Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 7, 2007 — Today's the day when the lucky numbers come up sevens. Many folks -- well, mostly brides -- planned weddings specifically for this day. Some even went as far as making sure the ceremony takes place at 7:00. Some of the nuttier ones tried to ensure the guest list was exactly 77. Hmm, I wonder if anyone went through this sort of effort last year on June 6?

I'm a bit of a numerologists myself. Though, I don't take it too seriously. Numbers are numbers and you can make of them what you will. Plus, different cultures attach different meanings to certain numbers, and they are all, when you get right down to it, as meaningless as the other.

But heck, it's fun!

My favorite time of the day is 12:34. Therefore, on May 6, 1978, my all time greatest time/date stamp (the abbreviated version, of course) occurred ... twice. I likely will not be alive to see it happen again in 71 years... My college roommate preferred 11:11. Thus, in four years on November 11, he will be in number heaven.

Angelo has a thing with the number 205 ever since it appeared in a high school football game he was playing in as the time remaining, and a teammate made a joke about it. Ever since then it always appeared to pop up in his life, becoming a joke whenever it does. Just the other day, I was over his house, and he showed me a box that contained a part for his Miata that he ordered. Written on the box for the stock number was "205."

In Western culture, the number "13" is considered bad luck. My grandmother, who was very superstitious, or as my father always says, stupidititious, always considered Friday the 13th her favorite day, in a sort of twisted logic to avert any bad luck. In the Japanese culture, even numbers are not the ones to have.

You will rarely see a race car numbered 13, but Frankie Muniz has no problem putting it on his Atlantic racer. Race car drivers are notoriously superstitious, and numbers are just one aspect. Some believe that you should not have a number that can be read upside down (though no one has a problem putting number "1" as the champion on their car). Also, there are those who do not want any number that is a factor of 13 such as 26, 39, etc.

Amazingly, on this weekend of 7/7/7, it is the seventh round of the Champ Car World Series. The most number of wins at Toronto? Why, 7 of course by Michael Andretti. Whether cars carrying the number 7 were lucky or not I suppose is relative, which is exactly why I say numerology is not to be taken seriously. You can make anything you want out of it.

Oriol Servia started the weekend on a high note qualifying second on Friday, .018-seconds behind Sebastien Bourdais. Today, he dropped one spot after the second day of qualifying with a speed of 107.704 mph to start third for the race. In Atlantic, John Edwards improved over the weekend, qualifying 10th after Friday, and winding up 6th after Saturday with a speed of 95.707 mph. We're sure piling up those sevens. For Star Mazda, James Davison went the other way -- he started third but dropped down to sixth in the race.

Since we are on the numbers kick, lets throw in a few more. Raphael Matos sits on the Atlantic pole, threatening the streak of 16 of having an American or Canadian always win the Toronto event. Atlantic first ran in Toronto in 1990, four years after the Grand Prix started, and ran every year except for 1999

Angelo joked only about 25% of the drivers in the Canadian Touring Car Series hit an apex. Then there are the numbers for the Steelback girls. We're talking measurements. We're talking eye-bulging ... like wow! Speaking of which, the Miss Grand Prix was a huge disappointment. The contestants were certainly good, but the whole production, which was not associated with the Face of Champ Car, was a complete bust. No pun intended.

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Copyright © 2007 by Russell Jaslow and Deep Throttle. All Rights Reserved.