Sports
ALBERTA’S PARKER THOMPSON AND SPEEDSTAR MOTORSPORT CONTINUE AUTHORITATIVE CAMPAIGN IN CANADIAN TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP

From Parker Thompson Racing
On a beautiful Canada Day weekend at Shannonville Motorsport Park, Parker Thompson continued his winning ways in the Canadian Touring Car Championship. Now six races into this 10 race 2019 schedule, Thompson is undefeated driving the #1 Audi R8 LMS GT4 of Speedstar Motorsport and New Roads Automotive Group.
For Thompson, the weekends event represented his first drive of Shannonville Motorsport Park. With only one 15-minute practice session ahead of Saturday’s qualifying round, it was crucial that Thompson quickly accustom himself to the 15 turn, 4.0 km road course, east of Toronto. For Race 1, he earned pole position late in qualifying, and then lead the 40-minute race from start to finish. Sunday’s Race 2 took place on the shorter 2.5 km Pro-Track and followed a very similar storyline.

The young Albertan has led every single lap of the Canadian Touring Car Championship season to date. While he and Speedstar Motorsport were considered by many to be strong favorites for the 2019 championship title, such a dominant performance was unexpected. For Thompson, the success that has been experienced so far, is expected to serve as foundation for future endeavors in sports car racing.

“Many thanks to Frank Law and the whole Speedstar Motorsport team for our performance this weekend. As a driver, coming to a new race track with limited preparation time is no easy task. The team did an incredible job helping me get the #1 Speedstar Motorsport / New Roads Automotive Group Audi R8 LMS GT4 up to speed quickly. With our performance so far this year, it’s very easy to be confident in this race car. I’m looking forward to the remaining events in this 2019 season, and I’m excited about what opportunities might lie beyond that!” – Parker Thompson
Alberta Sports Hall of Fame and Museum
Alberta Sports Hall of Fame 2025 Inductee profiles – Alpine Skiing Athlete – Brady Leman

Brady Leman – Alpine Skiing Athlete
Calgary native Brady Leman, born October 16, 1986, is celebrated as one of Canada’s most successful ski cross athletes. Overcoming a broken leg at the 2010 Olympics and a near-podium finish in 2014, Brady achieved gold in men’s ski cross at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.
With 6 World Cup victories and 32 podiums, he retired in 2023 after winning his final race on Canadian soil.
Beyond his athletic achievements, Brady actively supports future athletes through fundraising and leadership roles, including serving on the Alberta Alpine Ski Association Board. His induction honors his remarkable career and contributions to Canadian skiing.
Bruce Dowbiggin
What Connor Should Say To Oilers: It’s Not You. It’s Me.

This just in. Connor McDavid is on track to be the greatest hockey player ever. Apologies to the Gretz/ Orr/ Howe partisans. But if he stays healthy and gets the hell out of Edmonton he will be hands-down the best ever. He is equal measures of Gretzky’s intuitive genius, Orr’s 200-foot impact. Howe’s sandpaper attitude. It’s an honour to watch him.
We know, we know, if he is so great why couldn’t he get the Oilers over the hump, particularly the past two seasons against Florida? Gretz, Orr, Howe all won Stanley Cups while leading their teams. So did Mario Lemieux. Fair point. But Howe in his prime never played more than two series in the postseason. Orr often played just three. Gretz teams often bagelled opponents for years.
McDavid’s teams the last two years have had lengthy paths to tred. Just getting to a Final is a huge accomplishment. Repeating that feat (going seven then six games) in the Final is humungous. It’s exhausting, mentally and physically. That’s why so few teams do it.
Still, that’s not the point. We have been asking since 2018 how long McDavid will hobble his legacy by staying in Edmonton. Those early columns were talking about a team that missed playoffs or did a Maple Leafs fold early on. The current iteration of the Oilers has gotten to the brink. They have players who’ve been around a while. And fell short.

Now the Oilers are an old team, the oldest in the regular season, the oldest team in the playoffs this year. Teams carrying more than two plus-30 players have a miserable track record of winning Cups. And the Oilers have zero Grade A prospects in the pipeline. At 28, McDavid is a young guy on their roster. Not good.
As the hockey world knows he can sign an extension on July 1 to follow the contract he has now. Money will be no object as the NHL salary cap (finally) goes up. Term will be forever if he wants it. His running mate Leon Draisaitl is tied up till age 36. The Oilers desperately want him to stay after the Gretzky fiasco in 1988. So what is he going to do? He’s got national endorsements in Canada, but in the U.S.? Connor who? The sky is the limit.
Oilers fans palpitating over the future of their star were looking for hints as to his mindset when he met the media following the Oilers loss in six games to Florida. It was a chance for him to say he’s staying, he loves the place, his wife is committed to freezing every winter in the Alberta capital. He could have cried and said “Mess told me not to do that”.
What they got was a lot of maybe. Yes, he kept the doors open, but he said he needs time to see the landscape till the clock tolls on July 1. He needs to examine whether this veteran team has a future. Because in a few years they’ll be like Howe’s Detroit teams in the 60s, a played-out dynasty.
Under NHL rules no team can contact him about signing. But he will know that everyone will want him at a max deal. Some will offer no state income tax. Some will have teams on the cusp of the Cup he desires (see Matthew Tkachuk to Florida in 2023). Some will be giant U.S. media cities with the ability to make him what Gretzky became in L.A. Some will offer warm weather and anonymity away from the rink.
These are all knowns. For the impatient, teams can approach the Oilers now about a trade. So he’s holding all the cards. It’s prom night and he gets his pick. Unless Edmonton (gulp) jumps the gun on a trade.

Let’s play Peter Pocklington for a minute here and see this from the Oilers’ POV. Pocklington traded Gretzky, because Peter was broke. That’s not Darryl Katz’s problem. His problem is his team is about to get ancient. There is no McDavid for Draisaitl on the horizon. Plus, you’ve tied up several players (Nurse, Nugent Hopkins) to contracts they can’t hope to play up to. And youngish players coming into free agency.
He must address the other side of the 1988 Gretzky equation. How to get full market value for a superstar? Which means getting another star to help Draisaitl going forward. You could let the two play out the string together in Edmonton, of course. But with so many strong teams in Colorado, Vegas, Dallas, even Winnipeg that would be a hard slog. And by the time you realized that it would be too late.
The smart play, as Michael Corleone would say, is move fast. Trade McDavid before the start of next season for a boatload of young players to supplement Draisaitl. Take a short-term PR hit but live to compete another day.
Of course, Katz is not going to trade McDavid. He’s a fanboy owner. He’ll throw the Rexall kitchen sink at him and hope that’s enough. McDavid will be patient (if he’s smart). The “will-he-sign?” drama will bleed into the next season, a millstone for the team. The distractions will mount before Edmonton realizes that an unsigned McDavid is a liability. And Connor on a max deal with a minus team is no bargain either.
Remember the re-structured Oilers won a Cup in 1990 using Mark Messier and the players they got for Gretzky. Think about it, Edmonton.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
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