HILLIARD, Ohio - Take off/To the Great White North/Take off/It’s a beauty way to go - Bob and Doug McKenzie

Rahal Letterman Racing’s Ryan Hunter-Reay (#17 Ethanol Dallara/Honda/Firestone) will get back to his roots this weekend as he returns to the Edmonton City Centre Airport layout where the Champ Car World Series made its home from 2005 to 2007. Hunter-Reay was part of the crew that christened the circuit in 2005, and will now look to rebound from a tough weekend at Mid-Ohio as the IndyCar Series makes its first-ever trip to the Canadian airport circuit.

Hunter-Reay and his RLR squad overcame a number of troubles throughout the last weekend’s Mid-Ohio event to salvage a top-10 result, and will look for a stronger effort during Saturday’s Rexall Edmonton Indy event.

The track is the first full airport course ever to appear on an IndyCar Series schedule, as while St. Petersburg uses part of an airport, much of its course winds through the city’s streets.

The 1.973-mile Edmonton layout features a pair of high-speed sections with a wide frontstretch that includes a attention-grabbing chicane right in front of the massive expanse of grandstands, which the fastest cars will take flat-footed.

“Edmonton is a challenging track and you need to be on top of your game to get everything out of your car,” Hunter-Reay said. “It is fun for us to go there because the fan support has always been so strong. The first year I went there we had 50,000 fans sitting there watching and we weren’t even on track because it was raining!”

Hunter-Reay and RLR will be looking to earn back-to-back top-10 finishes for the first time this season with this weekend’s trip to Edmonton. Hunter-Reay is currently ninth in the IndyCar Series point standings, but has the KV Racing duo of Oriol Servia and Will Power - both of whom also have previous Edmonton experience - nipping at his heels just two and seven points behind respectively.

“We left some points on the table last week at a track where I expected to have a better weekend,” Hunter-Reay said. “The schedule is playing to our strengths right now, and maybe away from some of the other teams that we are chasing, so it is important to put last week behind us and go hard this week.”

Things get underway Thursday at Edmonton with a pair of practice sessions, leading to Friday’s Firestone Fast Six qualifying, which begins at 3:15 p.m. Mountain Time. The race is a rare Saturday afternoon race, scheduled as to not coincide with the NASCAR event at Indianapolis on Sunday. The Rexall Edmonton Indy takes place at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday and can be seen live on ESPN.