(Sponsor Name) (Race Title), Baby!

Today was the Molson Indy Steelback Grand Prix Honda Indy Toronto. For something different, I watched the race with my Dad from the comfort of my parents' living room this year. Maybe it was getting used to the year off last year, or maybe a lingering bitterness at the Indy Racing League's buyout of Champ Car, or maybe a lack of a full-time ride for Paul Tracy or Alex Tagliani (and therefore, much less change of a good result for the Canadians) but we decided not to trek up to Garbage City this year.

A couple things I noted:

• Both PT and Tag ran really well... 1-2 at one point. It looked good for both of them until Helio Castro Neves took out Paul and Alex tried a bit too hard to make a pass, ending his day.
• Hearing the crowd boo the crap out of Castro Neves was beyond great. The guy didn't quite know how to handle it.
• They really cut the number of stands significantly from years past. To their credit, it kept the stands they did have full.
• Franchitti won... meh.
• For people who say that Indy Cars and Champ Cars were the same thing... let me first point out the difference in the engine sounds. Sure, I have an obvious bias here, but the cars there this year don't sound nearly as sweet.

Indy Car has some evolving to do before I become half the fan I was of Champ Car. With Tony George "stepping down" as ringleader, it'll be interesting to see what happens. It's just too bad that didn't happen before he wrote his cheque to kill Champ Car.