Colton in Practice number 2 on Saturday
IndyCar driver Josef Newgarden of the number 2 car and the Firestone Firehawk mascot during driver introductions
IndyCar qualifications took place on Saturday with the Firestone Fast Six determined. On top of both practice and qualification was Colton Herta, seen in the photo at top in the number 26 car passing the gate. Colton will lead the grid in the P1 position, his third of this season.
IndyCars outside Pit Lane ready for the Sunday 10am warm-up session
Warm-up session
There are 27 IndyCar drivers scheduled to race today including a new addition - Theo Pourchaire, who replaces the injured Alexander Rossi in the number 7 car. The IndyCar 85-lap race schedule is as follows. The field of drivers has several past Toronto winners like 2023 winner Christian Lundgaard, some of them winning multiple times, so it never is a lock about who will win.
12:40pm Driver Introductions
1:07pm Grid Formation
1:10pm Invocation and Anthem
1:14pm Drivers to cars
1:23pm Drivers Start Your Engines
1:30pm Green Flag means go!
The race should take about 2 to 2.5 hours to finish
Then the Victory Circle celebrations with the top three winners getting their trophies and spraying champagne at each other
Then the track is torn down
Colton leads Kyle
And Colton Herta takes the checkered flag winning the 2024 Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto race, followed by Kyle Kirkwood and Scott Dixon. There were a couple cautions early in the race but the full contact, multi-car crashes later in the race sent one car sailing into the air after Pato O'Ward spins out in turn 1 on lap 73 and several cars run into him as they come around the sharp corner. The track went to red flag and the field stopped as workers moved fast to check on the drivers and then to clean the track.
Drivers holding their William Ashley Waterford crystal trophies
The lead up to this race has taken awhile and included the track build, getting ready for race weekend (not helped by a bunch of rain, some say a little too much rain), then there was Free Fan Friday and Saturdays multitude of practice, qualifications and races. IndyCar is headlining the event but there is also four other support series taking part in this year's Honda Indy Toronto.
Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto has named The Tragically Hip band members as the honorary Grand Marshals. "Paul Langlois, Rob Baker, Gord Sinclair and Johnny Fay will be on the starting grid as part of pre-race festivities and offer the command for drivers to start their engines. The Tragically Hip are a critically acclaimed rock band that has been a fixture in Canadian music for over 30 years and are beloved by fans across the country and the world. They’ve won 17 Juno awards and sold more than 15 million albums worldwide."
The Tragically Hip during driver introductions
Off track there are many attractions to explore, inside and outside Enercare Centre and out on Thunder Alley and into the paddocks and truck stops. The gates open at 7:30am and the first action on the track is a USF2000 race beginning at 8am.
Check out the full 2024 race weekend coverage at the following links.
Firestone Firehawk mascot
From one of the early cautions - the 78 car of Agustin Canapino gets a tow off track
Very impressive crowds for the weekend race
.jpg)
VIPs lineup for welcoming drivers during the introductions
Colton Herta scooters around the Honda Indy
Colton Herta awarded the P1 trophy
Agustin Canapino car crashed into the barrier walls past turn 4
Scott Dixon with the Fielding Sparkling Wine
Quenching that thirst at the podium in Victory Circle
Post Ontario Honda Dealers Indy Toronto race press conference with Colton
No comments:
Post a Comment