2003 Mosport International Raceway - Ontario Touring GT Championship

Despite declining entries for the Canada GT Challenge Cup and the series demise in 2002, there was still a demand for this format of racing among closed wheel competitors in the Canadian Automobile Sport Club Ontario Region (CASC-OR). The Touring GT Championship filled this vacancy.

Teams compete in one of three categories. The colour of the windshield banner identifies the groups.

Touring SGT – Blue – Vehicles campaigning in this group include many of the cars that previously contested the Canada GT Challenge Cup series.
Touring GT – White – This class is home to vehicles with V8 or six-cylinder engines and cars with forced induction systems.
Touring T – Yellow - Vehicles commonly found in this category include the Honda Civic, Nissan Sentra, Volkswagen Rabbit, Acura Integra, etc.

The Touring GT Championship events are conducted on CASC-OR race weekends. On Saturdays, teams compete in a twenty-minute sprint event and the following day a longer forty-minute race is contested. The Championship has also been invited to participate at two professional weekends at Mosport International Raceway – Trans Am Weekend and the CASCAR – Mosport Exide Batteries 250. At these events, drivers compete in a one-hour endurance race with a mandatory pit-stop. In total, there are eleven weekends of competition.

All races are one-hour in length and require a mandatory one-minute pit-stop. For teams that use two drivers, one-minute is sufficient time to make the change. Competitors driving solo can remain in the car during the stop. Re-fueling is not allowed.

In addition to the Drivers’ Championship, there are awards given for:

Rookie of the Year
Most Improved Driver
Most Professional Team
Crew Chief of the Year
Masters Champion
Hard Charger

After two rounds of the 2003 Touring GT Championship teams, would compete in the first of two one-hour races held at Mosport International Raceway. The sixty-minute event was held on the ten-turn 2.459-mile road course as a support event on the Victoria Day Weekend.

A field of twenty-nine entrants line up in corner nine at Mosport International Raceway for the start of the third race in the 2003 Touring GT Championship. At the front of the pack are former Canada GT Challenge Cup competitors. On the pole is the No. 74 Furtmair Auto Service sponsored Porsche 911 Turbo of Ulrich Furtmair. Beside Furtmair is Peter Botsinis driving the No. 72 PJC Autoworks Ltd. BMW M3.

Malcolm Strachan entered the final round of the 2002 Canada GT Challenge Cup as one of two drivers capable of winning the championship. Unfortunately, he was the first retiree of the contest. Strachan joined this year’s Touring GT Championship in his familiar No. 22 Chevrolet Corvette. Heading into the Victoria Day weekend event, he was the Touring SGT points leader and added to his total with another victory.

Touring T competitor Michael Thornley won both races in round two during the British Empire Motor Club’s 53rd Annual Spring Trophy event. The driver of the No. 35 Active Traction Service sponsored Acura Integra Type R was still on form when the series returned to Mosport International Raceway. Thornley started at the rear of the field and finished first in class and an incredible fifth overall.

After two rounds of the 2003 Touring GT Championship, it was clear that the competitor to beat in the Touring GT class was Bob Armstrong. Armstrong drove the well-sorted No. 33 Kingston Nissan Nissan NX2000 Turbo. He swept all the races to date and was particularly quick in the wet conditions in the last event. In the Victoria Day contest, he notched up another category victory and finished sixth overall.

The driver that was proving to be the biggest threat to Malcolm Strachan’s domination of the Touring SGT category was Allan DeWolfe. DeWolfe was also a former participant in the Canada GT Challenge Cup and drove the No. 31 BMW 325i. He proved himself in the previous race by winning in wet conditions. On the Victoria Day weekend event, DeWolfe started fourth overall but finished in the runner-up spot.

Claiming the final spot on the Touring SGT podium was Gunter Schmidt. The veteran of Canadian endurance racing campaigned the No. 38 Volkswagen Beetle with backing from Greenbelt Volkswagen. Schmidt was eleventh fastest in the qualifying session and fifth in the Touring SGT category. He maneuvered his way up the race order and after sixty-minutes of racing; he crossed the finish line in third place.

Another regular of the Canada GT Challenge Cup participating in this year’s Touring GT Championship was Uli Furtmair. Furtmair, driver of the No. 74 Furtmair Auto Service sponsored Porsche 911 Turbo, had a series-best finish of third-place last year. He was gridded on the pole for the third race weekend of the 2003 Touring GT Championship season. Unfortunately, the Touring SGT driver retired on the eighteenth lap.

FINISH	START	CLASS	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS
1	DNQ	Touring SGT	Malcom Strachan	Chevrolet Corvette	30
2	4	Touring SGT	Allan DeWolfe	BMW 325	30
3	11	Touring SGT	Gunter Schmidt	Volkswagen Beetle	29
4	2	Touring SGT	Peter Botsinis	BMW M3	29
5	9	Touring T	Michael Thornley	Acura Integra Type R	28
6	9	Touring GT	Bob Armstrong	Nissan NX2000 Turbo	28
7	19	Touring T	John Dipchand Jr.	Ford Contour SVT	28
8	15	Touring T	Andrew Elliott	Volkswagen Corrado	28
9	16	Touring GT	Doug Vanderhaar	Chevrolet Camaro	28
10	17	Touring T	Jack Conde	Volkswagen Rabbit	27
11	20	Touring T	Jasper Man	Volkswagen Golf	27
12	24	Touring T	Cliff Daley	Volkswagen Jetta	27
13	21	Touring T	John Bondar	Acura Integra	27
14	25	Touring T	Perry Iannuzzi	Nissan Sentra	27
15	23	Touring T	Nick Majors	Nissan Sentra	27
16	27	Touring T	Grant Houston / Ian Houston	Volkswagen Golf	27
17	12	Touring T	Ian Madden	Volkswagen Golf	26
18	28	Touring T	Matthew Cornford	Acura Integra	26
19	29	Touring T	John Blouin / Sam Mandia	Datsun 510	25
20	1	Touring SGT	Uli Furtmair	Porsche 911 Turbo	18
21	5	Touring SGT	Mike Palladino	Chevrolet Corvette	17
22	6	Touring SGT	Vito Scavone	Porsche 968	16
23	18	Touring GT	Peter Koleros	BMW M3	13
24	13	Touring GT	Steve Kent	Chevrolet Camaro	7
25	7	Touring GT	Alan Jones	Toyota Supra	6
26	22	Touring GT	Frank Evangelou	BMW 325is	5
27	8	Touring GT	Jody Trudeau	Chevrolet Camaro	2
28	14	Touring SGT	Tor Krueger	Chevrolet Monte Carlo	1
-	3	Touring SGT	Bob Munro	BMW M3	Disqualified

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