If the search for serious Canadian money to go big-league auto racing has been the purview of a select few in recent years, it's turned into a stampede in the last 10 days.

Every Canadian corporation that's been pitched to before can expect to be pitched again and any company remaining on the Top 100 list that hasn't been approached previously can soon expect a knock on the door.

Why?

Because three high-profile Canadian racing drivers — Paul Tracy, J.R. Fitzpatrick and James Hinchcliffe — have all suddenly been put on the road to glory and the only thing holding them back from full programs between now and the end of the season, or later, is (you guessed it) money.

Canadian icon Tracy, who's been without a full-time ride since the Champ Car-IRL merger in 2008, signed late last week with Jay Penske's Dragon Racing team for five of the remaining 16 races in the IZOD IndyCar Series season (he has a side deal for the Indianapolis 500) and is hoping to fill out his dance card as the year progresses.

Confirmed for the races at Long Beach, Texas, Toronto, Edmonton and Infineon Raceway (near San Francisco), Tracy also has his sights set on at least four more.

But in order to run those races, he's going to need more moolah. The Indy 500 deal was dependent on him “bringing money,” so either Tracy or his representatives had to sell his sponsors (WIX Filters, wheelpros.com and Motegi Racing Wheels) on the idea of supporting him to the tune of more than a million dollars.

His five-race deal with Penske — Roger Penske's son, by the way — is probably a combination of the team attracting sponsorship because Tracy is the driver, plus what Paul has left over after paying for Indy (if anything). But any additional starts will likely be up to Tracy — who sounds optimistic, nonetheless.

Writing on his blog for RACER magazine, Tracy said: “Now that we have a program up and running, we can build on that because we have something to go sell and try to fill in the blanks.”

Translation: because we have something going, other firms might now be inclined to join in.

Meantime, it was announced mid-week that Oakville's Hinchcliffe had signed to run the rest of the North American IndyCar season (starting this weekend in Alabama) with support from Canadian asset manager Sprott Inc. and, in particular, its founder, Eric Sprott.

“Hinch” does not have funding for the offshore races in the series — Brazil and Japan — and will have to come up with a budget if he wants to go. But as one of his advisers told me: “We anticipate that because of Sprott's involvement, this will serve as a catalyst for other Canadian corporations to step forward.”

Which is pretty much what Toronto businessman Steve Meehan has in mind for his new NASCAR Nationwide Series team. Meehan, who founded an investment planning service that he sold to IMG Financial, recently purchased most of the assets, except the name, of Baker Curb Racing of Nashville and has assigned the seat to Fitzpatrick, of Cambridge.

The plan is to run up to a dozen Nationwide races this season, with perhaps a Sprint Cup start or two toward the end of the season. The eventual goal is to have an all-Canadian team and a Canadian driver running full-time in Cup by 2013, depending on — you guessed it — Canadian corporate sponsorship.

“I think we have the opportunity to get all of the Canadian NASCAR fans cheering for one team, which I think can be a very powerful statement,” Meehan said in an interview this week. “Obviously, the challenge is to get corporations here in Canada to believe the same thing.”

Okay, Mr. Meehan. But aren't Tracy and Hinchcliffe (or their “people”) singing the same song?

“There's two ways to look at that,” he said. “The more people that are in it (racing), the more exposure it gets. Canadian corporations haven't had a lot of experience (with racing sponsorship) for a long time, since back in the days when Mackenzie (Financial) was sponsoring Scott Goodyear and Player's was involved.

“So I think there's a bit of an education process.”

Meehan didn't seem overly concerned that two other high-profile Canadian racers might be making the same pitch to the same people as his Toronto-based business and marketing team (the race shop will stay in Nashville).

“I think the viewership opportunity is greater on the NASCAR side of things than it is on the IndyCar side,” he said.

Meehan said that in two weeks, or so, there would be a press conference where “we'll roll out the rest of our plan, rebrand our team and have everything in place.”

Canada hasn't had an all-Canadian team since the early 1970s when Carling Red Cap beer sponsored Earl Ross of Ailsa Craig, Ont., in the Winston Cup Series.

So it's about time.

And if Meehan, Hinchcliffe and Tracy, et al, are looking for ammunition when they knock on some of those corporate doors, they need only listen to James O'Donnell, who made the decision for Mackenzie to use racing as a marketing tool.

“In terms of investment, Mackenzie got a lot out of that program,” O'Donnell told me in an interview last year.

“Prior to getting involved in racing sponsorship (in the late 1980s), our assets under administration were a billion, four hundred million dollars. A few years later, just before I left Mackenzie (he sold his share of the business in 1993), we were approaching $30 billion.”

What CEO would turn his or her nose up at an opportunity like that?

Norris McDonald writes an almost-daily auto racing blog at wheels.ca

nmcdonald@thestar.ca