THE LINE

July 13, 2011

(Jim Haines/indyCar)
Dario Franchitti (No. 10 Target Chip Ganassi Racing Honda-Powered Dallara with Firestone tires) pissed-off Will Power big-time but went on to win the IZOD IndyCar Series Honda Indy Toronto crash-fest Sunday. It was Franchitti's third victory on the streets of Toronto and 30th of his career. Franchitti broke a tie with Rick Mears (29 wins) and is one behind Sebastien Bourdais and Paul Tracy, both of whom competed in the race. Power (No. 12 Team Penske Verizon D/H/F) lost 36 points to Franchitti in the IZOD IndyCar Series championship chase with his second DNF in a row and trails by 55 heading to Edmonton.  “That was a wild one, wasn’t it?” Dario said. “That was an absolute wild one.” "I was pretty happy just to be in the company of Rick and J.R., and to get my 30th win today means a lot, especially here in Toronto," he continued. "I got my first pole here in 1997. I love racing in Canada. We had that incident with Will. He out braked himself to out brake me and opened up the door, I went down the inside, I held the wall and Will came down. I put my nose in there, I was trying to get my nose out, but ultimately he closed the door and paid the price." Okay, then!

(Jim Haines/IndyCar)
Franchitti's Target Chip Ganassi Racing teammate Scott Dixon (ahead of Dario in this photo) finished 0.7345 of a second behind in second place.

(Jim Haines/IndyCar)
Ryan Hunter-Reay (No. 28 Team DHL/Circle K/Sun Drop Citrus Soda D/H/F) was third. "I got third and now we just have to go win one," Hunter-Reay said. "The Ganassi boys did a great job. Congrats to Dario. Those cars were the class of the field today. The two red and white cars - they just took off."

(Jim Haines/IndyCar)
Marco Andretti (No. 26 Andretti Autosport Team Dr Pepper D/H/F), had another strong run to finish fourth in Toronto, after starting in the back. "It was great to get the Dr Pepper car a fourth-place finish; especially considering we started 20th," Andretti commented. "We struggled with setups earlier in the weekend but then sat back and realized I was trying too hard to drive my teammates' setups - I credit them for being able to pull it off but I can't do it. My driving style is just too aggressive. We thought back to when we were last successful and tried to go back toward that type of setup.  We're close and now we have a direction for the future."

(Jim Haines/IndyCar)
Will Power (above) had a miserable day. "It's just a really disappointing finish for the Verizon car today. My team did a great job in the pits and we were working our way back toward the front and we got past Franchitti. We went into the corner and I gave him room and then he just drove into me. I understood he was going to get penalized but then there was no call - I just don't understand that. After that we were just trying to get the best result possible before Tag (Alex Tagliani) hit me from behind. It's very tough to have two DNFs in a row. All I can say is we'll keep working hard and hopefully come back strong at Edmonton." Oh, and he also called Tagliani a "wanker." Alrighty then, on to Edmonton! (The next IZOD IndyCar Series event is the Edmonton Indy on July 24 at Edmonton City Centre Airport. The race will be televised live at 2 p.m. (ET) by VERSUS and broadcast by the IMS Radio Network.)

(Jim Haines/IndyCar)
Dario with actor Dan Aykroyd, grand marshal of the Honda Indy Toronto.

(Jim Haines/IndyCar)
Stefan Wilson (No. 5 Andretti Autosport), competing in his 24th race in the series, led a 1-2 Andretti Autosport sweep in the Toronto 100 Firestone Indy Lights race. It was the very first win in the series for Stefan, who is the younger brother of IndyCar driver Justin Wilson. Peter Dempsey (No. 26 Andretti Autosport), participating in his first race with the team after moving from O2 Racing, was runner-up under caution for an incident on Lap 45 of 50. Gustavo Yacaman (No. 2 TMR-Tuvacol-Xtreme Coil Drilling) was third. Next up for Firestone Indy Lights is the Edmonton Twin 100s on July 24-25 Edmonton City Centre Airport, televised live by VERSUS.

(Image © 2011 - John Thawley)

Chris Dyson and Guy Smith (No. 16 Dyson Racing Lola B09/86 Mazda) scored a 19.969-second victory over Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr (No. 6 Muscle Milk AMR Lola-Aston) in LMP1 at the Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock Park. Joey Hand and Dirk Muller (No. 56 BMW Team RLL BMW M3 GT) captured their third consecutive American Le Mans Series victory in GT. Hand finished 20.378-seconds ahead of the Jorg Bergmeister/Patrick Long No. 45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSR. Check out all of John Thawley's superb images from last weekend's ALMS Northeast Grand Prix at Lime Rock here.

(Grand-Am)
Alex Gurney (No. 99 GAINSCO Auto Insurance Chevrolet/Riley) took advantage of a rare mistake in the pits by Scott Pruett, beating him out of the pits on their final stops on Lap 80 after Pruett slightly overshot his pit stall. Gurney then held off the Daytona Prototype championship leader for the final 28 circuits, winning by 0.431 seconds. Gurney and co-driver Jon Fogarty averaged 86.831 mph and broke a 10-race winless streak dating back to last year. Ricky Taylor captured his fourth consecutive pole position in the No. 10 SunTrust Chevrolet/Dallara and combined with Max Angelelli to lead a race-high 57 laps. Angelelli took third from Starworks Motorsport driver Ryan Dalziel in the closing laps for the second consecutive event.

(Grand-Am)
Leh Keen and Andrew Davis (No. 59 Brumos Porsche GT3 Cup) captured their second GT victory of the season and took over the points lead in the championship.

(Grand-Am)
John Edwards and Matt Bell (No. 9 Stevenson Automotive Group Chevrolet Camaro) combined to lead 51 of Saturday’s 79-lap Continental Tire Sports Car Festival Powered by Mazda at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, giving them their second consecutive victory in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge Grand Sport class. Edwards led the final 31 laps finishing 2.711 seconds ahead of Charles Espenlaub (No. 48 HRE Wheels/Fall-Line BMW M3 with Charlie Putman), a season-best finish. Matt Plumb and Nick Longhi in the No. 13 RumBum.com BMW M3 came in third. Andrew Carbonell emerged from a late battle with Gregory Liefooghe to post his second career class victory in the Street Tuner class and the first for co-driver Rhett O’Doski in the No. 26 Mazda/Semperfifund.org Mazda MX-5.

 Road America. "America's National Park of Speed" – Road America – hosts its signature vintage event, the Kohler International Challenge with Brian Redman this weekend. The spectacular fixture on the U.S. racing calendar will draw an  incredible variety of legendary cars to the historic circuit, July 14-17, 2011. Drivers come from across the country to participate in the annual gathering and approximately one thousand cars are entered to race, tour and also show in the Concours d’Elegance. This year’s features are the Historic Grand Prix, a Carl Haas Porsche 356 Challenge, Historic Trans-Am, and the North American E-Type Challenge (Jaguar). The full, four-day event offers a Thursday test day, practice, qualifying, touring and concours sessions on Friday and Saturday, and 12 races on Sunday.  The two-night Concours d’Elegance is sponsored by Road & Track magazine and features over 100 cars each night. At 6:00 p.m. Friday evening, race cars parade from the track to downtown Elkhart Lake for judging and spectator viewing until 8:00 p.m. Sports cars gather on Saturday, 6:00-8:00 p.m. Final judging and awards are presented on Sunday at Road America.  Tickets and camping are available by calling 800/365-7223. Tickets are also available at the gates which open at 7:00 a.m. daily. Kids 12 and under are free with a ticket-holding adult. Parking and paddock access are also available for free.

Editor-in-Chief's Note: If you really must keep up on all of the latest F1 developments and the potential U.S. GP in Austin, Texas, go here. - PMD

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Check out Michelin's racing website - "Michelin Alley" - and get in on all of the behind-the-scenes buzz. Go here. - PMD

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