Goodbye Trois-Rivieres.....

[devilmaster]

http://www.tsn.ca/auto_racing/news_Story.asp?ID=58209

34 years of tradition is gone, they've been fighting deficits since losing Player's as its title sponsor.

Steve

[Jay]

This is sad, I'm really going to miss this event. I have to admit, Trois Rivieres was probably my favorite event this year, even though CART wasn't there.

It was really great to have a race in the middle of a small city, as opposed to a giant one or in the middle of nowhere. You could arrive in the city, and walk everywhere - never having to get in your car, on a bus or taxi. My hotel was so close to the track that on Saturday, I simply crawled out of bed, downstairs, through a marshall holes, and I was on the track...and walked right into the pitlane (showing my pass of course). It was a large event in the setting of a small one.

The town really rallied around the event, and put on a great show downtown that was like a smaller version of the parties put on during the Canadian GP in Montreal - closing off the main street down to the river. Saturday evening featured a spectacular fireworks show on the St. Lawrence River, which was always flooded with boats while people lined both shores. In many ways the off track excitement was better than the CART events in Canada, where you really need to have an expensive ticket or special pass to get into the best parties.

Anyway, I really hope someone or some company can revive this again, even if it's smaller than it has been in the past. It's an area of Quebec that needs a big race!

[Sean O'Gorman]

:(

That was a great track for Atlantic-sized cars.

[Barton]

Looks like Trois-Rivieres isn't dead after all...

http://www.pitpass.com/news2/news.cfm?newsid=7875

It's been reported elsewhere that Trois Rivieres has held its last race, but this is not the case.
When they hear of Trois Rivieres, F1 fans will immediately think of the legendary Gilles Villeneuve who competed in, and won, the 1976 formula Atlantic event beating established stars James Hunt, Alan Jones, Patrick Depailler and Vittorio Brambilla.

Villeneuve had already won the 1976 Formula Atlantic Championship, but it was his performance in the non-championship Trois Rivieres event that led to him joining Ferrari, albeit via a brief one-race stint with McLaren.

Anyway it's been reported that the Grand Prix of Trois Rivieres, an event held since 1967, has been cancelled following the loss of its sponsor, the tobacco giant Players, and that following the cancellation the promoter revealed his fears that the event would not survive without sponsorship.

Shortly after the promoter appeared to have finally laid the event to rest, city officials held their own press conference at which they announced the event would continue with a new sponsor and (more importantly) a new promoter.

So at last a little bit of good news for our friends in Canada, as another piece of motorsport history lives on.

[Jay]

Thanks for that Barton! Looking over some of the finances, and considering the current economic climate, I have to think it will be back eventually - they want their racing badly, and the amount of money standing in their way does not sound that insurmountable. Hope to be back next year!

[Drissifan]

This is sad, I'm really going to miss this event. I have to admit, Trois Rivieres was probably my favorite event this year, even though CART wasn't there.

It was really great to have a race in the middle of a small city, as opposed to a giant one or in the middle of nowhere. You could arrive in the city, and walk everywhere - never having to get in your car, on a bus or taxi. My hotel was so close to the track that on Saturday, I simply crawled out of bed, downstairs, through a marshall holes, and I was on the track...and walked right into the pitlane (showing my pass of course). It was a large event in the setting of a small one.

The town really rallied around the event, and put on a great show downtown that was like a smaller version of the parties put on during the Canadian GP in Montreal - closing off the main street down to the river. Saturday evening featured a spectacular fireworks show on the St. Lawrence River, which was always flooded with boats while people lined both shores. In many ways the off track excitement was better than the CART events in Canada, where you really need to have an expensive ticket or special pass to get into the best parties.

Anyway, I really hope someone or some company can revive this again, even if it's smaller than it has been in the past. It's an area of Quebec that needs a big race!

[Drissifan]

Oooooooooooops sorry about the above. :shakehead
No idea how I did that.

[pchall]

Looks like Trois-Rivieres isn't dead after all...

http://www.pitpass.com/news2/news.cfm?newsid=7875


So at last a little bit of good news for our friends in Canada, as another piece of motorsport history lives on.


I read late last week that the MotoRock Trans Am Series will be the headliner at Trois-Rivieres in 2004. Since OWRS owns Atlantics as well, we can hold out some hope for that series to appear as well.