A weekend of firsts yields a top ten finish for JC Cote in Toronto’s Honda Indy
JC Cote’s first experience of Toronto’s lakeside race-circuit this weekend was at the seat of a Pontiac Solstice, newly race-prepared for the fourth round of the 2010 Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship (CCTCC).
With time for a mere nine laps of practice on Friday, the race was on for Cote to not only familiarize himself with his new rear-wheel driven Solstice, but also to learn the challenging and notoriously unforgiving Toronto track.
An ongoing computer management system problem for Cote, #3, and his team-mate Etienne Borgeat in the twin #2 car, had both drivers experiencing a loss of horsepower in fourth gear for most of the weekend.
“The tighter in-field section of the track wasn’t such a problem because for much of it you’re in third gear” said Cote after Saturday morning’s Qualifying, “but as soon as I was getting onto the straights and changed into fourth, the power would bottom out and I couldn’t accelerate with the other cars through the faster parts of the track”.
Race One therefore saw Cote starting from a disappointing 26th position in a field of 34 cars. A further problem with the brakes presented additional challenges during an eventful race:
“Around lap 10 I had a complete brake failure at the end of the back straight. I managed to stop the car using the gears and avoided the wall at the end of the run-off. I took a few laps really gently to allow the brakes to cool down, but once they came back I was able to set some good lap times.”
Notwithstanding the brake issues, the ongoing systems management glitch and an increasingly slippery track due to light rain, Cote finished 13th in class.
“It was an eventful first race but the most exciting thing is that the car shows some real pace. If we can get a couple of things fixed by tomorrow morning, I think we have a car capable of a top ten finish”.
Cote felt positive going into Sunday morning’s second race. Consistently fast lap times saw him challenging frequently for position, resulting in his first top ten finish, coming across the line in 10th position with a fastest race lap of 1:25.049.
Cote thanks the GT Racing crew and his supporting partners, ReduxMedia, The Team 990, Operation Enfant Soleil, Chinook Productions and Xtreme Airbrush Design |
