May 5 marked the first official day of racing for the 2007 Hankook Quebec Touring Car Championship. 21 competitors gathered to Circuit St-Eustache, a small track located northwest of Montréal. Octane Motorsports chose this local venue to test improvements made on the MINI Cooper S over the winter season.

Organisers were plagued with timing issues, so the lone qualifying was replaced with a qualifying race. We managed to finish the first race of the weekend in 7th position.

At the end of the session, race officials notified the team that the MINI Cooper was too loud, as St-Eustache enforces strict noise regulations. This was not really a surprise to the team as the Octane Motorsports MINI had been over the allowable db noise limit during the Friday private practice session. But solutions that appeared reasonable were found and implemented and passed through the meter with relative success. So the team scrambled with an hour and 15 minutes left before teh start of teh race to install a new exhaust system to the #47 MINI Cooper.

We were successful in having the car ready for the start of the race but missed the mock-grid and had to start from the pits, as we were only able to join the track at the end of the pack. The first few laps were very exciting and we past a number of cars. We were able to move to the 9th position but our tires suffered from the aggressive driving required during the first few laps and lost grip so we lost one position with a couple of laps to go. The finishing position of the MINI Original Parts-sponsored Cooper S would be a 10th place.

Our next race will be the first round of the Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship at Mosport, Ontario on May 12 and 13.

Octane Motorsports would like to thank their sponsors and partners:

-MINI Original Parts
-M7 Tuning (M7tuning.com)
-Simone Performance Imports
-Castrol Canada (Wakefield)
-GranSport brake pads (Satisfied Brakes)
-Birchmount Collision
-Graphic Mart
-DuPont Automotive Finishes
-MINI Original Accessories
-Vibrant Performance
-MINI Financial Services
-Pneus Touchette
-Coopersport.ca

Octane Motorsports is a privately owned and funded racing team based in Montreal, Québec.

Photos by Sylvain Lachapelle (www.slachapellephoto.com)High-resolution versions available upon request.

 

I remember when racing used to be all about loud cars ...

Alain, good job once again. Unfortunately it also seems that our Mini S' are the loudest freekin cars on the track. Do tell though, did you notice one bit of difference in performance with the new (cheery bomb lookin) system?