Canadian Touring Cars get ready to race
The Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship gets underway this weekend, sharing the Mosport circuit with the SCCA World Challenge Series.
We offer this overview of the Canadian championship, based on the Eastern side of the country, racing in Québec & Ontario.
The cars run two sprint races which generally last 30 minutes, much like the BTCC & WTCC.
The championship runs two seperate classes, ‘Super Touring’ and ‘Touring’.
Super Touring is a bit of a misnomer if you’re thinking back to the 90’s British Touring cars. Still delivering great race cars but far similar to the European ‘touring’ cars in terms of modifiable parts.
The cars are based on a production shell, with the teams allowed to change the engine, suspension and braking systems. The typical power of a Canadian Super Touring car is 300bhp.
The most popular car in the Super Touring category is the BMW 328i, though the Honda Civic’s of Lombardi Racing took the title in 2009 at the hands of Nick Wittmer.
GT Racing BMW 328i of Greg Pootmans, Super Touring class
The Touring Class category is very much what could be known as the production car class, with very few permitted changes to the cars.
Generally, this is where drivers will learn their trade before progressing to the Super Touring class. The power of this class is roughly about 200bhp on average, the cars are stock or allowed certain aftermarket manufacturer parts (such as rear wings) only.
Durabond Racing Honda Civic Si of Anthony Rapone, Touring class
The team’s can put in their own suspension system, but that’s generally as far as the modifications go. No splitters, diffusers are allowed. In both classes cars can run with turbo-chargers as long as they are OEM.
Honda Civic’s are by far the most popular marque in Touring, though a number of Acura RSX’s (Honda Integra’s) & Mazda Protégé’s competed in 2009, as well as a Toyota Corolla and a Nissan Sentra – though it was the lone Mini Cooper of Octane Motorsports that actually took the title.
2009 Touring Class champion Alain Lauziere’s Mini Cooper
The championship kicks off this weekend, and will eventually complete a seven event calendar in September.
2010 Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship Calendar
May 22nd/23rd – Victoria Day Speedfest – Mosport, Bowmanville, Ontario
June 12th/13rd – High Octane 200 – Mosport, Bowmanville, Ontario
July 3rd/4th – Grand Prix of Mirabel – Circuit ICAR, Mirabel, Québec
July 17th/18th – Honda Indy Toronto – Streets of Toronto, Ontario
August 14th/15th – Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres – Trois-Rivieres, Québec
August 28th/29th – Grand Prix of Mosport – Mosport, Bowmanville, Ontario
September 11th/12th – Sundown Enduro at ICAR – Circuit ICAR, Mirabel, Québec
