IndyCar: Friday morning update from the Honda Indy Toronto
Good morning from Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada which this weekend, will host the Honda Indy Toronto. After a two-year break due to COVID travel restrictions, the NTT INDYCAR Series is having its only International race for the season. Many more buildings have been built in the area since the last race here.
The weather is going to be nice this weekend, with no forecast for rain. Temperatures will be in the middle 70s for today which will make the drivers happy for the first practice session later this afternoon.
This is the first time the aeroscreen will be run on this track. Will Power, Team Penske driver of the number 5 Verizon 5G car, thinks the safety device will actually help with the high-speed corners for this weekend’s 85-lap race on Sunday.
“Yeah, it definitely changed the car a lot because it moves the weight further forward. But I’ve actually found at Toronto, as the weight has gone forward, it’s really helped.”
“On those really slippery cement patches, the actual weight downforce matters, so you get more weight force on the front tires, and it actually helps turn the car. That was a big problem when the car had really rearward weight, that the front tires would not work over that cement.”
“Obviously at some point, when you have high grip, that weight matters laterally. But the grip is so low that the lateral — the actual weight downforce is more than the actual lateral force. So, yeah, it’s interesting. To me it actually helped at that specific track, at Toronto.”
AR1 had wanted to do the track walk yesterday to check out the track condition but the series decided it was best to only have the drivers and their engineers involved since the teams had not been here for two years.
Last night, I talked with Christian Lundgaard, the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing rookie driving the number 30 HUB Internal Honda this race. The 20-year-old Dane commented that the track was not completed during the track walk, but he was looking forward to the challenging 11-turn circuit.
“I have never been to Toronto, so I’m going to stay for a couple of days after to have a look at the city. I am looking forward to racing here.”
“I think it is a great opportunity for HUB and I to come together this weekend. It’s a good place for both parties at this event because they have a big presence in Canada.”
HUB is a leading global insurance brokerage and financial services firm supporting customers in North America and in Canada, where they are the largest brokerage in the country. The company supports the needs of nearly 40% of auto dealerships in Canada.
The first practice session is scheduled at 3:30 pm local time.
More updates to come today.
Lucille Dust reporting live from Toronto