The weather was perfect and so were the results for the Touring cars of Team Octane during the first event of the Canadian Touring car season at Mosport from May 18-20, 2012.

Karl Thomson, team owner of Compass360 the Grand-Am and World Challenge mega-team, joined Team Octane for a one-off, but set the tone on Saturday, capturing pole position behind the wheel of the Castrol MINI Cooper S JCW. A great result considering it was his first day behind the wheel. His teammate Michel Sallenbach driving the Clinique du Pneu #46 MINI was right behind him. Newcomer to the series and rookie Paul Gravel driving the #48 MINI GENUINE PARTS car for his very first professional event qualified a respectable 7th position.

Thomson, who pulled a great start, stayed at the front for the entire first race while Sallenbach tried to catch him, but ran out of laps before he was able to attempt anything while keeping the pressure on his teammate. “I am ecstatic to start the season with a 1-2; this track has been tough to us in the past so this is a great accomplishment. It shows the hard work that the crew has performed over the winter, we could not be happier” claimed Team Owner Alain Lauzière. “I want to thank Alain and his team. This was a lot of fun and I am glad to come back to Canadian Touring, the intense format of the short races makes for some exciting racing” expressed Thomson.

The roles were reversed for the Sunday race, but the results were the same with another fantastic 1-2 with this time Sallenbach leading Thomson. “I knew I needed to get Karl at the start as the two cars are equal and it would have been difficult to get by Karl” mentioned the winner Sallenbach. Paul Gravel improved his lap times once again and managed an exciting fourth position. “We are extremely proud of Paul’s performance this weekend” expressed Team Owner Lauzière.

The weekend also marked the introduction of the new B-Spec class. With cars virgin of any prior testing, P.J. Groenke driving the Tundra, Verax.ca MINI Cooper #8 captured the third starting position while Andre Rapone managed a fifth in his very first session behind the Durabond #73 MINI Cooper.

The two teammates would cruise together pretty well foot to the floor for the duration of the event, exchanging positions to finish in fourth and fifth position as the checkered flag was waved. The second race was more eventful as P.J. ended his race in the guardrail after contact with a competitor while Andre soldiered on to finish in fourth position.

Team partners include MINI GENUINE PARTS, Castrol, Durabond, MINI.ca, Bully Clutch, Revolution MINI Works, Perry Auto, Carrosserie Touchette, La Clinique du Pneu Granby, Lettrage Raoul, ASG Accessoire de Soudure Granby and Carbotech Brakes.
The 2012 season of the Canadian Touring Car Championship presented by Continental tire will join the Formula 1 show on June 8-10 at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Québec for the Formula 1 Grand-Prix. The Championship competes throughout 8 weekends of racing. Details are available at http://touringcar.ca.