Welcome back to Indycar 1995 Land, the fantasy make-believe world at the crossroads of entertainment, memory, nostalgia and primary sources. This Sunday the CART folks head north for the second of the series’ three international, extra-United Statesian races for the tenth Indy Toronto at Exhibition Place. We briefly divert the river of time following round 10 of the series at Road America, when challenges from Newman-Haas and Penske evaporated following a third-lap collision between Michael Andretti and Al Unser, Jr, and the remainder of the competition dissolved to hand Jacques Villeneuve a third victory of the year. The F1-bound Canadian is on pole for this one, too, with his points rivals buried in row 3 and deeper. This being round 11 of 17, the metaphorical shadows are lengthening in the late afternoon of this Indycar championship and any alternative candidates for the 1995 PPG Cup had better put some results together sharpish. Or I dunno, the Team Green car could break down again like it did in Australia, Long Beach, Detroit and Portland and the points table could be thrown back into confusion. A lot could happen!
The 1.8-mile Exhibition Place street circuit is still in use today (or it will be, eventually) and some fiddling with the last corner aside, it was more or less the same layout in 1995. The whole purpose and meaning of the circuit is Turn 3, the sort-of hairpin at the end of the long straight on Lake Shore Boulevard in which all overtaking and ambition succeeds or fails. Then there are some twiddly bits as the circuit makes its way back to the pits and a fast, sweeping, concrete-edged curve heading to the startline. Michael Andretti has won four of the last five races he’s entered here, with the 1993 race won by Penske and Paul Tracy while Michael Andretti was doing to F1 what he’s been doing to Indycar in 1995. But things could change! In which direction? We’ll find out! Qualifying results below.
1. Jacques Villeneuve 58.046, Team Green R/F/G
2. Jimmy Vasser +0.095, Ganassi R/F/G
3. Teo Fabi +0.193, Forsythe R/F/G
4. Scott Pruett +0.218, Patrick L/F/F
5. Bobby Rahal +0.226, Rahal-Hogan L/M/G
6. Michael Andretti +0.243, Newman-Haas L/F/G
7. Robby Gordon +0.395, Walker R/F/G
8. Al Unser, Jr +0.401, Penske P/M/G
9. Andre Ribeiro +0.439, Tasman R/H/F
10. Paul Tracy +0.495, Newman-Haas L/F/G
11. Gil de Ferran +0.533, Hall R/M/G
12. Christian Fittipaldi +0.621, Walker R/F/G
Sullivan 13th, Gugelmin 14th, Boesel 16th and Vasser’s teammate Bryan Herta starting all the way back in P19. What happened to PacWest? Eric “The” Bachelart and Marco Greco are both here in their part time entries, and it’s Buddy Lazier’s turn to start last in Project Indy’s ‘94 Reynard. That all makes up a nice entry of 27 for the little Toronto course.
We’ll start this at the usual time of 6pm BST on Sunday, 24 May. It’ll be odd not to have the Monaco Grand Prix or Indy 500 that day but I reckon this race will fit between those two in terms of on-track interest. Anyway, video below. See you then!