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Mosport International Raceway, or Mosport Park, is a multi-track facility located north of Bowmanville, Ontario. Mosport features a 2.459 mile, 10-turn road course; a half-mile, paved oval; and the new 1.5-mile Mosport Driver Development Centre, which was based off the karting circuit built in 1997.
The circuit was designed in the late 1950s, and held its first major race in 1961, the Player's 200, a sports car race bringing drivers from the world over to rural Ontario. Stirling Moss won the event.
Many racing legends, like Stirling Moss, Gilles Villeneuve, Bruce McLaren and even stock car king Richard Petty, have raced at Mosport. 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 ten Indianapolis 500 winners, including Rodger Ward, A.J. Foyt, Al Unser, Bobby Unser, Rick Mears and Gordon Johncock, have also raced at Mosport.
In 1998, Panoz Motorsports purchased Mosport. In 1999, the newly formed American Le Mans Series, formed by Don Panoz, visited Mosport for the first time. For 2001, the entire circuit was repaved to meet FIA specifications, and is now 42 feet wide. Drivers were consulted to ensure the character of the "old" track was kept; thus, almost all the "racing lines" have been maintained.
Today, there are many events on Mosport's calendar, the most popular of which are "lapping days", where amateur drivers in road cars drive quickly around the circuit in controlled conditions. There are nine Regional road racing events held there in a typical year, where Porsches, Corvettes, and very fast sport compact cars can be seen battling hard. The American Le Mans Series still visits annually in early August, and CASCAR makes an annual stop as well in June.
Formula One history:
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