Grand Prix of Toronto sale to Andretti?

The Toronto Star today carried an article suggesting that Michael Andretti and partners would like to buy the assets of the Grand Prix of Toronto. Andretti won many of the Toronto races and has now retired from driving would like to continue the Toronto event - hopefully starting in 2009.

CDN Motorsports Expo - March 2008

The second annual Canadian Motorsports Expo was held at the Toronto Congress Centre on Dixon Road and all that was missing was a lot of drivers - and girls, girls, girls!


I took in and loved the Meet the Media - Fan Forum panel discussion and debate. Some great racing media personnel which included Dean McNulty (Sun), Erik Tomas (Raceline Radio), Joel Robinson (JRA Video), Neal Jones (PRN), Greg MacPherson (Inside Track) and Norris McDonald (Star) discussed many of the pressing issues facing the sport of racing in Ontario and Canada.



Hot topic of the day was the "absorption" of the CHAMP car series into the Indy Racing League (IRL) and the cancellation of the Toronto Grand Prix event in 2008 due to an IRL race conflict. Norris talked about the lack of support from the Municipal Government and stated that the race was "never welcomed with open arms by the City". Dean talked about the lack of corporate sponsorship in racing overall and specifically about the Toronto Grand Prix since Molson quit the race and the latest sponsor - Steelback, had dropped out because of financial reasons.

The ribbed tire of an Indy F1 race car - the CHAMP tire was smooth.

It was noted that the Toronto race has been held for 22 years, it is the 5th largest Indy market and that a sponsor maybe available for 2009. I hope that the race can return to Toronto with it's side benefit of generating fan interest in all other types of motorsports. It was also noted with some irony that for the first time in 22 years the race could officially be known as the Toronto Indy!

Canadian race car legend Ron Fellows was on hand for autographs and pictures. Ron currently runs a Corvette in the American Le Mans Series.



NASCAR Canadian Tire Series (NCATS) driver J.R. Fitzpatrick also attended the event.

Some other participants in the show included the monster ride truck the "Bucking Bronco" and Rallysport Ontario with a car that has had a smashing good time.






It was a good show and I recommend you drop by next year.