25th Honda Indy Toronto-Part 1
- Written by David Taylor
- Published in Auto Racing
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The other day, three obviously relaxed Canadian Indy race car drivers came to Toronto to help promote the 100th running of the Indy 500 and the 25th anniversary of road racing on the streets of Toronto.
Alex Tagliani driving for Sam Schmidt Motorsports, James Hinchcliffe, with Newman/Haas Racing and Paul Tracy, racing at the Indy 500 with Dreyer and Reinbold Racing showed up at the Real Sports Bar and Grill downtown to run through a pretty informal meet and greet.
The three drivers, Tagliani (Tag), Hinchcliffe (Hinch) and Tracy (PT) quickly settle into a comfortable routine, clearly enjoying themselves with the pressures of qualifying for one of the world's best known sporting events behind them. Seems all three off the track are friends, even Hinch, an Indy rookie but no stranger to the open wheel racing circuit and fraternity.
Perhaps the driver under the most pressure is Tag, who sits in the pole position for Sunday's race with a qualifying speed of 227.472mph. He spoke candidly about his severe allergy to nuts - ironic, given that his friend, PT just signed a new sponsor, ARMA Energy, makers of snacks that include trail mixes.
The bridge of Hinch's nose looked as if it had been on the receiving end of a Glaswegian kiss (head butt). He assured us that it was due to a scrape while rescuing a kitten, Buttons!
And one of the vehicles PT owns (10 or so in total) is a Peterbilt - yes, a semi! Why? Well apparently he needs something to tow some of his toys around.