Alain Lauzière, driver of the GO FAST Sports- Octane Motorsport MINI Cooper S, took the championship lead in the Touring class of the Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship race, after the Trois-Rivières Grand Prix weekend. [IMGL]http://www.flagworld.com/photos/d/387899-2/2009-08-16_0023.jpg[/IMGL]Lauzière qualified his – MINI Original Accessories – Cooper S in third position, right behind the championship leader. After the start where the 3 Touring-class leaders were fighting together, they were able to catch a back-marker from the Super Touring class. Lauzière was involved with a collision with him: “I thought that our right front suspension was damaged as I had difficulties turning left†mentioned Lauzière. The right front tire was suffering from a slow leak and let go three laps later. The #47MINI Cooper S would lose 2 laps in the process. Lauzière bringing back the Go FAST Sports MINI in 12th position. The Sunday race did not bring much better results to the team, Lauzière would cross the finish line in 7th position after having problems under braking conditions. Trois-Rivières represented an important event for the Octane team as they were debuting the second MINI Cooper S in their stable. Local journalist Jacques Deshaies and Simon-Dion Viens would share driving duties, each one taking turn to ster the #46 MINI Cooper S. Deshaies qualified the Castrol MINI Cooper S in 12th position, without any prior practice in the car. He would drive all the way back up to finish in 4th place during Saturday’s race, but the car was unfortunately disqualified for a ride height infraction: “We feel sorry for Jacques; he deserved this fantastic finish having driven a very intelligent race, but unfortunately these adjustments are part of setting-up a new car and can happenâ€, mentioned team-owner Lauzière. Because of the driver change, Dion-Viens started from the back of the field but would drive the car back to 3rd position after a spectacular drive, clinching the last step of the podium. “The MINI Cooper was so pleasing to drive; it’s so well-balanced†said Dion-Viens. The Championship leader of the Touring class would only gather a few points in Trois-Rivières, having issues with his Honda Civic engine all weekend long. As a result, Lauzière is now taking the lead away in the championship. The GoFast Sports-Octane team will be back on-track on September 5-6 at the Icar circuit in Mirabel. The team’s participation is facilitated by the support and collaboration of GO FAST Sports (energy drink), MINI Original Parts, Simone Performance Imports, Castrol Canada (Wakefield), Birchmount Collision, MINI Original Accessories, Cruisecanada.com, BULLY clutches, Betz pools and Muellerprep. Deshaies et Dion-Viens were able to participate with the support Castrol, Best Buy pièces d’autos Rive-Sud, Boulay inox, Pizzeria Stratos, Les délices de la mer, Jeannot Lemieux et GroupeVincent.com.
That's the sort of write-up I've been Googling for. I knew Alain took the championship lead (!!!!) and I read about the great run with the new car but couldn't find the rest of the details. By the way (since it's not entirely clear) where it says "Because of the driver change, Dion-Viens started from the back of the field..." this is for the second race, and it was a large Touring class field so starting from the back means he ran from 28th to 3rd in a 30 minute race! I guess that new car is working pretty well.
Thanks Nathan for posting! Schedule has been hectic as of late. Simon drove a wonderful race and started +/- ~32nd or so overall and finished 15th overall, 3rd in class. The car works great even if we are still chasing power steering issues.
I see the new car doesn't have a rear wing. Given how well it's working as-is, are you planning to leave it that way?
Rules are changing next year and they are not allowing wings. It wasn't worth insatlling one for 2 races. We'll put an O.E. back on. I just have to decide which one.