Oilpressure

It was twenty-five years ago today that we lost driver Jeff Krosnoff and corner-worker Gary Avrin at the Molson Indy Toronto in 1996. Please keep those two men in your prayers and thoughts today.

Last weekend, the NTT IndyCar Series was scheduled to be racing the streets of Toronto. Unfortunately, the temporary street circuit was never built. The cars never left their respective shops as the teams and drivers began what is now to be a four-weekend break, before reconvening in Nashville for the August 6-8 weekend.

For the second year in a row, the Honda Indy Toronto has fallen victim to COVID-19.

Fans, broadcasters and series officials talk as if it is automatic that the series will return to Exhibition Place as soon as the pandemic situation north of the border returns to normal. I’m not so sure.

Back in May, I was accused by one reader of trying to sound like I was an insider because I hinted at something I had heard at the track the day before. What I mentioned ended up being partially true, but not 100% accurate. I framed it just as it was – a rumor, but that made no difference to the reader. His message was loud and clear that I should never mention anything here that is just hearsay – despite the fact that I do know and have friendships with many people that do know what they are talking about. With that in mind, I’m about to do it again.

At two separate tracks this season, IMS and Barber, I sat in on conversations with people whose livelihoods are tied to the NTT IndyCar Series. Twice, the topic of the Honda Indy Toronto came up. Both times the general gist of the conversation was that IndyCar may not be returning to downtown Toronto, even after the pandemic is a thing of the past.

These were not the same people involved in the two discussions, but I found it interesting that both parties felt the same way. Both groups cited two main reasons that made sense.

First of all, the streets at Exhibition Place, where the track is located, have outgrown the circuit. What I mean by that is that there is so much new construction in the area, the streets can no longer handle the event. If you’ll recall, a few years ago the pits were moved from the south side of the main straightaway to the north because a hotel (I think) had been built where the pits were. As time goes on more and more sites where the stands were placed, have been developed into more permanent structures. In short, there is not enough room for the track in the area anymore.

The second reason is the more disturbing reason of the two. It seems the citizens no longer embrace this event. In fact, they’ve turned on it. Those in the immediate area have grown tired of having their streets torn up and barricaded, along with having to deal with all of the race fans in the area. Acording to the two separate conversations I was privy to, many of the locals would love to see the Honda Indy Toronto disappear for good.

I know I’m a race fan and I’m more than a little biased, but I don’t understand that way of thinking. When the NFL Draft came to Nashville a couple of years ago, I could not have cared less about going to it and only had mild interest in watching it. But the three-day event claimed to have had 600,000 people attend what was apparently an unbelievable event. The economic impact on the city was said to have been north of $220 million. I’m not quite sure how these numbers are arrived at, but that is significant. Even if I cared nothing about the NFL, I would have been very excited to have that kind of money pour into my town.

I don’t think the Honda Indy Toronto is bringing that kind of cash into the outskirts of downtown Toronto, but whatever it brings is probably still very significant to their economy.

If Toronto never returns to the IndyCar schedule, that would be bad. This isn’t like NOLA that only lasted one year (2015) or Baltimore or Houston that lasted about three years a decade or so ago, before falling off of the schedule. This event started thirty-five years ago in 1986 and had run continuously, except for 2008 in the reunification year – until COVID knocked it out last year and again this year. The Honda Indy Toronto is the only race to be cancelled in the 2021 season.

Will it come back? You tell me. The earliest it could ever run since 2019 would be in 2022. By then it could be out of sight, out of mind. The locals may realize how much they enjoyed not having it for two years, or at the very least – some that liked the race may realize that they haven’t really missed it. It’s sort of like when your wife tells you she thinks you both need a long break from each other. During the break, one party realizes the other isn’t really missed. It’s rare that a break leads to starting back.

Personally, I hope Toronto does come back. In December of 2019, Susan and I finally got passports and we had originally planned to go to Toronto in 2020. If it’s back on the schedule in 2022 and she is still healthy – we would like to go. I found myself in Toronto for work in late July of 1995 – a couple of weeks after the race. I made a special trip to the track and followed it around as best I could, but it wasn’t quite like attending the race there. IndyCar still has a lot of fans in Canada, even if the locals have turned their backs on this event (which I hope isn’t true). I’m of the belief that IndyCar should expand their Canadian presence, but they certainly need to keep what they’ve got.

Am I stirring up rumors? Possibly, but is this not a question most fans have already thought to themselves? I’d say after being skipped for two years now, many fans have wondered if Toronto will ever come back.

For the reader that likes to accuse me of being a self-appointed IndyCar insider – I’m not. This is nothing more than me relaying a couple of conversations that I happened to be around this past spring, with people who are closer to the sport than I am. The fact that they both pretty much said the same thing made me think there may be an ounce of truth to it. I hope they were wrong.

George Phillips

This entry was posted on July 14, 2021 at 4:04 am and is filed under IndyCar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.