The top 10 Toronto Indy moments
Norris McDonald breaks down his list of all-time great Indy races that ranged from inventing ‘doughnuts’ to controversy
In 1967, separate successful appearances at Mosport Park (now Canadian Tire Motorsport Park) by the two biggest openwheel racing series in the world, the U.S. Auto Club Indy cars and the Formula One world championship cars, convinced two young Toronto entrepreneurs that if racing was successful in the countryside, it could be even bigger in the city.
Race driver George Eaton (yes, of that family) and Johnny F. Bassett of the Toronto Telegram Bassetts, wanted to move both races to the CNE grounds in downtown Toronto in 1968, with a track that would incorporate Lake Shore Blvd. W. and some of the streets of the Ex with the pits running through the middle of the old Exhibition Stadium.
Harvey Hudes and Bernie Kamin didn’t own Mosport at the time — that would come later — but were the accountant and lawyer for the company that did, Cantrack Motor Racing Ltd.
They realized immediately what losing both those races would do to Mosport’s revenue stream and started working to put the kibosh to the proposal.
Working behind the scenes, they convinced a ratepayers group in neighbouring Parkdale to object to big-league international motor racing at the Exhibition.
Never mind that local stock car racing happened there all the time in the 1950s and ’60s, or that all those very same Parkdale people made money by renting out their lawns for people to park on during the annual Exhibition, or that the air show — to this day — makes more noise during the Ex than car racing ever could, Hudes and Kamin whipped those folks into such a frenzy with visions of the Hells Angels raping and pillaging and doing all sorts of other nasty things that the project was very quickly dead in the water.
Although Eaton and Bassett lost interest, their idea never really went away and in1986, Molson Breweries finally pulled it off when it promoted the very first Molson Indy. The race and festival surrounding it — now sponsored by Honda Canada — have been a constant on the Toronto summer calendar (except for one year) ever since.
And there has been some incredible racing as well as — in some instances — drama surrounding it. I mean, how can you beat Will Power accusing everyone’s favourite, Dario Franchitti, of being holier-than-thou (“he’s a dirty driver who mouths off about everybody else and drives me crazy”)?
Or for racing excellence, such as Scott Dixon winning both races in 2013, the first year the Honda Indy Toronto was a doubleheader.
Having said that, neither one made my all-time top 10 List. I took a crack at doing this a number of years ago; it’s time for a rethink and to bring the list up to date:
10
There wasn’t a race in 2008, which meant the city was ready for a great race in 2009.
It looked for awhile as though hometown hero Paul Tracy and fellow Canadian Alex Tagliani were going to finish the race one-two, with a last-second scrap determining who would be first. But it was not to be.
During the 66th lap, Tracy went to pass Helio Castroneves and they crashed. Replays showed the Brazilian turning into the Canadian, although he later denied doing that.
And then on the 77th lap, Tagliani was caught up in a three-car wreck, ending his day. “I thought we had that race in our pocket today,” he said later.
Dario Franchitti won, but for awhile there, magic was in the air.
“It’s just a great feeling to win here and I’m going to need a few days for it to sink in, that I actually have won this race.” PAUL TRACY ON HIS 1993 MOLSON INDY WIN
9
Michael Andretti won seven Toronto Indys but his last one, in 2001, was the most exciting.
On the first lap, he collided with thenrookie Scott Dixon. The accident forced Andretti to the back of the 26-car pack, but every time there was a yellow, Andretti would duck into the pits to top up his fuel tank and as the race wore on, the strategy began to work.
“We picked off a lot of cars because many of them (hadn’t stopped and) were saving fuel and I was able to go for it,” he said after the race calling the win the most satisfying of his seven triumphs.
8
When Molson’s convinced the city that a car race at the Ex was workable (although they had to cap the number of people allowed into the event, and put up buffers to keep down the noise), the giants of the sport showed up to take part — Rahal, Sullivan, the two Andrettis, Fittipaldi, Unser Jr., Rutherford, Sneva and on and on — and the first Toronto Indy in 1986 was a roaring success.
The race was won by Bobby Rahal, who’d won the Indianapolis 500 earlier that year. But it was no walk in the park and some would argue his drive through the field to Winner’s Circle after being assessed not one but two penalties was one of the great comebacks in auto racing history.
7
The titans of the sport returned to Toronto in 1987 and — bingo! — another great race went into the record books.
Rahal went out and won the pole, showing that his victory the year previous was no fluke, and was running third late in the race.
Up front, Emmerson Fittipaldi was leading with the Cary Grant-handsome Danny Sullivan trailing.
Suddenly, they collided but managed to keep going. Fittipaldi continued on for the win and Sullivan, with a bent suspension, limped home second — his second straight bridesmaid finish in Toronto.
6
For eons, Indy car drivers had come from midget and sprint-car racing. But European road racers with buckets full of cash had started arriving on the scene in the mid-1980s and paying the car owners for the privilege of driving their racing cars.
The 1990 Toronto Indy field included a throwback, sprint car star Pancho Carter. No slouch, he qualified 18th in the 27-car field (he even out-qualified our own Scott Goodyear) but you knew that when the race started, Pancho would fade.
But then it rained and the old sprint-car driver was in his element. Sprint cars are driven by the accelerator; brakes are seldom used.
And the driver slides them around speedways rather than steering them. So a wet race was right down Carter’s alley and, one by one, he started picking off cars.
I maintain that if his racer hadn’t broken down, Pancho Carter would have won that1990 Indy. But water got into the electrics and he stalled out. It was his last season in the big time.
5
The super team of Dario Franchitti and Paul Tracy swept the 1999 Molson Indy by finishing first and second.
They hugged each other on the podium — they still had their helmets on — and the record crowd of more than 72,000 people went wild when Tracy waved a little Canadian flag.
It was the famous Team Kool Green’s first one-two finish; team owner Barry Green had turned 47 the day before, so it was the perfect birthday gift.
4
Although NASCAR drivers have since infringed on the copyright, CART Indy car drivers were the first to celebrate victories by turning doughnuts (Alex Zanardi) or climbing fences (Helio ‘SpiderMan’ Castroneves).
The neat thing about the 1998 Molson Indy was that winner Alex Zanardi absolutely thrilled the fans along the main straight by turning eight perfect doughnuts while holding his right index finger in the air.
3
In 2007, Will Power served notice that he would be a power (couldn’t help it) to be reckoned with in Indy car racing when he won the briefly renamed Toronto Grand Prix while driving for Team Australia. Although the calibre of racing — and racers — was not the best that year, Power’s performance showed he was a star in the making and he’s proving it now.
2
1989 was a significant year in Canadian motorsport. Three Canadians were in the Molson Indy field — Ludwig Heimrath Jr. and Scott Goodyear of Toronto plus John Jones from Thunder Bay, Ont. — and one of them, Goodyear, was about to throw down the gauntlet, the end result of which was a long-term Indy car racing contract with Toronto’s MacKenzie Financial that saw him go on to nearly win the Indy 500 twice.
Goodyear had breakfast at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with MacKenzie CEO Jim O’Donnell. O’Donnell asked if Goodyear would be interested in driving Indy cars. The answer was yes.
At Toronto, MacKenzie entered two cars, one each for No. 1 driver Heimrath and Goodyear. Goodyear eventually qualified 14th while Heimrath was 24th.
At the end of the season, Goodyear signed a multi-year agreement with MacKenzie and Ludwig Heimrath Jr.’s career was over.
1
The best Toronto Indy ever came in 1993 when the “Thrill from West Hill,” Paul Tracy, became the first Canadian to win an Indy car race in his home and native land.
It was the seventh Indy car win recorded by a Canadian and marked the first major international racing victory for a Canadian driver in Canada since Gilles Villeneuve had won the 1978 F1 Grand Prix of Canada.
Quick work on his final pit stop by his Marlboro Team Penske kept Tracy out in front of his teammate, Emmerson Fittipaldi. Afterward, he said:
“It was just a great day and I’m glad I could bring it home for the people of Toronto and Canada.”