Overheard in Toronto

UPDATE As we expected, after checking there are no discussions to bring Surfers back to the IndyCar schedule…….And where is Tony George, the man who put IndyCar where it is today? Having been cut off from the family money by his sisters (rumor has it he went through up to $1 billion of the family wealth starting the IRL and all but destroying the sport CART had built bigger than NASCAR), we hear he is now a spokesperson for SONAX car products and traveling around the country pulling a trailer. BTW, SONAX products are very good.

07/18/10 On a nice day here in Toronto the attendance this year is up noticeably from last year, but still has a long way to go before this race gets back to its heyday when Molson sponsored the event and CART ran the race. We found out you cannot buy a single day reserved grandstand seat for this race, only a 3-day reserved seat so anyone showing up today had to take their chances with general admission. We have never heard of such a thing!……..We hear a big crowd is anticipated for the Motegi race because Takuma Sato is now in IndyCar, a big favorite in Japan……….Well wishes go out to Chip Ganassi's father Floyd who is staying at Chip's house recovering from recent cancer surgery. The fabulous Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota did arthroscopic surgery and removed 1/2 of one lung and Chip tells us the doctors think they got it all and won't require any chemotherapy or radiation. Get well soon Floyd!……..A lot of speculation and rumor on the 2011 schedule includes all the ISC races possibly going away (Watkins Glen, Homestead, Kansas and Chicagoland) as well as Mid-Ohio. We find it hard to believe that they would drop 5 races in one fell swoop, but if they do not want to meet the IRL's sanctioning fees they just might. Three new races include Las Vegas, Loudon, and Baltimore, but others supposedly in the running to be added back include Milwaukee, Road America, Cleveland, Houston, and Surfers (yes Surfers, which sure surprised us). Exactly which ones will be dropped and added only the IRL knows, but if we had to guess we would say Milwaukee has the best chance to be added. Unfortunately all these events would like an IndyCar race but with the higher sanctioning fees the IRL is charging these days they cannot afford to take the risk of losing money……….We talked to more team managers about the new car and everyone is frustrated that there is no rulebook for it. By the time they write the rules and get them approved, time will be running short for a new car in 2012. Dallara has to design the new rolling chassis and give the body kit designers a solid model so they can design the aero pieces. Then of course there is CFD and wind tunnel testing followed finally by on-track testing. Honda is also a bit frustrated because they have no idea what the engine rules will be except it will be a 2.4-liter V6 running on Ethanol with 100 HP push-to-pass. Turbo boost pressure, single or dual turbo, how many push-to-pass seconds per race, minimum engine weight and maximum overall dimensions, etc will all weigh on the engine design. Mark C. reporting from Toronto.