by RaceCanada / Chris Jameson
June 5, 2014

Another big race weekend ahead in North America this time headlined by the Formula 1 race at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal. Joining F1 on the race schedule at Ile Sainte-Helene are Ferrari Challenge, Canadian Touring Car Championship (CTCC) and the Formula Tour 1600 Series.

Meanwhile, the Verizon IndyCar Series is on the oval at Texas Motor Speedway; the Tudor United Sports Car Championship and Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge are on the Kansas Speedway and it is the inaugural Wasaga Grand Prix - a street race for karts on the shores of Georgian Bay in Wasaga Beach, Ontario.

All but one race this weekend will feature Canadian content on the starting grid, and even though we do not have a Canadian driver in Formula 1, we are represented in the paddock by Robert Wickens, a works driver with Mercedes AMG in Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) in Europe. Wickens will be performing sponsor duties with the Mercedes AMG F1 team.

On track action gets underway on Friday and following is a rundown by series, of the Canadians entered along with some series-specific notes. Timing and scoring URLs are provided where available.

We'll start in Kansas where the IMSA TUDOR United Sports Car Championship and Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge (CTSCC) events will start with practice and qualifying on Friday afternoon with racing on Saturday. CTSCC will run a complete 2.5 hour race while the Prototype Challenge (PC) series will run two 45-minute races in conjunction with the IMSA Cooper Tires Prototype Lites. Running on the 2.37 mile roval, PC will count the two races as one for points while Lites will earn points in each. It should also be noted these are evening/night races with race one starting at 4:15 PM CT (5:15 PM ET) and the final going at 10:15 PM CT (11:15 PM ET), CTSCC will run its race between the PC/Lites races

There are a total of 29 cars entered in PC (10) and Lites (19) with 52 cars entered in CTCC (GS-22 ST-30)
Following are the Canadian entrants broken down by class.

PC
#38 Performance Tech Motorsports ORECA FLM09
David Ostella / Maple, ON

#08 RSR Racing ORECA FLM09
Chris Cumming / Vancouver, BC, Canada
Alex Tagliani / Lachenai, Quebec, Canada

Lites
#10 JDC Motorsports JDC Motorsports Elan DP-02
Mikhail Goikhberg, North Vancouver, Canada

GS
#8 Mantella Autosport Powered by Spyder/ Gulf Lubricants Aston Martin
Anthony Mantella / Ontario, Canada
Mark Wilkins / Palgrave, Ontario, Canada

#15 Multimatic Motorsports / Ford Racing Mustang Boss 302R
Jade Buford / Brentwood, TN
Scott Maxwell / Ontario, Canada

#76 Compass360 Racing Touge Tuning/ Ligon Industries Subaru WRX STI
Ray Mason / Columbus, OH
Ryan Winchester / Mason City, IA

#00 CKS Autosport Carego/ Golden Gate Maragine Camaro Z/28.R
Ashley McCalmont / Ancaster, Ontario
Bob Michaelian / Seal Beach, CA

#07 TRG-AMR Aston Martin
Max Riddle / Vancouver, BC
Kris Wilson / Monument, CO

#158 Multimatic Motorsports Mustang Boss 302R
Ian James / Phoenix, AZ
Billy Johnson / Mooresville, NC

ST
#74 Compass360 Racing Honda Civic
James Vance / Stouffville, Ontario
Jon Miller / San Francisco, CA

#75 Compass360 Racing Cure NF with Jack/ CTF/ HPD Honda Civic
Kyle Gimple / Minden, NV
Ryan Eversley / Winder, GA

#87 Rebel Rock Racing Porsche Cayman
Kyle Marcelli / Barrie, Ontario
Martin Barkey / Huntsville, Ontario

#93 HART Honda Racing HPD/ Honda of America Mfg. Honda Civic
Chad Gilsinger / Marysville, OH
Michael Valiante / Burnaby, BC

#04 Autometrics Motorsports BBA Accounting/ DE Labs Porsche Cayman
Remo Ruscitti / Burnaby, BC
Adam Isman / Vancouver, BC

Broadcast Notes:
There will be no live television broadcast of either CTSCC or PC/Lites races. The CTSCC race will likely be broadcast on tape delay as per existing broadcast licence. This means it will be available only to those in Canada whose cable provider still carries SPEED TV (Shaw & Cogeco). We suspect that live streaming via the IMSA web site will also be offline.

Timing & Scoring:
http://www.scoring.imsa.com (for PC/Lites)
http://www.scoring.imsa.com/sportscar-challenge (CTSCC)

IndyCar Series
James Hinchcliffe (Oakville, ON) will be at the wheel of the Andretti Autosport #27 United Fiber & Data Dallara. The series has had a busy few weeks with the Indy 500 followed by the double-header in Detroit last weekend. Crews travelled directly to Fort Worth for the Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway. Another race under the lights, the Firestone 600 starts 7:50 PM CT (8:50 PM ET)

SportsNet One is scheduled to show qualifying on Friday evening from 7:oo – 8:00 PM ET with the regional channels (SNO/SNP/SNW/SNE) broadcasting the race live on Saturday evening from 8:00 – 11:00 PM ET. Please check local listings to confirm.

Timing & Scoring:
http://racecontrol.indycar.com/

Canadian Grand Prix – Montreal
In addition to Formula 1, the Montreal Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve will feature plenty of Canadian content with the Canadian Touring Car Championship (CTCC), Ferrari Challenge and Formula Tour 1600. CTCC features both amateur drivers and those looking to break into the big leagues of sports car racing. Ferrari Challenge is typically populated by gentleman drivers with a range of racing experience, some of whom drive in some of the upper tier sports car series. Formula Tour 1600 is the launching pad for many young drivers looking to climb the open wheel ladder. Each series provides the fans with plenty of action.

Following are the web links for each series which will have entry lists (if available) and links to their live timing and scoring apps.

Canadian Touring Car Challengehttp://www.touringcar.ca
Ferrari Challenge - http://corseclienti.ferrari.com/2014en/championship/ferrari-challenge-north-america/
Formula Tour 1600 -http://www.siteformulatour1600.com/ (French text)

TSN & TSN2 will be broadcasting Formula 1 events throughout the weekend as follows:

TSN2 – Practice 1:55-3:30 PM ET
TSN – Qualifying 12:55-2:00 PM ET
TSN – Race 1:55-4:00 PM ET

NOTE: According to TSN's on-line TV guide, Saturday's F1 Canadian Grand Prix Quali is following the French Open Tennis Women's Final and the race on Sunday is following the Men's Final.

As a backup, NBC will be broadcasting the race live from 2:00 – 4:00 PM ET

Wasaga Grand Prix
While all the big dogs are playing, the grassroots portion of motorsports will be flexing its muscle up at Wasaga Beach, Ontario (about 90-minutes north of Toronto) at the inaugural Wasaga Grand Prix. This race will take place of the streets of Wasaga Beach. Racing will feature a variety of classes including Novice 4 stroke, Senior 4 stroke, Junior 4 stroke, Masters 4 stroke, Junior Rotax, Senior/Masters Rotax, DD2 and TAG Shifters. There should be some great racing especially on the 420-foot long front straight along Beach Drive.

Saturday will also feature a nearly two hour race under the lights starting at 8:00 PM ET

Thunder Alley opens to the fans on Friday with all the on-track action getting underway Friday afternoon around 3:00 PM for practice sessions. Qualifying heats and races for the karts start Saturday morning at 10:00 AM, right after the soap box derby which begins at 8:00 AM

RaceCanada will be on hand Saturday to catch the action and grab some photos.

Web Site – http://www.wasagagrandprix.ca
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/events/683751311670820/