Canadian Touring Car Series Dominates Victoria Day Speedfest

Bowmanville, Ontario - 36 of Canada’s best drivers came to show the fans they had the “right stuff” this past Saturday & Sunday during the Mosport International Raceway’s Victoria Day Speed Fest Weekend. Canada’s biggest racing series, The Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship presented by Toyo Tires, brought out their A game for a fantastic double header set of races.

Saturdays practice session began with typical Mosport spring like weather, cold and rainy, and an especially slick racing surface that the drivers would have to deal with during the 30-minute session. Nick & Kuno Wittmer, driving for Lombardi Honda followed closely by Dave Ciekiewicz in his BMW we’re the top three fastest in the Super Touring Class.

The Touring class top three quickest drivers were Frank Blanchet piloting his Acura Integra, Anthony Rapone in his Honda Civic SI and Quebec native Alain Lauziere in his BMW Mini. 23 of the 36 registered drivers participated in the rain soaked practice while others opted out to either wait for the mid-morning qualifying session or just didn’t have their cars sorted out yet for the wet track conditions.

During the 30 minute morning qualifying session 33 drivers made their way out to yet another rain filled session that would result in slower lap times than each driver would have liked, but they did everything they could to make their way to the front of the starting grid. Just as in the earlier practice session Nick Wittmer lead the field with a solid 1:45.560 to take the pole in the afternoon heat race. Kuno Wittmer, not to be outdone by his brother laid down a lap less than 2/10th behind Nick with Mathieu Audette trailing behind by only 4/10th’s off the leaders time.
Touring car class driver Anthony Rapone ran a 1:53.350 relegating Alain Lauziere to second spot with a 1:53.510 and Frank Blanchet a strong 1:55.918 securing 3rd spot on the starting grid.

For Saturday afternoon’s race, Nick Wittmer (pole sitter), & Nigel (position 4) and Nicolas Krikorian (position 9) and Richard Boake (position 7) made a last minute decision in their pit to switch to rain tires, which in turn led to them being late to the mock grid. Once the three-minute warning on mock grid was displayed all four drivers had to start from the back of the pack, losing out their prime starting positions.

Now presented with the pole starting position, Lombardi Honda driver Kuno Wittmer along side Mathieu Audette in his Acura RSX and just ahead of the two BMW drivers Etienne Borgeat and Dave Ciekiewicz took the field to the green flag for some intense racing action.

Audette held the lead for the first 5 laps while Nick Wittmer was making his assault from the back of the pack. By lap 2 Wittmer had passed 12 cars and was making a charge to the front. After a brief stint as the leader on lap six, Kuno was passed by his brother who would lead the balance of the 16 laps eventually taking the win. Richard Boake rocketed from 30th position and followed Wittmer to the front of the field in similar fashion to finish 2nd overall with Dave Ciekiewicz rounding out the third spot on the podium.

Other impressive drives in Super Touring class were Versace Subaru driver Nigel Krikorian who started 26th finishing 5th overall, his brother Nicolas from 29th to 11th and Arek Wojciechowski 24th to 10th.

The battle in Touring class was hard fought by BMW Mini driver Alain Lauziere, and the trio of Acura drivers Frank Blanchet, Steve Greiner and Nigel Heron. The four did exactly what was needed to keep them ahead of the rest of the touring class pack while mixing it up with the leading Super Touring class cars for the entire 16-lap race. On lap nine Blanchet’s hopes of a spot atop the podium were dashed when the pins that secure the hood failed and resulted in having to retire early handed over the second place spot to Greiner.

In a post race ruling Nick Wittmer and Richard Boake were penalized for not holding their position during the warm up pace laps and were stripped of their finishing positions awarding the race win to Ciekiewicz.

34 drivers answered the call to the grid for Sunday’s 30-minute feature race with Dave Ciekiewicz and Kuno Wittmer leading the field to the green flag on a bright sunny yet cold afternoon. Wittmer held off a hard pressing Ciekiewicz for the first four laps only to have the lead snatched away by 2008 Super Touring Class champion Nigel Krikorian on lap five. Etienne Borgeat had a fantastic start and made his way to the fifth place spot from his 15th place starting position by lap two. Borgeat surgically weaved his way through traffic to find himself chasing down the leader by only the 6th lap. Wittmer had fallen to third spot where he continually attempted to catch & pass Borgeat.

Alain Lauziere led the Touring class for the first seven laps but a hard charging Anthony Rapone took the class lead away from him on lap nine. The two battled back and forth switching positions on laps 11, 13 and finally on lap 17 when Rapone’s Civic SI proved to be just slightly faster than Lauziere’s Mini at the end of 19 laps. Rounding out the podium in third spot was Acura driver Nigel Heron, who through most of the race kept his distance from fourth place Honda driver Aldo Lombardi.

The championship now is on a two week hiatus as the teams prepare to do it all again in Round 2 at Shannonville Motorsport Park, just east of Belleville Ontario on May 30 & 31 2009 as part of the Deutscher Automobil Club regional race series.

For up-to-date championship information and a complete schedule, please visit www.touringcar.ca.