The 1997 Mosport Festival was a professional sports car racing event held at Mosport International Raceway in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada on August 29 to the 31st, 1997. It was the seventh round of the 1997 Professional SportsCar Racing Championship season. The weekend featured a separate 1 hour 45 minute, 52 lap Exxon Supreme GT Series race for GT cars on the Saturday and a 2-hour, 86 lap Exxon World SportsCar Championship race for World Sports Cars on the Sunday. The split races were the only time since the 1995 revival of the Mosport IMSA round that the race has gone two instead of three hours.
The World Sports Car race was won by the Central Arkansas Racing team with drivers Ron Fellows and Rob Morgan driving a Ferrari 333 SP. The Sunday race attracted more than 30,000 spectators with an estimated total of 100,000 over the four-day festival.
The weekend included the eleventh race of the 1997 Trans-Am season won by Tommy Kendall in a Ford Mustang for his eleventh straight win of the season. The festival also included concerts at the track by Tom Cochrane and the Goo Goo Dolls.
Race results
Exxon World SportsCar Championship Pos Class No Team Drivers Chassis Tyre Laps Engine 1 WSC 43 Central Arkansas Racing Ron Fellows Rob Morgan Ferrari 333SP 86 Ferrari F310E 4.0L V12 2 WSC 16 Dyson Racing Butch Leitzinger James Weaver Riley & Scott Mk III 86 Ford 5.0L V8 3 WSC 1 Doyle/Riley & Scott Wayne Taylor Eric van de Poele Riley & Scott Mk III 86 Oldsmobile Aurora 4.0 L V8 4 WSC 27 Moretti Racing Gianpiero Moretti (I) Didier Theys (B) Ferrari 333 SP 86 Ferrari F310E 4.0 L V12 5 WSC 3 Dibos Racing Eduardo Dibos Fermin Velez Ferrari 333 SP 84Ferrari F310E 4.0 L V12 6 WSC 88 MSI Racing Ross Bentley Jeff Jones Riley & Scott Mk III 81 Chevrolet 6.0 L V8 7 WSC 28 FAB Factory Motorsport Jon Field A. J. Smith Spice SC95 80 Oldsmobile Aurora 4.0 L V8 8 WSC 63 Downing Atlanta Racing Barry Waddell Jim Downing Kudzu DLM 75 Mazda 2.0 L 3-Rotor 9 WSC 30 Moretti Racing Antônio Hermann (BR) Andrea Montermini (I) Ferrari 333 SP 71 Ferrari F310E 4.0 L V12 10 WSC 17 Courage Compétition Martin Guimont Jacek Mucha Courage C41 62Oldsmobile Aurora 4.0 L V8 11 WSC 4 Dibos Racing Neto Jochamowitz Jim Pace Riley & Scott Mk III 48 Oldsmobile Aurora 4.0 L V8 12 WSC 20 Dyson Racing Elliott Forbes-Robinson Andy Wallace Riley & Scott Mk III 40 Ford 5.0 L V8 13 WSC 19 Davin Racing Edd Davin Mark Montgomery Argo P 1 BMW 4.0 L V8 Time of race: 2 hours, 3.205 seconds Average speed: 170.092 km-per-hour Margin of victory: 0.89 seconds Fastest race lap: Andrea Montermini, 1:12.527 (196.430 km/h), lap 61
Exxon Supreme GT Series Pos Class No Team Drivers Car Tyre Laps 1 GTS-1 01 Rohr Corp. Jochen Rohr Andy Pilgrim Dorsey Schroeder Porsche 911 GT1 52 2 GTS-1 66 Panoz Motorsports Doc Bundy Andy Wallace Panoz GTR-1 Ford 52 3 GTS-2 61 Konrad Motorsport Franz Konrad Nick Ham Porsche 911 GT2 Turbo 50 4 GTS-3 6 Prototype Technology Group Derek Hill Javier Quiros BMW M3 50 5 GTS-3 7 Prototype Technology Group Dieter Quester Marc Duez BMW M3 49 6 GTS-1 02 Rohr Corp. Victor Sifton Joe Varde Jochen Rohr Andy Pilgrim Porsche 911 GT2 Turbo 49 7 GTS-2 97 GMB Motorsports (USA) Dirk Layer Kelly Collins Porsche 911 GT2 Turbo 49 8 GTS-3 39 Jim Mathews Racing / Carolina Turkey Jim Matthews David Murry Porsche 993 49 9 GTS-2 15 Will Pace Jim Pace Snow - DNP Porsche 911 Turbo 48 10 GTS-3 76 Team A.R.E. (USA) Jeff Purner Blackman Porsche 993 Carrera RSR 48 11 GTS-3 73 Jack Lewis Enterprises Jack Lewis Tony Burgess Porsche 993 Carrera RSR 47 12 GTS-1 91 Rock Valley Oil & Chemical Co. Inc. Roger Schramm Stu Hayner Chevrolet Camaro 40 13 GTS-3 41 Team Technodyne Chris Cervelli Cort Wagner Porsche 993 Carrera RSR 37 mechanical 14 GTS-3 10 Prototype Technology Group Bill Auberlen Boris Said BMW M3 30 15 GTS-2 99 Schumacher Racing Larry Schumacher John O'Steen Porsche 911 GT2 Turbo 28 16 GTS-1 27 Multimatic Motorsports Scott Maxwell Jason Priestley Ford Mustang Cobra 7 mechanical 17 GTS-2 56 Martin Snow Martin Snow Peter Kitchak Porsche 911 GT2 Turbo 0 accident 18 GTS-3 77 Mattco Racing Matthew Cohen Pete Halsmer Renna BMW M3 0 accident 19 GTS-3 32 Phoenix American Motorsport Marty Miller John Heinricy Joe Aquilante Pontiac Firebird 0 accident DNS GTS-3 18 RAE Motorsports Inc. Raymond Boissoneau Peter Goebel Mazda RX-7 DNS DNS GTS-2 53 Melanie Snow Porsche 911 GT2 Turbo DNS DNS 36 Schumacher Racing Larry Schumacher John O'Steen Porsche 911 DNS Time of race: 1 hour, 46 minutes 1.543 seconds Average speed: 116.452 km-per-hour Margin of victory: 15.256 seconds Fastest race lap: #66 Panoz GTR-1 Ford, 1:18.634 (181.1638 km/h), lap 23
Trans-Am Series
Pos No Driver Car Laps 1 5 Tommy Kendall Ford Mustang Cobra 40 2 3 Dorsey Schroeder Ford Mustang Cobra 40 3 6 Jon Gooding Ford Mustang Cobra 40 4 2 Brian Simo Ford Mustang Cobra 39 5 7 Mike Borkowski Ford Mustang Cobra 39 6 9 John W. Miller IV Chevrolet Camaro 39 7 13 Bruce Nesbitt Ford Mustang Cobra 39 8 10 Leighton Reese Pontiac Grand Prix 38 9 8 Max Lagod Chevrolet Camaro 38 10 12 Don Sak Oldsmobile Cutlass 38 11 11 Don Meluzio Chevrolet Camaro 37 12 14 Craig Shafer Chevrolet Camaro 37 13 17 John Halbing Oldsmobile Cutlass 36 14 19 Ed Hinchliff Ford Mustang Cobra 35 15 21 Chet Williams Chevrolet Camaro 35 16 18 Frank Cioppettini Jr. Chevrolet Camaro 34 17 15 Bob Ruman Chevrolet Camaro 32 18 4 Paul Gentilozzi Chevrolet Camaro 26 - Mech. 19 1 Alessandro Zampedri Chevrolet Camaro 23 - Crash. 20 22 Jerry Simmons Chevrolet Camaro 15 - Mech. 21 20 Jim Briody Chevrolet Camaro 9 - Mech. 22 16 Ray Genick Chevrolet Camaro 2 - Elect. Time of race: 1 hour, 5 minutes, 46 seconds Average speed: 89.735 miles-per-hour Margin of victory: 1.3730 seconds Fastest race lap: Tommy Kendall, 1:22.117 (107.802 mph), lap 30
References