Tracy all a-Twitter about Toronto Indy

So I'm talking to retired driver Jimmy Vasser at the Paul Tracy press conference earlier this week (the one where it was announced that Paul would champion the cause of WoundedWarriors.ca at next month's Honda Indy Toronto) and I asked him what kind of a guy Tracy is to race against.

Vasser has a history with Tracy going back to a race in Phoenix a hundred years ago when Tracy was in the process of lapping him for the second time before Tracy crashed.

The two are neighbours in Las Vegas and still talk about it: Vasser suggesting Tracy was a knucklehead for trying to pass him on the outside and Tracy retorting that Vasser had always been slow as mollasses and what was he supposed to do?

They've both since gone on to become multiple race winners and CART/Champ Car champions.

And great pals.

Tracy's still hanging in as a driver; Vasser's retired and is a partner in KV Racing Technologies, which is running Tracy next week at Watkins Glen and in the two IndyCar races in Canada: Toronto in two weeks and Edmonton in a month.

So what's he like to race against, Jimmy?

"He's a pain in the ass," said Vasser, without so much as a hint of a smile.

"He's nobody's buddy, he's nobody's friend out there."

Then Vasser softened:

"But he's a great champion and one of the legends of the sport and you can't discount that. As a competitor, you have respect for him even though he's a pain in the ass and you always know you're going to have to deal with him."

TRACY'S TWITTERING

I asked Paul Tracy (Twitter nickname: @paultracy3) about this at that same press conference and his eyes lit up and he broke into a big grin.

"Jimmy and the team were doing it all the month of May at Indy. I said, `What are you guys doing?' because they were always like this (indicates texting), giving updates and they said I should be doing it because there's a lot of fans watching.

"I only started it about four days ago and I've got 600-plus people following me already so I guess it's the new thing, right?"

Tracy Tweeted during last Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race from Sonoma. Here are a few examples:

@paultracy3 (after Jimmie Johnston spun Kurt Busch off the road): "If I was Kurt, I'd punch Jimmy in the face and say sorry later."

@paultracy3 (after Boris Said's car was on-camera): "Boris again, how does he get a ride?"

And several others that the editors wouldn't allow in a mass-media family newspaper.

HONDA INDY

NM: What's the hardest part of the Honda Indy Toronto track to drive? Going into Turn 1? Turn 3?

PT: I've always found the last three corners to be the most difficult because they're the fastest corners of the track and you're increasing speed in every corner. Corners 9, 10 and 11 – you're kind of winding it up and getting faster and faster and the last corner is the quickest corner on the track.

NM: If you had advice for the fans, where's the best place to sit and watch?

PT: Right along the pit straight. You can see the last three corners and see all the pit action. You're right there in Thunder Alley, you're close to all the concessions, you're close to where the race cars are at and the pit stops are at so that's the place to be.

HARD ROAD

Rides for Tracy have been few and far between since Champ Car and the IRL made peace. He had the one-off at Edmonton a year ago but he wasn't at Daytona for the 24 Hours this year and he hasn't made a NASCAR truck series start after a couple last year.

What's up, Paul?

"It's obviously getting tougher and tougher to get rides, so I've concentrated on trying to get into the IndyCar series on more of a full-time basis.

"We're hopeful we can do more (races) later in the year, but it's going to take sponsorship to do that. Geico (a U.S. insurance company) has been great but their interest only seems to be in the races televised on ABC (of which there are none after Toronto). They don't seem to have a lot of interest in the races on the Versus channel (which has the IRL rights in the U.S.)."

Told that the NHL Players Association is demanding that the league cancel its Versus contract and get games in the States back on ESPN, Tracy said this:

"The No. 3 guy at Geico, who makes the decisions on sponsorship, is a big hockey fan. He sent word that he wasn't interested in sponsoring any of the races that would be on Versus because `Versus has ruined hockey.'"