ST. CATHARINES, Ontario—Two new road-racing series in Canada, the Sports Car Championship Canada and Radical Cup Canada, have named Michelin their official tire through 2023.
The 2021 SCCC series will race GT4 and TCR sports cars in Ontario and Quebec, with the ambition to expand to other tracks across Canada.
The new series are being organized by Franczak Enterprises Canada Ltd. (FEL), a St. Catharines-based learning and promotion company serving the North American automotive sector since 1986.
"Becoming the official tire of Sports Car Championship racing in Canada demonstrates Michelin's growing North American motorsports presence," Tony Menard, Michelin's Director of Motorsport, said.
The disclosure emphasizes the importance of the Canadian market to Michelin North America and allows the brand to have a meaningful part of the growing motorsports scene in Canada.
Michelin will offer engineering support to teams participating in the series and will hold a drawing at each race weekend for a free set of tires for that weekend's racing.
The 2021 Sports Car Championship Canada series will comprise six race weekends, FEL said, beginning May 21 at Victoria Day SpeedFest at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park near Bowmanville, Ontario.
SRO Motorsports has granted FEL a license to use international GT4 regulations for the new series, FEL said, thereby ensuring that GT4 competitors will be competing on a level playing field.
"The response from the Canadian sportscar community has truly been amazing. The quality of the teams that have stepped up, not only to confirm their participation but to also offer technical and logistics support has been humbling," FEL President Chris Bye said.
To date, seven racing teams have registered to compete in the series, which is open to FIA homologated cars such as the Audi R8 GT4, Ford Mustang GT4, Porsche Cayman GT4, Mercedes Benz AMG, GT4, McLaren 570S GT4 and Toyota GR Supra GT4, FEL said.
Between the two classes—TCR regulations cover front-wheel-drive sedans powered by 2-liter turbocharged engines—the series is expected to field up to 20 cars per race, FEL said.
The Radical Cup Canada features single-seat closed-fender sports cars produced by British race car maker Radical Sportscars Ltd. The new series supplants separate Radical racing series for eastern and western Canada.
The new sports-car series is the third such motorsports competition in North American that Michelin has agreed to supply.
"With IMSA, the Porsche Carrera Cup and now the Sports Car Championship, we're seeing more drivers and racing series taking into account the importance of tire performance," Menard said.
"Canada has a strong motorsports heritage and is an important market for Michelin," Sylvaine Cuniberti, director of marketing in Canada, said. "We're pleased to add a such a significant series to our motorsports engagements in Canada."
