The track itself is what makes the event special

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from Page FP13

A lot has changed since Bobby Rahal won the first Molson Indy in 1986. For one, a beer company no longer sponsors the race. Exhibition Stadium and The Flyer roller coaster, which used to welcome drivers as they turned off Lakeshore Boulevard and entered the exhibition grounds, have been demolished and BMO Field is now part of the scene. But the biggest difference to the actual track occurred in 1998, when the Direct Energy Centre was built, which added a sharper final turn to the circuit.

“It’s actually a slower turn than it was,” Honda Indy Toronto president Charlie Johnstone said. “It used to separate the boys from the men.”

Still, aside from some annual road repairs and a changing landscape that is inheriting a hotel built directly behind pit row, Johnstone said, “The race track itself is about 95% the same as it was since 1986.”

This is still the same place where Michael Andretti won seven times, where Canadian Paul Tracy won twice and where more cars than you can count have crumpled while speeding into a 90-degree curve on Turn 1.

Jo h n s t o n e has been here since the beginning. He drove an 18-wheeler around promoting the race in 1986; “I would have been happy to sell hot dogs if I had to,” he said. He remembers the good times (watching Alex Zanardi walking on prosthetics in his first public to, drivers get to race on the same roads where commuters are locked in rush-hour gridlock from Monday to Friday. Unlike a standalone road course where the track is fixed year-round, the Toronto track is constantly evolving. It has its own character.

You don’t need guts to drive here. But you sure need plenty of smarts.

“T here’s a ton of concre te,” Tagliani said. “And when you hit those patches, you slide. Going from asphalt to concrete to asphalt, you notice the difference. At the beginning of the weekend to the end of the weekend, when more rubber is laid down, the track changes completely. “It’s like a different racetrack.” As such, some are going with a different driver this weekend. Still, the same rules apply: Go fast and try to keep your nose clean.

“Toronto is really a fun track,” Conway said. “It’s tight and twisty and very bumpy, but has got some high-speed corners and a lot of changes with the concrete patches. You can never really get a perfect car there.” Find full coverage from this weekend’s Indy double-header in Toronto

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