JAJ Entertainment
Innisfil, ON - Central Merchant Services driver Tara MacLeod will make her first attempt at road course racing this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, June 18-19 at Mosport International Raceway located north of Bowmanville, Ontario on the 2.5-mile, 10-turn road course.
"I'm really excited about my first road course race and the fact that is going to be at Canada's Mosport International Raceway, stated Tara MacLeod. "This place is rich in motorsport history and the Central Merchant Services car should be good."
Not much more than 40 years ago the piece of land that we know today as Mosport was a farm. At that time, standing on a hill, looking over the fields and groves of trees, who could have imagined that the best drivers and the fastest cars in the world would come to this pastoral place and race on what would be named as one the most challenging tracks in the world and provide the best excitement and entertainment that motor racing has to offer.
But they did come: racing legends like Stirling Moss, Gilles Villeneuve, Bruce McLaren and even stock car king Richard Petty. No fewer than 16 Formula One World Driving Champions - men like Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Mario Andretti and Niki Lauda have raced here. Some 10 Indianapolis 500 winners including Rodger Ward, A.J. Foyt, Al Unser, Bobby Unser, Rick Mears and Gordon Johncock have also raced at Mosport.
There have been Formula One cars, Indy cars, Can-Am, stock cars, World Endurance, Formula 5000, Formula Atlantic and Super Vee. Add Formula Fords, GT cars of every description, Superbikes, karts, snowmobiles and off road machines. Throw in a couple of rock concerts, some air shows, and sky divers and one begins to wonder if there is anything that hasn't been seen at Mosport. Anyone standing on the hill in 1959 would not believe what has transpired over the last 40 years. Fortunately, there were some people who did believe in what could happen. They had a dream, a plan, and the combination of resources and expertise to make it happen.
As early as 1958 the British Empire Motor Club (BEMC) formed a development committee to investigate the possibility of selecting and buying a piece of property for a road racing course. By mid summer of that year the founding committee, whose members consisted of Dick Byatt, George Hill, Chuck Stockey, Fred Hayes and Ray Liddle, had found a 450-acre tract north of Bowmanville. Recognizing the enormity of the project, the committee members realized that one club (BEMC) could not undertake the entire task and so a separate entity, called "Mosport Limited" was born in the fall of 1958. The name Mosport (a contraction of Motor Sport) was coined and applied to the new business enterprise.
MacLeod currently leads the PowerWater CASCAR Super Series Rookie of the year standings. Tara placed 18th in the opening Delaware Speedway event, and was 17th at the recent CASCAR race in St- Eustache.
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