Nick Wittmer captured two victories this weekend in the Castrol Touring Car Championship held during the Grand Prix de Mirabel at Circuit ICAR in Mirabel, Quebec.
In Race 1 held Saturday in temperatures in the 30 degrees, Lombardi Racing Honda driver Nick Wittmer spent the first half of the race behind pole sitter Sasha Anis and Gregory Pootmans.
They along with Mathieu Audette charged hard until Anis dropped out of the race and Audette slowed with an oil heating problem. By the time the chequered flag fell, Wittmer was clear of second-place Pootmans by 3.822 seconds.
The Donington Motorsports Subaru Sti of Dave Ciekiewicz moved up six positions to finish third in Super Touring.
In the Touring class, Anthony Rapone won from pole position in his Honda. His teammate, Karl Thomson in another Honda was second followed by Michel Sallenbach in the Octane Motorsports Mini.
On Sunday, Wittmer took charge of Sunday’s ‘red flag’ shortened, 13-lap race. Right from the start Wittmer opened up a substantial lead on the pack and really never had to look back.
Starting from the outside of the front row, Greg Pootmans, Aldo/Northwest BMW suffered an unexpected mechanical failure and came to a halt on the very first pace lap unable to continue to the green flag charge which looked like it was going to be a great battle between the two rivals.
Eric Hochgeschurz, starting in the number four spot, was the lucky recipient of Pootmans misfortune as he was able to grab and hold onto second spot with Marc-Antoine Camirand hot on his heels.
Unfortunately Camirand’s hopes of a podium finish were dashed when his BMW Coupe suffered a mechanical failure on lap 10, putting him down to 32nd spot in the finishing order.
This allowed the ever fast Mathieu Audette piloting his Audette Racing RSX, to round out the third step on the podium just 4.33 seconds behind Hochgeschurz.
In the extremely competitive Touring class, Karl Thomson took the victory behind the wheel of his Honda Civic Si, by a margin of 5.63 seconds over his team mate Anthony Rapone. Auto123.com's Nigel Heron, driving a Lombardi Honda Civic, suffered from a flat tire.
Roxton Pond native, Michel Sallenbach driving for Octane Motorsports, rounded out the third spot on the podium just a mere 1.2 seconds back of Rapone.
Officials had to call the race due to a serious incident involving Gary Kwok in his No 66 M&S Racing Mistubishi EVO. As he entered the front straight, Kwoks car impacted the outside wall and became airborne coming to rest on its roof in the middle of the track.
The ICAR Track Rescue team were on the scene immediately and assisted the unhurt but shaken Kwok from his car. With only 4 minutes remaining in the race, officials decided it would take too long to clean up the track with enough time to resume racing.
In the Formula Tour 1600 series, young Quebec driver Jerimy Daniel scored two victories in his Mygale 00. Saturday, he captured victory in the 21-lap race, beating Olivier Bonnet (Vector) and Charles Leclerc (Van Diemen 90).
Sunday, Daniel was again the man to beat, finishing first ahead of Bonnet and Leclerc again.
In the Masters category, Patrick Sweeney took victory in the first race while veteran Guy Gilain came first in Sunday’s race.
In Race 1 held Saturday in temperatures in the 30 degrees, Lombardi Racing Honda driver Nick Wittmer spent the first half of the race behind pole sitter Sasha Anis and Gregory Pootmans.
They along with Mathieu Audette charged hard until Anis dropped out of the race and Audette slowed with an oil heating problem. By the time the chequered flag fell, Wittmer was clear of second-place Pootmans by 3.822 seconds.
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| Photo: Matthieu Lambert, Auto123.com |
The Donington Motorsports Subaru Sti of Dave Ciekiewicz moved up six positions to finish third in Super Touring.
In the Touring class, Anthony Rapone won from pole position in his Honda. His teammate, Karl Thomson in another Honda was second followed by Michel Sallenbach in the Octane Motorsports Mini.
On Sunday, Wittmer took charge of Sunday’s ‘red flag’ shortened, 13-lap race. Right from the start Wittmer opened up a substantial lead on the pack and really never had to look back.
Starting from the outside of the front row, Greg Pootmans, Aldo/Northwest BMW suffered an unexpected mechanical failure and came to a halt on the very first pace lap unable to continue to the green flag charge which looked like it was going to be a great battle between the two rivals.
Eric Hochgeschurz, starting in the number four spot, was the lucky recipient of Pootmans misfortune as he was able to grab and hold onto second spot with Marc-Antoine Camirand hot on his heels.
Unfortunately Camirand’s hopes of a podium finish were dashed when his BMW Coupe suffered a mechanical failure on lap 10, putting him down to 32nd spot in the finishing order.
This allowed the ever fast Mathieu Audette piloting his Audette Racing RSX, to round out the third step on the podium just 4.33 seconds behind Hochgeschurz.
In the extremely competitive Touring class, Karl Thomson took the victory behind the wheel of his Honda Civic Si, by a margin of 5.63 seconds over his team mate Anthony Rapone. Auto123.com's Nigel Heron, driving a Lombardi Honda Civic, suffered from a flat tire.
Roxton Pond native, Michel Sallenbach driving for Octane Motorsports, rounded out the third spot on the podium just a mere 1.2 seconds back of Rapone.
Officials had to call the race due to a serious incident involving Gary Kwok in his No 66 M&S Racing Mistubishi EVO. As he entered the front straight, Kwoks car impacted the outside wall and became airborne coming to rest on its roof in the middle of the track.
The ICAR Track Rescue team were on the scene immediately and assisted the unhurt but shaken Kwok from his car. With only 4 minutes remaining in the race, officials decided it would take too long to clean up the track with enough time to resume racing.
In the Formula Tour 1600 series, young Quebec driver Jerimy Daniel scored two victories in his Mygale 00. Saturday, he captured victory in the 21-lap race, beating Olivier Bonnet (Vector) and Charles Leclerc (Van Diemen 90).
Sunday, Daniel was again the man to beat, finishing first ahead of Bonnet and Leclerc again.
In the Masters category, Patrick Sweeney took victory in the first race while veteran Guy Gilain came first in Sunday’s race.
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