For nearly four decades, IndyCar‘s lone trip to Canada ran through the streets around Exhibition Place in downtown Toronto. This year, that stamp on the calendar moved about 30 kilometres north, to a brand-new circuit in the city of Markham. IndyCar still has one international round on its schedule and after a chaotic but thrilling debut weekend, Markham looks like it’s ready to hold onto that title for a while.
Reaching Markham Was a Breeze
Getting there was, somewhat surprisingly, the easy part. The GO Train’s Stouffville line runs straight to Unionville, and the platform lets fans off close enough to the circuit that finding the entrance barely required a map. For a first-year event, that’s not a small thing. Race weekends live or die a little on whether people can actually get to the gate without a headache, and Markham passed that test before a single car turned a lap.
The cars, as it turned out, took a bit longer. Friday was supposed to be the weekend’s first look at the new track. Instead it became a lesson in how unforgiving a brand-new venue can be. Practice sessions were pushed back and then scrapped entirely as the promoters worked to finish setting up the circuit, leaving fans with a schedule board full of delays and not much else. It was the kind of first impression a new race never wants to make.
Redemption Came Quickly
Saturday is where Markham started to make its case. Cars finally hit the track, IndyCar practice got underway at 10 a.m. ET, and the grumbling from Friday started to fade. Drivers expressed their praise for the layout and emphasized just how fun the circuit was to drive.
By Sunday, the circuit had fans’ full attention. Marcus Ericsson took the win, holding off Romain Grosjean and Will Power in a race that has become deemed as one of the best of the season so far.
Ericsson, unsurprisingly, had the best summary of all after a race that suited him perfectly.
“There’s no margin for error. You’re in the wall straight away. It’s a bit like a road course but with walls around…”
Downtown Circuit vs. Markham: What actually changed?
A few things stood out when weighing the old circuit against the new one. The downtown circuit had thirty-plus years to smooth out its rough edges. Markham had zero, and it showed on Friday. First-year growing pains are the price of a new venue, but the only thing that mattered was how they turned it around when points were on the line on Sunday.
General admission spots at Markham were a clear step up from downtown, giving fans better sightlines of the action without needing a grandstand ticket. Unlike the downtown circuit as well, there was no shortage of food and beverage options. Markham simply offered more of it, with a wider spread of options than the downtown event typically had on site.
To the surprise of most locals, getting to Markham was one of the easier parts of the weekend. There were designated parking lots within walking distance to the circuit. Uber had a clear drop off point, and lastly, the public transportation was easy, efficient, and price effective. Downtown’s setup came with the usual friction of a traffic, lack of parking, and no direct route. Markham’s GO Train link, dropped fans essentially at the front gate, which was one of the weekend’s clearest upgrades regardless of the Friday chaos around it.
None of it fully erased the frustration of a Friday with no track action, and fans were vocal about the disorganization that caused it. But the racing on Sunday did what good racing always does, it made up for the chaos and overshadowed the negatives with narratives solely about the incredible on-track action. IndyCar’s only race outside the U.S. just moved into a new home, but with the performance of the weekend, it is one that will stay around for many years to come.
Feature Image: Logan Fung