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

The second of two one-hour races for the 2003 Touring GT Championship was held as a support event for the CASCAR Super Series on June 15th at Mosport International Raceway. Teams would compete around the ten-turn 2.459-mile road course.

During the CASCAR Super Series weekend, Malcolm Strachan added to his Touring GT Championship Touring SGT points lead. At the previous Mosport International Raceway one-hour event in May, Strachan started from the rear of the field. This time he put the No. 22 Williams Performance Friction sponsored Chevrolet Corvette on the pole. From the start, Strachan dominated the contest.

Early in the 2003 Touring GT Championship, the Touring GT category was dominated by the No. 33 Nissan NX2000 Turbo of Bob Armstrong. As of late, the driver to beat was Robert Pacione in the No. 63 Heimrath Racing Porsche 944 Turbo. Armstrong was not entered this weekend and Pacione had little difficulty capturing the class pole and finishing one lap ahead of the runner-up, Doug Vanderhaar.

At the CASCAR weekend, Michael Thornley repeated the performance he delivered in May’s sixty-minute event. Thornley started the contest at the rear of the field in the No. 35 Active Traction Service sponsored Acura Integra Type R. During the one hour contest, he would move up the lap chart. Thornley scored the Touring T class victory and finished fifth overall.

One of the former Canada GT Challenge Cup drivers competing in this year’s Touring GT Championship was American Joel Reiser. Reiser had two Porsches to choose from and raced the No. 03 Reiser Motorsports 911 GT3 Cup at the CASCAR event. He qualified third overall and in the Touring SGT category. On this weekend, Reiser was no match for Malcolm Strachan and finished in the runner-up position.

The most popular class in the 2003 Touring GT Championship was Touring T; there were fourteen entries at the CASCAR event. One of the quickest drivers in the category were CASC-OR veteran Ian Madden. Madden drove the No. 126 Volkswagen Golf. During the qualifying session, he recorded the fastest time in the class and was gridded eleventh overall. In the race, Madden finished behind the category winner, Michael Thornley.

And yet another former Canada GT Challenge Cup driver participating in this weekend’s Touring GT Championship was Ian Phillips. Phillips was driving the No. 14 Auto Genics Racing Mazda RX-7. He was the second fast driver in the qualifying session, but Phillips was still 2.587-seconds slower than the pole-sitter, Malcolm Strachan. In the race, the Mazda only lasted six laps before it was retired.

FINISH	START	CLASS	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS
1	1	Touring SGT	Malcom Strachan	Chevrolet Corvette	37
2	3	Touring SGT	Joel Reiser	Porsche GT3 Cup	37
3	6	Touring GT	Robert Pacione	Porsche 968	36
4	5	Touring SGT	Leo Romano	Ford F-150	36
5	DNQ	Touring T	Michael Thornley	Acura Integra Type R	35
6	11	Touring T	Ian Madden	Volkswagen Golf	35
7	12	Touring GT	Doug Vanderhaar	Chevrolet Camaro	35
8	15	Touring T	Nelson Chan	Honda	34
9	14	Touring T	Andrew Elliott	Volkswagen Corrado	34
10	10	Touring GT	John Cosgrove	Nissan 300ZX	34
11	16	Touring T	Nicholas Krikorian	Honda Prelude	34
12	4	Touring SGT	Allan DeWolfe	BMW 325	33
13	9	Touring GT	Alan Jones	Toyota Supra	33
14	13	Touring T	Nigel Krikorian	Honda Prelude	33
15	20	Touring GT	Ron Guidolin	Volkswagen Corrado	33
16	24	Touring T	Cliff Daley	Volkswagen Jetta	33
17	25	Touring T	Perry Iannuzzi	Nissan Sentra	33
18	22	Touring GT	Shaun de Jager	Eagle Talon	32
19	21	Touring T	Joe Indovina	Suzuki Swift	32
20	27	Touring T	John Cook	Ford Mustang	30
21	23	Touring T	Ian Law	Honda Civic	29
22	19	Touring T	Matthew Cornford	Acura Integra	22
23	18	Touring T	John Dipchand Jr.	Ford Contour SVT	21
24	7	Touring SGT	Anton Geshelin	Chevrolet Corvette	14
25	8	Touring SGT	Gunter Schmidt	Volkswagen Beetle	8
26	2	Touring SGT	Ian Phillips	Mazda RX-7	6
-	17	Touring SGT	Tor Krueger	Chevrolet Monte Carlo	-
-	26	Touring T	Nicholas Krikorian	Honda Prelude	-

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