hour later, would turn tragic with news of the death of a track worker.

How the joyful mood of the 44th Canadian Grand Prix changed so suddenly.

It was not supposed to end in the final few laps with a track worker horribly crushed by a mobile crane that was removing a disabled car from the circuit, the crane’s driver not having seen him slip beneath the wheels as he retrieved a dropped radio.

It was not supposed to end with a man airlifted to Sacré-Coeur Hospital for treatment of massive internal injuries.

Nor with the death of this man, who wasn’t immediately identified Sunday night, a 38-year-old who had spent the day volunteering around the fast cars and racing spectacle he had loved through his decade-long involvement with Montreal’s annual FormulaOne event.

Racing, everything about the sport tells you, is a dangerous business.

But it is not supposed to be dangerous around vehicles that are moving a few kilometres per hour, out of range of the cars that are travelling a few hundred times that.

This terrible tragedy cast a long shadow over Circuit Gilles Villeneuve Sunday night as crews began tearing down the installations that had transformed Île Notre-Dame into its yearly destination for the global Formula One circus.

It was the first fatality at this track since June 13, 1982, when Riccardo Paletti’s car was involved in a fiery wreck in a starting-grid collision. Paletti died at Royal Victoria Hospital, to where he was airlifted.

And this was the third death of a Formula One track worker since 2000, others losing