Toronto, May 19, 2012 – The competitors of the Canadian Touring Car Championship (CTCC) presented by Continental Tire got on the track today to compete for the first time this season at the new Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Heat, spectators and excitement were certainly there to make Round 1 a magnificent race.
Out of an impressive grid of 34 race cars, Ste-Anne-des-Lac (QC) Super Class driver Mathieu Audette started from the pole position in his Acura RSX-S, in front of Brampton (ON) driver Sasha Anis in his Hyundai Genesis Coupe.
The two drivers kept this position from start to finish, with Audette increasing the distance on every lap until he had a comfortable advance of 6.433 seconds when the checkered flag was thrown. The third position was earned by Mississauga (ON) driver Dave Ciekiewicz in his BMW 330i. Ciekiewicz had to struggle with St-Leonard-D’Aston (QC) driver Marc-Antoine Camirand in his new BMW 330i, who finished fourth in class, and Barrie (ON) driver Scott Nicol in his Honda Civic Si.
Nicol was battling for third place when he encountered a gearing problem. It was resolved by something as simple as a tie-rap, but by then had already cost him a podium position.
In the Touring Class field, there was a tight and very interesting battle amongst the competitors. Toronto (ON) driver Karl Thomson in his MINI Cooper S JCW led the way, again from start to finish.
There was no surprise to see his teammate, Roxton Pond (QC) driver Michel Sallenbach, right behind him. Third place went to Tottenham (ON) driver Damon Sharpe in his Honda Civic Si and fourth place went to Markham (ON) driver Jonathan Young, who got his best career finish.
As for the B-Spec, CTCC had a first field of seven cars for the race in this class. Three manufacturers were represented today is this introductory category, with Honda Fit, MINI Cooper and Mazda2 cars. As if it was a completely separate race within a race, the cars kept a tight distance between them and were split from the others until finally being passed by the Super class after four laps.
Three Honda Fit cars were honoured on the podium. Montreal (QC) driver Nick Witter finished in first place, followed by Toronto (ON) driver Greg Pootmans in second place, and St-Joseph-de-Kamouraska (QC) driver Simon Dion-Viens in third.
“I am very happy to have won today and the secret in this category is to keep your line and be aware of what is happening behind you,” said Wittmer. “I want to prove that you can race with this car and do nothing except cleaning it and watching the other racers working on their cars,” he continued.
Fans can keep track of live CTCC competition with their smartphone or computer by connecting to www.livetiming.net/ctcc. CTCC live timing is available whenever and wherever the race cars are on the track.
For more details about CTCC, visit www.touringcar.ca or follow CTCC on Facebook and Twitter.
From Dominique Longval / Director Marketing & Communications
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