2009 Trois-Rivieres - Canadian Touring Car Championship

The 2009 Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship presented by Toyo Tires offered racers an excellent opportunity to showcase their talents at some of eastern Canada’s most widely recognized and well-established race tracks. The series provided amateur competitors with professionally organized events that would attract sponsors and fans. The success of the championship was reflected in the number of drivers who participated in race weekends. The average car count per event was twenty-nine- entries.

This 2009 schedule consists of eight race weekends at six different facilities. The format at each venue includes two races – generally, thirty-minutes in length. The season kicks off on the Victoria Day long weekend at Mosport International Raceway. This is followed by the series only stop at Shannonville Motorsports Park. In mid-June, the championship returns to Mosport as a support event for the NASCAR Canadian Tire series. Two weeks later, teams travel Quebec and compete at the ICAR Mirabel Airport circuit. Then it is back to Ontario for the series premiere event – Exhibition Place, Toronto, with the IndyCar Championship. Then teams make their only stop at Calabogie Motorsports Park in July. The final events are conducted in Quebec. The penultimate rounds take place on the street circuit at Trois-Rivieres. The last weekend is the second visit to ICAR in September.

In 2009, there would be two classes. To help fans distinguish between the groups, the cars are fitted with different coloured windshield banners.

Touring - (Blue Window Banner) – This is intended to be an entry-level category. Vehicles competing in this class are allowed a minimal amount of performance enhancements. Manufacturers represented in this group include the Mini Cooper S, Honda Civic, Mazda Protege, Nissan Sentra and Acura Integra.
Super Touring – (Yellow Window Banner) - Super Touring includes many of the same makes and models found in Touring. However, this category allows engine modifications and aerodynamic enhancements. Additional manufacturers competing in the group include BMW, Subaru and Audi.

The penultimate rounds of the 2009 Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship were held at Trois-Rivieres. Drivers would compete in two thirty-minute contests around the eleven-turn 2.462-km temporary street circuit.

Saturday afternoon at Trois-Rivieres and the start of round thirteen for the 2009 Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship. The second fastest qualifier, Etienne Borgeat, in the No. 2 GT Racing BMW 330i leads the field of thirty-seven entrants into the first turn. Lined up behind Borgeat is the Honda Civic of Nick Wittmer, Gary Kwok driving an Acura CSX and his GT Racing teammate, Paul Dalla Lana.

Etienne Borgeat had his best weekend of the 2009 season at Trois-Rivieres. During the year, Borgeat had racked up three podium finishes and a victory at Calabogie, but he outdid himself at Trois-Rivieres. He qualified second for Saturday’s contest and won by a margin of 2.937-seconds. Not to be outdone, the next day, Borgeat started on the pole and led flag-to-flag for a sweep of the weekend.

Kenneth Lau only competes in a limited number of races each year. The Trois-Rivieres event appears to suit his driving style. Last year at Trois-Rivieres, Lau captured a runner-up finish and win in the Touring category. He repeated his performance from 2008 with a victory on Saturday, driving the No. 73 Durabond Racing Honda Civic Si, and a second place in class the following day.

Alex Healy notched up a second-place finish in the previous round at Calabogie Motorsport Park, which was his best result to date. During the qualifying session for race one at Trois-Rivieres, Healy set the eighth fastest time but finished third in the Super Touring category. On Sunday, the driver of the No. 5 Krikorian Motorsports Acura RSX chased the eventual winner, Etienne Borgeat and was second by a margin of 0.670-seconds.

Sharing the No. 89 Equipe 89 Acura Integra Type R at Trois-Rivieres was Daniel Blanchette and Rejean Vincent. Blanchette competed in the first event of the weekend. He qualified sixth in the Touring category and finished nine-laps behind the leaders in thirteenth place. Vincent’s results were just the opposite. He started thirty-second overall, but after thirty-minutes of racing, Vincent was first in class.

The round fourteen Super Touring podium for the 2009 Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship at Trois Rivieres. In the center, recording his third victory of the season and sweeping the weekend at Trois-Rivieres is Etienne Borgeat. On the left side of the rostrum is the runner-up, Alex Healy. The final position on the podium is occupied by the third-place finisher, Nick Wittmer.

Prior to round thirteen at Trois-Rivieres, Patrick Seguin’s season included a series of top-ten finishes in the Touring category. The best result for the driver of the No. 80 Canadian Classic Cars Motorsport Honda Civic Si was a fourth place at ICAR. In the weekend’s first contest at Trois-Rivieres, Seguin scored a runner-up finish in class. In Sunday’s race, he was twenty-first overall and eighth in his group.

The No. 12 Audette Racing Acura RSX Type-S was driven by Mathieu Audette. Audette is one the series front runners, but he appears at either the top or bottom of the final result sheets – there is often no in-between. This was true at Trois-Rivieres. In round thirteen, he was the runner-up in the Super Touring category, but in the finale, Audette was seventeenth in class.

Another entry that was piloted by two drivers was the second Octane Motorsports entry. Jacques Deshaies and Simon Dion-Viens shared the No. 46 Mini Cooper S. As in the Equip 89 case, the results were mixed. Deshaies competed in Saturday’s event and was disqualified for a ride height infraction. With issue rectified, Dion-Viens moved up the race order and finished third in the Touring class.

Another part-time participant in the series is Sylvain Laporte. Prior to Trois-Rivieres, Laporte raced the No. 50 Laporte Racing Honda Civic at Shannonville and ICAR with his best result being a fourth place in the Touring category. In rounds thirteen and fourteen, he delivered some respectable results. In Saturday’s race, Laporte earned his first podium of the season and on Sunday, he finished in fifth place.

The Super Touring points leader, Nick Wittmer, proved that consistency is more important than winning races if you want to be a title contender. Entering the penultimate weekend, Wittmer didn’t have any victories, but only had three finishes outside the top-ten. He followed this strategy at Trois-Rivieres and captured fourth and third-place finishes driving the No. 06 Lombardi Racing Honda Civic Si-R.

The round fourteen Touring podium for the 2009 Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship at Trois Rivieres. In the center recording his first victory of the season is Rejean Vincent. On the right side of the rostrum is Saturday’s winner and the runner-up, Kenneth Lau. Completing the podium and finishing in third-place is Simon Dion-Viens.

FINISH	CLASS	DRIVER	CAR / SPONSOR	LAPS	RETIREMENTS
1	Super Touring	Etienne Borgeat	BMW 330i / GT Racing	21	-
2	Super Touring	Mathieu Audette	Acura RSX Type-S / Audette Racing	21	-
3	Super Touring	Alex Healy	Acura RSX Type-S / Krikorian Motorsports	21	-
4	Super Touring	Nick Wittmer	Honda Civic Si-R / Lombardi Racing	21	-
5	Super Touring	Jean-François Dumoulin	Honda Civic Si-R / Lombardi Racing	21	-
6	Super Touring	Eric Hochgeschurz	BMW 328i / 8Legs Racing	21	-
7	Super Touring	David Bensadoun	BMW 328i / Aldo	21	-
8	Super Touring	Arek Wojciechowski	BMW 328i / 8Legs Racing	21	-
9	Super Touring	Dean Fantin	BMW 330i / Amico Racing	21	-
10	Super Touring	Paul Dargis	BMW 328i / Dargis Motorsports	21	-
11	Super Touring	Glenn Chaplin	Hyundai Tiburon / Fast Wheels Racing	21	-
12	Touring	Kenneth Lau	Honda Civic Si / Durabond Products Ltd.	21	-
13	Super Touring	Marc-Antoine Camirand	BMW M Z3 Coupe / Production Le Carrossier	21	-
14	Super Touring	P.J. Groenke	Saab 93 Sport / JL Racing	21	-
15	Super Touring	Jean-Claude Côté	Hyundai Tiburon / GT Racing	21	-
16	Touring	Patrick Séguin	Honda Civic Si / Canadian Classic Cars	21	-
17	Super Touring	Lee Chaplin	Hyundai Tiburon / Fast Wheels Racing	21	-
18	Touring	Sylvain Laporte	Honda Civic / Laporte Racing	21	-
19	Touring	Tom Kwok	Honda Civic / M&S Racing	21	-
20	Touring	Jacques Bélanger	Honda Civic Si / Di Staulo Racing	21	-
21	Touring	Eric Laporte	Honda Civic / Laporte Racing	21	-
21	Touring	Jocelyn Fecteau	Toyota Corolla XRS / Media Racing Team	21	-
23	Super Touring	Greg Pootmans	BMW 330i / GT Racing	20	-
24	Touring	Nigel Heron	Acura Integra Type R / Heron Motorsports	20	-
25	Touring	Frank Blanchet	Acura Integra Type R / Blanchet Motorsports	20	-
26	Super Touring	Manuel Bastien	Honda Civic Si-R / Bastien Racing Team	20	-
27	Touring	Ryan Blanchet	Nissan Sentra / Blanchet Motorsports	20	-
28	Touring	Claude Houde	Mazda Protege / Houde	19	-
29	Super Touring	Gary Kwok	Acura CSX / M&S Racing	19	-
30	Touring	Alain Lauzière	Mini Cooper S / Mini Canada	19	-
31	Super Touring	Ken Baird	Mercury Cougar / 8Legs Racing	14	-
32	Touring	Daniel Blanchette	Acura Integra Type R / Équipe 89	12	-
33	Touring	Anthony Rapone	Honda Civic Si / Durabond Products Ltd.	7	Did Not Finish
34	Touring	Thomas Bork	Mazda Protege / Doc B Racing	7	Accident
35	Super Touring	Pascal Carré	BMW 330i / PCS Motorsports	4	Did Not Finish
-	Super Touring	Bob Attrell	Hyundai Genesis / Hyundai Racing Team	0	Did Not Start
-	Super Touring	Paul Dalla Lana	BMW 330i / GT Racing	-	Disqualified
-	Touring	Jacques Deshaies	Mini Cooper S / Octane Motorsports	-	Disqualified

FINISH	CLASS	DRIVER	CAR / SPONSOR	LAPS	RETIREMENTS
1	Super Touring	Etienne Borgeat	BMW 330i / GT Racing	24	-
2	Super Touring	Alex Healy	Acura RSX Type-S / Krikorian Motorsports	24	-
3	Super Touring	Nick Wittmer	Honda Civic Si-R / Lombardi Racing	24	-
4	Super Touring	David Bensadoun	BMW 328i / Aldo	24	-
5	Super Touring	Jean-François Dumoulin	Honda Civic Si-R / Lombardi Racing	24	-
6	Super Touring	Dean Fantin	BMW 330i / Amico Racing	24	-
7	Super Touring	Arek Wojciechowski	BMW 328i / 8Legs Racing	24	-
8	Super Touring	Paul Dargis	BMW 328i / Dargis Motorsports	24	-
9	Super Touring	Gary Kwok	Acura CSX / M&S Racing	24	-
10	Super Touring	Eric Hochgeschurz	BMW 328i / 8Legs Racing	24	-
11	Super Touring	Paul Dalla Lana	BMW 330i / GT Racing	23	-
12	Super Touring	Glenn Chaplin	Hyundai Tiburon / Fast Wheels Racing	23	-
13	Touring	Réjean Vincent	Acura Integra Type R / Équipe 89	23	-
14	Touring	Kenneth Lau	Honda Civic Si / Durabond Products Ltd.	23	-
15	Touring	Simon Dion-Viens	Mini Cooper S / Octane Motorsports	23	-
16	Touring	Tom Kwok	Honda Civic / M&S Racing	23	-
17	Touring	Sylvain Laporte	Honda Civic / Laporte Racing	23	-
18	Super Touring	Jean-Claude Côté	Hyundai Tiburon / GT Racing	23	-
19	Touring	Jacques Bélanger	Honda Civic Si / Di Staulo Racing	23	-
20	Touring	Alain Lauzière	Mini Cooper S / Mini Canada	23	-
21	Touring	Patrick Séguin	Honda Civic Si / Canadian Classic Cars	23	-
22	Super Touring	Pascal Carré	BMW 330i / PCS Motorsports	23	-
23	Touring	Frank Blanchet	Acura Integra Type R / Blanchet Motorsports	22	-
24	Touring	Jocelyn Fecteau	Toyota Corolla XRS / Media Racing Team	22	-
25	Touring	Eric Laporte	Honda Civic / Laporte Racing	22	-
26	Super Touring	Manuel Bastien	Honda Civic Si-R / Bastien Racing Team	22	-
27	Touring	Ryan Blanchet	Nissan Sentra / Blanchet Motorsports	22	-
28	Touring	Claude Houde	Mazda Protege / Houde	21	-
29	Touring	Nigel Heron	Acura Integra Type R / Heron Motorsports	19	-
30	Super Touring	Lee Chaplin	Hyundai Tiburon / Fast Wheels Racing	16	-
31	Super Touring	Mathieu Audette	Acura RSX Type-S / Audette Racing	11	Did Not Finish
32	Super Touring	P.J. Groenke	Saab 93 Sport / JL Racing	4	Did Not Finish
33	Super Touring	Greg Pootmans	BMW 330i / GT Racing	4	Did Not Finish
34	Touring	Anthony Rapone	Honda Civic Si / Durabond Products Ltd.	0	Did Not Finish
-	Super Touring	Marc-Antoine Camirand	BMW M Z3 Coupe / Production Le Carrossier	-	Did Not Start
-	Super Touring	Ken Baird	Mercury Cougar / 8Legs Racing	-	Did Not Start
-	Touring	Thomas Bork	Mazda Protege / Doc B Racing	-	Did Not Start
-	Super Touring	Bob Attrell	Hyundai Genesis / Hyundai Racing Team	-	Did Not Start

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