First blood to Taskinen in CTCC’s opening round

Matthew Taskinen and his M1GT Racing Audi RS 3 LMS, won the TCR class in the opening round of the 2019 Canadian Touring Car Championship at Bowmanville, Ontario. The 2019 CTCC consists of several classes but, with 11 entries, TCR cars made up the majority of the 17-car field.
Taskinen, starting from the front row of the grid alongside a GT Sport car, was never troubled and took a comfortable win from Gary Kwok in the first of the M&S Racing Honda Civic FK2 cars. Travis Hill completed the podium places in the TWOth Autosport Audi RS 3 LMS, with TCR cars occupying three of the top four places overall.
While Taskinen led from lights to flag, Kwok leapt from fifth in the TCR class to second on the opening lap, but was then unable to threaten Taskinen’s lead. When Hill then passed Alain Lauzière (Alphasonic Motorsport Audi RS 3 LMS) on Lap 4, the podium places would remain unchanged until the chequered flag fell at the end of the forty-minute race.
Tom Kwok in the other M&S Racing Honda was fourth, while Jean-François Hevey and Nelson Chan came together during the final lap before finishing fifth and sixth.
Positions further down the order saw a number of good battles: Lauzière finished sixth with TWOth Autosport teammates Edward Killeen and Ron Tomlinson seventh and eighth. Lindsay Rice was ninth in another Audi and the Hyundai i30 N of Bob Attrell completed the top ten.
Race 2 is scheduled for 17:35 local time (21:35 GMT) on Sunday.

Race 1
1. Matthew Taskinen (M1 GT Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS), 28 laps
2. Gary Kwok (M&S Racing, Honda Civic FK2), 17.238
3. Travis Hill (TWOth Autosport, Audi RS 3 LMS), 23.939
4. Tom Kwok (M&S Racing, Honda Civic FK2), 31.6126
5. Jean-François Hevey (The Racing Company, Audi RS 3 LMS), 40.997

Championship points
1. Taskinen 105 pts; 2. G. Kwok 95; 3. Hill 90