Fatal F2 crash a tragic reminder

Norris McDonald

MOTORSPORT WRITER

If anybody ever needs to be reminded that automobile racing is a most dangerous sport, the accident yesterday that took the life of Henry Surtees, son of motorcycle and Formula One racing champion John Surtees, should serve that purpose.

Competing in the FIA's new F1 feeder system, Formula 2, at the Brands Hatch circuit in England, Surtees was hit on the head by a flying wheel that came off the car of another driver who'd run into a tire wall.

He was airlifted to the Royal London Hospital where a spokesperson said last night that he'd died of his injuries.

John Surtees was a seven-time world motorcycle champion, 1964 F1 world champion and ran his own F1 team for several years. He headed up Britain's entry in the A1 Grand Prix Series early in the new millenium and at an A1GP dinner in Toronto several years ago (Britain ran Canada's entry for a time), he told me he had high hopes that Henry, then in karts, would be the second Surtees to race in F1.

Henry gave it his best shot. He'd done well in Formula BMW and Formula Renault and seemed to be hitting his stride in F2.

He was just 18 years old when he died.

F2 news

Toronto driver Robert Wickens's sponsor, Red Bull, entered him in the F2 series this year and he finished yesterday's race at Brands Hatch in second place. He was fourth in the race on Saturday (in which Surtees finished third – his only podium in the series).

At the halfway mark of the season, Wickens is in second place in the F2 championship. Spanish driver Andy Soucek is leading.

Honda Indy Toronto aftermath

I received an amazing amount of mail last week about the first Honda Indy Toronto.

The good news is that despite the problems people encountered this year — and boy, there were a lot of things to complain about — just about everybody said they planned to return next year.

But if the problems aren't fixed – and they are all fixable – then I fear people will stop going.

Two things stood out in the mail I received: the price of tickets and organization at the entrances.

It's not so much that people were angry at the actual prices, it was that the posted prices suddenly surged by almost a third when the ticket sellers finished their calculations.

For instance, one fellow wrote to me that he went to buy a General Admission ticket on the Friday, which was advertised to be $20. He was asked for $29.50. How come, he asked? Taxes and service charges, he was told. He paid – but felt royally ripped off.

Another person said she bought two GA tickets on race day at an advertised price of $49.50 apiece. She had to shell out more than $150 before the seller would hand them over.

So my message to the Indy folks is to post the prices and then stick with them. As mentioned previously, if I want to go into the infield of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Indy 500 day, it costs me $20. No taxes, no handling charges, no nothing.

That's the way it should be here in Toronto.

The other major beef was the welcome – and I use the word loosely – that customers received at the gate. There was a serious lack of organization and some of the security people receiving the guests were lacking — for want of a better way of putting this – in sophistication.

It wasn't all their fault, however. If the organizers decided people couldn't bring in their own food and drink, for instance, large signs to that effect should have been posted. I mean, how would you like to be one of those security people and have to explain that policy to just about every one of the hundreds of people getting off a GO Train, most of whom were carrying water bottles and knapsacks?

In any event, I am sure the Andretti-Green organizers – and the sponsors – have all received an earful over this and I trust they will take each and every one of these criticisms to heart.

Tracy-Castroneves clash revisited

I watched the Paul Tracy-Helio Castroneves accident over and over this week and I am now 100 per cent positive that Castroneves crashed Tracy on purpose. The overhead shot clearly shows Helio twisting the steering wheel hard right – just like Michael Schumacher did when he turned into Jacques Villeneuve at Jerez in 1997.

Of course, I don't think Tracy should have been there in the first place. There wouldn't have been an accident if Paul had waited a lap or two and then Castroneves's tires would have been completely shot and he would have been a sitting duck.

You might like to know, however, that my oldest son disagrees with me. He started going to races with me back in the early 80s when he was 9 or 10 and is a student of the sport.

"He (Tracy) had a lane and he had to go for it," he said. "If he waited another lap or two, Franchitti (the leader) would have been long gone. Who knows if he'd been able to catch him but he had to try and Castroneves opened the door for him."

Okay, but every time Tracy goes off on the hook, he reminds me of the motorcycle-racing character played by Michael J. Pollard in the 1970s movie Little Fauss and Big Halsy (with Robert Redford).

"Daddy," Pollard says to his father, played by Noah Beery Jr. "I was goin' faster than I've ever gone in my entire life. . ."

And his father shakes his head and says, "Yeah, Little. But ya fell off."

That's the trouble with Tracy. He can go as fast – or faster – than anybody else he's racing. But he can't finish.

He falls off.

Other weekend racing

Jordan Szoke of Brantford (Kawasaki) won the Parts Canada Superbike Championship race at Mosport yesterday. Brett McCormick of Saskatoon was second (Suzuki) and Kevin Lacombe of Granby, Que., (Yamaha) was third. Here's how close they were at the finish: Szoke, then 0.274 seconds back came McCormick and then 0.336 seconds later came Lacombe. Whew! Szoke also won the race on Saturday. . . .

Kerry Micks, the Mount Albert racer I wrote about in my Wheels column Saturday, finished fifth Saturday night in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race at Sun Valley Speedway in Vernon, B.C. Andrew Ranger of Roxton Pond, Que., was the winner, with defending champion Scott Steckly of Milverton, Ont., second and Ron Beauchamp Jr., of Windsor, third. I don't like to report this but . . . only 16 cars started that race.. . .

Gianmarco Raimondo of St. Catharines had two podiums in the Formula BMW Americas series races at Lime Rock, Conn., at the weekend. He was second on Saturday to Gabby Chaves of Colombia by 0.032 seconds and third yesterday, losing to James Kovacic of Australia by 1.578 seconds. Alex Ellis, also of St. Kitts, was fifth Saturday and 10th yesterday. Both drive for Team Autotecnica of Vaughan.

By the way, the two drivers and Team Autotecnica were part of the Motorsport Expo at the Honda Indy weekend. And Raimondo and Ellis were chumming around with ex-Formula BMW champion Daniel Morad of Markham, who said the A1GP series is broke and that his Team Lebanon sponsors are looking around for a series to help him keep his career going. . .

Mark Wilkins of Toronto and his American co-driver Burt Frisselle drove their AIM Autosport (Woodbridge) Ford Riley to a seventh-place finish in the Daytona Prototype class of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series race at Alabama's Barber Motorsports Park yesterday, which was won by the team of Alex Gurney and Jon Fogarty. . . Gil de Ferran and Simon Pagenaud won the American LeMans Series race at Lime Rock on Saturday. Two more races and they'll be at Mosport and my, how the time does fly. . . . Kyle Busch won the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Kentucky Speedway Saturday night. It was his sixth Nationwide victory this season and, yes, he had time to talk to the media. . . .

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