Trois-Rivieres: Condor Motorsports race report

Third place for Junior Strous and a good race for Dominick Muermans

Trois Rivière, Canada, Sunday August 17th, 2008 - For the 39th time the Grand Prix Trois Rivière (GP3R) took place on the temporary street circuit in the city of Trois Rivière (Quebec, Canada). The circuit is situated next to the Hippodrome near the city centre and has a length of 2.448 km.

In the long history of the GP3R, the largest sporting event in the region, it has known some famous winners. In 1973 it was Gilles Villeneuve who won the Formula Ford race and in 1976 the Atlantic race in a March 76-B. In 1984 Arie Luyendijk won in a VW Super Vee Ralt RT-5. The second Dutchman who won a race here was Cor Euser. He won the Formula 2000 in 1985. The Atlantic Championship race of 1989 was won by Jacques Villeneuve and in 2003 A.J. Allmendinger won the last race in Trois Rivière in which the Atlantic Championship participated.

This weekend the Atlantic Championship participated for the 29th time in the GP3R event. In this very competitive championship, Junior Strous and Dominick Muermans qualified 8th and 17th. In the first qualifying session 11 drivers qualified within one second and in the second qualifying session as many as 13 drivers did.

The circumstances were perfect for a street race. Dry, sunny, not too warm and the grand stand seats full of enthousiastic Canadian motorsports fans.

The start was good for both Junior Strous and Dominick Muermans. Dominick overtook one car. About 10 minutes into the race two cars in front of the field had a fierce battle but it finished for both in the tyrewall. A full course yellow followed. Junior moved to 6th and Dominick to 12th place. 3 laps later after the restart Junior did a brilliant overtaking action and moved up to 5th position. Dominick had a good race rythm and continued to better his times, lap after lap.

Then Junior moved to 4th place when the car in front of him broke down. Dominick moved up to 10th place. After the restart of the second full course yellow, Junior moved up to third and could keep this place untill the end of the race. His third podium this season.

Just before the end of the race Dominick's car locked the brakes and fell back to 15th. But in the last lap of the race he proved his worth and set his fastest laptime and overtook the car in front of him. He finished a dissapointing 14th.

Junior Strous:

"I started from a dissapointing 8th place. I knew it was going to be a hard race of about 45 laps. As it is a street race the walls are realy close. My goal was to keep the car in one piece and wait for others to make mistakes. In the beginning of the race I pushed and pushed and hoped to profit from the small mistakes from the drivers in front of me. Three quarters into the race my tyres heated up and I had a lot of difficulty to keep the car out of the walls. Lucky for me we had the second full course yellow period so the tyres could cool down. With about 10 minutes to go I could keep my third position and bring the car home in one piece as I had set out to do. I am very happy with my third podium finish and it gives me hope to move up even further in the overall classification".

Dominick Muermans:

"I did very well in the race. I had a great start and soon found a good race rythm. I kept improving my laptimes. In one of the last laps my brakes locked and I fell back to 15th. Such a shame as I was in a good 10th position. Better luck next time."

-credit: cm