Mosport is a special track. It's one of those circuits that, like Watkins Glen and Laguna Seca, are recognized as one of the best places to race in North America. Like those tracks, it's got great motorsports history, including epic Formula One and Can-Am battles that are the stuff of legend. It's a track that rewards commitment, consistency and (as anyone who's done corner two the way must be) it's not for the faint of heart!

Thankfully, this amazing stretch of tarmac, this motorsports mecca, is less than one hour from my front door.

Given the constraints of the KONI schedule and Grand-Am's rules on testing, we've not done as much testing at Mosport as you might expect. But we did have our three TSXs and our Honda Civic (now no longer, alas) there in April, and so we're expecting our cars and drivers will be on pace.

As you can imagine, being our home event, this is a pretty big deal. The team's friends and fans come out to cheer us on, and we also have a number of our sponsors attending as well. Book publisher Harper Collins Canada will be using the event to promote the newly-released book THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN, written by Garth Stein. Already one of the top fiction books on the New York Time Bestseller list (plus it's Starbuck's Book of the Month and currently #1 on the Taiwan charts!), it's the story of an aspiring race car driver and the challenges he faces in his life, as told through the eyes of his dog, Enzo. The lead character was inspired by one of our drivers, Kevin York, who (along with co-driver Christian Miller in our #75 Acura TSX) currently lies second in the KONI Challenge Driver's Championship. Garth and Kevin will be handing out copies of the first chapter of the book at Mosport, and we have planned an at-track interview with them and the track announcer for Saturday morning. For details see http://www.GoEnzo.com.

Earlier in the week, on Tuesday June 10th, I've been invited to be part of Mosport's media launch which will take place in one of Toronto's many hip downtown locales, the Distillery District. I'll be joining the multi-talented championship winner Scott Maxwell to talk about the KONI Challenge, alongside a couple of the drivers in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, who we're sharing the event with as headliners. Scott's been one of those drivers that I've always admired, and I'm honored to have the opportunity to represent the KONI Challenge with him. One of our Acura TSXs will be on display during the event, and I think it will be interesting to talk with the media about just how "stock" our cars are, when sitting next to a NASCAR Stock Car!

So as you'd imagine, the team and I have a hectic week. Especially because we've been busy repairing three TSXs from the battle wounds at Lime Rock, and preparing last year's RSX-S for battle to replace the much-lamented Honda Civic that was destroyed there just a few weeks ago. That work is almost complete, and (as usual), you'll find all four cars coming off the trailer ready for testing on Thursday morning.

We're ready to try and grab victory at Mosport for the second year in a row!

Labels: gablog