Eight long months of off-season are finally behind us and the Canadian Touring Car Championship (CTCC) presented by Continental Tire is ready to launch its new racing season. This weekend, on May 19th and 20th, the two first Rounds of the season will be battled on the main track of the new Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.
With 53 confirmed drivers so far for the season, CTCC will have more than a respectable field as this summer; three Cclasses will take assault the track each weekend. The new B-Spec Class will be very well represented by seven well-know drivers.
Amongst them, 2010 Super Class Champion Nick Wittmer will race behind the wheel of a Honda Fit # 91, Valérie Limoge in the Mazda2 #26 and Simon Dion-Viens in the Honda Fit # 17. In Touring Class, sixteen drivers will compete this season, and just to name a few: Marc-André Bergeron in the Mazda RX7 # 21; Jacques Deshaies in the Mazda3 # 27; Karl Thomson behind the wheel of the MINI Cooper S JCW # 45; Michel Sallenbach in the MINI Cooper S JCW # 46, and Jocelyn Hebert in the Honda Civic Si # 89 will strive for the win.
As for the Super Class, it is worth mentioning that the 2011 Touring Class Champion, Tom Kwok, has made the jump to Super Class in the Acura CSX Type S # 9 along with his brother Gary which will be driving the Mitsubishi Evo X # 66. They will compete with twenty-eight other competitors, for a total of thirty in Super Class. It is safe to say that this field will be spectacular, and the competition will be very exciting to watch all through the season. Amongst Super Class drivers, Etienne Borgeat is coming back to defend his title.
The 2011 Super Class Champion will return in his Pontiac Solstice # 1 while Alex Healy will drive the Acura RSX Type S# 5, Dave Ciekiewicz returns behind the wheel of the BMW 330i # 10; Mathieu and Remy Audette will share the Acura RSX # 12; Gunter Schmidt also returns in the Chevrolet Cobalt # 38; Scott Giannou will compete for the first time in CTCC driving the BMW 330i # 80 and Marc-Antoine Camirand comes back behind the wheel of the BMW M3 # 96.
“We are looking forward to another fantastic season in 2012,” stated CTCC President, John Bondar. “Each year we welcome more competitors, fans and partners, and 2012 promises to be the best yet. This season, we will perform in front of 700,00 spectators. We are grateful to the great support we receive from the event promoters as we grow the Championship and motorsport in Canada,” he continued.
Weekend Schedule
During the Victoria Day Speedfest event on May 19th and 20th, CTCC competitors will have a qualifying session at 9:25 am Saturday morning followed by Round 1 at 1:30 pm the same day. Drivers will be competing Round 2 on Sunday at 3:30.
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 and you can follow CTCC on Facebook and Twitter.
From Dominique Longval
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