ROLF'S RACING EXPERIENCES- EST. 2007

Motor Races and Events we personally attended in 2007

CELEBRATION OF MOSPORT 2007 (Sept 29+ 30, 2007)

The is the last racing weekend of the season at Mosport International Raceway. It's saturday morning, sunny and warm for the end of september. We start watching the mornings practices and qualifying from between corner 8 and 9. Another great weekend of Club Racing Awaits us. Present for the Celebration of Mosport are the Ontario GT Sprints, the Castrol Canadian Touring Car Challenge, the Formula 1200 Championship Series, the Ontario Formula Libre Sprints, the VARAC Group 70+ Club Sport, the Vintage Historic Open Wheel/ Closed Wheel and the Ontario Formula Ford Challenge featuring the OFFC CanAm Cup with drivers from Quebec and the USA.
After the lunch break the afternoon was filled with 2 qualifyings and 6 races. We caught that action from the front straightaway and corner 1, still in perfect weather conditions.
Sunday promissed to be an even nicer day. After stopping at the Mosport Restaurant we headed to corner 4. Here R. Doug Jones in the 161 GT-B Truck spun out unharmed, but unfortunately caused a chain reaction which saw the #52 Tony McGrath driven Viper colliding with the #153 car of Rocco Marciello. The Nick Majors/ Tony McGrath Viper was done for day and Rocco Marciello was taken away by ambulance with a sore neck.
Then we walked to corner 5 to watch the rest of the mornings action. Here we can see the cars breaking into turn 5A, taking a slow turn into 5B and accelerating away on the Matio Andretti Straightaway.
In the afternoon we finished off the day going back to corner 1, a favourite spot to see both the Start/ Finish Line and acceleration down turn 1. A perfect place to end a perfect Mosport season of auto racing. See you in 2008.

For our pictures click EVENT PICTURES

Here are the top finishers in the Celebration 2007 races.

F-Libre
R4
1 27 Mario Urbano
2 764 Jim Hallman
3 00 Paul Parliament
R12
1 700 Jeremy Hill
2 27 Mario Urbano
3 764 Jim Hallman
R18
1 700 Jeremy Hill
2 27 Mario Urbano
3 764 Jim Hallman
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F1200
R1
1 12 Greg Brenzil
2 66 Michael Raekelboom
3 17 Guy Bellingham
R8
1 49 Randy Smith
2 16 Andrew McMurray
3 12 Greg Brenzi
R16
1 49 Randy Smith
2 17 Guy Bellingham
3 58 Bill Mitchell ----
Group 70+, Club Sport
R5, R11+ R17
The class winners were in all races-18 Jonathan Brett, 07 John Hawkes, 778 Michael Strelbisky +12 Patrick Ferrier
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GT 1/A/B/C/D
R2
The class winners were- 52 Nick Majors, 36 Peter Carpenko, 54 Alan Jones, 110 Michael Delle Donne+ 248 Frank Blanchet
R9
241 Ahmad Khodkar, 256 Paul Massingberd, 255 Brock Gilboe, 106 Mark S. Durant+ 223 Perry Iannuzzi
R19
92 Blaise Csida, 36 Peter Carpenko, 12 John Winges, 106 Mark S. Durant+ 195 Tyson Fiest
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Vintage
R3
The class winners were- 14 Rob McClelland, 25 John DeMaria, 3 John DeMaria, 321 Ted Michalos+ 90 Don Horner
R10
14 Rob McClelland, 25 John DeMaria, 321 Ted Michalos, 18 Matt Molson+ 76 David Shannon
R15
66 Jack Boxstrom, 25 John DeMaria, 44 Bill Bovenizer, 18 Matt Molson+ 68 Peter Viccary
For complete Mosport Celebration 2007 results click Celebration 2007


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OFFC-CanAm Cup Race R14
Class A
1st 71 Shane Jantzi, 2nd 05 Matt White +3rd 2 Kyle Marcelli
Class B
1st 19 Jonathan Hirst, 2nd 83 Rodney Kendall +3rd 28 Ross Smith
For complete OFFC Celebration 2007 results click OFFC

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Great sunny weather, a cool weekend and great racing welcomed us to Mosport this weekend. This was the 53rd Indian Summer Trophy Races. The Viper of Alex Habrich and R. Laporte dominated the race with a win of 6 laps over the nearest competition. For the full results Check out mylaps.com War Bonnet Enduro.
Saturdays War Bonnet race Was the top weekend event, but we had equally good races in other series as well. We had the Ontario GT sprints, F1200, Castrol Canadian Touring Car Challenge, Ontario Formula Fords and the Formula Libre's Competing.
For the CCTCC races the results are listed here mylaps.com BEMC.



The other series races you will find here mylaps.com Indian Summer Trophy.

For the hard luck story of the weekend, it was Eric LeBlanc in his #140 Subaru WRX Sti. In saturdays race he was disqualified for passing under a yellow and in sundays race he had a hard crash at corner 1 in the 3rd lap.

At the end of two days of great racing we had a near tragedy with a horrific 4 car crash on the front straighaway in the final F1200 race involving the #157, #16, #80 and #76 cars. Eric Barret and Frank Steinhausen had to be transported to Bowmanville Hospital, but luckily without major injury. All the best to them.

With all the excellent racing going on at Mosport the one thing missing were spectators. Get the word out about our quality racing and we'll get a better turnout for the Celebration of Motorsport coming up on Sept 29 + 30. See you there!

MOBIL 1 PRESENTS THE GRAND PRIX OF MOSPORT (Aug 23,24,25 +26 2007)

MONDAY AUG 20
Wow, what a great week! We arrived at Mosport International Raceway Monday Aug. 20 9:30 AM, found our favorite spot at the end of the Mario Andretti Straightaway at the cars breaking point for corner 8 and set up camp. It was about 20° C, cold and cloudy, but we didn't mind. It was the 1st day of ALMS testing and several teams were on the track all day long. These included the #6+7 Penske Porsche Rs Spyders with Romain Dumas, Timo Bernhard, Sascha Maassen and Ryan Brisco. Very impressive cars. Also on the track monday were the #15 Lola B06-43 Acura of Adrian Fernandez and Luis Diaz, the #26 Acura ARX-01a Andretti Green Racing entry with Bryan Herta and Marino Franchitti, the #8 Lola B07/46 Mazda MZR-R of BK Motorsports with James Bach and Ben Develin and the #71 and#73 Tafel Racing Porsche 911 GT# RSRs with Wolf Henzler, Robin Liddell, James Tafel and Dominik Farnbacher. To top off the day the sun came out after dinner and we spent an hour walking the 4 Km racetrack. Afterwards we realized we were the only campers on corner 8. We spent the night around our campfire and listened to tunes on the Edge 102.1

TUESDAY AUG 21
Woke up tuesday morning to find we were joined by 4 groups of campers. It was a cold and windy morning which turned into rain by 11:00 AM, and went to intermittent rain for most of the rest of the week. More cars came on the track today for the second day of ALMS testing. In addition to the racers that were out yesterday we also got to see the #9 Highcroft Racing Acura ARX-01a with David Brabham and Stefan Johansson, the #61 +#62 Risi Competizione Ferrari 430 GTs driven by Eric Helray, Gianmaria Bruni, Mika Salo and Jaime Melo, the #44 +#45 Flying Lizard Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 RSRs with Seth Neiman, Lonnie Pechnik, Johannes van Overbeek and Jorg Bergmeister, the #16 +#20 Dyson Racing Team privateer Porsche RS Spyders with Butch Leitzinger, Andy Wallace, Chris Dyson and Guy Smith, and lastly the #37 Intersport Racing Creation CA06H Judd piloted by Jon Field, Clint Field and Richard Berry. The Porsche RS Spyders are impressive and fast, the Audi R10's are going to have to put in their best effort to beat them.
The grandstands were trucked in today and more campers coming in. Took a walk through the woods to coner 5, the ALMS cars are pretty impressive there as well. The track closed at 5:00 PM, and we warmed up beside the campfire. Another good day.

WEDNESDAY AUG 22

Woke up to a "balmy" 13°C at 7:00 AM. No track action today, it's American LeMans Series Equipment Suppliers and Competitor Rig Parking Day. A busy day of rigs coming into the paddock and setting up. Workers doing road repairs and paving for the additional paddock being set up on the Go-Kart Track at corner 8. More Campers and RV's coming in, the place is filling up fast now. People putting up the event tents for the Porsche Platz, Corvette Corral, Steelback Beer Tent et cetera. We spent part of the day going into town to resupply our coolers with food and beverage, and checking out all that Mosport has to offer. Closed the day around the campfire, another good, mind you, relaxing day at Mosport.

THURSDAY AUG 23
Cars are back on the Mosport International Raceway today. It's Promoter Test Day at Mosport. No ALMS cars out today, the track is reserved for all the support series taking part in the Grand Prix of Mosport. This is the day we get to see the following series doing fast laps: The IMSA Lites presented by Hankook, The Star Mazda Championship presented by Goodyear, The Formula BMW USA , The IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge presented by Michelin, The SPEED World Challenge Touring Series and The SPEED World Challenge GT Series.
The track is damp from overnight rain and we're expecting thunderstorms. More heavy rain at 8:00 AM, followed by light rain. By 9:00 the track is black flagged for a torential downpour. At 10:25 all cars back to pit lane for fog. It's that kind of day. At 1:00 PM during the lunch break we had the 4th Annual Front Straightaway Road Hockey Game between Canada and the World, where Canada is mostly the media and the World is the ALMS drivers. Track announcer Jim Martin lead the Media Team. Unfortunately "The World Team" failed to show, but a one sided game is still better than no game at all.
We're glad to see Ron Fellows practicing in the #16 Cadillac Speed GT. He will also be driving the additional #33 Pratt + Miller Corvette C-6R in the ALMS GT1 this weekend. About 3:30 PM it got hot and humid. On a sad note local driver Sasha Anis crashed his #65 SPEED TC in corner 5 but got it fixed up by next day. The track closed to racing at 6:00 PM. After dinner we walked through the paddock it was fairly deserted. At 8:15 went back to camp for fire and beer. Looking forward to another good one tomorrow.

FRIDAY AUG 24
Overnight we had a super heavy rain and thunder storm. Luckily the tents held up and kept us dry. The temperature was 22°C with a humidex of 31°C. The race day consisted mostly of practices and qualifying. The IMSA Lites and the Formula BMWs were out qualifying. The ALMS cars had their first official Promoter Test Sessions today. In all a long day that went from 8:00 AM to 6:35 PM with all series and cars on the track. In the morning we went through the paddock again and got our first glimpse of the new production version of the Audi R8 sports car. Very nice, can't wait for a production model of the Audi R10. We also got our first closeup look at the Ron Fellows and Andy Pilgrim #33 Corvette C-6R. Grabbed a few hero cards and stopped at the Mosport restaurant for an official program and ice. Went back to camp site to see more racing. Had a few mishaps on the track, notably #69 Star Mazda's Ron White and #33 Devin Cunningham found a tire wall, they fixed their cars for next day. Later on the #15 ALMS Acura driven by Adrian Fernandez found the tire wall on corner 9. On our track walk that night we saw Adrian Fernandez at the same spot analizing his crash on that stretch of track. Also the SPEED GT #23 of Michael Galati had a run in with some tires on corner 8. Then another campfire, beer and more rain at night. "Good on" for canopies to help us stay dry.

SATURDAY AUG 25
Today it's pretty well all qualifying and races. Cars will be on the Mosport International Raceway from 8:00 AM till 7:35 PM, a full day, or so we thought. The track was closed due to fog until 9:15 AM. The first race of the weekend are the IMSA Lites with our 3 top drivers #9 Gerardo Bonilla, #8 Jay Cochran and #38 Kerry Jacobsen. After ALMS practice and qualifying the Star Mazda's had their 45 minute race. with the top 3 being #7 James Davidson, #15 Lorenzo Mandarino and #19 Dane Cameron. Next to the Formula BMW USA race with podium finishes for #16 Alexander Rossi, #8 Robert Thorne and #4 Yannick Hofman. Told you it was a long day- 2 more races. Next the IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge won by #96 Tom Papadopoulos sharing the podium with #4 Bob Faieta and #33 Charles Scardina. To finish off the day was the SPEED World Challenge GT race. The top 3 were #30 Eric Curran, #1 Lawson Aschenbach and #23 Michael Galati. As you would have guessed by now, more camp fire and more beer. And another surprise, no more rain. In fact, no more rain for the rest of the weekend. Yahoo- the "Mosport Cloud" has disapeared.
P.S. Dindo Capello broke the Mosport qualifying record today in his Audi R10 with a lap speed of 1.05.829 to put him on pole for sundays race. Great drive by a great team.

SUNDAY AUG 26 (ALMS RACE DAY)
Today is another full day at the track. All festivities and racing, the highlight of the Mobil 1 presents the Grand Prix of Mosport 2007. Track action from 8:00 AM to almost 6:00 PM under warm and friendly skies
9:05 AM the IMSA Lites race #2. a field of 21 cars, a couple of full course yellows, with our top 3 being #9 Geraldo Bonilla, #8 Jay Cochran and #38 Kerry "Cougar" Jacobson. Then at 9:55 AM it was the IMSA GT3 Cup race. Leading at the end in their Porsche 997s were #15 Dino Steiner, #96 Tom Papadopoulos and #5 Wade Carter. Racing took a slight break for the ALMS warm up. Then at 11:15 AM the SPEED World Challenge Touring Car race. Went to the start-finish line to see their famous standing start, which went off without incident. The top 3 were:#19 Adam Pecorari, #17 Chip Herr and #1 Pierre Kleinubing.
Just after 12:00 noon the ALMS drivers came out for chats and autographs. Missed part of the SCCA World Challenge race because of it, maybe a slight rescheduling is in order for next year?. Got to see all the ALMS drivers close up, the worlds best sports car drivers. Thats what makes the American LeMans Series the best in the world.
Back to camp and corner 8 to see the BMW USA race#2. The podium was claimed by #70 Daniel Morad (go Canada), #7 Esteban Gutierrez (go Mexico) and #10 Maxime Pelletier (go Canada).
Now the final and most important race. 2:15 PM parade laps by all ALMS cars and then the front straightaway festivities. By 3:00 PM both choppers are in the air to cover communications and TV signals. At 3:01 the cars come around for two parade laps and 5 minutes later the race is on. A few minutes later our first full course yellow, #19 driven by Adam Pecorari is out of race with heavy damage. By lap 47 another full course yellow this time for the #9 Highcroft Racing Acura and the #73 Tafel racing Porsche 911 entry going off roading in corner 2. During the malee the #2 Audi lost a lap due to unstrategic pitting, and the #45 Flying Lizard Porsche got a penalty for passing under yellow. The rest of the race was without major incidents. With 3 laps to go, Timo Bernard in his Penske Racing Porsche RS Spyder took the win away from Audi for their 3rd consecutive overall win in the ALMS. Congratulations. Here are the podium winners of all 4 classes:

P1
#1 Audi R10 Dindo Capello and Allen McNish
#2 Audi R10 Emanuele Pirro and Marco Werner
#12 Lola Chris McMurray Michael, Lewis and Brian Willman

P2
#7 Porsche Romain Dumas and Timo Bernhard
#6 Porsche Sascha Maassen and Ryan Brisco
#26 Acura Bryan Herta and Marino Franchitti

GT1
#3 Corvette Johnny O'Connell and Jan Magnussen
#4 Corvette Oliver Gavin And Olivier Beretta
#33 Corvette Ron Fellows and Andy Pilgrim

GT2
#62 Ferrari Mika Salo and Jaime Melo
#61 Ferrari Eric Helray and Gianmaria Bruni
#18 Porsche Ralf Kelleners and Tom Milner

Congratulations to all and hopefully see you return next year.
By 8:00 PM most of the Mosport Park campers have left. We stay behind join Glenn at his campfire, swap stories and have a couple of beers. This was another successful Mosport weekend. Thanks to all involved.

MONDAY AUG 27
Packing up and counting down to next years ALMS Grand Prix of Mosport.

2007 CANADIAN GRAND PRIX, MOSPORT INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
Parade Lap with SCCA's new Volkswagen GLI Fahrenheit Pace Cars

THE CANADIAN TOURING TROPHY RACES AT MOSPORT (Aug 11+ 12 2007)

Another excellent racing weekend put on by BARC and CASC Ontario. Club racing doesn't get much better than this. The classes represented were GT1,A,B,C,D, the Formula 1200 Championship Series, Formula Libre, Castrol Canadian Touring Car championship, G-70/Club Sport, Vintage/Historic and the Ontario Formula Ford Challenge. Saturday was hot and sunny in the almost 30 degree range. Sunday started of the same way, but by early afternoon the clouds and then the rain moved in. Fortunatly the weather rolled in slowly and didn't cause any major havoc on the 4km track, as the teams had time to prepare. By the final race, the Ontario GT Sprints, the rain had stopped and the track was slightly damp.
The OFFC had 2 Races of 22 minutes+ 1 lap each. Here are the top 3 in both divisions. The 1st race F1600-A class went to #65 Kris Rams, #2 Kyle Marcelli and #05 Matt White. For the F1600-B class it was # 3 Ivan Graham, #96 Lew MacKenzie and #40 Tony Cove. Next day the 2nd race F1600-A winners were #05 Matt White, #52 Dean Baker and #90 Rick Doktor. The Diamond Class went to #96 Lew MacKenzie, #3 Ivan Graham and #19 Jonathan Hirst.
The CCTCC also had 2 races this weekend, a 20 minute race on satyurday and a 40 minute race on sunday. The results for the top 3 in the 3 classes represented were: GT #115 M. Circone/Roberto Sabato, #14 Sasha Anis and #177 Kurt Langeveldt, ST #40 Mathieu Audette, #254 C. Sorensen/ C. Pacsynski, and #29 Etienne Borgeat, T #239 Andre Rapone, #47 Alaine Lauziere and #62 Howard Chin. Sunday's race brought us these winners: GT #115 M. Circone/Roberto Sabato, #14 Sasha Anis #88 Bob Munro, ST #40 Mathieu Audette, #166 Steve Anderson, #140 Eric LeBlanc, T #239 Andre rapone, #38 Andrew Danyliw and #62 Howard Chin.
The top drivers in the 3 GT1,A,B,C,D races were: GT-1,A,B,C,D Race 1: GT1-#52 Nick Majors, GTA-#09 John Cosgrove, GTB-#06 Paul Myers, GTC-#106 Mark s Durant and GTD-#248 Frank Blanchet. Race 2: GT1-#84 Mike Boekdrukker, GTA-#133 Rick Higgins, GTB-#16 Alec Chalvardjian, GTC-#106 Mark S. Durant and GTD-#189 Bryan Rashleigh. Race 3: GT1-#075 Alex P. Habrich, GTA-#56 Hans Wolter, GTB-#255 Brock Gilboe, GTC-#289 Jason Stevens and GTD-#248 Frank Blanchet.
For the 3 F-1200 races the winners were: Race 1- #17 John DiBenedetto, Race 2- #49 Randy Smith and Race 3- #49 Randy Smith.
In Formula Libre all three races of the weekend were won by #27 Mario Urbano.
In G-70 / Club Sport we also had 3 races. Here are the winners in each class for each race. Race 1: G70E-#80 Aram Tourikian, G70F-#48 Kevin Young, G70G-#41 Richard Piper and G70-#05 Steve Hummel. Race 2: G70E-#93 Del bruce, G70F-#71 Walt Mackay, G70G-#41 Richard Piper and G70-#112 Terry Fletcher. Race 3: G70E-#160 Tim Sanderson, G70F-#48 Kevin Young, G70G-#168 Ian Lok and G70-#112 Terry Fletcher (DNS).
For the 3 Vintage/Historic races the class winners were: Race 1: A-#83 Andy Januszewski, B-#56 Jeremy Sale, C-#18 Matt Molson and D-#109 Frank Harnden. Race 2: , A-#116 Ralph Davies, B-#25 John DeMaria, C-#124 Andrew Celovsky and D-#109 Frank Harnden. Race 3: A-#01 Tom Burge, B-#89 Nick Pratt, C-#3 Fred Samson and D-#109 Frank Harnden.
Congratulations to all the winners and non-winners for making this another great Mosport weekend.

THE STEELBACK GRAND PRIX OF TORONTO (July 6/ 7/ 8 2007)

This was the of the best Champcar racing weekend in Toronto since the creation of the "new" Champ Car World Series. After last years meager race action at the Molson Indy we had a variety of races to keep every fan happy. Besides the Champ Cars, there were also apearances by Champ Car Atlantic, Star Mazda, Speed World Challange Touring and GT, and the Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship. All of them putting on better than excellent races on the Toronto street circuit. The weather was great friday and saturday for practices, Qualifying, the Star Mazda race and checking out the paddocks and grounds at Toronto's Exhibition Place. Sundays 5 races were brought us with mixed weather of intermittent rain, sun and cloud, adding an unforseen factor to the day.
Congratualations to #19 Dane Cameron, #33 Devin Cunningham and #51 Alex Ardoin for their podium finishes in saturdays STAR MAZDA CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY GOODYEAR race
Sundays 1st race was the COOPERTIRES PRESENTS ATLANTIC CHAMPIONSHIP CHAMPCAR POWERD BY MAZDA. Of the 23 starting cars only 10 were running at the end. Congratulations to #11 Franck Perera, #7 John Edwards and #6 Raphael Matos for their podium finishes.
Next up the CHAMP CAR WORLD SERIES RACE (or should we or shouldn't we go to rain tires series) saw Alex Figge, Katherine Legge, Tristan Gommendy and home town favourite Paul Tracy crash out of the race without completing a lap. By the end there were only 8 of the 17 starters running. Congratulations to the Top three, #5 Will Power, #9 Justin Wilson and #15 Simon Pagenaud.
After an already great day there were 3 more great races. Next we saw the SPEED WORLD CHALLENGE TOURING CARS. This was an action packed race that saw Peter Cunningham in a door to door battle with Ian Baas in the final turns of the last lap. Congratulations to #42 Peter Cunningham, #18 Ian Baas and #1 Pierre Kleinubing for their Podium achievements.
Next onto the SPEED WORLD CHALLENGE GT CARS. This race had amultitude of spinouts and crashes with a minimal of full course yellows. After 31 laps we saw home town hero Ron Fellows take his #16 Cadillac to 2nd place, and Series favorite #22 Randy Pobst taking the checkered flag. Randy's team mate, in another K-PAX Racing Porsche 911, #23 Michael Galati came in third.
For the last race of the weekend we saw the CASTROL CANADIAN TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP PRESENTED BY TOYO TIRES take the track. The top 3 GT finishers were #115 Roberto Sabato, #27 Antonio Buso and #256 Robert McAuley /Dave Ciekiewicz. The top 3 Super Touring winners were #45 Scott Nicol /Peter Lejbjuk, #26 Charles-Andre Bilodeau and #140 Eric Leblanc. In the Touring Class #39 Robert Calisi, #239 Andre Rapone and #191 James Foote took the podium.
EVENT PICTURES

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EVENT PICTURES