Montréal (Québec), June 11, 2012.- The Media Racing Team was on the track this past weekend contesting the very first two rounds of the Canadian Touring Car Championship to be held as part of the Grand Prix du Canada at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. The two races allowed Jocelyn Fecteau, one of two team drivers, to harvest a “Top 6” in the Touring category and Luc Lesage to score points in Super Touring.
For Jocelyn Fecteau, the first day of activities started well with the Mont-St-Grégoire driver placing his Touring class Scion tC in seventh position during Friday’s midday practice session (Canadian Touring Car took place between two Formula 1 sessions) and in tenth by the end of the qualifying session. Rain showers left a wet track, a situation that did not dampen the Media Racing Team driver’s confidence, despite a scare : « the practices went well and the car was running great but the downpour at the end of the afternoon left the track with interesting conditions for the qualifying session. I started the session with wet tires and then changed to slicks once I saw the track start to dry. Unfortunately, my brakes seized on Senna’s corner and I found myself in the wall, which cut my session short and relegated me to tenth place for the start » explains Fecteau.
Saturday, on a dry track, Jocelyn Fecteau staged a nice comeback to cross the finish line in sixth place. He was heading for the same result for Sunday’s round before his race ended in a bit of confusion, as the driver explains : I had an excellent start for Sunday’s race and I had an interesting battle between myself and Carlos Tesler-Mabe (Mini). I thought I was going to finish sixth but I was eventually passed by the Mini on the last corner while I thought the race was under a caution flag (making passing illegal); there seems to have been some confusion between the control tower and my spotters. It’s very disappointing, especially seeing as it was to be my second consecutive “Top 6”. I tried hard to overtake him before the finish line but I didn’t want to provoke any incidents by taking unnecessary risks so I settled for seventh place » explains Jocelyn.
For Luc Lesage, the driver from Trois-Rivières, mechanical problems did not prevent him from scoring some Super Touring class points : « I had some engine issues with the Scion, which forced me to slow down and settle for seventeenth spot on Saturday. For Sunday’s race I wanted to ensure that I’d score more points so I used the Touring class Toyota Corolla with which my teammate Jocelyn Fecteau contested the 2009 and 2010 seasons. The car wasn’t really prepared for this race and hadn’t been driven in some time. It was actually even covered in a nice layer of dust ! However, even though it has a production engine and qualifies as a Touring class car, we registered it in Super Touring and at the end of the day, it permitted me to score more points by finishing fourteenth » mentions Luc Lesage. A total of forty drivers were competing in the Canadian Touring Car events this weekend, in front of packed stands at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.
The next outing in the Canadian Touring Car Championship will take place in two weeks (June 23-24) at the ICAR Complex in Mirabel. For this double-header, the Media Racing Team is confident of earning good results. « I’ll be there with the Scion. We experienced some mechanical issues this weekend but we’ll have an engine sorted for the next event. We have an excellent chassis and as soon as the mechanical side of things are in order, we’ll be able to aim for great results » indicates Luc Lesage. Jocelyn Fecteau specifies : « in Touring class, we know that the Mini drivers are at an advantage at the ICAR Circuit. It’s a track that demands many changes in speed so we’re going to work more on our transmission. The track is very demanding on the gearbox so it’s going to have to be ready. I’m confident that we’ll make that happen and be able to earn some good results » he concludes.
The Media Racing Team is contesting the Canadian Touring Car Championship in two categories, with Luc Lesage in Super Touring and Jocelyn Fecteau in Touring class.
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