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CANADA
With a victory and two podium finishes
in the last two events of the Canadian
Touring Car Championship, Gary Kwok
was crowned the country’s first ever
TCR champion. And this in spite of a
30-point penalty he was handed for
causing an incident at the start of
Trois-Rivières’ second race. For the four
final races of the season, the M&S
Racing driver had swapped his Honda
Civic FK2 for a newer Civic FK7.
The tricky street circuit of Trois-
Rivières’ Parc des Exposition was the
stage for two thrilling races. On a wet
Friday evening, Tom Kwok started from
pole and dominated the first race that
took place at dusk and in pouring rain.
Behind him, Gary strenuously defended
second position. Despite being under
pressure he didn’t make any mistakes,
while his chasers were not so fortunate;
both Matthew Taskinen and Bob Attrell
spun while they were chasing him and
GaryKwokiscrownedthefirstTCRchampion
moving into second place from where he
protected his brother for the rest of the
race.
The day after, Tom provided the icing on
the cake by winning the second race
ahead of Taskinen and Travis Hill. Gary
had made a superb start, taking the lead
ahead of two GT Sport cars, however he
was soon passed by the more powerful
GTs and so wisely focused on the title,
eased his pace and eventually settled for
a sixth position that secured the title
with a margin of 21 points over Hevey
and 30 ahead of Hill.
Round 7 – Friday 9 August,
Trois-Rivières
1. T. Kwok (M&S Racing, Honda Civic
FK2); 2. G. Kwok (M&S Racing, Honda
Civic FK7); 3. J-F. Hevey (TCR/M1GT
Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS)
Round 8 – Saturday 10 August,
Trois-Rivières
1. J-F. Hevey (TCR/M1GT Racing, Audi
RS 3 LMS); 2. T. Kwok (M&S Racing,
Honda Civic FK2); 3. G. Kwok (M&S
Racing, Honda Civic FK7)
Round 9 – Friday 23 August,
Bowmanville Motorsport Park
1. G. Kwok (M&S Racing, Honda Civic
FK7); 2. T. Kwok (M&S Racing, Honda
Civic FK2); 3. J-F. Hevey (TCR/M1GT
Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS)
Round 10 – Saturday 24 August,
Bowmanville Motorsport Park
1. T. Kwok (M&S Racing, Honda Civic
FK2); 2. M. Taskinen (TCR/M1GT Racing,
Audi RS 3 LMS); 3. T. Hill (TWOth
Autosport, Audi RS 3 LMS)
so Jean-François Hevey inherited the
third place.
On Saturday afternoon, Gary spun at the
start of Race 2 after making contact
with a GT Sport car and dropped to sixth
in TCR. Hevey took the lead in the class,
but he was passed by Attrell on lap 11.
With 12 minutes to go and while
enjoying a solid lead, Attrelll crashed
out at the exit of the Du Plessis gate,
the safety car was deployed and led the
field until the end of the race, with
Hevey winning the TCR class from Tom
and Gary Kwok.
Two weeks later the CTCC returned to
Bowmanville for the season finale and
Gary Kwok staked a claim on the title
with victory in the first race. Hevey was
on pole, but Gary started better and set
an impressive pace to pull away until a
safety car intervention swept away his
leading margin. When the race resumed,
Tom Kwok overtook Taskinen and Hevey,