Overheard at Honda Indy Toronto

It was another beautiful day here in Toronto, Ontario Canada where the IndyCar series was gathered for the 25th time to race on the streets around Exhibition Place…..Spotted Steve Horne listening to the radio of KV Racing raising speculation further that he and the team are talking about a possible relationship…….EJ Viso was sporting yet another new helmet this weekend in Toronto. Last year he ran a different helmet design every race. This year he has cut it down to 6 or 7 different designs for the year……..Today our sources tell us that Versus will be renamed to NBC Sports at the end of July. Look for the announcement and a closer alignment with NBC……The grandstands today were fairly full, but the amount of spectators they hold are significantly reduced from the CART days when 60,000 to 70,000 on race day was common.

We spoke to Steve Horne about his opinion of the rumored race in Perth Australia. His eyes lit. "Oh that would be a great place to have a race," said Horne, happy to talk about a race in his neck of the world. "They are rabid sports fans in Perth. It is the capital of Western Australia and it is a vibrant and booming city and the mining industry brings a lot of wealth into that part of Australia. It would be a better place to race than even Surfers was," concluded Horne…..We hear that Justin Wilson's current contract with Dreyer & Reinbold is up at the end of this season, so it will be interesting to see whether he moves to another team or not in 2012…..Rumor has it that Bryan Herta organized a meeting with the Indy Lights team owners on Saturday to discuss various issues facing the series. Some of the topics we hear were discussed was proper management of the series (or lack thereof), the low car count (currently at just 14), and whether or not the series needs a new car or if the team owners can even afford one. This last topic warrants of separate article, which I may do in the coming days after talking to a lot of team owners and officials about it. Mark C. reporting from Toronto.