October’s a dark month for the racing world. The recent losses of Sean Edwards just a week ago and Maria de Villota (October 11) join a laundry list of tragedies that have all come in this month.
Dan Wheldon (October 16, 2011), Greg Moore (October 31, 1999) and MotoGP rider Marco Simoncelli (October 23, 2011) are three of the other high profile names lost; the 2011 stretch of days also claimed Michael Wanser, 6-year-old son of Target Chip Ganassi Racing team manager Barry Wanser and off-road racer Rick Huseman.
And 10 years ago today is another somber anniversary, for yet another driver whose promising career was cut short before it ever fully blossomed.
Tony Renna had been signed by Ganassi for the 2004 season to replace Tomas Scheckter, and be teammate to then-first-time champion Scott Dixon. The two had been Indy Lights teammates in 2000 at Bruce McCaw’s PacWest Racing team.
Ganassi was poised for the future with Renna, then 26, and Dixon, then 23, in the seats of the team’s Panoz-Toyotas. But a testing accident at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at Turn 3 claimed Renna’s life, before he ever had the chance to race for the team.
Renna had starred in substitute roles for Kelley Racing in place of Al Unser Jr. in 2002, and had a third car added for the second half of that season and at the 2003 Indianapolis 500, where he finished seventh. He’d raced in Indy Lights for three seasons (1998 to 2000) prior to that.
“Everyone who worked with him loved him,” said Chris Simmons, in a piece written by the Indianapolis Star’s Phillip B. Wilson. Simmons was another former teammate of Renna’s who has worked with Ganassi as engineer on Dario Franchitti’s No. 10 car since the Scot’s return to IndyCar racing from NASCAR.
Renna’s memory still lives with an annual award presented in his honor, the Tony Renna Rising Star Award, which was awarded to Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing sophomore Josef Newgarden at Sunday night’s IndyCar championship banquet.
And just this past weekend at the American Le Mans Series finale at Petit Le Mans, Patrick Long paid tribute to Renna with a Troy Lee-designed helmet.
The focus of the Detroit Monster Energy Supercross round was on the mid-pack battle while Aaron Plessinger pulled away from the field, but when he crashed after hooking his foot in the dirt, the results once more looked like we’ve come to expect, with Chase Sexton, Cooper Webb and Eli Tomac sharing the podium for the fifth time in 10 rounds.Justin Barcia was part of an exciting, four-rider battle in the middle of Detroit’s A-Main. – Feld Motor Sports
For Sexton, Plessinger’s late-race crash was a vindication of sorts. Several times already this season, Sexton has crashed while battling for the lead and the points that has cost him keeps him sporting the red plate. He lost points in Detroit for a different reason, however.
Sexton was allowed to keep the win, but was penalized seven points for jumping in a red cross section of the course. As a result, he dropped four points to Webb and two to Tomac. Sexton is now 17 points behind Webb in the championship hunt.
One week after snatching the red plate from Tomac for the first time in 2023, Webb stretched his advantage by two. With his second-place finish, Webb holds a three-point lead over Tomac, which essentially means both riders control their fate in the coming weeks. Webb continues to have a sweep of the top five this season with his sixth consecutive podium.
Coming off his worst finish of the season, Tomac rebounded to finish third. His eighth-place result last week was partially attributed to a stiff neck that hindered him in traffic and he still suffered some of those same effects in Detroit. Before Plessinger’s crash, he was destined to be the only rider in the three-man title scrum to finish off the podium in Detroit.
It is surprising what one position can do for one’s confidence.
Justin Barcia scored his fourth top-five of the season. He was part of the exciting four-man battle that dominated the middle stages of the race before Sexton and Webb gained a little separation. Finishing less than three seconds behind Tomac, he kept that rider honest for the entire race.
Coming off his first win of the season, Ken Roczen finished fifth. It was his seventh top-five of the season and it elevated him to fifth in the standings.
Hunter Lawrence tied his brother Jett Lawrence with 10 wins each after another dominating ride in the Detroit Supercross race and the results in the points continue to widen. With his fifth win in six rounds and a worst finish of third, Lawrence now has a 35-point advantage over Nate Thrasher with four rounds remaining. Finishes of 14th or better in the final four mains will give him his first 250 championship.
Strong starts have been one of the keys to Hunter Lawrence’s success in 2023. – Feld Motor Sports
Jett will have an opportunity to retake his wins’ lead as Supercross heads west for the next two rounds in Seattle and Glendale, Arizona.
Nate Thrasher earned his third second-place finish of the season with a gap of 7.6 seconds to Lawrence. He won the overall in Arlington earlier this season, but a 15th-place finish in the opening round in Houston and 10th in Daytona hurts his championship chances.
Haiden Deegan scored his second podium and fourth top-five in six rounds of his young career. On his way to that finish, he rode aggressively against his teammate Jordon Smith in the heat race. Fans are getting a glimpse of what his on-track personality might be.
Jeremy Martin continues to be the model of consistency. He has not finished worse than sixth or better than fourth in six rounds now and that has allowed him to close to within two points of third in the 250 East championship standings.
Max Anstie entered the race weekend second in the points, but a hard crash in heavy traffic early in the main forced him to retire after two laps. Earning only one point for the round, he plummeted to fifth in the standings.
The news was worse for Smith, who was dropped out of the top nine in his heat after the altercation with Deegan and failed to advance through the LCQ. In the last chance race, he stalled his engine and had to mount a determined charge. He got only as high as seventh in that race after crashing while attempting to make a pass on fourth-place Jack Chambers.
