The sights, sounds and smells of the Honda Indy Toronto will come to life starting this Friday at the CNE grounds. The high pitched whine of the Honda V-8 high performance engines and the smell of burning rubber and ethanol fuel will remind everyone that the Honda Indy Toronto is in town. The sights include the beautiful women that make the weekend complete, including the Hooter's girls (Hooters' tent near turn 10) and the bevy of Bud girls. The final Bud Pit Crew Girl search pageant is Saturday at 3:45pm in the Budweiser Winners' Circle (near turn 9 and you can see the finalists here). General Admission for the weekend costs only $52 while grandstands range from $106 to $423. I will be there all weekend blogging and posting photos of the action so don't forget to check back often.
The race weekend excitement starts the morning of Friday, July 16 at 7:45am with a practice by the Canadian Tire Touring Cars and ends on Sunday, July 18 at 4:30pm with the finish of the Acura Sports Car Challenge Trans-Am Race. The 85 lap IRL main race is on Sunday from 12:45 to 3:00pm. Friday usually has the lowest attendance with many people attending only on the weekend and especially on the Sunday. This Friday should have more people due to the free entrance provided by the Honda Indy Toronto Dealers Association (seats are first come - first served).
The races include the IZOD IndyCar Series, the Firestone Indy Lights Series, the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, the Acura Sports Car Challenge, the Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship and the SCCA Pro-Racing Trans-Am Series. It doesn't look like there will be any motorcycles races or demonstrations this year.
The current top 10 IndyCar drivers are 1. Will Power, 2. Dario Franchitti (last year's Toronto winner), 3. Scott Dixon, 4. Ryan Briscoe, 5. Helio Castroneves, 6. Ryan Hunter-Reay, 7. Tony Kanaan, 8. Justin Wilson, 9. Dan Wheldon and 10. Marco Andretti. There are 126 points seperating the first and tenth place drivers. Crowd favourite Danica Patrick is 11th, Canadians Alex Tagliani is 14th and Paul Tracy is 33rd. IRL intends to announce the design of future IndyCars on July 14 in Indianapolis
It is great that stock car racing is returning to this event - the old CASCAR series used to be included in the race weekend. CASCAR was purchased by NASCAR and became the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series and they have moved it's Quebec race into the Toronto Honda Indy. One of my favourite drivers is Andrew Ranger who is splitting his time between the Canadian Tire Series and the American K&N Pro Series East and will join other great drivers like DJ Kenington, JR Fitzpatrick and Scott Steckly.
I love a street course more than an oval so Toronto's 11 turns and 2.84km/1.755 miles circuit is just perfect for me - here is a link to the official track map. Thunder Alley along Lakeshore Boulevard will see the fastest speeds of around 300km/h and it takes about one minute to complete one lap of the course.
A lot of the fun happens off the track in the Direct Energy Centre and along Thunder Alley, across Gasoline Alley and the Pizza Pizza Family Zone with driver autographs, concerts and other entertainment. The Paddock has been moved west closer to BMO field. Speculation remains about who will be the Grand Marshal for this race - last year it was Gene Simmons of Kiss.
Entertainment and special event schedule from Wednesday, July 14, 2010.
WEDNESDAY 14th: 12:30-2:00pm Alex Tagliani unveils the #77 Hot Wheels Race Car at Yonge-Dundas Square.
THURSDAY 15th: 6:00-8:00pm Race to the Party - IndyCar drivers and hosts Jamie Little and Matte Babel present a street party at a location still to be announced. This will include the great Canadian Pit Stop Challenge Montreal (Alex Tagliani) and Toronto (Paul Tracy). LA based Rival Sons will perform.
From 8:30pm is the Race to the Party After Party at the Dolce Social Ballroom (647 King Street) hosted by Paul Tracy and Alex Tagliani and joined by many other IndyCar drivers. The red carpet starts at 8:30pm.
FRIDAY 16th: 6:00pm IndyCar Series Driver's Party at C Lounge (456 Wellington Street) where you can meet and greet the drivers. C Lounge will also host the Driver's After Party as well.
SATURDAY 17th: 3:45pm Bud Girl Pit Crew Pageant.
SUNDAY 18th:
