Toronto, Canada -- Compass360 Racing's Dave Ciekiewicz took to the streets of Toronto last weekend for the Honda Toronto Indy at the helm of the team's #36 Acura TSX. Entered in the Acura Sports Car Challenge, the fifth round of the Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship, the team's signature matte-black and florescent-orange TSX was a hit with the huge number of fans that turned out for the Saturday and Sunday CCTCC races.
"It was so great to race on this track and to see all the people in the stands," enthused Ciekiewicz. "The racing was close, and I know people love to see our production-based cars battle against each other on this tight circuit."
Indeed, there is no room for error on the concrete-walled gauntlet that forms the Toronto Indy track. Ciekiewicz qualified eleventh, continuing to improve and adapt to the front-wheel-drive Acura after starting the first two races of the year in a rear-wheel-drive BMW.
On Saturday, DC demonstrated masterful racecraft, moving up through the field and finishing seventh during the first CCTCC race of the weekend, held in the mid-afternoon. "The car worked really well, and I'm still getting used to the nuances of a front-wheel-drive car,"
remarked Ciekiewicz. "It's amazing how different it feels to go into a corner loose and to put your foot to the floor, knowing the front end will pull you out and put down the power."
For the second race, on Sunday morning, Dave was in the heat of the top-ten battle. At the two-thirds point, he tried a late-braking maneuver down the end of the long back straight along Lakeshore Boulevard, which would have worked wonderfully had another car not been parked backwards at the apex of corner three. As it was, DC did an astonishing job of keeping the #36 Acura off the walls and other competitors, and running down the escape road. He quickly turned around and rejoined the race, now in 19th, which was where he finished, not having enough time to make up the positions he'd lost.
Some great YouTube footage here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74FWQG1dxvw
"I was impressed with Dave's drives this weekend," noted Team Principal Karl Thomson. "It's a great event, right in our own back yard, and to see DC do so well, continuing to improve session after session, was fantastic. Our guys did a great job too, and I'm just thrilled with the whole team, with special thanks Ivan Ceccato and Steve Scala who really pulled out all the stops."
Compass360 Racing's next event is this coming weekend, where they will once again field three front-running Honda Civic Si's in Grand-Am's KONI Challenge, this time at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama. The team current sits first in the KONI championship, and hopes to extend that lead.
Look for details on the team's website at http://c360r.com/.
0 comments:
Post a Comment