the start of the season to finish a close second to Will Power. If he wins it…I will not complain!

Ryan Hunter-Reay wins his 3rd consecutive race.

Engine Winner: Another Chevy win…Honda got the other two podium spots!

Highest Rookie: It looks like Josef is soooo close to being at the podium in every race but something happens (by him or into him!) that just destroys his great effort and potential results. Simon has his worst day even after leading 23 laps. His mid-pack racing left some bad taste after blocking a couple of times.