Sunday morning at 8am, the IndyCars were sent out on track for morning warm-up. It’s usually a great last-minute opportunity to get the car dialed in for the race., but heavy rains fell on Saturday night, and the track was soaked. Unfortunately, the No. 14 of Santino Ferrucci smashed into the wall and took all four corners off the car. When race fans arrived at the track , the mechanics faced told the story. No way the No. 14 would race today.
It was a real disappointment, because Toronto is a wild track that generates random results. Yes, some years the race is a parade of cars unable to pass one another, just conserving fuel to avoid an additional pit stop. But street circuits in general can produce some uncommon results.
An hour before the big race, the junior formulae were on track. Thick clouds of black smoke were visible over the BMO Field, and initially there were concerns a race car had caught fire.
Randomly, one of the buildings at Exhibition Place, not trackside but close enough, had caught fire. The venue known as the Liberty Grand is used for weddings and conventions, and apparently its patio caught fire. What a bizarre incident to happen in the middle of an IndyCar race.
By 11:30 am, the driver introductions had started. Each racer is brought up on stage while the crowd cheers and snaps photos of their racing heroes. But between the morning wreck and the fire, there was a sense of nervousness.
These guys are professionals, and they aren’t about to disappoint their fans who wait for the one time a year the IndyCar series travel north of the border to Canada. At the same time, racing is serious business, and the gravity of the moment was upon them.
Although the IndyCar drivers looked nervous, the race fans in the stands were all smiles. Rain clouds from the morning had long since disappeared, and everyone was looking forward to 90 laps of hard racing to see who would take the checkered flag. Would it be a wily old veteran, or a rookie taking his first win?
At precisely 12:20 pm, the green flag flew and the race cars sped towards the Prince’s Gates with the Toronto skyline in the background. A picture perfect race start didn’t last long as contact between drivers resulted in a chaotic event.
The normally competitive Team Penske hasn’t had a win all season, and it didn’t take long for things to turn sour in Toronto. Scott McLaughlin was the first driver out of the race as his pit crew failed to tighten up his right rear wheel during a pit stop, resulting in the wheel coming off, and McLaughlin crashing into the barriers on Lakeshore Blvd.
Later, his teammate Josef Newgarden caught caught up in an accident after a restart. Rookie Jacob Abel misjudged the first turn, and bounced off the wall, landing on Newgarden.
Will Power was competitive all day long, but had collisions with Rasmussen, Rosenqvist and O’Ward in the narrow street circuit. He fought valiantly all day long, but only managed to bring home a P11 finish.
The day belonged to the extremely popular Pato O’Ward of McLaren, whose strategy and speed netted his his second win in three races. It was an unexpected win,. as O’Ward is not thought of as a street circuit expert, and has never done well at Toronto. But the crowd was pumped to see someone other than championship leader Alex Palou take the win.
And that’s what’s so great about IndyCar racing. It’s completely unpredictable, and with a variety of strategies employed by teams, anyone has a shot at winning. Rounding out the podium was the long-suffering Rinus VeeKay of the lowly Dayle Coyne Racing Team, and in third place was Kyffin Simpson, the religious rookie from the Cayman Islands who took his first podium. Who had that trio on their bingo cards in the morning warm-up!
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