Saturday at the Victoria Day Speedfest 2015

Castrol presents a weekend full of racing at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park with six series putting the rubber to the asphalt from May 15 to 17.

Thus begins the season at ol'Mosport with the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, The Pirelli World Challange, The Canadian Touring Car Championship, The Canadian SuperCar Series, the Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada and the Toyo Tires Formula 1600 Super Series. For extra fun the day also culminates with the traditional Victoria Day Weekend fireworks display.

The trophy ladies are ready to start handing out the hardware

The park was full of race fans, many who camp over the weekend in trailers, tents and I guess in their cars as well. This is one of the premier race tracks in all of Canada and the views are amazing throughout the property and along the almost 4km road track.

D. J. Kennington

CTCC driver Autograph Session

Van Mai representing Pinty's

Saturday May 16th, 2015 Schedule
6:30 am - 3:00 pm Canadian Tire Motorsport Park Registration
8:00 am - 8:20 am Formula 1600 Super Series Qualifying
8:30 am - 8:50 am Canadian Supercar Series Qualifying
8:50 am - 9:50 am Pirelli World Challenge TC/TCB Championship Race #2 (40 minutes)
10:00 am - 10:20 am Canadian Touring Car Championship Qualifying
10:20 am - 11:20 am Pirelli World Challenge GTS Race #1 (50 minutes)
11:35 am - 12:05 pm NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Practice Session #1
12:05 pm - 12:45 pm LUNCH
12:45 pm - 1:15 pm NASCAR Canadian Tires Series Practice Session #2
1:15 pm - 2:30 pm Pirelli World Challenge GT Race #1 (50 minutes)
2:45 pm - 3:30 pm Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Race #1 (45 minutes)
3:45 pm - 4:05 pm NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Qualifying – Group #1
4:15 pm - 4:35 pm NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Qualifying – Group #2
4:50 pm - 5:20 pm Formula 1600 Super Series Race #1 (30 minutes)
5:35 pm - 6:15 pm Canadian Supercar Series Race #1 (40 minutes)
6:30 pm - 7:10 pm Canadian Touring Car Championship Race #1 (40 minutes)

Sundays feature event is the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series Pinty's presents the Clarington 200 race starting at 12:30 pm.

See more racing fun after the jump.

Chalk Chick in action

Working outside the Toronto Eaton Centre with an array of coloured chalks, the slender artist crouches down on the sidewalk and temporarily recreates an astounding variety of portraits that wouldn't be out of place on a gallery wall.

Her prime piece of downtown real estate catches people as they walk between Yonge/Dundas and the large shopping centre as she asks for loonies, toonies and bills of appreciative pedestrians.

See more of her work on my posts noted below

http://www.torontograndprixtourist.com/2012/11/chalk-chick-street-art.html

http://www.torontograndprixtourist.com/2015/05/chalk-chick-mona-lisa.html

Toronto Taxi Protest 2015

Slowing traffic on Bay Street around City Hall was a noisy fleet of cabbies protesting the app based Uber ride for fee service. The drivers honked and eventually parked along the west side of the street while police tried to keep traffic moving around the vehicular blockade. The event occurred during lunch time on May 14, 2015. 

As someone pointed out to me, the out of commission cabs which were locked in protest at City Hall probably forced a few people to put Uber to the test.

OSSTF & EFTO Rally at Queen's Park

Thousands of striking Ontario Secondary School Teachers and their supporters held a mass rally at the Provincial Legislature on Thursday, May 14, 2015. The largest mass protest of the of the ongoing dispute brought together labour groups like CUPE and other teachers from the Elementary Teacher's Federation of Ontario to call for a 'fair deal'.

A large number of OSSTF districts have no contract since the Autumn of 2014 and teachers from the Durham, Rainbow and Peel District School Boards are out on strike.

Food Truck Freedom Day Toronto 2015

And on this day Mayor John Tory helped to proclaim the freedom of the gastronomical vehicles that happily joined him at City Hall. The fleet of vans cooked up some stuff and the people lined up to eventually buy that food. Ahhh, freedom tastes fine. The Mayor briefed the media at 1pm in Nathan Phillips Square after touring the trucks and meeting customers on Wednesday, May 13, 2015.

Reporter Cynthia Mulligan

OLG Celebrates Wintario

The 40th Anniversary of our first provincial lottery game brought out draw host Faye Dance and the World Trampoline Champion in support of the Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games Torch Relay. The OLG is proud of their record of supporting local charities and community facilities and the May 13, 2015 crowd at Yonge-Dundas Square could enter a draw for a chance to win some Pan Am tickets while the "All for Community Challenge" initiative was introduced.

Faye Dance

"The first WINTARIO lottery draw was broadcast live on TV on May 15, 1975 from the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto. As part of today's celebration, former WINTARIO host Faye Dance shared memories of her time travelling across Ontario with the live broadcast. For 22 years,
WINTARIO held its draws across the province, in big cities, small towns and even smaller villages, giving away hundreds of thousands of dollars in lottery prizes and creating great legacies in each of those communities. Today's WINTARIO celebration was also attended by World Trampoline champion, Olympic and Pan Am gold medallist Rosie MacLennan. Rosie spoke about the importance of supporting amateur athletics in Ontario. Since January 2006, OLG's Quest for Gold program
has provided $93 million in support for Ontario's amateur athletes and their coaches."

3,000 Pan Am flame torchbearers will start their journey on May 30 and continue through 130 communities with a final stop on July 10, 2015 at the opening ceremony of the games.

I love the CN Tower

The familiar grey concrete structure really makes Toronto's skyline complete and is included in so many of the photos of the city. You can catch it sometimes peaking out between buildings, or in reflection when it is around the corner, or sometimes in the movies.

You can even see the city from Niagara Falls - check out the Skylon Tower

And the heavens opened to view

Fresh Joe is exploring the night sky with a big, laser-guided telescope and the his first target is the closest - the Moon. This post will keep track of his ongoing photographic journey of space. I can't wait to see Saturn.

May Long Weekend Fun and Fireworks 2015

Race fans can find fireworks at the Victoria Day Speedfest at the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park CTMP featuring the season opener of the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, other fireworks can be found Sunday at Canada's Wonderland and Monday at Ashbridges Bay Park.

The Victoria Day Speedfest also includes the Pirelli World Challenge, Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Michelin, Toyo tires Formula 1600 Super Series, Canadian Touring Car Championship presented by Continental Tire and the Canadian SuperCar Series.

It's Cherry Blossom time in High Park

Long anticipated, short lived, the white and pink flowers blossom on the Sakura trees in Toronto's High Park. The beauty of the many flowering fruit trees in the park mean that a popular urban get away goes absolutely bonkers with crowds, so be prepared for some walking when trying to catch a glimpse of the blossoms in person.

The pathways along the Hillside Gardens on the east side of Grenadier Pond attract the most attention, just remember that you have to share the path with a trackless train that runs throughout the park.

@torontofc bubble soccer

Toronto’s professional soccer club brought the incredibly funny game of bubble soccer to Yonge-Dundas Square today to help promote the upcoming home opener against the Houston Dynamo. Volunteers climbed into giant plastic bubbles and tried to kick a large soccer ball into the opposing team’s net all the while bouncing off of other giant bubbles. Sometimes the collisions made the players roll around and turn upside down.

Also in the square was a disc jockey providing music, a bird of prey display and a booth where you could pick up game tickets and a team scarf. The lunchtime crowd really enjoyed watching the antics of the bubble players during the Thursday, May 7 promotional event.

The first home game of the season is scheduled for Sunday, May 10, 2015 at BMO field against the American team from Texas. You can check out the schedule and get tickets at the FC’s website: http://www.torontofc.ca/