Honda Indy Toronto Receives Approval for 2024 Return

Photo Credit: Chris Nagy/Car FYI Canada/XSL Speed Reporter 

On Friday September 15th, a vital meeting for the 2024 Honda Indy on the street of Toronto concluded in favour for welcoming back the headlining sounds of twin-turbocharged Honda and Chevrolet engines next summer. The Board of Governors of Exhibition Place decided to approve the application submitted by Green Savoree Toronto for a one-year license to extend the popular auto racing event. 

In the agreement, the 2024 event is tentatively slated to be held over four days starting July 18th and extends to July 21st. Billing itself as an event that generates $47 million for the economy of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), according to report from the Chief Executive Officer of Exhibition Place Don Boyle, the Honda Indy Toronto also supports more than 450 full time jobs in the GTA. The race weekend also contributes heavily to the hospitality industry of the city accounting for over 33,000 hotel room nights between the race teams as well as race spectators with 34 percent attending from outside Toronto. During the 2023 edition of the event, more than $100,000 was raised for Make-A-Wish Canada with the total after 12 years of the partnership cresting above $1 million.

A somewhat concerning detail about this recent application is the deal only covers a single year of the Honda Indy Toronto. The previous four times when negotiating with Exhibition Place, Green Savoree Toronto sought three-year extensions for the race event. It’s unclear why the decision was made to not pursue a multi-year agreement for 2024 and beyond. The reason for requesting a one-year agreement is unclear. Financial terms for the 2024 agreement are confidential.

Since its 1986 inception, the street race within Exhibition Place had been missed on only three occasions with two (2020 and 2021) caused as a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic. The 2008 event was not held as the Champ Car open wheel racing series planned to run at the venue entered unification with the Indy Racing League/IndyCar. Along with IndyCar being the headliner, a number of additional racing series support the race weekend in Toronto including the NASCAR Pinty’s Series as well as Sports Car Championship Canada in recent years. 

With the 2024 edition of the Honda Indy Toronto passing by its approval hurtle, the schedule for the upcoming NTT IndyCar Series is slowly taking shape. Though a complete 2024 season tour has not been announced by the open wheel organization there have already been several set. Already teased by IndyCar is a season finale on the streets of Nashville for September 15th as well as $1-million to win non-points event on March 24th at California’s Thermal Club. 

Ready or Not; Here Comes the 2012 INDYCAR Dallara Chassis

Photo Credit: Ron McQueeney

Almost two years in the making, discussions between INDYCAR and manufacturers, the consultations within the ICONIC advisory panel and the designs of several potential constructors have narrowed into a 2012 INDYCAR. Since receiving the contract to supply their rolling chassis to the 2012 IZOD INDYCAR Series in early July, Dallara has worked on making a computer-generated race car model into the new competition. Based on a monocoque rolling chassis supplied by Italian-based manufacturer Dallara Automobili, the 2012 race cars have broken into the fabric of reality ahead of festivities for the 2011 Indianapolis 500. As the last Indy 500 is set to commence at the end of the month with a chassis based on a 9-year old design, the two new look Indycars gives an impression for the many faces for the future of American open wheel racing.

Sampling the Dallara-sourced aerodynamic aerodynamic pieces over the brand's own rolling chassis, prototypes of the oval and road course suited open wheel setup reveals a healthy merger of race vehicle themes. Maintaining the key parts of the traditional open wheel car DNA, the two mock-ups of the 2012 Indycars also display less conventional characteristics this auto racing genre.



Photo Credit: Ron McQueeney



Unlike the previous Dallara chassis which was developed as the INDYCAR Series tour was performed entirely on ovals, the upcoming 2012 design is receiving more than just a mild compatibility with road course racing. Project manager in charge of implementing the new car Tony Cotman focused on the present and future possibility of the 2012 INDYCAR saying "There is a lot of room for aerodynamic kit development and that's what this platform is about - allowing people the freedom to design as they wish, dream as they wish and come up with a superior product than others. That's what drives competition."

The road racing body kit of the 2012 Dallara Indycar charmingly borrows the tried and true traits of the previous race car. The side tunnels and aerodynamic elements are largely unchanged in deployment on the new vehicle. Pieces continue to optimize downforce on the twistier permanent road and street courses of the IZOD INDYCAR Series. 

 

On the oval bodywork, a most notable adjustment is made to suit the more close quarters action. The most profound changes are made to the rearward portion of the side panels. Resembling a sports car prototype or even a stock car, the side pods all but encompasses the rear wheels. This design is favourable to making open wheel oval racing more forgiving as a 'give-and-take' affair. A new design feature added to the oval as well as the road course version of the Dallara body kits is tunnels behind the rear wheels.




Photo Credit: Ron McQueeney



Though the sanctioning body is heavily invested in the furnishing of the new Dallara, current teams of the IZOD INDYCAR Series voiced some mutual displeasure as they will be picking up the costs of an all-new race machine. Car owners are least enthusiastic about the cost of body kits which is said to cost up to $70,000 a piece. With Dallara's body kit introduced at Indy, sports car builder Lotus had already commented they will make available their own body kit options. Confirmed INDYCAR engine supplier for 2012 Chevrolet has also been mentioned as creating a body kit package.

Proposing that INDYCAR at least delays the introduction of multiple body kit producers on the new car, this maneuver by the owners could easily be a play just to get their costs reduced. It will be seen if INDYCAR Chief Executive Officer Randy Bernard and other principals of the sport can persuade INDYCAR team owners to welcome the different looks for 2012 open wheel racing machines.

Photo Credit: Ron McQueeney

Announced up to the end of 2010, three engines will be available to power the new look Indycars. Conforming to rules specifying 2.4 liter V-6, twin-turbocharged engines running on ethanol-based fuel, Honda re-upped their commitment to American open wheel racing which spans back to 1994. Renewing support to INDYCAR, Chevrolet is teamed back with Illmor engines in creating their 2012 powerplant. British sports car maker Lotus will be a third powerplant option in 2012.

Producing between 550 to 750 horsepower, the engine power will also be backed by an overtake assist or 'push-to-pass' system capable of time-limited boosts of up to 100 horsepower. As current overtake boosts temporarily reconfigure the engine electronics to emit more horsepower INDYCAR has not confirmed where the source of boost power will originate in 2012. As the ICONIC committee were considering options for the 2012 car last year, some speculation surrounded the application of regenerative technologies similar to Formula 1. Senior technical director of the INDYCAR Series Les MacTaggart mentioned in 2010 that the variety of race tracks in the tour would make such a system's use in INDYCAR racing a challenge. "It could be a consideration for our road/street events but it’s hard to say how effective it would be on ovals, which make up close to 50 percent of our current schedule." MacTaggart said also suggesting the use of process called Thermal Energy Recovery (where heat of the exhaust is changed into boost power) was being considered. 



Photo Credit: Ron McQueeney



The cost for the new Dallara rolling chassis is positioned at $345,000. According to last year's press conference declaring the 2012 Indycar, the first 28 cars to be delivered to teams is said to be subsidized to $100,000 in order to help the transition from the 2011 race machines. With one aspect being the American-based production of the 2012 Indycar and most of its components, money will also be saved through switching the car between oval and road courses. Unlike the current car which requires different suspension pieces and configurations when racing the variety of tracks, the 2012 Dallara-based Indycar will feature a common suspension system needing few changes for converting from road course to speedway.

Photo Credit: Ron McQueeney

INDYCAR also plans to best control costs of the 2012 car through insisting that the race vehicle production be based largely in the United States. A major component is having Dallara set up a facility just a short distance from the famed Brickyard itself in Speedway, Indiana. "We have a plan and it's all coming together. About 95 percent of the parts of the car are in production, and we'll be assembling the prototype car shortly. By August, we'll already have to be into the production run for the first 30 or 40 cars of parts." said Dallara representative Sam Garrett.

In less than one year's time, the work and planning of the new Dallara Indycar will be reflected by the on-track product of American open wheel racing.

 



Goodbye to the Edmonton Indy

Photo Credit: Chris Jones

Canadian open wheel racing fans have been punted into the tire barrier this week news concerning one of two IZOD IndyCar Series race venues above North America's 49th parallel has surfaced. Late Tuesday night on November 2nd, it was announced that talks between Edmonton city council and the race's promoter Octane Racing Group have broken down.
Edmonton city council, led by newly-reelected incumbent major Stephen Mandel, voted in July of 2010 to enter talks with Octane (who intended to take over event promotion duties from company Northlands) in order to run this major motor race weekend through 2013 at the Edmonton City Centre Airport. Complications set in when the present 1.96 mile temporary race circuit would become unavailable since the airport preferred to have the occupied runways open for air transport. Intent on relocating to a portion of the airport which is unused, this area also required a sizable investment to refurbish for the 2011 Edmonton IndyCar race event. Requiring a total 5.5 million dollar commitment from the government for the City of Edmonton, the race was discontinued for 2011. According to the City of Edmonton, the Indy race weekend had lost 9.2 million dollars through the previous two years leaving further investment in the event less than appetizing.

Following the news of the talks between the Octane and the City of Edmonton, an unnamed source within the IndyCar Series responded "We are disappointed that the city and the promoter were unable to reach an agreement on the venue changes. It's unfortunate that in a time when IndyCar is experiencing momentum and growth, the city would want to miss out on the opportunity to be part of it. We've enjoyed our time at Edmonton as the fans there truly embraced Indy car racing.”.

With the date erased from the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series schedule, the league has indicated a desire to replace this Canadian event. One rumour has indicated that Octane Racing Group (promoters for the Grand Prix of Canada at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal) could possibly work out a deal to run the series in Montreal.

At present time (Tuesday, November 9th), the website for the Edmonton Indy is still up and running having planned for the 2011 race which seems highly unlikely to happen in the future.

Power Produces IZOD IndyCar Pole on Streets of St Petersburg

Photo Credit: Dan Helrigel/IndyCar

After starting the 2010 IZOD IndyCar season outside of the United States for the first time in series history within the thrilling Sao Paulo round, the teams return to the streets of St Petersburg, Florida. The 6th visit for the IndyCar Series, Penske Racing holds three of previous race victories on the 1.8 mile, 11-turn circuit.

In qualifying for the Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg, Penske Racing driver Will Power backed up a fastest speed in Friday practice to grab the pole position for Sunday's event. Blitzing the temporary race course in 1 minute, 1.6026 seconds, this fastest time by the Penske Racing #12 car is roughly 8/10ths of a second faster than the pole time of Graham Rahal in 2009.

Securing his last pole at Edmonton last July, a race that Will Power went on to dominate to victory. In a post race interview, Power responded to a question regarding his confidence going into tomorrow's race by saying "Yeah, been very strong all weekend, really happy for all of the Verizon guys. It's their first full season, so started off very strongly and that was hard work in that session. Tried to save the good Reds (faster, softer alternative tires) for the Fast Six and had a light run."

Posting a best time just 0.2771 seconds slower than Power's Penske Racing machine, Tony Kanaan falls short Andretti Autosport's first pole since the June 2008 race at Richmond. Andretti Autosport does has reason to celebrate with two cars being in the Firestone Fast Six qualifiers as the #26 car of Marco Andretti was 6th quickest in the afternoon time trial session.



Photo Credit: Ron McQueeney

Filling the 3rd through 5th spots in the Firestone Fast Six were the #9 Target/Chip Ganassi Racing car of Scott Dixon, the #22 Dreyer & Reinbold Racing Justin Wilson and Will Power's teammate Helio Castroneves in the #3 Penske machine. As for Penske Racing's 3rd driver Ryan Briscoe, his #6 car will start deep in the grid in 19th place after struggling to find speed around the 1.8 mile track. Briscoe enters the race as the defending 2009 winner at St Petersburg.

Another car finding trouble in St Petersburg qualifying was the #10 driven by Sao Paulo polesitter Dario Franchitti. On Sunday, Franchitti will be making his 200th open-wheel racing start in North America at St Petersburg (86 races in the IRL IndyCar Series and 114 in the defunct CART tour).

Competing in his first race of the 2010 IZOD IndyCar season, Graham Rahal has placed the Sarah Fisher Racing #67 in a sluggish 16th place in qualifying. With the partnership between Rahal and Sarah Fisher Racing scheduled only for St Petersburg as well as the next race at Barber Motorsports Park on April 11th, rumours have continued to run on Rahal's future plans in the IZOD IndyCar Series. Some indications have Graham Rahal returning to Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing later this season.

The 2010 Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg will air on ABC at 3:30PM.


2010 IZOD IndyCar Series
Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg Starting Grid

Pos #| Car #| Driver/Team

1. 12 Will Power/Australia Penske Racing
2. 11 Tony Kanaan/Brazil Andretti Autosport
3. 9 Scott Dixon/New Zealand Target/Chip Ganassi Racing
4. 22 Justin Wilson/England Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
5. 3 Helio Castroneves/Brazil Penske Racing
6. 26 Marco Andretti/United States Andretti Autosport
7. 37 Ryan Hunter-Reay/United States Andretti Autosport
8. 77 Alex Tagliani/Canada FAZZT Race Team
9. 8 EJ Viso/Venezuela KV Racing Technology
10. 24 Mike Conway/England Dreyer & Reinbold Racing
11. 5 Takuma Sato/Japan KV Racing Technology
12. 06 Hideki Mutoh/ Japan Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing
13. 10 Dario Franchitti/Scotland Target/Chip Ganassi Racing
14. 78 Simona De Silvestro/Switzerland HVM Racing
15. 4 Dan Wheldon/England Panther Racing
16. Graham Rahal/United States Sarah Fisher Racing
17. 14 Vitor Meira/Brazil AJ Foyt Enterprises
18. 34 Mario Romancini/Brazil Conquest Racing
19. 6 Ryan Briscoe/Australia Penske Racing
20. 32 Mario Moraes/Brazil KV Racing Technology
21. 7 Danica Patrick/United States Andretti Autosport
22. 19 Alex Lloyd/England Dale Coyne Racing
23. 2 Raphael Matos/Brazil Luczo Dragon/de Ferran Motorsports
24. 18 Milka Duno/Venezuela Dale Coyne Racing

de Ferran Motorsports IndyCar Team Names Raphael Matos as Driver

With less than a month before the start of the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series, the long-awaited announcement for whom would be driving in the proposed two-car team with de Ferran Motorsports has tabbed third-year IndyCar racer Raphael Matos.

Instead of continuing to build de Ferran Motorsports from stratch, team owner Gil de Ferran entered into a partnership with Matos' tam from last season Luczo Dragon Racing. Jay Penske (who is the youngest son of superteam owner Roger Penske) commented about the new alliance as a work in progress through the off-season. "Over the last four months Steve, Gil and I came to the realization that in order to put together an effort that could really face the challenges of the current establishment and have a better chance to deliver the successful results we all want we would be best served combining our resources. The more we talked about it the more it made sense."

Winning the Atlantic and Indy Lights in consecutive years between 2007 and 2008, Raphael Matos was an extremely fast rookie of the year in the IndyCar series through last season. Through his first year of competition in the top open wheel series, Matos' best finish was 6th at the Milwaukee Mile.

With a fellow Brazilian, Gil de Ferran had provided very little information or even rumours on whether the team was even ready for the 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series tour. In fact, when team manager John Anderson jumped to the US F1 Team before the new year, many media members had reason to speculate that the De ferran Motorsports IndyCar team plans were scrapped. Committing with one-team so far, Gill de Ferran the team does indicate a desire to add a second car. Luczo Dragon Racing's co-founded Steve Luczo asserted "We have a clear view that technology and science will give us the competitive edge we need to be successful on track."

Ryan Hunter-Reay Officially Racing For Andretti Autosport for 2010

Photo from IRL/IndyCar

Completing the lineup for IndyCar racing's largest team, the four-car effort of Andretti Autosport declared American open wheel driver Ryan Hunter-Reay the newest teammate to Danica Patrick, Tony Kanaan and Marco Andretti. The 30 year-old Hunter-Reay's place with Andretti Autosport's #37 team had all-but been officially announced since 2009 team driver Hideki Mutoh was released at the conclusion of the season.

Starting his racing career through the Skip Barber Racing School and Barber Dodge Series, Ryan Hunter-Reay first step into the big-time open wheel racing resulted in 2003 when he drove for the short-lived American Spirit Team Johansson in the Champ Car series. Paired by the seasoned past champion Jimmy Vasser, Hunter-Reay ended his rookie campaign with a victory at the Surfers Paradise round in Australia. Also winning a 2004 win at the Milwaukee Mile on the Champ Car tour, his talent has also translated to the IRL IndyCar Series. After Ryan Hunter-Reay locked a full-time ride Rahal Letterman Racing, he took the Indy 500 rookie of the Year honours as well as his first IndyCar series victory at Waltkins Glen.

Competing in the entire 2009 IndyCar series schedule, Ryan Hunter-Reay's year started behind the wheel of the Vision Racing team with a season's best 2nd place run in the maiden race at St Petersburg. However, while the season started well with Vision Racing, the following rounds in the 2009 IndyCar Series failed to net even top-10 results through to Texas Motor Speedway race in June. For the next race in Iowa, Hunter-Reay was granted leave of Vision Racing to replace the injured Vitor Meira at AJ Foyt Racing. A 7th place at the Honda Indy of Toronto in July and the 4th at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car course in August were positive improvements but could not alter a 15th place finish in the 2009 IndyCar Series points standings.

With Andretti Autosport (last year known as Andretti-Green Racing) going winless for 2009, the team's entire driver lineup has to break the Penske and Chip Ganassi brigade going into 2010. Ryan Hunter-Reay has a habit of being the unexpected underdog who has allowed has talent to show at just the right time to catch even the most established teams off-guard.