The RACER Mailbag, August 19

Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. We love hearing your comments and opinions, but letters that include a question are more likely to be published. Questions received after 12pm ET each Monday will be saved for the following week.

Q: I attended the IndyCar race in Markham after many years spectating at the downtown Toronto race.

Promoter Green Savoree's website for the event detailed a very long list of items and actions prohibited to spectators. These included; any outside food or drink, coolers, folding chairs, jogging, laptops, standing on grandstand seats, camera lenses over 10" , banners, signs, and "placing cups on walls".

I wish that the amount of thought and effort given to this stern list had gone into designing an interesting track and completing it on time. Why does the Penske organization continue with such incompetents who clearly have no real concern for the enjoyment of paying customers?

Anthony, Stirling (two hours from Markham), Ontario

MARSHALL PRUETT: It’s a question that’s been asked within the paddock on a regular basis, and long before Markham existed as a race on the calendar.

Q: Big Possum has it on good (family) authority that the problem with the track not being finished on time is that possums are a protected species in Canada and there were several dens located it the track area and the possums living there would not leave their ancestorial grounds without adequate compensation and negotiations were not complete until late Friday, thus the delay.

Marshall, do you think if you had put on your possum shirt in a show of solidary, you could have intervened as a mediator to speed the process?

Embarrassed for the species

Big Possum

MP: After reading your letter, I do see how this entire ****show was indeed my fault and a full byproduct of failing to wear the possum shirt you gave me. To quote the WWE’s R-Truth, “My bad.”

Q: A Facebook reel popped up with Jay Chandrasekhar telling a story he heard from Burt Reynolds when they were filming the Dukes of Hazzard (in my hometown of Clinton, LA).

The story was that Burt was in a club in NYC in the early ‘70s and not getting much action, but there in was an Italian guy who had four women hanging all over him. Burt went over and commandeered a couple of the ladies, which the Italian guy didn’t much like. They then had words and went outside and got into a fistfight.

Does Mario remember this incident, and has he ever told his version of the story?

P. Worth Thompson

MP: I’ll be one of many to ask him the next time I see him.

Poor Burt Reynolds didn't have a chance. William Murenbeeld/Getty Images

Q: The failure to have the Markham track ready on time is an epic debacle for all parties involved, and Green Savoree Race Promotions has rightfully absorbed a huge dose of blame.

Nonetheless, it seems to me that the Canadian and local governments are getting a pass, even though I’d bet that oppressive rules and regulations and simple government incompetence played a significant role, too. Same goes for labor unions and their counterproductive work rules. It seems absurd that the government thought they could wait until two days before the event to turn over significant parts of the city facilities needed for race course construction. What say you?

Steve Summers, Ann Arbor, Michigan

MP: If only GSRP had extensive history in putting on street races in the greater Ontario region and had a year’s notice to make a new race happen in the greater Ontario region.

Q: I’m a huge IndyCar fan but I’m really getting tired of having to chase down the broadcast.

Why can’t it just be an event that is listed on FOX One that I can watch without switching from FS1 to FS2 to FOX? How can new fans ever find their way?

Wife of Janis in Tampa

MP: If you’re a big fan of IndyCar, or FOX, or both, there is a streaming option with FOX One that should bypass all channel-specific chasing and give you a reliable stream to use. It’s what I do with IMSA and Peacock so I don’t have to think about channels and can simply go to my Peacock app and get my endurance sports car racing.

Q: During interviews after the sessions on Saturday, several drivers said "This is a really fun track." I'm curious. Has any driver said to you "This is not a fun track" (or the like) about some other track?

No need to disclose who said it, but please disclose the subject track.

Rick, Lisle, IL

MP: For sure. New Detroit is the track that comes to mind first.

Q: Dear FOX. We can’t thank you enough everything you’ve done for IndyCar. One request: Please give Jack Harvey more time for his grid walk. Unlike F1, he seeks out drivers and team owners, and not “celebrities” that we race fans couldn’t care less about.

Mike Talarico, Charlotte

MP: Great call, and I’d like more Jack time in general. We get plenty of time with the pit reporters in every session leading up to the races, and once the race starts, it seems like Jack, Kevin, and Georgia are reduced to a bare minimum. Markham really stood out to me for how little the pit reporters were used, and all three –especially a veteran like Kevin – are important conduits to enhance the broadcasts.

Q: Markham was fun, right? I am not the only one who enjoyed that? I definitely feel like it was probably a better track than Toronto. Maybe that hairpin can be slightly redesigned; maybe it doesn’t need it. I look forward to year two.

Ryan

MP: It was proper fun. The hairpin is too tight on entry, which brings the cars to a near total stop, and that’s not good. There was no racing taking place there, just a bunch of drivers struggling to keep their cars going, and that made them look silly.