The colossal racing extravaganza that is the American LeMans series rolled into Mosport International Raceway this week.
It's the 9th season of the Mosport Grand Prix at the Bowmanville track and a show-case of world class racing.
The crown jewel of the Grand Prix is the ALMS race, which features the finest endurance road racers in the world. In no other race series can fans see such a diverse group of cars all competing on the same track at the same time. Racing together are four very different groups of cars. There are the prototype purpose-built race cars in the LMP1 class, dominated by the undefeated diesel-powered Audi R10s who are back to defend their title. During Saturday's qualifying race, Audi's Dindo Capello not only won the pole position, but ran the fastest lap in Mosport's history.
Similar , but slightly smaller and less powerful are the LMP2 cars such as the Thetford Porsches.
The GT1 class features factory cars like Corvettes and Porsches that have been highly modified. GT2 cars like the Risi Ferrari and Panoz Esperante are also modified, but much closer to production cars that are available to the public.
Aside from the feature ALMS race, the weekend's schedule is packed with several other first-class events. There are several outstanding young Canadian drivers - most notably Markham's Daniel Morad, former Sunoco Ron Fellows karting series star, now Formula BMW USA Rookie of the year. The Star Mazda Championship has a young Quebec native: Devin Cunningham making an impressive showing in his rookie year. In The Speed World Challenge Cup, there's Kumo Wittmer of Montreal, a former Honda-Michelin Challenge champion.
For most Canadian fans, the biggest story, and the most poignant, is that this is the last time they'll see Ron Fellows' Corvette competing in the ALMS at Mosport. General Motors released a signature Ron Fellows Corvette last year as a tribute to this legendary Canadian road racer, and in touching homage, the third Corvette on the GT1 team is the white Ron Fellows edition car. Fellows won second place in the Saturday qualifiers.
It's the 9th season of the Mosport Grand Prix at the Bowmanville track and a show-case of world class racing.
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The crown jewel of the Grand Prix is the ALMS race, which features the finest endurance road racers in the world. In no other race series can fans see such a diverse group of cars all competing on the same track at the same time. Racing together are four very different groups of cars. There are the prototype purpose-built race cars in the LMP1 class, dominated by the undefeated diesel-powered Audi R10s who are back to defend their title. During Saturday's qualifying race, Audi's Dindo Capello not only won the pole position, but ran the fastest lap in Mosport's history.
Similar , but slightly smaller and less powerful are the LMP2 cars such as the Thetford Porsches.
The GT1 class features factory cars like Corvettes and Porsches that have been highly modified. GT2 cars like the Risi Ferrari and Panoz Esperante are also modified, but much closer to production cars that are available to the public.
Aside from the feature ALMS race, the weekend's schedule is packed with several other first-class events. There are several outstanding young Canadian drivers - most notably Markham's Daniel Morad, former Sunoco Ron Fellows karting series star, now Formula BMW USA Rookie of the year. The Star Mazda Championship has a young Quebec native: Devin Cunningham making an impressive showing in his rookie year. In The Speed World Challenge Cup, there's Kumo Wittmer of Montreal, a former Honda-Michelin Challenge champion.
For most Canadian fans, the biggest story, and the most poignant, is that this is the last time they'll see Ron Fellows' Corvette competing in the ALMS at Mosport. General Motors released a signature Ron Fellows Corvette last year as a tribute to this legendary Canadian road racer, and in touching homage, the third Corvette on the GT1 team is the white Ron Fellows edition car. Fellows won second place in the Saturday qualifiers.
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| Canadian driver Daniel Morad, Formula BMW USA Rookie of the year. |