The NTT IndyCar . Series come back here Toronto this weekend after a two-year hiatus caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It’s been 55 years since IndyCar held its first championship round in Canada. Since 1967, the National Championships have been held in various cities north of the border from Montreal to Vancouver on Canada’s West Coast, but IndyCar’s oldest event in Canada to date is a street race in Toronto. It’s hard to believe that the temporary circuit was originally intended to hold Formula 1‘S Canadian Grand Prix.
IndyCar’s first visit to Canada was the 1967 Telegraph Trophy 200 at Mosport, now known as the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Mosport, about 50 miles northeast of Toronto, was and is arguably still the premier permanent racing facility in Canada. Just a month later, the track also hosted Canada’s first World Championship Grand Prix. IndyCar will revisit the Ontarian circuit in 1968 before ending the partnership, concluding a brief two-year visit at Circuit Mont-Tremblant in Quebec.
In 1968, there was a proposal to move both the IndyCar and F1 races to Toronto. The track is scheduled to center around the Canadian National Show and use Lake Shore Drive, similar to the current IndyCar street. The only major difference between the two is that the now demolished Exhibition Stadium field will be used for a straight start.
This move may have taken away two of Mosport’s most profitable events, so track owners took extreme measures to prevent that. They went to a local group in Toronto to sow discontent over a potential race on their streets. Based on Toronto Starthey “scare their daylight with stories of noise-induced deafness, and the terror caused by the Angels of Hell, who will burn down their homes and kidnap their daughters.”
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It worked. The Canadian Grand Prix stayed at Mosport, but IndyCar abandoned Canada. Mosport would go on to host eight of the first ten Canadian Grands Prix. During that span, Canadian brewery Labatt would become the race’s title sponsor. Also, Formula 1 racing became dramatically faster and much more popular over the decade. The Grand Prix outgrew Mosport, and Labatt wanted to take up a revised version of the late 60s proposal for 1978, but the public opinion was still against the idea a decade later. Toronto City Council voted to reject the event by a margin of two votes. The Canadian Grand Prix moved to Montreal instead, where it remains today.
In the wake of the Montreal move, Labatt’s competitor Molson helped IndyCar return to Canada in 1978 with a race at Mosport. In 1985, Molson decided that the third time could be the charm and spared no expense to make it happen. Toronto-based newspaper The Globe and Mail called the event “the most expensive beer commercial in Canadian history.” The Toronto City Council this time voted in favor by a margin of two votes. There are a number of conditions, including limiting the number of attendees to 60,000 and Molson covering the cost of resurfacing.
Aside from a small controversy with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway over the use of the term “Indy” in the event name, the 1986 Molson Indy Toronto went out without a hitch and became a perennial fixture. in IndyCar’s schedule. Molson was the race’s title sponsor for 30 years until the partnership ended after the 2006 event.
