Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship

Canadian Touring Car Championship
CategoryTouring cars
Country Canada
Inaugural season2007
Tire suppliersPirelli
Drivers' championZachary Vanier
Teams' championTWOth Autosport
Official websiteCanadian Touring Car Championship
Current season
CTCC at Mosport in 2011

Canadian Touring Car Championship (CTCC) presented by Pirelli is a Canadian professional touring car road racing series. In 2006, it was created based on the growth of amateur touring car racing in Canada and the pent-up demand for a professional product.

CTCC is featured in Eastern Canada's main provinces, Ontario and Québec. Race events generally take place in the Greater Toronto Area, in the Greater Ottawa Area, in Mirabel, Montréal and Trois-Rivières. The competitor base expands reach all over Canada, but more specifically in Southern and Eastern Ontario, Québec and the United States.

Originally, the CTCC used a domestically developed BoP, but now the series parallels the IMSA SportsCar Challenge in using a combination of Group GT4 and TCR Touring Car regulations and homologations for its racing cars.

The CTCC went on hiatus before the 2022 season.[1]

Classes

TCR Class (2018 - )

The international TCR Touring Car class was formally adopted in 2018 as a permanent replacement for the sedan/hatchback based classes. Still running to this date, CTCC is only Canadian series that has the homologated license to run this class. The car count in this class grows every year.

GT Sport Class (2014 - )

The Grand Touring Class previously appeared only in CTCC's inaugural season in 2007, but rejoined the series in 2014 and includes makes such as Mustang, BMW, Nissan and Porsche. The class was briefly split into GT Sport and GT Cup. The class now includes a wider vehicle list.

GT Cup Class (2018 - 2019)

This GT Cup class comprised ultra performance race cars such as Corvette, Viper, Ferrari 430/458, Nissan GTR and Porsche 991/991 GT3.  GT Cup class race cars competed on the track concurrently with the existing Touring, Super Touring and GT Sport classes.

Super Touring Class (2007 - 2019)

Super Touring Class machines have powerful and heavily modified engines and advanced aerodynamics. As with Touring Class, Super was replaced by the international TCR class.

Touring Class (2007 - 2019)

This class was the initial class of the championship, along with Super Touring. The Touring Class featured cars with minimal modifications. Touring Class was superseded by TCR

B-Spec Class (2013-2014)

CTCC at Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières in 2011

The concept of B-Spec was first developed through collaboration between Honda Performance Development and Mazdaspeed Motorsports Development with the goal of creating a common set of rules that could be adopted by different racing series or sanctioning organizations. Over the past year, CTCC worked with the Sports Car Club of America and Grand-Am to solidify a set of rules that would respect both the B-Spec concept and goals of the different series. B-Spec is designed to be an entry level and affordable category and highlights one of the fastest-growing segments of the automobile business. Both Honda and Mazda revealed their new prototypes in December 2010. Since then, the Honda Fit and Mazda 2 have been joined by the Ford Fiesta and Fiat 500 at various test sessions. Other eligible cars include the Chevrolet Sonic, Kia Rio, Mini Cooper, Nissan Versa and Toyota Yaris.

Like its Super and Touring Classes, the new B-Spec Class will have its own set of requirements and will feature showroom stock racing cars utilizing stock engines and chassis, fitted with a competition roll cage, racing seat and other safety equipment along with the approved Continental ExtremeContact race tires and Sunoco race fuel. Weight equalization will be used to balance performance among competing manufacturers.

The entry-level B-Spec Class introduces a compact car category with stock engine and strictly controlled modifications.

Following the 2014 CTCC season, in which there were 4 full time cars at the start of the year, the series decided to drop the class for 2015. Replacing the class for that year would be the return of the GT class.

Manufacturers

Participating automotive brands include Acura, Audi, BMW, Chevrolet, Honda, Hyundai, Fiat, Ford, Mazda, MINI, Nissan, Scion, Subaru, Toyota and Volkswagen.

Champions

Season Category
GT Super Touring
2007 Ontario Sasha Anis Quebec Charles-Andre Bilodeau Quebec Alain Lauzière
Super Touring
2008 Ontario Nigel Krikorian Ontario Andre Rapone [2]
2009 Quebec Nick Wittmer Quebec Alain Lauzière [3]
2010 Quebec Nick Wittmer Ontario Anthony Rapone [4]
2011 Quebec Etienne Borgeat Ontario Tom Kwok [5]
Super Touring B-Spec
2012 Ontario Sasha Anis Ontario Damon Sharpe Quebec Nick Wittmer [6]
2013 Ontario Scott Nicol Ontario Damon Sharpe Quebec Karl Wittmer [7]
2014 Quebec Roger Ledoux Quebec Michel Sallenbach Quebec Normand Boyer [8]
Grand Touring Super Touring
2015 Ontario Ian Stanley Crerar Quebec Roger Ledoux Quebec Alain Lauzière [9]
2016 Quebec Chris Sahakian Ontario Eric Hochgeschurz Quebec Michel Sallenbach [10]
GT Sport Super Touring
2017 Ontario Bob Attrell Ontario Eric Hochgeschurz Quebec Michel Sallenbach [11]
GT Cup GT Sport Super Touring
2018 Ontario Bob Attrell Ontario Ethan Simioni Ontario Marc Raymond Ontario Shawn Little [12]
GT Sport TCR
2019 Alberta Parker Thompson Ontario Gary Kwok [13]
2020 Ontario Orey Fidani Ontario Zachary Vanier [14]

Race Tracks Visited by CTCC

Map all coordinates using OpenStreetMap

Download coordinates as:

Track City Province Length Turns Layout
Calabogie Motorsports Park Greater Madawaska
45°18′10″N 76°40′20″W / 45.30278°N 76.67222°W / 45.30278; -76.67222 (Calabogie Motorsports Park)		 Ontario 5.05 km 20
Canadian Tire Motorsport Park Bowmanville
44°03′00″N 78°40′40″W / 44.05000°N 78.67778°W / 44.05000; -78.67778 (Canadian Tire Motorsport Park)		 Ontario 3.957 km 10
Circuit Grand Prix Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières
46°20′51″N 72°33′31″W / 46.3475°N 72.558611°W / 46.3475; -72.558611 (Circuit Trois-Rivières) 		Québec 2.462 km 10
Shannonville Motorsport Park Shannonville
44°13′31″N 77°09′36″W / 44.2254°N 77.1600°W / 44.2254; -77.1600 (Shannonville Motorsport Park)		 Ontario 4.03 km 14
Honda Indy Toronto
Exhibition Place 		Toronto
43°38′02″N 79°24′45″W / 43.633952°N 79.412512°W / 43.633952; -79.412512 (Honda Indy Toronto) 		Ontario 2.824 km 11
Circuit Mont-Tremblant Mont-Tremblant
46°11′16″N 74°36′36″W / 46.187707°N 74.609936°W / 46.187707; -74.609936 (Circuit Mont-Tremblant) 		Québec 4.26 km 17
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve Montreal
45°30′2.08″N 73°31′20.86″W / 45.5005778°N 73.5224611°W / 45.5005778; -73.5224611 (Circuit Gilles Villeneuve) 		Québec 4.36 km 14
Circuit ICAR Mirabel
45°40′56″N 74°01′38″W / 45.682269°N 74.027229°W / 45.682269; -74.027229 (Circuit ICAR) 		Québec 2.8 km 16

See also

References

  1. ^ Stephanie Wallcraft (2022-04-06). "Feud over Canadian sports car racing ends with a series put 'on hold'". Driving.ca.
  2. ^ "Fender banging highlights series". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2013-09-03.
  3. ^ "CCTCC : Nick Wittmer first Quebecker to win Super Touring championship". Auto123.com. Retrieved 2013-09-03.
  4. ^ "Nick Wittmer and Anthony Rapone Crowned 2010 Champions". Racing in Focus. Archived from the original on 2015-01-14. Retrieved 2013-09-03.
  5. ^ "Canadian Touring: Etienne Borgeat and Tom Kwok seal the deal". Auto123.com. Retrieved 2013-09-03.
  6. ^ "Canadian Touring Car champ crowned". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2013-09-03.
  7. ^ "CTCC: Scott Nicol Super Class Champion: Damon Sharpe defends Touring Class title". Inside Track Motorsport News. Retrieved 2013-09-09.
  8. ^ "Final 2014 CTCC This Weekend 2014 Champions are Crowned". RaceCanada.ca. August 30, 2014. Retrieved January 22, 2015.
  9. ^ "CTCC celebrates the season by recognizing its champions". insidetracknews.com. December 7, 2015. Retrieved May 24, 2016.
  10. ^ McDonald, Norris (October 31, 2016). "Racing Roundup: F1 - who's on third? Jimmie Johnson wins race but 22 NASCAR fans injured by impatient driver; Canadian Touring Car Championship, Nissan Micra Cup honour champions; news, views on other racing". The Toronto Star. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
  11. ^ "CTCC crowns its 2017 champions at ICAR". Canadian Touring Car Championship. October 1, 2017.
  12. ^ "Champions Crowned at ICAR". Canadian Touring Car Championship. October 1, 2018. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
  13. ^ Wang, Sean (August 26, 2019). "Tight championship battles on track as the 2019 CTCC presented by Pirelli wraps up at CTMP". Inside Track Motorsport News. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
  14. ^ "17-year old Zachary Vanier secures the CTCC title". TCR-Series.com. August 30, 2020. Retrieved September 3, 2020.

External links