IndyCar and NASCAR Sprint Cup had the weekend off, which left us Formula One in Austria, the VARAC Festival at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and some national/regional races like the Canadian Tire Series at Sunset Speedway to dissect this Monday morning.

But first, here is an interview I did last weekend at the Honda Indy Toronto with Mark Miles, CEO of Hulman and Co. of Terre Haute, Ind. Hulman and Co. includes, among its many and varied assets, the Verizon IndyCar Series.

The rest of the weekend’s news follows the Miles interview, in which he talked freely to me about the promotion - or lack of promotion - of the Honda Indy as well as the possibility of an IndyCar race after Labour Day.

Incidentally, this interview first appeared in the latest issue of Toronto Star Wheels.

INDYCAR CONCERNED ABOUT HONDA INDY PROMOTION

Both the Honda Indy Toronto and the Verizon IndyCar Series have seen better days.

In the beginning, back in the 1980s when the race through the streets of Exhibition Place was known as the Molson Indy, more than 160,000 admissions — 70,000-plus on race day — would pass through the turnstiles each year. The race was one of three huge summertime festivals in Toronto — Pride Week and what was then known as Caribana being the others. It dominated the headlines; everybody knew about it. It was very “in.”

And the sanctioning body of the day, CART (Championship Auto Racing Teams) was seen as a viable alternative to Formula One. Enough of an alternative, incidentally, that none other than Bernie Ecclestone was moved to keep an eye on its progress.

Which is not the case today for either IndyCar or what is now the Honda Indy. Which is a puzzle, considering that the racing is better than it’s ever been, the race drivers are equal to their counterparts in any other series and are rock-star athletes in their own right, and the Toronto race/festival is in the middle of a population base of 4.5 million people.

In short, then, why are more people not showing up for the race? For several years now, I have described attendance as “a BMO Stadium crowd.” Translated, that means the people who showed up for Honda Indy race day would likely fill all the seats in the BMO Stadium at Exhibition Place. That would put attendance for the race at 20,000 to 25,000 - which is really not good enough, considering how many people are living here now.

Yes, the crowd this year was okay, considering the weather, but most people in the GTA simply didn’t know it was happening. It’s one thing to know about something and choose not to attend. It’s another when there’s ignorance.

For instance, when Lake Shore Blvd. West was closed for Thursday morning rush hour - the first of four days of shutdown for the race to be run - there was a big traffic jam eastbound on that road. Radio station 680 News sent a reporter down there to ask people why they hadn’t used another route. All those whose answers were put on the air didn’t know that the race was on and one guy said he thought the closure had something to do with the Pan Am Games.

There has been a real disconnect somewhere along the line and something has to be done about it or I feel we could lose this race. A week before the Honda Indy, the Grand Prix of Canada was held in Montreal. The comparison could not have been more stark. The Grand Prix dominates everything in Montreal when it’s on. Once upon a time, that was the case in Toronto, too.

In our interview, Miles said he was concerned about the way the Toronto race is being promoted. He also suggested that Rogers, which owns the rights to televise IndyCar races in Canada, might want to become more involved in the Honda Indy.

And for the hard-core fans who are bothered that the IndyCar season ends on Labour Day weekend, he hinted that if the company is unable to start the season earlier as planned, it’s possible there might have to be a race scheduled after Labour Day.

Here is an edited version of our conversation:

Are you happy with the way Toronto is going?

We think we have a very good product. I don’t think the racing has been better, at least in recent history. In other parts of the series, we have momentum.

The best events are the events that become part of the civic fabric of the city. It’s more than the sporting event on the track. We’ve got to find a way to make that happen here.

Our Toronto promoter is accomplishing that in St. Pete. I’ve seen meaningful improvements there, where the Dali Museum is a focus point, where there are festivals downtown in the streets.

So we have to figure out how to make it happen here - but that’s what’s missing. It’s very much a priority.

Your TV numbers aren’t that hot. What’s the plan?

We’re starting from a small base but I think a 25 per cent improvement year over year should not be dismissed at a time when many other sports, including motorsports, are declining. Market share is another matter – share and total audience – but the only way to get there is to start to improve it.

Last year, we went to ABC and convinced them — instead of taking the (Indianapolis) 500 and other races randomly — to take three consecutive weekends in May and then the double-header in Detroit. From five consecutive broadcasts, they could promote from week to week. It made a big difference in the ratings.

Between now and 2018, when the current contracts run out, the plan is to extend this logic. We will try to get ABC (with ESPN) to take — like NASCAR — the first half of the season and NBC Sports Network to take the second half. You will have greater continuity (of coverage) and better opportunities for the broadcaster to promote their broadcasts.

Sportsnet carries IndyCar in Canada but I couldn’t watch the Texas race in my Montreal hotel room (where I’d been sent to cover the Grand Prix) because it wasn’t on the Rogers channel on the TV.

We have a very good relationship with Rogers. (But) it’s complicated – the distribution issues you talked about (Montreal) are there. On the other hand, they seem like a willing partner to really promote. And you really need that from your broadcasting partner. I think they’re committed and I think they would like to get more involved in this race and maybe more involved in IndyCar, which would be good.

I just met with Scott Moore this morning and he told me that the ratings disappointed them in our first year, in 2013. We saw that. But we saw an improvement for 2014 and he says they’re up meaningfully so far this year. And they have Sportsnet Connected, which is a way to get attention outside the hard-core fan.

James Hinchcliffe and his boss, Ric Peterson, are investigating promoting a race in Calgary. Good idea?

We are aware and we have stayed in close touch and we are encouraging. From our point of view, there is a lot of strategic value in being in western Canada, or the northwest U.S.

The hardest part for us, if something could be put together there, is dates. Because we have a relatively short racing season and summer’s sort of prime time — there are very few U.S. places where you can race in the shoulder seasons, particularly early in the year - so we have to figure out the date. But it’s a market we’d like to be in and so we’re watching and communicating about that, with interest.

Your season ends on Labour Day. Many fans don’t like that. But your plan is to start the season earlier than the end of March, is it not?

It isn’t to do less and have a shorter season. It’s to slide the season earlier and ultimately have a longer season with more races.

We’ve got all the records and we know that whatever our average viewership and rating is prior to Labour Day, for every race run after that it’s down about 30 per cent. That’s not an IndyCar phenomenon. You can look at NASCAR’s ratings, for example, where whatever they do before Labour Day is what it is but during their Chase it’s less than that. I’m sure the Chase is helpful to them but it’s still a tougher television landscape for them after Labour Day.

But can we find the (earlier) races? There aren’t a lot of places in the States where we can race in February, or even the beginning of March. But we’re talking to all those places and hopefully we’ll have options.

A second issue so far as shifting the calendar earlier is non-American, non-Western Hemisphere opportunities. I’m as sure as I can be that eventually there will be two or three terrific options after the Super Bowl into the middle of March.

What we’d like to do – the pure model – is that we do that and once we start in the States and North America, we stay in North America. We’re committed to concluding the championship in North America. So it would be that early season.

I don’t have ‘em yet (early races). We’re working on it. I think the question for us is, if we don’t have ‘em for next year, can we lengthen the season, to add something after Labour Day anyway, even if it’s still in transition?

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We’re not gonna drive ourselves into a wall. But the strategy’s right and it’s just a matter of time till we can prove that.

FORMULA ONE AND THE OTHER RACES THIS WEEKEND

- Nico Rosberg got the jump on Lewis Hamilton when the lights went out in Austria Sunday and although there was some action back in the pack at the start and again near the end of the race, like most F1 races these days it was all over by the first corner.

That early action back in the pack came when Kimi Raikkonen, starting with the slow guys, lost control of his Ferrari and wound up underneath last year’s teammate, Fernando Alonso, who had made a storming start from the back and was in the process of passing Raikkonen in his McLaren-Honda.

You cringe when you see something like that because Alonso’s car could easily have landed on top of Raikkonen and the thought of what might have happened then makes you shudder. Alonso had a close escape of his own a couple of years ago when Romain Grosjean’s Lotus came down on top of his Ferrari.

In any event, Alonso’s teammate, Jenson Button, retired a lap or two afterward when his hybrid Honda refused to recharge. Both McLarens were out of the race so early it didn’t really seem like it had been worth all the trouble. To make matters worse, the new president of Honda had flown in for the race. You can imagine, then, that the atmosphere around the team afterward must have been a tad on the frosty side.

The race continued until Vettel went into the pits for fresh tires and the right-rear lug nut wouldn’t go on correctly and the four-time world champion sat there for what seemed like an eternity.

He finally got going but, in the meantime, Felipe Massa had flown past in a William-Mercedes. Try as Vettel might, he couldn’t reel in the Brazilian veteran who arrived at the checkers in third place.

By winning his third race of the season, Rosberg is now only 10 points behind Hamilton in the race for the world championship.

Oh, Red Bull’s Dietrich Mateschitz continued to talk about how he’s losing interest in F1 now that he’s losing the races. He thinks something has to be done to even out the competition. Funny how he didn’t bring that up when Red Bull was winning everything.

Kinda like Canadian politics, this is. All of a sudden there’s talk about changing the first-past-the-post way of holding elections. Didn’t hear any complaints about that system when the political party suggesting the change was winning most of the elections in the last century . . .

But I digress. Ferrari is apparently willing to step in and give Red Bull a hand by supplying it with engines in the years to come. Maybe that might make Dietrich happy.

- Alex Tagliani won the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series race at Sunset Speedway Saturday night in dominating fashion. For the first time in series history, a driver - Tagliani, in this case - lapped the entire field en route to victory.

Jason Hathaway, who won the race in Quebec last weekend, finished second, with rookie Cayden Lapcevich - son of veteran Jeff Lapcevich - third.

The race around the .333-mile banked oval was green from Lap 21 until Lap 287, which was pretty incredible. Said seventh-place finisher Alex Labbe about the 266 laps of green-flag racing: “I am sure I will never see a repeat of that ever again. It was tough physically and mentally to keep up the pace and my concentration over such a long period.”

Said winner Tagliani: “I can’t be happier for Crew Chief Tyler Case and our entire No. 18 crew. We have faced many challenges since our debut in 2014 and nobody has given up. Everyone works so hard day in and day out and right now I’m on top of the world.”

The Leland Industries 300 presented by Johnsonville will be seen on TSN next Sunday (June 28) at 1 p.m. The series will next be in action on July 5 at Circuit ICAR in Mirabel, Que.

- In other NASCAR action, Erik Jones won the Xfinity Series race at Chicagoland Speedway on Sunday after Saturday's originally scheduled race was rained out. Jones, who won Friday's Camping World Truck Series race at Iowa Speedway, led 94 out of 200 laps at Chicago. Ryan Blaney finished second and Austin Dillon was third. Ross Kenseth, son of Matt, finished sixth in his NASCAR national series debut.

- Yvan Muller led the first 2015 World Touring Car Championship race at the Slovakia Ring from pole position to the checkered flag Saturday. Sebastien Loeb won the round on Sunday.

- At Merrittville Speedway outside Thorold Saturday night, Boyd MacTavish won the Modified race, Cody McPherson was first in the Sportsman class, Leroy Buscumb won the 4 Cylinder Division, Mark Fawcett was first in Hoosier stocks and Josh Sliter came home in front in the Modified Lite division.

- At Brighton Speedway Saturday night, Josh Richards won the World of Outlaws Late Model Series race. The Outlaws show at Cornwall Speedway Sunday night was rained out. In World of Outlaws Sprint Car action at the Dakota State Fair Speedway in Huron, S.D., Saturday night, Donny Schatz won his fifth straight feature. That guy is just too good. The Southern Ontario Sprints shared the stage at Brighton Speedway, by the way, and Glenn Styres of Ohsweken won his first feature since capturing the 2014 SOS championship.

- In Ontario Legends racing at Peterborough Speedway Saturday night, Brian Saunders was first, with Cole Ledsen second and Jacob Sheridan third. At Ohsweken Speedway on the Six Nations Reserve on Friday night, Jared Zimbardi won the headline Corr/Pak Merchandising 360 Sprint Cars vs. Patriot Sprint Tour feature, with Todd Hoddick second and Bryan Howland third.

- The VARAC weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park - a throwback in more ways than one to the grassroots glory days of Canadian motorsport - was headlined by the Toyo Tires F1600 series. On Saturday, Mikhail Goikhberg beat teammate Zacharie Robichon to the line, with Andre Du Preez third. Robichon won the race on Sunday, with Reid Arnold second and Goikhberg third.