(Montréal, Québec, Canada) – It was a very successful weekend of racing for Team Octane and their drivers at the 44th running of Grand-Prix de Trois-Rivières.
The team brought their four MINI Cooper S John Cooper Works to the Trifluvien circuit to display the handling and braking abilities of their British-born vehicles to the enthusiastic crowds for regular drivers Michel Sallenbach, Paul Gravel, Eric Lacouture and Carlos Tesler-Mabe. Additionally, Alain Lauzière would take the wheel of the #44 B-Spec MINI Cooper for the weekend.
Sallenbach set the weekend tone early capturing the pole position ahead of local veteran Dr. Jocelyn Hébert. Tesler-Mabe would get the 4th fastest time, Eric Lacouture 5th and Paul Gravel 10th. Lauzière qualified in 3rd place in B-Spec.
The first race was run under the lights and created traffic challenges with the speed differential of the 3 classes. Sallenbach had a poor start falling back to 5th position and would take all race to catch-up to leader Jocelyn Hébert but ran out of time to attempt any overtaking manoeuvers and would settle for second place. Tesler-Mabe and Lacouture finished 5th and 6th while Gravel improved to 9th position. In B-Spec, Lauzière captured 3rd place after an intense battle with Nadeau who unfortunately was not able to complete the race after an encounter with the wall from a mechanical failure of his Mazda.
Sallenbach led race #2 from the drop of the green flag in an intense battle with Hébert and he would capture the win after starting from the pole. The race was run under an extended yellow after teammate Gravel was involved in a heavy shunt with fellow competitor Jocelyn Fecteau’s Scion after an encounter with the tire wall. Both drivers would walk-away from their cars despite the very hard impact. Tesler-Mabe ran a fantastic race capturing the last podium position, keeping his teammate Lacouture and all the agressive competition behind. Lauzière repeated with another third place position in B-Spec. The win for Sallenbach would propel him atop the points chart, 29 points ahead of his closest competitor Damon Sharpe.
The Canadian Touring Car Championship presented by Continental tire’s next event will be in Bowmanville ON, at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (Mosport) the weekend of Aug.31-Sept 1. during the Nascar Truck weekend. The Championship competes throughout 7 weekends of racing. Details are available at http://touringcar.ca.
Team partners include MINI Canada through their generous contingency program, MINI GENUINE PARTS, Castrol, LDS Dyno, Bully Clutch, Revolution MINI Works, Perry Auto, Carrosserie Touchette, La Clinique du Pneu Granby, Lettrage Raoul, ASG Accessoire de Soudure Granby, SoCal Sport Cars, Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes and Carbotech Brakes.
Contact: Alain Lauzière – 450-455-2468 (octanepromotions@videotron.ca)
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