The big takeover

Andretti Green Promotions have taken over the old Grand Prix Association of Toronto. Lets hope that Michael Andretti's new company brings open wheel racing back to Toronto in 2009 - bigger and better than it was before.

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.

Fergus Truck Show 2007

During a visit to the 2007 Fergus Truck Show in Ontario I took some video of some of the matches and have been impressed by the amount of views on Youtube (almost 60 000 at the time of this post). The trucks spew large plumes of dark exhaust fumes as they muscle the load down the gravel course. Downwind of the trucks viewers become engulfed in a cloud of dust and oil.

The Fergus Truck Show is a huge event and well worth the visit.

Toronto Grand Prix in the dumps

The long anticipated merger of the CHAMP and IRL racing factions have put up the white flag and will become one - once again. Many think that the open wheel racing is destined to remain second fiddle to NASCAR but the spectacle of racing in the streets of a major city is truly an amazing event that outshines the race around an oval track. With CHAMP out of business fans can now concentrate on a single series.

Our race in Toronto has been shot down for 2008 and now one can only hope that it returns in 2009. I also hope that if and when they return to the big smoke that I will also return with a media pass.

Winter Doldrums

Winter has arrived and the Canadian weather leaves a lot to be desired at this time of the year. If you know of any great events that happen around the GTA that are ripe for great pictures please pass along a message to jmhcet@gmail.com.

And if you have pictures that beat back the winter blahs send me a copy that I can post to my blog.

Many thanks, James.

Welcome back

Summer is going down to it's final stage as we start to slide into fall - which to some is the best time of the year. As a photographer I certainly like the colours which help to stave off the sadness of the upcoming winter. I have been very busy with creating other websites and shooting pictures for a local paper but I still get around to see such great things as the 2007 Toronto Buskerfest.

Here are some Quebec Viking girls that like to play with fire perform on the Saturday of the Buskerfest three day weekend in the St Lawrence Market area of Toronto.

I will return with Joe to Cayuga for a September 1 race.

Photos from the pits - 07 Nascar Canadian Tire Series - Cayuga

I join Joe Hamilton in the pits at the Cayuga Speedway Park in Ontario for the May 26, 2007 Nascar Canadian Tire Series. Joe provided the following picture of me on the track in front of the line of race cars.

This is the view from the entrance of the pits looking into the pits.

Joe is helping to cover the Nascar north race on behalf of Inside Track Motorsport News.

Greg MacPherson, the editor for Inside Track, was also present for the race. Greg was told to go a few places to get his press pass and when we arrived on site we found him being chauffeured around on a golf cart. I had attended a car event at the Toronto Congress Centre and had won tickets to the Cayuga Race by answering a question (what magazine did Greg work for?) and for $10 upgraded the ticket to a pit pass.

Also joining Greg were his photographers Chris and Pierre. I had met Chris while photographing at the 2006 Toronto Grand Prix.

Ramesh, Chris and Joe (left to right).

Michael at the far left and Pierre at the far right.

We also met photographers Ramesh and Michael from another magazine covering the race - PRN. I met Michael at the Grand Prix as well. Also in attendance were about 15 other photographers and TSN (The sports Network). The coverage was high because this was the first race of the new Nascar racing series running in Canada (it used to be called CASCAR until the recent takeover).

Ramesh at the pit exit.

TSN gets some video footage of one of the drivers.

The gathering of the photographers was great and I look forward to meeting them again.

Michael and Joe during a lull in the action.

Nascar Canadian Tire Series at Cayuga Speedway May 26, 2007

The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series began their season at Cayuga Speedway on Saturday May 26, 2007 where Don Thomson Jr (car #4) claimed victory over the 23 car field.


While it was not a large showing of vehicles, neither was the crowd watching. Which was too bad as the first showing of the season brought plenty of crashes and other excitement which quickly led to about half the cars out of the race.



The first surprise for me was seeing Andrew Ranger driving the 27 car (he finished 4th) after he moved from CHAMP car as, unfortunately, he couldn't bring the needed level of sponsorship dollars at this point in his young career.

The crews spent the early part of the day getting the cars ready for racing in the pits across from the main grandstands.




Then it was time for inspections and time trials. After a smaller race was run (Pro Cup Lites) then the NASCAR north cars take to the track.




Then the drivers lined up for introductions and the National Anthems were sung, afterwards the drivers and VIPs cut the ribbon on this important first event.




They also had three parachutists make a landing on the field.

Then the racing began - it was more intense than previous Cascar races as they have removed the mufflers. The race close and they like to nudge each other and one by one the field starts to thin as more and more laps are run under the caution.



Then it was all over and Don Thomson Jr had finished his victory lap and climbed out of his car and waved to the crowd.

Frankie Muniz - to race the Steelback Grand Prix

I was surprised to receive notice that Frankie Muniz, star of movie and television - including Malcolm in the Middle, has been racing and will compete in the 2007 Toronto Steelback Grand Prix.

Frankie will be in Toronto today (May 16, 2007) for an autograph session. To see information regarding the session just follow this link to the Toronto Grand Prix website.

2007 Fashion Cares - PEEP

I caught a bit of the 2007 Fashion Cares PEEP event held at the historic Toronto Distillery District on Saturday May 12 and besides the fabulous models I ran into George Stroumboulopoulos, host of CBC's The Hour.



The gala tickets were sold out and they were mega bucks! One of the headliners was Dita Von Teese, former wife of Marilyn Manson. Ahhhhhhh - Youtube removed the video that I shot because of copywrite violations, sorry.



The event is held to raise money to fight HIV/AIDS.

Can You hear me now Scott?

I have long been a fan of Scott Adams' sense of humour and his famous comic strip - Dilbert and also of his Dilbert Blog.

Scott has set up a Google Alert for when his name is used on the net so I thought it would be cool to talk to him through my webpage. Instead of sending him an email of appreciation I thought this would be a novel way to communicate - when this page is posted to the internet he will be sent an alert with a wink to this webpage. Besides he probably has to wade through tons of crap email in his inbox and he might delete mine by accident! Well he didn't respond to the website post at www.imagesbythehamiltons.com/photoblog5.htm so I thought I would try again on this blog 'o' mine.

As an added bonus I have drawn a Dilbert frame with the idea that Dilbert has attended a Elbonian management training course by accident and has let it go to his head. Dogbert and Ratbert have to stage an intervention to bring back Dilbert - away from the darkside.

The Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto

The Toronto Grand Prix released it's new name with the following announcement.

After 21 years, we made history today by announcing that Steelback Brewery has signed a multi-year agreement to become the Grand Prix of Toronto’s title sponsor. From this day forward our new name is the Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto.

“This is a momentous occasion and we’re proud to have Steelback Brewery as our new title sponsor,” said Charlie Johnstone, President and CEO, Grand Prix Association of Toronto. “We’ve been working to build this event into the top open-wheel racing event in North America. In Steelback Brewery, we’ve secured a dedicated, enthusiastic title sponsor who shares our vision of what this event can be and who will work hand-in-hand with us to make the vision come to life. This title sponsor, combined with our securing some of the best on-track action to ever race on the streets of Toronto, will make this a truly great year attend the Steelback Grand Prix of Toronto.”

Luckily I like beer so it seems like a good name to me!

YouTube - Fight Network Girls

Those battlin' bikini girls of the fight network put on a great show. Tag team wrestling was an exciting diversion between practice runs on the track.

Ramping up for the 2007 Toronto Grand Prix

Driver Katherine Legge was in Toronto on Feb 21, 2007 for an autograph session. The race training will be underway soon with the season's first race in April in the great city of Las Vegas.

Here are some more pictures of the 2006 Toronto Grand Prix.

Andrew Ranger readies himself prior to running some practice laps. The picture below shows him in his race car - protected by the umbrella guy.

AJ and Lynne drive to their pits.

Some of the drivers walk from the paddock to the track, some use bicycles or scooters.

AJ doesn't wait for no stinkin' traffic signals.

Paul waits in the race car.

Paul in the pits - checking with the crew.

The popular driver Katherine Legge was a sunshine girl and was also placed on the front page of the Toronto Sun newspaper. She walks by the newstand and notices her picture, stops and checks it out.