The Castrol presents the Victoria Day SpeedFest Weekend got underway on Friday, May 16. Canadian Tire Motorsport Park co-owner Ron Fellows (pictured) will start his 100th career SCCA Pro Racing Trans-Am Series race from the pole on Saturday, May 17. His lap time of 1:16.725 was .717 seconds ahead of his Derhaag Motorsports teammate Simon Gregg.
“It was pretty slick out there, and I think a lot of it was the cold,” Fellows said. “It was still fun to get out there and go fast, but it was a bit of a handful, as I’m sure it was for everybody.”
“I decided to run in Trans-Am this weekend to have some fun; I didn’t know that this was going to be my 100th start. I raced Trans-Am during the Chevrolet factory era, then went off and did a little NASCAR. I never thought we’d end up doing any more Trans-Am, but since then we’ve done three. It turns out number 99 was ten years ago, and it was with Derhaag Motorsports as well. It was fun to get back out there. I love this track, obviously. You can really get after it here, and it is still nice to put together a really good lap. Trans-Am always meant a lot to me; this is where I really got established in sports car racing, so being able to come back here and do another race has been a fun experience so far.”
Following Fellows and Gregg will be Amy Ruman, whose time of 1:17.521 was just shy of Gregg’s 1:17.442, but still strong enough for third position in tomorrow’s race. Defending TA Champion Doug Peterson will start fourth; while Toronto’s own Andrew Romocki will round out the top five for the TA class.
The first race of Canadian Tire Motorsport Park’s first major event of the season took place with Pirelli World Challenge holding their first of three weekend races. Michael DiMeo of Toronto finished first in the Touring Class after starting from pole. He was followed by Markham native Gary Kwok and his brother Tom was third. Ohio rookie racer Jason Wolfe was the winner in TCA class over Shea Holbrook of Florida. Virginia’s Brian Price finished on the top step of the podium in TCB-Spec.
Friday’s action also included qualifying in the Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Michelin in preparation for their weekend doubleheader. Scott Hargrove won the pole in the Platinum class, setting a new qualifying track record with a time of 1:20.609. Jerimy Daniel was first in Gold class with a quick lap of 1:23.375 and Chuck Harris was fastest in Silver Class.
The Canadian Touring Car Championship, Canadian SuperCar and the F1600 Super Series held multiple test sessions throughout the day.
Saturday’s schedule begins with qualifying for the F1600 Super Series, Canadian SuperCar Series and the Canadian Touring Car Championship. Races will be held for Pirelli World Challenge, SCCA Pro Racing Trans-Am Series, Ultra 94 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Michelin, F1600 Super Series, Canadian SuperCar and the Canadian Touring Car Championship. The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series will be on track for their first practice sessions of the weekend and will qualify in two groups in the afternoon for Sunday’s feature race, the Pinty’s presents the Clarington 200.
Photo by John Walker
