Canadian Tin-Tops

I always say if you want to see a good side-by-side, action packed motor race check out a touring car event. From the British Touring Car Championship to the German DTM series, the races are a spectators dream; there is action aplenty and more often than not, it is more than paint being swapped by racers who never give their opponents an inch. Toronto’s John Bondar had a vision when he started the Canadian Touring Car Championship. His plan was to emulate these lofty series and give the Canadian fans something they could be proud of and talk about with some excitement after the events conclusion. And it must have worked, in a conversation after the recently completed Montreal event, Bondar had this to say, “We have had quite an amazing season. As we approach the final weekend, we still haven’t crowned any Champions which means it is still all up for grabs at ICAR (for the fifth season in a row, I may add!!). We have had new winners this season, one of them was in a Scion which is the first road racing victory for the brand anywhere. And we held our first night race which was a huge hit with the drivers and fans. Speaking of fans, the number of Facebook fans has tripled, the number of Twitter followers has tripled and our at-track audience grew to over 450,000. So, we are doing better than great!” Mind you, Bondar had good help from the start, stalwart Canadian Motorsport sponsor, Castrol Wakefield was just as excited about the new touring car series and came on board as series sponsor and has been with the series for all five years of its existence! In 2011 they were joined by Continental Tire as the presenting sponsor in addition to being official tire supplier. Having two multinationals on board gives the CTCC a credibility that goes far and raises the profile of the series within more than just the motorsport arena, well-done Mr. Bondar, good job there. So what about the series? Split into two classes Super and Touring, both classes run together during qualifying and races, giving an extra bit of excitement when the slower Touring cars start to mix it up with the more modified Super class. One common denominator between the classes is the use of the new for 2011 Continental Extreme Contact race tires and Sunoco as the sole fuel supplier for the series. Super class cars are restricted to a 3-liter engine capacity and have free reign on the engine internals, brakes, suspension and exhaust. Supercharged or turbocharged cars are limited to using the OEM factory installed equipment. Aerodynamics can be enhanced with front and rear wings but no rear diffusers are allowed. Fully functional front and rear lights complete the package as

some of the races include competition in darkness. Their little brothers in the Touring class are seen as entry level; that is not to say they are not as competitive or exciting to watch. Some of the best racing I have seen has come from Octane Motorsports and M&S Racing. Restricted to 2-liters capacity there is little a team can do to a Touring class engine. Superchargers and turbos have to be OEM but are further restricted by the use of the factory airbox. Brakes have to be as fitted by the factory for the model being raced and only rear wings can be fitted. The rules have been set up to allow almost any manufacturer to take part in the series and some such as BMW, Honda and Scion go above and beyond to offer assistance to their racers. BMW racers can enter the BMW Sports Trophy, which marks its 50th anniversary during 2011. A registered driver can count his finishes in the CTCC and report the results to BMW where they are scored with a factor dependent on the type of race. Total prize money for the Sport Trophy amounts to 250,000 Euros with the winner taking home 30,000 Euros. BMW has been staging the event to support privateers from around the world since its debut in 1962, the BMW Sports Trophy has developed into a major event, attracting more and more competitors every year. Last year 214 drivers from 25 countries scored points towards the privateer standings in 32 international racing series, more than ever before. Additionally in collaboration with the HDI insurance company, every BMW Sports Trophy driver is insured against accidents at all official motor racing events during the time the participant is competing with his car in an event being scored for the BMW Sports Trophy. Competitors also get advantageous pricing or offers from some of BMWs racing partners like BBS, Castrol, Dunlop, Puma and Recaro. These deals are currently not available world-wide. Honda supports their racers by offering a parts credit to those who place in the top three of an event, $250, $150 and $75 with a Championship being worth $1000. Scion Racing post $500, $300 and $150 but that is dependent on the number of runners in the class. A Championship win is worth $800. Manufacturer participation is encouraged and there are rumors of new cars from unseen manufacturers arriving in 2012. So how diverse is the series? The Super class has four manufacturers in the top five of the Championship at the time of writing. Four of the top ten cars are BMWs, so MWM readers will like that. Going into the final event at ICAR, Etienne Borgeat and his Pontiac Solstice have a 32-point lead over Dean Fantin in his BMW 328, followed by Richard Boake and his Subaru STI. Fourth

and fifth places are held by the Hyundai Genesis duo of Sasha Anis and Bob Attrell, showcasing series sponsors Castrol and Continental Tire respectively. In the Touring class the super quick Honda Civic Si of Tom Kwok has a healthy lead over the Octane Motorsport MINIs of former Champion Alain Lauzière and Michel Sallenbach. The CTCC Manufacturers Championship, has Hyundai leading Subaru and BMW in the Super class with Honda ahead of MINI and Scion in Touring. As I had said earlier the action is cut and thrust, let’s face it touring car racing is like that. It is part of the appeal to the fans. That being said, I had talked to a few racers who had been on the receiving end of what they at the time considered inconsiderate driving to say the least. When I broached the subject with Bondar, he replied, “The amount of contact is actually down this season, but the incidents have been a little more exciting, especially PJ’s ride on his roof in the dark at GP3R. We have actually put three drivers on probation to calm them down a bit and that seems to have worked.” Former touring class Champion, Alain Lauzière agreed the amount of contact had reduced and said, “Of course you will have contact in touring cars, especially as the fields get closer. There were some people doing some silly things and CTCC addressed that. I have to admit it has cost me a bunch in bodywork repairs on the Octane Motorsport MINIs this year but door banging does go hand in hand in a series like the CTCC, so I guess I will live with it even though I don’t like it”

And if all we have talked about is not exciting enough! How about getting to run on some of the best circuits in the World! And with most events being run to a two race format the drivers are getting lots of track time in the same weekend. Mosport of course needs no introduction and any competitive racer who has raced there will tell you it is a challenge indeed. Three events are held at the former home of the Canadian Grand Prix just outside of Toronto with the highest profile being the Grand Prix of Mosport. Running on the same program as the American Le Mans Series the fan turnout for this event was nothing short of amazing this year. Moving from one corner to another was a huge challenge and kept myself and fellow photographers busy rushing around all day. Another ‘In your face’ event not to be missed, was the Honda Indy Toronto where the CTCC series rubbed shoulders with Indycar. The remainder of the events are held in Quebec at the ICAR circuit on the Mirabel airport grounds and for the first time the series was part of the NASCAR Nationwide / ALMS weekend at Le Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. The CTCC was again part of the showcase GP3R event in Trois Rivieres and as Bondar noted earlier it included the first ever night race for the series. Now Mr. Bondar needs to pull a DTM and visit another country with one event. Anyone up for Watkins Glen? And how do the drivers feel about the series? Lauzière said, “It is a great series although I feel there is not yet parity power wise in the Touring class, we have a great chassis in the MINI but even that does not help around Mosport, power rules at that place. Don’t get me wrong, the changes made are getting

us closer but I still feel the power output of some of these cars needs to be looked at and addressed to give a more even field. The change to Continental Tire has been good and bad for us. They gave us a fantastic tire, lots of grip and it works really well but as we have such a neutral chassis it has really helped those whose chassis is not as good as ours. But, that as they say is racing and we just get on with it. Thumbs up to Continental for doing such a good job. We will be back in 2012 especially after seeing how good a base car we have in the new MINI but just now the plan is to knuckle down and give ICAR everything we can. It will be a tough deal to win but it is never over until that checkered flag falls.” We also talked to championship contender Dean Fantin about the series and how he felt about going to ICAR with the chance of winning his first CTCC title. “I’m definitely feeling the pressure! I have to beat Borgeat by four positions in both races to gain the lead in the championship. That is a very difficult task since he is such a strong driver, his team is always on their game, and this is their home town. Now, as far as Richard goes, I wasn’t too concerned with him since they haven’t been strong contenders at this tight track. But, I did just hear that he is renting Greg Pootman’s BMW due to unavailability of a Subaru engine. He has been testing there for most of the week with the car at ICAR. Since his team knows Subarus’, I’m not sure how well they’ll be able to dial in the car. Amico Racing on the other hand was planning on going to do some extra testing on Thursday but since we all have day jobs, the team is not able to do that. We will be there for will have a decent car going there since we at ICAR. We hope to build on that package tight and Borgeat hasn’t had his bad luck y the way so this will definitely be a very exc very happy with it! We have some very inc is why the point standings are so close! Th to see some more ST competitors though. changes, but they are rule changes for the all types of car manufacturers. I think John fantastic job and I think next year will just venues in Canada, so what more can we a pleased to run on a proper racing tire and together a very consistent tire and their tra will continue to be involved with CTCC. As for the future? We will let John Bondar working on next season. The only thing I our GP3R agreement, which is exciting for of the events should fall into line in the ne will be a few surprises to be announced al

Friday testing. We feel confident that we did set fastest lap of the last race held . The point spread from 1st to 3rd is very et. Richard and I have both got that out of iting venue! As far as the series goes, I’m redible talented teams and drivers which is is what racing is all about! I would like We lost a few from last year due to rule better. To lower cost and accommodate and his team of directors are doing a as good if not better. We race at the best sk for? The tires are fantastic! We are very the performance is great. Continental put ck support is great as well. I hope they have the last word on that. “I am busy can confirm is a three year extension to us, it really is a standout event. The rest xt couple of months and hopefully there ong the way!”