Dumoulin goes home with the Mayor’s Cup

August 15th, 2012

The inaugural race of the new Canadian Supercar Series was battled for the historical Mayor’s Cup recently at the Grand Prix of Trois-Rivières. During the qualifying sessiony, Trois-Rivières driver Jean-François Dumoulin was fastest and secured pole position driving the No. 69 Acura NSX. Second was Stephane Veilleux in his No. 88 Porsche GT3 followed by André Belzile in the No. 241 Porsche GT3. The previous winner of the said Cup, Marc-Antoine Camirand, was fourth.
The first race was disrupted at the first corner when Andre Belzile crashed into the concrete wall inside corner one taking with him the Porsche GT3 No. 77 of Olivier Rivard. A few minutes later, Martin Burrows with his Ferrari 430 got together with Martin Harvey’s No. 08 Porsche GT3. A full course yellow was called to clean up the track which gave everyone a chance to tighten up. At the green flag, Dumoulin who was leading from the start, developed some difficulties with his brakes, Veilleux took this opportunity and passed him just before the end of the race. Camirand finished third.
On Sunday, a completely different show was presented to the spectators. Both Martin Harvey and Andre failed to start the race due to previous crash damages but three new BMWs joined the field. Camirand collided with the tire wall in corner 6 but climbed back to a very respectable fourth but had to retire on the last lap. The leaders of the race, Dumoulin and Veilleux provided the fans with a fantastic battle but Veilleux took first position at the halfway mark of the race, thinking again that he would take advantage of the fading brakes of Dumoulin. It was either strategy or very good timing but Veilleux was taken by surprise when Dumoulin passed him at the end of the race. Dumoulin, victorious in this second race was winner of the Mayor’s Cup. The Cup was presented to him by one of the previous winners, Jacques Bienvenue and the Mayor of Trois-Rivières, Yves Levesque. Martin Burrows completed this first experience with third place.
“I have raced here since 1995 and I am really proud to win this race in Trois-Rivières, and to win the Mayor’s Cup”, declared Jean-François Dumoulin. Stephane Veilleux said “I was too confident, I layed back too much and I was taken by surprise when he passed me.” Martin Burrows ended the event thanking Jean-François Dumoulin for being an excellent teacher and to have showed him some useful tricks.
“I am very happy of the wonderful show we offered the Trois-Rivières fans”, said John Bondar, President and Founder of the series. “Drivers showed great interest for a series like Supercar and this fall, we will elaborate a complete schedule for 2013“, concluded Bondar.
For more information of the series, rules and registration, visit supercar.ca