TROIS-RIVIERES, Quebec (July 30, 2000) Grand American Road Racing Association points leader James Weaver drove the Dyson Racing Riley & Scott Ford into the lead in Sunday¹s Player¹s Grand Prix de Trois-Rivieres. Teammate Butch Leitzinger nursed a failing transmission to give the team its fourth victory of the season before a huge crowd of approximately 100,000 at the sun-drenched 1.5-mile circuit.
"I had a great race with Didier Theys," said Weaver, who also won the Rolex 24 and Paul Revere 250 Grand-Am races for Dyson. "The car was fine, and I didn¹t have any problems with it."
"On about my second or third lap, something in the transmission linkage broke," explained Leitzinger, who co-drove to victory at Lime Rock, Conn., with Weaver earlier this year. "So I drove the rest of the race just poking around in first, third and fifth. Some of the shifts weren¹t as smooth as they could have been, so I was worried about the gearbox. Remarkably, it held together fine, and we didn¹t really lose that much off our lap times."
The Doran Special of Didier Theys and Ross Bentley came up only 4.26 seconds short of scoring its second straight Grand-Am triumph, while the second Dyson entry of Elliott Forbes-Robinson and John Paul Jr. took third, one second back.
Weaver and Leitzinger averaged 81.70 miles per hour in event slowed by only one caution period, when the BMW of Chris Gleason came to a stop on the backstretch. Weaver tail-gated Theys for 10 laps following the restart, finally taking the lead on lap 35 on a pass near the pit entrance.
"After the restart, Didier¹s car seemed to be struggling for grip, and mine came straight back," explained Weaver. "That way, I was able to pull away from him."
Theys agreed with Weaver.
"After the restart, the grid never came back," said Theys. "That¹s why James passed me, because I was sliding a lot."
The Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières, which was presented for the first time in 1967, Canada's centenary year, was an innovation in North America, the first motor race in Canada to take place in the streets of a city. North America¹s oldest street race, The Grand Prix Players de Trois-Rivières is one of the four major car-racing events in Canada, thanks to the high caliber international professional series it brings to the city.
Its unique character and its immense attraction for car-racing enthusiasts are due in large part to its intensive and diversified programming, together with unlimited access to the paddocks, a special characteristic of this event. Grand-Am cars and drivers competed on the demanding 1.521-mile downtown circuit.
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