With 3 week-ends of racing to go, the John Cooper Works Octane Motorsport MINI Cooper S started the week-end with a healthy 198 points lead over it’s main competitor, a Volkswagen GTI, in the T2 Class of the Ontario Touring Car Championship.

The CRDA/VARAC Presidents' Trophy would consist of a 20-minute race on the Saturday followed by a 40-minute race on the Sunday, the event run on Mosport international Raceway, a week ahead of the American LeMans race.

A relative newcomer joined the T2 battle this weekend, a very light Honda Civic with a K20 2.0 litre engine from an Acura RSX.

Qualifying turned out pretty well as expected with the Civic qualifying on the pole, followed by the GTi and the #47 MINI sponsored by Birchmount Collision.

The start was somewhat exciting with a bunch of cars from the faster T1 and GT class slowing progress to try to catch-up to the class leaders. On lap 6, the Civic pulled to the side with a broken accelerator cable. That would be the end of their day. From lap 4, the MINI started catching the VW at an average of half a second per lap. On lap 9 at the end of the Andretti straight, the MINI proved the incredible performance of the GranSport racing brake pads by outbraking the VW GTi going into turn 8 at over 200 km/h. A good battle would follow for a few laps, at which point the VW would drive into the pits with another blown engine, his third one of the year. The VW would still manage to finish second as the other competitors had fallen a lap down to the overall leader. We would end-up clinching another victory. We would have preferred seeing our competition finishing this week-end to race them fair and square. Performance is important but reliability is how you manage to get points when you run to compete in a championship.

The Sunday race would start with threatening grey clouds on a fairly dry track with wet patches. The Octane Motorsport MINI chose to start the race with a conservative strategy, running intermediate tires, prepared for either a dry or wet track. We didn’t expect to be the fastest, as the points lead was more important than pure speed. Our main competitors would start from the back as the Civic was repaired and the GTi driver borrowed a newer VW product with turbo engine. Fortunately for the MINI Cooper S, The VW barely ran properly all race long as he only managed to finish 8 laps. The Civic, as expected was substantially faster and managed to pass the #47 purely on power to take the win, The MINI Cooper finishing second.

In the championship race, we gained more than 100 points over our closest competitor, with a lead more than 300 points over the VW

The next race in the championship will see the competitors gather for a 3-hour enduro at Mosport International Raceway on September 16 for the BEMC Indian Summer Trophy featuring the War Bonnet 3-Hour.

Octane Motorsport’s list of sponsors and supporters include:

-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
-H-Sport
-Vibrant Performance
-MINI Financial Services
-Wheel & Tire Zone
-Pneus Touchette
-Coopersport.ca


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

CASC ONTARIO REGION (CASC-OR) is Ontario's governing body of automobile sport, and is comprised of over 30 automobile and sport enthusiast clubs within Ontario. The organization defines and administers the province's regional championships in several disciplines, with club-organized events in Road Racing, Road Rally, Ice Race, Solo I time trials, Solo II autoslaloms and Drifting.

CRDA, the Canadian Racing Driver’s Association is the organizing club in conjunction with VARAC, the Vintage Automobile Racing Association of Canada, which was formed in 1976 to provide a central organizing body through which Vintage Race enthusiasts could communicate and organize race meetings for eligible Vintage and Historic racing and sports cars.

 

And I even read through all the cut and past font crap. This site could sure use a fitler for that stuff. It's a pain to edit away...

Matt

 

Thanks. That's the only way I figured how to post. I always have to edit it after posting...

 

and to think, if I'd just waited......

One thing I"ve started doing is use the "preview post" function. Then you can see if there are any of those little bastar*s in there, and stomp them out!

Matt

 

Good point. I'll have to remember that next time...

 

Congrats again Alain! Wish I could have seen more of the race but our impression of a MINI didn't go so well.

Keep up the good work!

Amy

 

Alain, you and your Team are the model of consistency! I'm guessing your strategy from here on out will be much like the 2nd race, somewhat conservative though; which is understandable. It appears that this Honda, once refined, will be a real challenge! Best to you, as always.

 

Alain
Congrats on your success again. Will you be running in the enduro. Also do you have a schedule of the races. I would really like to come up that weekend. I pick up my GP in NJ this weekend and would like to come to the race. I believe I have that weekend free.
Thanks
Larry

 

Tony, there's not much I can do against the Honda...this year!

Larry, it would be great to see you there! We will indeed run the 3 hour.

Schedule can be found at:

http://www.casc.on.ca/documents/even...ansummer06.pdf

PM me if you need accommodations, I can get you deals.

N.B.:I think if you read your GP owner's manual properly, you will see on page 18 that they recommend a good 3 hour of track time as a proper break-in procedure for your intercooler... I swear I won't ask to borrow your alu rear trailing arms.

 

The three hours race should be a great equalizer, it will reward patience and preservation as much as speed. I expect to see the Mini at the end....the Honda...:impatient

 

That's the spirit Alain!!! Keep your talks with M7 going . Take care, and be safe! Victoria was a hoot!

 

Hope you had a chance to try the restaurant....

May be I should talk to Peter about the last race...time to add a few go-fast goodies, move-up one class and go tickle the World Challenge cars? I'll need to borrow a LOT of go-fast parts to make it happen...

 

Alain, Peter, as you might know, is arrving in LA tonight. I recommend that you approach him on what you plan to do next year and see what you guys can work-out. The M62 and DFIC should help quite a bit...

We were in Chinatown around dinner time, and with my wife being Tiawanese, well, we ate there. She loved the Butchart Gardens! The nightlife looks to be a lot of fun also. Victoria is just beautiful, colorful, and clean. And the folks were quite friendly. My wife is still making fun of how you guys talk, eh?