IndyCars - Toronto: Challenge at the Princes' Gate

[MarkyS]

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Saturday at Toronto - IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada go for Race 1…

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…of the weekend, and no surprise, Roman de Angelis WON his 6th race of the season, driving for Mark Motors Racing from pole. P2 at the end was P2 starter Jeff Kingsley for Policaro Motorsport while P3 went to IndyCar driver Parker Thompson for SCB Racing - his second P3 of the day, as he earned the same in the Indy Pro 2000 race, earlier, driving then for Abel Motorsports.

left to right, P2 Jeff Kingsley, P1 Roman de Angelis and P3 Parker Thompson

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The race was delayed by weather coming through Toronto and was started on a wet track that dried throughout the contest. De Angelis took off from the start and had no difficulty maneuvering on the changing track. Kingsley also never relented his P2 position.

The big mover was Thompson who started in P7 and was able to knock off Michael Di Meo for OpenRoad Racing, Marco Cirone for Mark Motors Racing, Patrick Dussault for Lauzon Autosport and finally Alan Metni for Kelly-Moss / AM Motorsports to take over P3 within 15 minutes of the start of the race, but after that he stalled behind Kingsley and had to accept the P3 spot.

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The starting grid for Race 2 on Sunday will be in order, de Angelis, Kingsley, Metni, Dussault, Cirone and finally Thompson in P6. Next up, the Indy Lights race. The grid for this race is in post # 16…

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M

[MarkyS]

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Saturday afternoon at Toronto - the Indy Lights hold Race 1 of their weekend…

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…and going away, the WINNER was super-sub Aaron Telitz for Belardi Auto Racing. P2 was points-leader Oliver Askew for Andretti Autosport while P3 was his closest points rival, Rinus VeeKay for Juncos Racing.

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The podium was secured on the first lap, as Telitz took off from pole and quickly opened up a gap within 3 laps sufficient to keep his rivals from being able to use their Push-to-Pass to catch and pass him. On lap 1 Oliver Askew made the move in Turn 1 to take the P2 spot from Rinus VeeKay. VeeKay, Askew and Telitz all had their time to hold Fastest Lap. In his many attempts to reclaim P2 VeeKay brushed the walls more than once, by his own admission.

On the final two laps of the race Rinus was able to get into Oliver’s Push-to-Pass range and liberally using them, was able to close to within striking distance but ran out of laps to make it work.

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Notable:

• This was Aaron’s 3rd Indy Lights WIN and the first since taking Watkins Glen in the rain in 2017. It was his 13th Road to Indy victory.

• Telitz is a wiz at Toronto. This was his 11th start on the street circuit, where he has 3 WINS and 6 podiums. He has never finished lower than P6 in Toronto.

• Remarkably, Askew and VeeKay have 40 Road to Indy starts together in USF2000, Indy Pro 2000 and Indy Lights and they have shared a podium in 20 of them. These guys are the cream.

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Here is your happy podium - That’s Oliver Askew in P2 on the left, Aaron Telitz in P1 in the middle and Rinus VeeKay in P3 on the right:

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The Lights will qualify for Race 2 early on Sunday morning and hold the race late on Sunday morning.

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[MarkyS]

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Saturday afternoon at Toronto - the Stadium Super Trucks hold their first race…

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…of the weekend, and even though it was halted with three laps to go for the weather that moved in, everyone had a great time, as usual.

The WINNER was Cole Potts while points-leader Matty Brabham pulled in P2 and series founder Robby Gordon was P3.

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Cole for the WIN

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In typical SST fashion, the field lines up for the race in reverse order of qualifying - that is the fastest guy starts last and the slowest guy starts first. Here was the starting order of the race:

1. Casey Mears
2. Ryan Eversley
3. Russell Boyle
4. Bill Hynes
5. Cole Potts
6. Jeff Hoffman
7. Gavin Harlien
8. Robby Gordon
9. Matt Brabham
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We will eventually feature the entire race in the “Off Season” thread, but for now, here is a taste of the action:

https://twitter.com/SSuperTrucks/status/1150158991575719936

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https://twitter.com/SSuperTrucks/status/1150189335892963328

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And here is Ryan Eversley commenting on his rookie race in Super Trucks:

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https://twitter.com/SSuperTrucks/status/1150245389838233601

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The SSTs will hold Race 2 on Sunday, right before the IndyCars race.

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[MarkyS]

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Saturday afternoon at Toronto - the NASCAR Pinty’s series race…

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…was delayed due to the weather that came through the city, but they got it in and, although we have very little information, we DO HAVE the podium.

The WINNER was IndyCar driver Alex Tagliani, from pole, driving the RONA / EpiPen Chevrolet. P2 was IndyCar driver Andrew Ranger driving the Mopar / Pennzoil Dodge while P3 went to LP Dumoulin in the Weathertech Canada / Bellemare / Eibach Dodge.

Alex Tagliani

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Alex led all but three of the 37 laps of the race, but was challenged all race by Ranger and teammate Marc-Antoine Camirand. Tagliani’s Chevrolet lost the lead to Camirand in a late restart, however Camirand gave the lead back after a late crash set up NASCAR Overtime. Tagliani was able to sneak by the wreck and hold off Ranger, Kevin Lacroix and LP Dumoulin.

Ranger, who came into the weekend one point behind Kevin Lacroix in the standings, managed to steal the lead briefly from Tagliani near the halfway point, but lost it quickly. On the final restart Ranger did all he could to get around Tagliani but would ultimately settle for P2 - enough to grab the points lead from Lacroix by two points.

With the WIN Tagliani remain 3rd in the points, but a little bit closer to Ranger and Lacroix, now. This was his ninth career NASCAR Pinty’s series victory and second on the streets of Toronto.

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The next outings for the Pinty’s boys will be the Velocity Prairie Thunder Twin 125s at Wyant Group Raceway, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, July 24. This was the last ontrack activity of the day.

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[MarkyS]

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Spotter’s Guide - Changes in livery since Road America…

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We have a number of changes and a new driver this week.

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Josef Newgarden was in the REV car of black and white for Road America but comes back to the familiar Hitachi car of black ad white for Toronto:

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Felix Rosenqvist has been in the blue NTT DATA car for most of the season but shows up to Canada in the black and blue Cessna / NTT DATA car:

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Graham Rahal was in the black and gold GEHL car at Road America but comes to Toronto in the blue and white United Rentals car:

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Sebastien Bourdais has been in the yellow and black Sealmaster car for most of the season, Here, he’s in the blue Mouser Electronics car:

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Ed Jones was in the red and silver Chevrolet Accessories car for Elkhart Lake. In Toronto, the car is the same colors but the sponsor is Autogeek, once again:

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continued…

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[MarkyS]

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Spotter’s Guide - Changes in livery since Road America…(continued)…

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Spencer Pigot drove a blue and silver Direct Supply car at Road America. The Toronto car is a different pattern of black and silver for Autogeek:

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Simon Pagenaud was in the easily-spotted yellow Menard’s car at Elkhart Lake but is in a much quieter black and white DXC Technology car for Canada:

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Sage Karam is new to the grid this week and he is in the blue and green Smart Stop Self Storage car:

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Marco Andretti was in his regular red and white US Concrete car for Road America but is in a new car, the white and green Unifirst car for Canada:

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[MarkyS]

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Sunday morning at Toronto - First guys on the track were the Indy Lights…

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…and they came out to qualify for Season Round 11, which will be run later, this morning.

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Here is the way the Indy Lights will grid for Season Round 11, Race 2 of the weekend, with times for the TOP SIX: [R] denotes rookie

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Row 1

Pole - Oliver Askew [R], Andretti Autosport - time of 01:05.0940s for a speed of 98.774mph

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P2 - Rinus VeeKay [R], Juncos Racing - time of 01:05.2061s for a speed of 98.604mph

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Row 2

P3 - Aaron Telitz, Belardi Auto Racing - time of 01:05.2737s for a speed of 98.502mph

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P4 - Dalton Kellett, Juncos Racing - time of 01:05.3017s for a speed of 98.460mph

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Row 3

P5 - Toby Sowery [R], BN Racing / Team Pelfrey - time of 01:05.3704s for a speed of 98.356mph

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P6 - Robert Megennis [R], Andretti Autosport - time of 01:05.9304s for a speed of 97.521mph

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Row 4

P7 - David Malukas [R], BN Racing
P8 - Ryan Norman, Andretti Autosport

Row 5

P9 - Lucas Kohl [R], Belardi Auto Racing

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Notable:

• The TOP FIVE guys all had a moment at the top of the charts, only to see it disappear within seconds. That’s how competitive qualifying was in the last few minutes. Oliver got pole with just over two minutes to go and while the others answered with further improvements, their boosts were not enough, ultimately.

• This is Askew’s 4th pole of this season and 15th time in his two-and-a-half-year Road to Indy career.

• Falling on his face a bit was Ryan Norman, who has been faster, while Rob Megennis picked up his pace, a bit, though he is still struggling.

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The race is scheduled for a 10:00 AM start. Next up, USF2000 hold their Race 2 of the weekend. The grid for this race is in post # 15…

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[MarkyS]

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Sunday morning in Toronto - USF 2000 goes out for Race 2 of their weekend…,

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Today, Denmark’s Christian Rasmussen flipped the script from Saturday and took his first P1 for Jay Howard Driver Development - also their first series WIN. He took it away from Darren Keane for Cape Motorsports, who did the same to Christian on Saturday. Third at the end was Matt Round-Garrido for JHDD, giving them two podiums on the day and their 3rd for the weekend.

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Christian did to pole-sitter Darren Keane what Darren did to him on Saturday and on the same lap, as he dived into Keane’s inside Turn 1, lap 1 to take the lead from his P2 start. By the time the gaggle was at Turn 3 Colin Kaminsky for Pabst Racing also got inside of Keane to take P2, but the biggest mover on lap 1 was Christian Bogle for Jay Howard, who jumped from his P10 start to P4 with a great late-braking maneuver in Turn 3, passing several top performers in the process. He would drop down to P7, late in the race, as others passed him back, and eventually clip a wall, putting himself out.

On lap 7 Eduardo Barrichello for Miller Vinatieri spun out of 5th place in Turn 3, bringing out a full-course caution. Rasmussen held the lead on the restart, but within a few laps Jack William Miller for Miller Vinatieri caused another caution by hitting the wall in Turn 5. Again, Rasmussen stayed ahead of Kaminsky on the restart. By lap 15 Darren Keane was past Kaminsky and back into P2.

Shortly after that Kaminsky came under intense pressure from Braden Eves for Cape Motorsports, who attempted a similar move in Turn 1 which ended in contact and ensured yet another full-course caution. Eves and Kaminsky were able to continue after stopping in the pits but could manage only 11th and 12th-place finishes, respectively. The caution lasted long enough to ensure a one-lap dash for the WIN. Rasmussen deftly kept ahead of Keane who was followed by Round-Garrido, who had inherited P3 after the Eves / Kaminsky shunt.

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Notable:

• Points-leader Braden Eves ended the day in P11 and Hunter McElrea, 2nd in the points, ended the day in P14, so 3rd in points Darren Keane gets a great boost.

• Bruna Tomaselli for Pabst Racing earned the Tilton Hard Charger Award for climbing all the way from her P16 start on the grid to edge teammate Yuven Sundaramoorthy for the P7 spot.

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left to right, Braden Eves, Hunter McElrea and Bruna Tomaselli

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Here is your happy podium - That’s Darren Keane in P2 on the left, Christian Rasmussen in P1 in the middle and Matt Round-Garrido in P3 on the right:

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With this result, here are the TOP FIVE in points leaving Toronto:

1 - Braden Eves 233
2 - Hunter McElrea 192
3 - Darren Keane 180
4 - Colin Kaminsky 155
5 - Christian Rasmussen 141

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The next outings for USF2000 will be at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, July 25-28, in support of the IndyCar race weekend. next, Indy Pro 2000 hold their 2nd race of the weekend. The grid for this race is in post # 14…

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[MarkyS]

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Sunday morning at Toronto - Indy Pro 2000 closes out their weekend with Race 2…

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…and on the top for his 3rd WIN of the season was 2018 USF2000 Champion Kyle Kirkwood for RP Motorsport Racing, while taking P2 was local hero Parker Thompson for Abel Motorsports. P3 was points-leader Rasmus Lindh for Juncos Racing.

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This was an intense battle between the TOP THREE finishers, all the race, with only inches separating them and very little respite, with only one caution. On lap 1 Parker jumped past Rasmus Lindh in Turn 1 to take P2. On the same lap young Antonio Serravalle for Pserra Racing was able to leap to P5 from his P8 start but then he got greedy and tried to pass P4 Danial Frost for Exclusive Autosport in Turn 4. Antonio ended up solidly in the wall and out, while Frost dropped to P5, behind Sting Ray Robb for Juncos.

Danial was able to get past Sting Ray on lap 20 to reclaim P4. For the rest of the race the TOP THREE held station, nose to tail, each taking a turn at Fastest Lap, which Rasmus finally secured on the penultimate lap of the race.

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Notable:

• With his P2 Parker reclaims 2nd in the points, but barely, with two points on Kyle and five points on Danial, while Rasmus is still leading by a healthy 30 points.

• Jacob Abel for Abel Motorsports earned his 2nd Tilton Hard Charger Award for the weekend, with a run to P7 from his P12 start, today.

Danial Frost (left) and Jacob Abel

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Here is your happy podium - That’s Parker Thompson in P2 on the left, kyle Kirkwood in P1 in the middle and Rasmus Lindh in P3 on the right:

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With this result, here are the TOP FIVE in points, leaving Toronto:

1 - Rasmus Lindh 237
2 - Parker Thompson 207
3 - Kyle Kirkwood 205
4 - Danial Frost 202
5 - Sting Ray Robb 173

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The next outings for Indy Pro 2000 will be at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, July 25-28, in support of the IndyCar race weekend. next, the Indy Lights hold Race 2 of the weekend. The grid for this race is in post # 27…

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[MarkyS]

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Sunday morning at Toronto - The Indy Lights hold Race 2 of their weekend…

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…and when the smoke cleared the WINNER was pole-sitter Oliver Askew for Andretti Autosport, but not without a late race gift. P2 was Englishman Toby Sowery for BN Racing / Team Pelfrey, while Canadian Dalton Kellett, from just up the road in Stouffville, Ontario, secured his best finish of the season, a locally-popular P3 for Juncos Racing.

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At the start of the race yesterday’s WINNER Aaron Telitz for Belardi Auto Racing late-braked in Turn 1 and got inside Askew to take P1 from his P3 start. Following him through was Rinus VeeKay for Juncos Racing who kept P2, while Dalton Kellett slotted into P4 behind Oliver, now in P3. Aaron then blasted off, with VeeKay in tow. On lap 11 Rinus made a feint in Turn 3 to take the lead but had to back out of it.

On lap 24 Aaron bobbled a bit in Turn 8, allowing Rinus to close again and on lap 25 Rinus tried a move in Turn 3, late braking the corner from the outside, but he couldn’t get the thing slowed enough and hit Aaron first and then the tires, taking Aaron with him. Oliver, right behind the pair, was thus given the P1 spot. Aaron would rejoin immediately but Rinus went 4 laps down.

Toby Sowery would pass Dalton Kellett to take the P2 spot. Dalton had his hands full to keep P3 as Ryan Norman for Andretti Autosport was all over him, after falling early to P9 and then recovering nicely to finish P4. Once in the lead Oliver cruised to a nice 6.8 second victory. Poor Aaron Telitz settled for P6, behind Rob Megennis for Andretti in P5.

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Notable:

• Aaron Telitz will aggressively run every race he will contest for the rest of the season, but as a mid-season starter, he is not at all in the title chase. This remains a battle between Askew and VeeKay and a day like today gives Oliver a good lead.

• The reason Aaron Telitz will race so hard is he is effectively auditioning, as his bosses at his IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship team, Jimmy Vasser and James Sullivan, are lobbying to get him a 2020 shot in IndyCars.

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Here is your happy podium - That’s Toby Sowery on the left in P2, Oliver Askew in the middle in P1 and Dalton Kellett in P3 on the right:

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After this event, here are the TOP FIVE in points leaving Toronto:

1 Oliver Askew 285
2 Rinus VeeKay 260
3 Ryan Norman 222
4 Robert Megennis 218
5 Toby Sowery 213

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The next two outings for the Indy Lights will be at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, July 25-28, in support of the IndyCar race weekend. Next, the IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada boys hold Race 2…

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[MarkyS]

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Sunday at Toronto - IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada hold Race 2 of the weekend…

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…and once again the kid on top was Roman de Angelis for Mark Motors Racing, leading from pole to checkers to sweep the weekend. P2 at the end was Jeff Kingsley for Policaro Motorsport and P3 was Michael Di Meo for OpenRoad Racing.

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The race started well but not for IndyCar driver Parker Thompson for SCB Racing, who drifted backwards from his P6 start to land in P8 before the second corner. Things went from bad to worse for Thompson, when he was avoiding another car and ended up spearing some tires in Turn 8. He then fell all the way to P11.

On lap 3 Alan Metni in P4 for Kelly-Moss / AM Motorsports overcooked it in Turn 7, glancing off the wall and then carombing into the rear of P3 Patrick Dussault for Lauzon Autosport, sending Dussault and himself hard into the tires in Turn 8, bringing out a lengthy full-course caution to clean up and retrieve both stricken Porsches.

On the eventual restart de Angelis took off again, but Parker Thompson began to reel off passes, as well. By lap 25 he was passing Ethan Simioni for Policaro Motorsport, to take over the P5 spot. He then went after Marco Cirone for Mark Motors Racing in the final laps and was on his tail for a number of laps, but ran out of time in the race, shortened by the long caution. Roman would WIN by more than 14 seconds over Jeff Kingsley.

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Notable:

• This is Roman’s 7th WIN in 8 races - the only other WIN going to Jeff Kingsley in Round 1, and that was a matter of de Angelis not getting to qualify. He went from dead last to P4 at the finish of that race. He is this year what Zacharie Robichon was last year - unstoppable.

• Series points have yet to be awarded but suffice it to say that de Angelis will be leading. The only question is whether or not his P5 finish caught Parker Thompson out and lost him 2nd place in the points. Dussault was 3rd, so he was also unfortunate with his P11. Jeff Kingsley may go from 4th to 2nd in points, however. The three are that close to one another.
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left to right Parker Thompson, Patrick Dussault and Jeff Kingsley

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The next outings for Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada will be at Road America, August 2-4, in support of the huge IMSA weekend, featuring the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series, the Michelin Pilot Challenge series, the Lamborghini Super Trofeo series and both Porsche Cup Canada and Porsche Cup USA.

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[MarkyS]

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Sunday afternoon at Toronto - The Stadium Super Trucks close out their weekend…

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…with Race 2. The WINNER was Gavin Harlien, while IndyCar driver Matty Brabham posted P2 and Cole Potts came in P3, just ahead of series founder Robby Gordon - himself an IndyCar driver.

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As usual, the starting line-up for the race was the reverse order of qualifying. Here was the starting line-up:

1. Ryan Eversley
2. Bill Hynes
3. Casey Mears
4. Russell Boyle
5. Gavin Harlien
6. Jeff Hoffman
7. Cole Potts
8. Robby Gordon
9. Matt Brabham

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We will feature the entire race in the “Off-Season” thread when it is made available, but for now, here is a taste of the last lap, with Gavin and Matthew going at it for the WIN. While they are certainly having fun, they are deadly serious about WINNING:

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https://twitter.com/SSuperTrucks/status/1150486116128231430

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And here is video of the Trucks coming off the long straight ramp. The hang time these things can get in the air is astounding:

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https://twitter.com/PARTS_MAN84/status/1150472207409274883

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Series points have yet to be awarded, but with his two weekend podiums, Matthew Brabham should keep his comfortable lead in the 2019 points chase. The next outings for the SSTs will be July 27-28th, at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, in support of the IndyCar race weekend.
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Next, the IndyCars race!

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[MarkyS]

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Sunday afternoon at Toronto - The IndyCar race…

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Bastille Day was the perfect day to hold an IndyCar race in Toronto, today, because it was Frenchman Simon Pagenaud who celebrated the French national holiday by WINNING today’s race from pole for Team Penske. Coming in P2 was Scott Dixon for Chip Ganassi, who at least made the last 20 minutes of the race interesting for Simon. P3 was Alexander Rossi for Andretti Autosport, whose mission today was to simply finish ahead of points leader Josef Newgarden for Team Penske, and Rossi did - by 1 position.

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Simon crosses the line for the WIN

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While Simon dominated the weekend, with great practices, a pole and a clear command of the race, it wasn’t quite the beat-down that Alexander Rossi put on the field at Road America. Pagenaud was never more than 7 or 8 seconds up the road from the competition and at the end of the race, Scott Dixon had neatly reeled him in to be only fractions of a second to the better, but a late race caution caused by Will Power for Team Penske spearing the tires in Turn 8 and burying his nose had the race end with about 3/4 of the last lap under a yellow flag, sealing all hope of Dixon salvaging a WIN.

Power caused the only other caution of the day early on lap 2, as he tried to make an inside pass on Graham Rahal for Rahal Letterman Lanigan in the same Turn 8, but Rahal had no chance to move over and accommodate Power, with Marco Andretti for Andretti Autosport to his left. The shunt collected about 6 cars, but all eventually got back into the fray.
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Notable:

• This is Simon’s third podium of the season and they have all been WINS - including the Indy 500.

• Dixon hit the wall himself early in the race and bent his suspension. He drove to his P2 with the steering wheel all akilter for the duration. While it didn’t seem to slow him down it probably made it much harder to attempt to pass Pagenaud.

• Alexander Rossi made it clear he had nothing for either Dixon or Pagenaud but he then set his sights on the goal of keeping Josef Newgarden behind him and he was able to do that, to the better in his 2nd-place chase of the still points leader.

• For a race that is known for attrition and accidents, this was a very clean and very fast race, with only one retirement, as Takuma Sato’s Honda engine blew and caught fire, spectacularly. No injuries.

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Here’s your happy podium - That’s Scott Dixon on the left in P2, Simon Pagenaud in the middle in P1 and Alexander Rossi in P3 on the right:

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With this result, here are the TOP FIVE in points leaving Toronto:

1 - Josef Newgarden 434
2 - Alexander Rossi 430
3 - Simon Pagenaud 395
4 - Scott Dixon 348
5 - Will Power 306

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The next race for the IndyCars will be the Iowa 300 at Iowa Speedway, next weekend. It’s a Saturday night race.

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[MarkyS]

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IndyCar has released a race highlights reel…

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2019 Honda Indy Toronto // Race Highlights // NTT IndyCar Series

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