@CTCCracing • Shannonville, ON - The second weekend for the Canadian Touring Car Championship (CTCC) presented by Continental Tire was at Shannonville Motorsport Park and started on a hot Saturday afternoon and ended with a cold winter breeze.
This weekend, CTCC included Rounds 3 and 4 withSuper Touring Class and Touring Class. The drivers used their rain tires in a wet and rainy competition for the first time in CTCC history.
The Wittmers from Ste-Rose Honda Racing populated the podium this weekend in their Hondas.
Nick Wittmer won first place in Super Touring on Saturday in his Honda Accord Coupe.
He commented, "it's the Accord's first race that it has won. We built it in 2013, have been developing it and it finally won its first race yet. I'm super happy!"
Nick was leading the race again on Sunday until his windshield fogged up and forced him to pit every few minutes, costing him the first position.
Karl Wittmer made up the Wittmers' first position as he won on Sunday in his Honda Civic Si in Touring Class, along with third place in the prior race on Saturday.
Karl exclaimed, "First win! It feels amazing. I've been waiting for a long time. The car is great and my brother helped me out big time. I was hoping for rain, I got it. I love the rain; it's a work of art. I won third place yesterday and first place today. I had a big crash at Mosport, and I finished at eighth and ninth, and got the car going. It's a good redemption weekend, so we feel good, the team feels good."
Super Touring Class had some consistency this weekend at the podium.
Eric Hochgeschurz finished in second position in Super Touring Class this weekend in Rounds 3 and 4 in his BMW 330i. Hyundai Genesis Racing finished in third position in Super Touring Class in both Rounds 3 and 4, with Damon Sharpe on Saturday and Bob Attrell on Sunday in their Hyundai Genesis Coupes.
First position, however, took a dramatic turn throughout the weekend.
On Saturday, Roger Ledoux was leading the race and could not complete the race due to engine issues and that enabled Nick Wittmer to finish with first position. Similarly, Gary Kwok was leading on Sunday but due to engine problems could not finish the race, which lead to Roger Ledoux finishing the race in first position.
"I'm really happy. The car was running really well. Kwok didn't finish so that obviously helps. But I don't think I was going to catch him anyway. We figured we'll sit on second place, we'll just finish it. And the car was good, it was handling well and in five laps near the end there, the tranny started to go. I barely made it. I had no tranny left when I got in. So we kinda got lucky on this one. We were unlucky yesterday and got lucky today. I'm looking forward to Toronto Indy!" exclaimed Roger after his win on Sunday.
Touring Class was an intense race under rainy conditions on Sunday.
Team Octane crowded the podium in Touring Class with Michel Sallenbach winning second position and Alain Lauziere finishing in third position in their MINI Coopers. On Saturday, Martin Crisp won in his Mazda MX5, Patrick Seguin was second in his Mini Cooper S JCW and Karl Wittmerfinished in third position in his Honda Civic Si.
Overall, the fans enjoyed the best of both worlds, a hot and sunny race on Saturday, with a cold and wet race on Sunday.
From Megha Bhatt / CTCC
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