Canadian Tire Motorsport Park: IMSA Races to the North

Each year, The IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship and Continental Tire SportsCar Challenge hop across the longest international border in the world to bring some of the best sports car racing to Canada.

With several teams and drivers hailing from America’s neighbor to the north, the race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park (CTMP) in Bowmanville, Ontario, only 90 minutes northeast of Toronto, provides an opportunity for some of IMSA’s best to showcase their talent in front of their home crowd.

Located on what used to be 450 acres of farmland, the now 900+ acre Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is known as Canada’s Home of Motorsports as it hosts sports cars, NASCAR, motorcycles, karting, and a variety of track days, including advanced driver training programs and the Bridgestone Racing Academy. 

In 2017, Canada will celebrate its sesquicentennial and with CTMP being built in 1961, the road course has been around for over a third of the country’s 150-year history. With all the stars and cars that have raced at the 2.459-mile (3.957 km) circuit, there is no doubt that CTMP has had a lasting impact on Canadian history and will continue to do so for years to come.

HISTORY

In 1958, members of the British Empire Motor Club created “Mosport Limited,” a business entity with the purpose of organizing, funding, and building a road course in Ontario.

The crew broke ground in Bowmanville but soon found that the construction was not going to be easy. Flooding and zoning limitations were just two of the issues faced by the club. Funding for the track was also vastly underestimated.

Overcoming the construction problems, Mosport Park opened for racing in 1961.

Over 40,000 fans watched Mosport Park’s first race, the Player’s 200, won by Stirling Moss, who coincidentally had a hand in designing part of the layout of the track. Moss suggested during the circuit’s construction that instead of a hairpin turn at the southernmost end of the track, there should be two sharp right-angle turns instead and with that, “Moss Corner” came to be.

Big names soon came to race at Mosport Park including Bruce McLaren, Mark Donohue, Jackie Stewart and A.J. Foyt in some of the most popular racing series in the world. One of the biggest years at the track was the country’s centennial, during which Mosport Park hosted an astounding five international racing series in one year- Formula 1, Can-Am, USAC, IndyCar and the Canadian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

The first IMSA race at Mosport Park took place in 1982, with winners John Paul and son John Paul Jr. behind the wheel of a JLP-3 in a six-hour Camel GT contest. IMSA continued to race at Mosport, which became the only track besides Road Atlanta to host the American Le Mans Series each year.

New ownership in 2011 brought a wave of major changes for Mosport. Millions of dollars were invested over the next several years to update the infrastructure of the facility.  This included a massive two-way tunnel underneath the track between Corners 9 and 10, paddock repaving,improved sightlines for spectators, levelling of camping areas to better accommodate RV’s, adding run-off areas at various corners of the Grand Prix Track, repaving and reconfiguring both the Driver Development Track and the Karting Centre.

In 2012, a new long-term partnership with Canadian Tire saw the track’s name change to what it is today, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.  

DRIVER PERSPECTIVE

Ron Fellows, Ontario native, Canadian Motorsport Hall of Famer and co-owner of Canadian Tire Motorsport Park: “For me, it’s a track I grew up learning how to race on, so there’s an incredible connection there for me. Five and a half years into the partnership with (co-owner) Carlo Fidani, and we’ve seen a tremendous reface and redevelopment of the facility, and I’m incredibly proud to be part of the team. It’s also a beautiful part of the province, Ontario’s Oak Ridges Moraine. The original track design back in 1960 by Alan Bunting, basically just followed the topography. We’ve got long fast corners with elevation changes, and so the challenge is going fast in the corners. Anybody can go fast in a straight line. Racing drivers are about going fast cornering and this is the place for that. I think if you look over the years at the number of Canadians that have done very well in the sport, a lot of it is because of the time they spent developing their craft at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.”

TRACK PERSPECTIVE

• Dedicated to the first general manager of Mosport and longstanding president of the Canadian Racing Drivers Association Jim Clayton, Corner 2 is an off-camber, fierce left-hand sweeper that features a dramatic elevation drop. A high speed element requiring the utmost of commitment, many thrilling passes have been made along Clayton Corner’s radius.
• Just beyond the Chevrolet Bridge, the on-track view from Corner 4 heading down into Corner 5 offers an idyllic picture of a traditional set of sweeping corners.
• A wide double apex hairpin on the opposite end of the track from the start/finish line, Moss Corner is one of the most iconic turns in North America. With an extremely fast entry, the complex greatly rewards those who master its line with a great run onto the Andretti Straightaway.

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship returns to CTMP on July 6-9, 2017. Tickets can be purchased online starting this week at www.canadiantiremotorsportpark.com featuring gift certificates for the perfect holiday present, group discounts, and free admission for kids 16 and under accompanied by an adult.