Victoria’s Bill Okell and Dave Cormier drove to respective second-place finishes at the 2011 Eurasia Cup Invitational sports car race in Edmonton on July 24.
The race ran on the Edmonton Indy track, just prior to the Indy Car race.
Racing at the same time, Okell rallied his 1964 MGB to second in the third tier, or GT3, while Cormier pushed his 2008 Porsche to second overall (GT1).
Recent improvements to his car forced Okell up a class in the sports car series from GT4 to GT3 once he arrived in Edmonton.
It was a redeeming weekend for Okell, who passed three cars in the second-to-last-lap.
“(Moving up a class) was an added challenge we were able to meet,” Okell said, despite breaking a cylinder and getting getting strafed by a corvette. The cylinder went during Saturday’s (July 23) qualifying, and the how-do-you-do from the Corvette happened when both cars were trying to avoid a crash in the 45 minute race.
Cormier ran third for most of the race when one of the two drivers ahead of him got penalized for contact with another car in the 48 car field.
Next for Okell are two sports car club races, Aug. 6 and 7 at Mission Raceway, where he’s tied for first in the point standings after three of 10 races this year.
Cormier will return to the Pirelli Driver’s Cup series in California in September.