August 1, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Second and Third place finish for Octane MINI at Calabogie – Lauziere increases Touring Class points lead

The weekend of July 28-29 was the inaugural running of the Ted Powell memorial race weekend at the brand new Calabogie Motorsports Park facility located one hour west of Ottawa. For this first event, the East track was utilized through its 2.8 km distance.

Leading the championship, Octane driver Alain Lauziere arrived at the event with a 50 points lead over the closest competitor for this fourth weekend of racing in a championship comprised of eight.

Weather proved a factor during the first day as the skies opened-up for some strong rain showers after the first practice and qualifying ran on a wet track. While the water proved to be a challenge, the track layout and the 43 entered competitors proved to be a greater one, as space was at a premium and it was hard to find enough room for a clear lap. Driver Lauziere managed to qualify the Original MINI PARTS Cooper S in second place, as the track was drying-up quickly during the last few minutes of the session.

The first race ran on late Saturday afternoon and was filled with action for the entire twenty-minute duration. The Castrol MINI finished the first event in second place. “We have been chasing handling issues all week-end and for some reason our set-up didn’t provide us the opportunity to fight for the lead today” commented crew-chief L-P Allard. “Our closest championship competitor was only able to finish 12th today so overall, we are pleased with the results” commented Lauziere.

Heavy traffic played a major factor in the outcome of race #2 for the Octane Motorsport MINI. The forty-minute main event was hard on the team, as the handling issues from the previous day were still present. The MINI was also lightly damaged in a tangle with a competitor from the GT class. While the car crossed the line in fourth place, the third place-finishing competitor was disqualified for disobeying flags. Lauziere was able to salvage a podium finish. “That’s the best we could do today” mentioned Lauziere. “...But we’ll be back stronger for the next Mosport event”.

Lauziere is still sitting in first place in the championship after the weekend, having increased his lead to 107 points.

The next two races will be at Mosport, Ontario, on August 11 and 12.

Octane Motorsport 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
-Wheel & Tire Zone

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

 

Video from Race #1.

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?doc...47158138249392

Tony will be happy. More to come....

 

Alain

Good finishes, congrats !! I hope this is a warm up to your podium at 3R.

Good job and have a fast, safe Grand Am run

Mark

 

Thanks Mark!

But I think you're setting the bar a bit high.....

Race # 2 video posted here:

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?doc...14188894310233

 

Not to high at all...Go for it!!

 

YES - I'm happy alright! Sorry, I've been offline a few days, and I'm trying to catch-up on NAM stuff now...

I really enjoyed the videos Alain, thank you very much. I hope you've sorted-out the suspension issues, and if so, kindly share what happened, or caused the handling to be less than desirable....

Again, thanks for the vids! I watched them leaning left and right in my sofa . Take care.

 

[quote=TonyB;1671224] I hope you've sorted-out the suspension issues, and if so, kindly share what happened, or caused the handling to be less than desirable....quote]

Nothing special. Just a new track and we never found the sweet spot. The car wouldn't turn in the slow corners. We threw our old bag of tricks at it to no avail. We followed our conventional wisdom and she let us down.....

Just needed more test time. Happens!

 

Nice job! Thanks for the video, I really enjoyed it!