CTCC: Series Toronto Saturday summary

CASTROL CANADIAN TOURING CARS TAKE IT TO THE STREETS

The Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship presented by Toyo Tires brought 43 of Canada's best drivers out for Round 5 of the series on the famed Toronto street course for a pair of races during the Honda Indy Toronto in the Acura Sports Car Challenge with their two distinct classes, Touring and Super Touring.

During Saturday's 30-minute qualifying heat race Super Touring Class points leader Richard Boake piloting his potent Subaru WRX STi attempted to defend his points lead against the likes of NorthWest Value Partners team mates Greg Pootmans & Paul Dalla Lana as well as Lombardi Honda's Nick Wittmer. To add insult to injury, Pootmans added another much needed five points to his overall total for an outstanding pole position qualifying time.

After a rather difficult qualifying session late Friday afternoon, Boake's Subaru was well off the mark that would necessitate the transplant of another engine prior to the start of Saturday's race.

42 cars took the green flag and made their way around the technical and extremely rough track for what was to be an outstanding performance of skill and agility on every driver's part. Unfortunately for Boake & Lexus driver Andrew Wojteczko their race would be short lived when they came together on lap one and were sidelined with extensive damage to both cars.

Brampton Ontario's Bob Attrell & Jonathan Rashleigh piloting the "twin" Hyundai Genesis coupes were also sidelined with electrical failures early in the race that would require a full course yellow to allow safety teams to tow the cars out of harms way.

In the highly competitive Touring Class, Thornhill native Anthony Rapone pulled out all the stops in his Honda Civic Si and was able to hold third place points driver Alain Lauziere's MINI Cooper and Quebec's Jocelyn Fecteau at bay for the entire 17 lap race. Second in the points race driver Nigel Heron was devastated when during the midway point of the race his Acura Integra's engine let go stranding him out on the track.

The balance of the field had intense battles the length of the finishing order as each driver attempted to gain as many participation and position points in the championship.

The feature race will begin at 10:00am Sunday for 30 minutes where the two classes will be putting on the "best show" of the weekend with no less than 40 cars.

Saturdays Race results:

Super Touring Class
1st Place Greg Pootmans BMW
2nd Place Kuno Wittmer Honda
3rd Place Etienne Borgeat BMW
4th Place Nick Wittmer Honda
5th Place Alex Healy Acura RSX

Touring Class Results
1st Place Anthony Rapone Honda
2nd Place Alain Lauziere MINI Cooper
3rd Place Jocelyn Fecteau Toyota
4th Place Scott Nicol Honda
5th Place Tom Kwok Honda

-credit: ctcc