It’s not been a good run for Canadian mayors lately. The Mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, is in the middle of a scandal over an alleged video of him smoking crack. Corruption has resulted in a revolving door in the mayor’s offices of Montreal and its suburbs. However, in the lovely city of Hinchtown, all is well this weekend after the mayor, James Hinchcliffe, won his third IndyCar race of the season and first on an oval after dominating the Iowa 250.
Sports
24 Hours of Le Mans: Bittersweet Victory
The battle between Audi and Toyota for the overall victory was expected to come down to the difference between Audi’s raw pace and Toyota’s superior range on a tank of fuel. What it came down to, as it so often does at Le Mans, was luck and reliability. The #2 Audi of Tom Kristensen, Allan McNish and Loic Duval had the best luck and speed on the day’s worth of racing and picked up the win in the biggest event in sportscar racing.
Sadly, the win for Audi and the epic battle between Audi and Toyota was overshadowed by the first death in the 24 Hours of Le Mans since 1986 when GTE Am Aston Martin of Allan Simonsen died after a crash early in the race.
IndyCar – Milwaukee IndyFest: The Champ is Here
Let’s face it, last week’s race in Texas was a bit lacking in action. Drivers trying to keep their cars out of the wall and tyres under the car doesn’t make for an exciting race on TV, though it probably makes for an excessively exciting night in the cockpit. Fortunately, the series’ trip to Milwaukee produced a bit more action that ended with Ryan Hunter-Reay scoring his second straight win on the Milwaukee Mile.
IndyCar – Texas 550: Penske’s Two-Step
For the first seven races of the season, Team Penske had been watching everyone else win races. You knew that it was just a matter of time before they broke through for their first win of the season and they did it in a big way in Texas. Helio Castroneves didn’t just win his first race of the season but dominated the field en route to the win which made him the seventh winner in eight races this season.
F1 Canadian Grand Prix: Tyres? What Tyres?
Given the recent history of the Canadian Grand Prix and the controversy over the Mercedes GP tyre test, one would have assumed that tyres would have played a factor in the outcome of the race. While the tyres were a story, they weren’t the deciding factor of the Canadian GP as Sebastian Vettel stormed off into the distance en route to a dominant win. Don’t worry, though, there was plenty of off-track drama to keep us entertained.
F1 Power Rankings: Canadian Grand Prix
The Formula One World Championship briefly interrupts the European portion of the season for a quick fly-away adventure to Montreal for the Canadian Grand Prix. This is my favourite race of the season but not just because it’s my home race. The Canadian GP is famous for scads passing and being nearly unpredictable. It’s easily one of the most exciting races every year. I may have rank these drivers based on how they’re driving now and how they will do in Canada but we have no idea how this race will pan out.
IndyCar – Dual in Detroit: Double the Races, Double the Trouble
Randy Bernard may have been ousted as CEO of IndyCar after last season but part of his legacy lives on in the first of this season’s doubleheader race weekends. The Dual in Detroit may not have resulted in the track on Belle Isle being literally torn up as it was in last year’s race but the cars certainly were torn up after Sunday’s race.
Indianapolis 500: Once in a Lifetime
There were so many storylines heading into the Indianapolis 500. There was Dario and Helio’s drive for a fourth Indy 500 victory. The Andretti Autosport cars were dominating practice with Marco Andretti and rookie Carlos Munoz looking particularly strong. And the single-car effort of owner/driver Ed Carpenter beat all of big teams to score the pole.
But as the 500 tends to do, the pre-race storylines get thrown to the wind. It was a race that ran green for a long stretch but saw the field stay fairly bunched and tons of passing as a result. It was only fitting that the race was won on a daring three-wide pass as Tony Kanaan won his first Indianapolis 500 Mile Race.
F1 Monaco GP: To Finish 1st, First You Must Win The Pole
The Monaco Grand Prix is absolutely unparalleled in motorsport for glamour and pageantry. Unfortunately, Monaco is almost unparalleled in terms of its ability to turn Formula One into a parade. If it wasn’t for a pair of safety cars and a red flag, this year’s edition of the race would have also been a parade. This year, it was Nico Rosberg who picked up the win in this season’s most prestigious race but is certainly wasn’t without a tonne of controversy for his Mercedes team.
F1 Power Rankings: Monaco Grand Prix
Sunday is the single greatest day of the year to be a racing fan. If you live in the Eastern Time Zone of North America, you can get up at 8:00 AM for the Monaco Grand Prix, fill your afternoon with the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race and finish with the Coca-Cola 600. It’s almost 15 straight hours of racing action.
It all starts with the most prestigious race in the world. The Monaco Grand Prix is the crown jewel of the top motorsports series in the world. The only downside is that passing is virtually impossible. As such, qualifying is going to be vitally important to success this weekend.
The Lowdown 