Dramatic season ending for Lauzière

With over 50 competitors showing up for the last round of competition in the Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship at Mosport Raceway, the last two events of the year promised to be filled with continuous action and fans watching from the side of the track weren’t disappointed.

Point leader in the Touring class, Alain Lauzière in his MINI Original Parts Cooper S, came to the track with a comfortable points lead, looking forward to the last two races. “We are not here to set any records this week-end”, admitted Lauzière before competition started. “We just want to finish and cash-in enough points to capture the championship”.

Finding an empty space on the track for a “Hot lap” during the 20 minute qualifying session on Saturday proved difficult for all competitors with the session grinding to an early stop due to an on-track incident involving a fellow competitor. Lauzière would start in third position behind the two Rapone brothers from the always-fast Durabond team, the two brothers driving a Honda Civic and an Acura Integra.

Having taken a conservative start to the Saturday 20-minute race, Lauzière was cruising comfortably in second position when 10 minutes into the race, the car developed a misfire and switched into emergency mode. The racecar crawling slowly into the pits. After a few very long minutes, the car would finally clear itself up, the MINI returning to cross the finish line in 13th position, the worse team result this year, but with over 70% of the race completed, Lauzière could be considered as a finisher, an important distinction to pick-up a few extra points.

After having traced the Saturday issue, the agenda for the Sunday 40-minute race was simple: Finish the race. Starting from the back, Lauzière managed to bring the car right back up to second position, taking advantage of two full-course yellow that bunched the field together. Coming into corner 8, with just over one lap to go, a Honda engine expired ahead of the field, creating a huge cloud of thick white smoke making it impossible for drivers to see past their front bumpers. The MINI Cooper rear-ended a competitor hard, pushing his trunk up to the rear wheels. “I backed-off the gas and braked, but was afraid a competitor would rear-end me”, explained Lauzière. “I stayed to the left edge of the track as the smoking car had chosen to veer right; unfortunately a competitor was right in front of me by that point; we just couldn’t see a thing. I’m just happy nobody got hurt”. The MINI Cooper would finish the last lap under yellow, crossing the finish line in second position. Crew-chief Louis-Philippe Allard commented, “It’s amazing how solid the MINI chassis is. It’s a testimony to the sound engineering that goes behind every MINI Cooper. When you look at the other car, you’d never know the MINI was the one having made contact with it. We sustained very little damage, considering the force of the impact."

The second position finish in the race cemented Lauzière’s position atop the standings in the Touring class, bringing a second consecutive road-racing championship to the MINI brand. Lauzière finished 110 points ahead of Robert Calisi, driving the third Durabond Honda Civic.

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
-Cruiseamerica.com

 

Video of the incident:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMYrALl_Dss

 

OUCH . . . I hate that sound !

 

I guess I chose the wrong title.....

No more luvin from NAM .

Randy, I don't like it either. But man is that car built like a tank.

Wait until I can get my hands on some pics of the other car. It'll be like --->

I was reviewing the tape on the video editing software. 4/100th of a second between when you first see the car and first contact. Oh well. Not much one can do....

 

Congrats on the Championship and a fine season! Man that looked like one hard hit...

 

Best thing to do was what you did, maintain a line, maintain control and keep the shiny side up

Dropping wheels pff the track at a high rate of speed and turning to get back on can flip you fairly easily ... Remember how Nuzzo flipped at turn 2 at Laguna Seca?

My compliments ... Phil

 

Congratulations on a great season, Alain!

 

I would like to see the other car, that seems like a very hard hit.

Congratulations! is there anywhere that we can watch these races from south of the border, it looks like a good series.

 

What 20 years of design improvements will do for safety:

That's obviously after we banged the hood down a bit and replaced the bumper cover (I don't have pictures from before), but you get the idea....

 

I see that you have the intercooler opening taped up? What's up with that?

Jon

 

Wow, it is amazing the MINI finished the lap from looking at the BMW. Glad noone was hurt, congratulations, thank you for the pics, and thank you for grabbing a championship for MINI .

 

The crew guys were overly-anxious at using their brand new roll of color-coordinated duct tape for transportation purpose only. New toy syndrome.

 

Dam I missed a lot this year. I'm glad to see you won the championship again. You'll be a marked man up there in Canada. We need to see you here in the states a couple of times next year. Any plans for next year?

Great season Alain. Congrats to you and all the crew. See you next year at Mosport or Calabogie.
Larry