No Denying Will Power at Honda Indy Toronto

In a race filled with crashes and spin-outs, Australian driver Will Power held on long enough to take the checkered flag and win the Honda Indy Toronto.

 

Power finished the 85-lap street course just ahead of Dario Franchitti, who won last year’s race, while Ryan Hunter-Reay finished in third position.

 

This was Power’s second victory in Toronto having previously won in 2007 and second straight, fourth overall, in this season’s IZOD IndyCar Series. With seven races remaining, Power now has a 42-point lead over Franchitti in the championship point standings.

 

 

The Indy race in Toronto has a reputation for having a tough track as well as being accident prone and Sunday was no exception. In total, six cars were knocked out of the race, including top-ten drivers Scott Dixon and Helio Castroneves.

 

“It was a real tough race today,” said Hunter-Reay. "It was like a football game out there. Everybody was hitting each other, it was getting nasty for a while."

 

Power had a near-miss at the beginning of the race when Castroneves and Hunter-Reay tried to overtake him at the same time in the first turn.

 

“As I predicted, it was a very wild race," said Power.

 

“It started at the first corner for me. Helio and Hunter-Reay came cruising up the inside, I was like ‘all right you guys go ahead’. I know how this race goes and I really hung in there and waited.”

 

Power had another close call when he, and Justin Wilson, exited the pit lane simultaneously on lap 56. Both drivers narrowly squeezed through the lane with Wilson overtaking Power for the race lead.

 

Wilson did start in the pole position after setting a series track record in qualifying on Saturday with a time of one minute and .2710 seconds. However, after spinning out late in the race, he dropped back and settled for a seventh-place finish.

 

 

Toronto’s Paul Tracy finished in 13^th place while Alex Tagliani, who hails from Lachenaie, Quebec, finished 17^th.  

 

Tagliani was seething and very upset at the post-race press conference stemming from an incident with South African driver Tomas Scheckter. Tagliani was racing well and sitting in sixth place when, Scheckter collided with him and guided him into a stack of tires on turn one late in the race.

 

Both drivers collided at the same race, even the same turn, last year when Tagliani, attempting to make a pass, clipped Scheckter, who then collided with another car. Tagliani mentioned that when both drivers spoke on the track, Scheckter had told him it was payback for last year’s collision.

 

“The most frustrating thing is a guy that does four races a year and you go see him and tells me the f-word and ‘just payback’,” said Tagliani. “He was actually happy that he didn’t finish the race and he took us out. It was a pretty long time to keep a grudge I think…his attitude was really sad at the end of the race.”

 

Before leaving the post-race press conference, Tagliani foreshadowed what may lie ahead for Scheckter at next week’s race in Edmonton.

 

“I hope he will be back in Edmonton because I have a lot of front wings to damage.”

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Contact Aman Dhanoa at  aman@oyetimes.com  

Photos courtesy of J.P Dhanoa