Ron Fellows revved up over Mosport
The winner of a 24 Hours of Le Mans class championship, a five-time NASCAR Nationwide Series winner and a three-time American Le Mans Series champion, Fellows announced on Wednesday that he and a group of partners have purchased Mosport International Raceway from American Don Panoz .
It returns the legendary racing complex to Canadian hands for the first time in almost two decades.
Fellows teamed up with Toronto businessmen Alan Boughton and Carlo Fidani to make the deal late Tuesday.
Mosport incorporates a Grand Prix 3.96-km road course, a half-mile oval speedway, a 1.8 km driving school track and a karting track on more than 700 acres of land near Bowmanville, about 80 kms east of Toronto.
Fellows said he and his two partners began talking about putting together a deal last October during a visit to Fellows Corvette driving school in Las Vegas.
"I called (Panoz CEO) Scott Atherton," Fellows said. "He told me that Mosport was not for sale. But after few more conversations with him and Don Panoz they began to warm to the thought of returning Mosport to local ownership."
Mosport is already host to a number of top ranked motorsports events including the ALMS Grand Prix of Mosport, the May 24 Speedfest, a pair of NASCAR Canadian Tires Series races and any number of sports car club events.
But Fellows sees the potential to build on what is already there.
"In he short term we would like to improve the race experience for both fans and corporate supporters," he said. "We would like to enhance the events already established at the track and add more."
Fellows said that Panoz had planned to make improvements at the facility but when the economy went south in 2007-08 those plans were put of the back burner.
"We think the economic climate is right to move ahead with the kinds of improvements Panoz had in mind plus add many of out own ideas," he said.
Key to establishing a plan will be the retaining of Mosport's management team led by track president Myles Brandt.
"Myles has been part of Mosport for 40 years," Fellows said. "It would be near impossible to move ahead without his leadership."
Fellows admits that buying Mosport is something that he sort of "blue skied" about as he approached the sunset of his spectacular driving career.
"It is a race track that is very near and dear to my heart," he said. slam.canoe.ca