Hunter-Reay Gets the Hat Trick In Toronto
Submitted by wmcdowell
Monday, July 09, 2012 at 2:12 PM
Ryan Hunter-Reay won his third consecutive
IndyCar race on the streets of Toronto on Sunday, a proverbial hat trick in the hockey hotbed of Canada. The Andretti Motorsports driver dominated the latter stages of the Honda Indy Toronto race on the 1.75 mile eleven turn street course taking the lead on lap 57 of 85.
Hunter-Reay also catapulted to the top of the season points standings where he is now 34 points ahead of the seasons other three time winner,
Will Power who finished 15th after a late crash took him out of contention.
Helio Castroneves is now third in the point standings after a sixth place finish in Toronto.
Hunter-Reay took the lead for good on lap 57 and missed the late race pileups that always seem to occur on the narrow Toronto circuit. A pileup on lap 82 took out Sebastien Bourdais after
Charlie Kimball sent him into the wall.
Dario Franchitti, Ryan Briscoe, Simon Pagenaud, Ed Carpenter, and
Marco Andretti were all collected and knocked out of the race in the ensuing mayhem.
Hunter-Reay took advantage of the carnage and took the checkered flag under a yellow caution. Kimball finished second in his best finish ever and
Mike Conway took third giving A.J. Foyt Racing a podium finish.
Afterward, Kimball was disappointed the race ended under yellow, suggesting IndyCar change how races end in the future.
"I think race control and the driver's association need to discuss with five laps to go trying to finish under green," Kimball said. "Maybe we go for a single-file restart instead of sweeping two-wide, because that way we can have a race."
Hunter-Reay became the first American born driver in six years with three straight victories on the IndyCar circuit with victories at Milwaukee and Iowa in his previous two wins.
Local Canadian favorite
James Hinchcliffe finished 22nd after a blown engine. GoDaddy didn’t go too far! Target Ganassi driver
Scott Dixon was the first out on Sunday after a blown engine continued his recent woes.
The IndyCar series stays in Canada for the next race on July 22nd in Edmonton.
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2012 IndyCar IndyCar Series Standings
|
|
|
|
IRL |
|
Rank |
Driver |
Points |
Wins |
|
1 |
Ryan Hunter-Reay |
335 |
3 |
|
2 |
Will Power |
301 |
3 |
|
3 |
Helio Castroneves |
289 |
1 |
|
4 |
Scott Dixon |
281 |
1 |
|
5 |
James Hinchcliffe |
268 |
0 |
|
6 |
Tony Kanaan |
267 |
0 |
|
7 |
Simon Pagenaud |
264 |
0 |
|
8 |
Dario Franchitti |
230 |
1 |
|
9 |
Ryan Briscoe |
217 |
0 |
|
10 |
Oriol Servia |
215 |
0 |
|
11 |
Graham Rahal |
205 |
0 |
|
12 |
Charlie Kimball |
204 |
0 |
|
13 |
Justin Wilson |
200 |
1 |
|
14 |
J.R. Hildebrand |
199 |
0 |
|
15 |
Marco Andretti |
187 |
0 |
|
16 |
Rubens Barrichello |
183 |
0 |
|
17 |
Takuma Sato |
176 |
0 |
|
18 |
Mike Conway |
172 |
0 |
|
19 |
E.J. Viso |
172 |
0 |
|
20 |
Ed Carpenter |
163 |
0 |
|
21 |
Alex Tagliani |
162 |
0 |
|
22 |
James Jakes |
162 |
0 |
|
23 |
Josef Newgarden |
143 |
0 |
|
24 |
Simona de Silvestro |
123 |
0 |
|
25 |
Katherine Legge |
103 |
0 |
|
26 |
Sebastien Bourdais |
102 |
0 |
|
27 |
Ana Beatriz |
28 |
0 |
|
28 |
Townsend Bell |
26 |
0 |
|
29 |
Michel Jourdain |
16 |
0 |
|
30 |
Sebastian Saavedra |
14 |
0 |
|
31 |
Bryan Clauson |
13 |
0 |
|
32 |
Wade Cunningham |
13 |
0 |
|
33 |
Jean Alesi |
13 |
0 |
|
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Points System
Points system award: 50 points to the winner, 40 points to second-place, and 35 points to third-place finisher. Pole position also receives three points, and a two points bonus is available for the most laps led. |