Toronto started with high expectations. I was really looking forward to our first street circuit in front of the enthusiastic Canadian fans. Street circuits entail running on a slippery surface between two concrete barriers with no runoff room. Make a mistake; You're in the wall.

When we arrived, the track was very green, meaning there was no rubber on the surface and it was very dirty. The first cars on the track essentially "pick up" the dirt through the downforce of the car, earning the nickname "street sweepers."

For qualifying I was still struggling with a brake bias issue from the previous race. We had been having this problem for the previous three races and had replaced different pieces along the way, but nothing seems to help. I had my brake bias (the relationship between the front brakes and the rear brakes) set to full rear but the front tires were still locking up. This is particularly bad in Toronto because there are three heavy brake zones that are bumpy. For final qualifying we tried one last fix. It helped a little bit but I ended up in 6th. I did have a lap that would have put me on pole, but the front tires locked up in turn 8. I knew that I was fast but the braking problem was still hurting me.

During the Sunday morning warm-up, we tweaked the brakes a little more and it was the best it had all weekend. Starting 6th, I took the green flag and passed two cars on the first lap. I managed to get through the bumping and spinning cleanly and it was time to go to work. I was able to build a gap from the cars behind me and catch up to 3rd place. We ran together for a while and got closer to the leaders. Then my coach said over the radio that there was oil down in turns 9, 10 and 11 - the fastest section of the track. You don’t want to slow down in fear of falling back, yet you want to be cautious as not to end up in the wall. We all made it through but not before slipping and sliding and nearly running out of room. The next few laps were spent trying to find the fast way through the oil until it dried up.

I had a good restart after a yellow flag and almost gained a position. As the race wound down we had another yellow, bunching up the field again for a three-lap sprint to the end. I was defending my position and saw a chance to make a move into turn three. The brake zone for turn three slows the car from 140 to 40mph. As I got closer I realized that there wasn’t enough room. The car in front of me turned into the corner and I hit his tire with my nose. The nose/shock-cover flew up into the air and was run over by some of the other cars. I managed to get through the corner without any problem. I remember peering over the front of the car to see if I still had my front wings. During that time the first and secondplace cars were fighting it out when one of them went too deep and spun. This moved me into third. I was happy to have made it to the podium on a weekend with continuing car problems. Additionally, it put me into 2nd place in the championship heading into the second half of the season.

We are racing this weekend in Cleveland on the Burke-Lakefront airport. This is a high-speed track along Lake Erie. Check out the web site for all the details including live timing and scoring at www.marcbreuers.com.

Until then...