Throwback Thursday: Continuing a 55-year tradition at Mosport

This weekend, IMSA will write another chapter in the proud history of Canadian Tire Motorsport Park – Canada’s oldest and largest motorsports facility.The purpose-built road course opened in 1961, with the first major race the Player’s 200 for international sports cars. It was then called Mosport – a contraction for Motor Sports. Formula 1 legend Stirling Moss won that event. 

Moss, who visited the track during construction, proposed a course alteration that would make it better for both the drivers and spectators. The resulting Moss Corner was named in his honor, with the resulting 2.459-mile circuit virtually identical to today’s layout.

The Player’s 200 grew in popularity each year. By 1964, a then-record crowd for a Canadian sporting event of 52,000 watched Bruce McLaren lap a field of international stars.The popularity of the high-powered sports cars led to the formation of the Can-Am (Canadian American) Challenge in 1966. Mosport became the unofficial home of that series, dominated by the McLarens of Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme, and later Mark Donohue in Roger Penske’s powerful Porsche 917/30.Canada celebrated its centennial in 1967, and Canadian Tire Motorsport Park played host to five full international events – believed to be the only time a track held that distinction in one year. Canada held its first Formula 1 Grand Prix (TOP: Jim Clark leading for Lotus before a mechanical failure - LAT archive photo) – won by Jack Brabham in front of a record crowd of 58,000; Bobby Unser won a pair of USAC Indy car races; Hulme won the Can-Am; Parnelli Jones won a USAC Stock Car race; and Mike Hailwood won the first Canadian World Championship 500cc Motorcycle Grand Prix.The circuit went on to host eight Formula One races between 1967 and 1977, with Jackie Stewart the lone two-time winner. In the final event, Jody Scheckter won in a car entered by Canadian Walter Wolf.The USAC Indy cars raced at the circuit four times between 1967 and '78, with Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt joining Danny Ongais in winning races.The World Sportscar Championship – forerunner to today’s WEC – held six events from 1976 through 1985. Current TUDOR United SportsCar Championship car owner Paul Miller won the 1977 six-hour race in a Porsche 934/5. Rothmans Porsche won the final two events. Jacky Ickx and Jochen Mass won in 1984 sharing a Porsche 956, while Derek Bell and Hans Stuck captured the 1985 race in a Porsche 962C.The IMSA cars came to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for the first time in 1982 with a six-hour IMSA Camel GT series event. John Paul and his son John Paul Jr. won in a Porsche 935/34 Turbo. Other major series to compete at the circuit over the years include Formula 5000, Formula Atlantic, Formula Super Vee, SCCA Trans-Am, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series.Panoz Motorsports purchased the facility in 1998, and undertook a $2.5-million dollar renovation project. The circuit hosted the American Le Mans Series presented by Tequila Patrón during its inaugural season in 1999, hosting races for the entire span of the series’ 15-year existence. During the ALMS years, Dindo Capello set the outright track record with a time of 1:04.094 (138.116 mph) in his Audi R10 TDI Prototype during qualifying for the Mobil 1 presents the Grand Prix of Mosport. His co-driver, Marco Werner, then ran the fastest race lap of 1:05.823.Canadian Motorsport Ventures (CMV), a group led by Carlo Fidani and Ron Fellows, purchased the facility from the Panoz Motorsports Group in 2011.  The following year, Mosport International Raceway was re-branded Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, after the facility signed a long-term partnership with the country’s top automotive retailer, Canadian Tire.Canadian Tire Motorsport Park was awarded a position on the inaugural TUDOR Championship in 2014, and continues that tradition with this weekend’s Mobil 1 SportsCar Grand Prix presented by Hawk Performance.Source: IMSA