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[/media-credit]During the 2012 racing off-season, it was announced that the ownership of Mosport Raceway had changed hands. Canadian Racer Ron Fellows, along with partners Alan Boughton and Carlo Fidani purchased Mosport from the previous ownership.
“It’s really enjoyable to be a part of it. Mosport has been a big part of my life,” Fellows said last weekend at the Canadian Motorsports Expo. “I went to the first race in 1969 as an 11 year old kid and that’s where I got bitten by the bug to go racing for myself and have had a lot of firsts at Mosport in terms of big wins for me so the place has meant a lot to me. For me, to get an opportunity to be part of the ownership team with Carlo Fidani and Alan Boughton, it’s pretty special.”
The interest to get in the ownership side began while out one day with Boughton and Fidani.
“We were down at my performance driving school just west of Las Vegas and I had the two partners – Carlo Fidani and his two sons and Alan Boughton,” Fellows tells the story. “We were talking about owning a race track and Carlo basically said ‘What about Mosport? I heard it’s for sale’ and I said, ‘I know who to call’. So we got in touch with the previous ownership group and it started from there.”
Fellows went to say that this is a good deal to be involved in as both Boughton and Fidani have business experience to lend to the venture in trying to improve the facility and run it.
Immediately, the ownership group began making changes to the facility to upgrade it to improve it for drivers, fans, media and track staff.
The first change they made was adding a new tunnel above turn nine to therefore improve the infrastructure of the track and allow people to be able to get around easier. They took out what Fellows called the “mouse tunnel” and put in a tunnel wide enough for two tractor trailers to fit through side-by-side.
To improve the experience for the fans, they’ve done grading to improve the sight lines, created some new areas for camping, and there’s a road that connects all the facilities together now so fans don’t have to go on to the public road to get from one end to the other.
There are also plans to put in a new registration centre and a new event centre, which will feature a media centre, timing and scoring and administration.
It was announced at the Canadian Motorsports Expo that Mosport Raceway had formed a partnership with Canadian Tire. The deal marks a long-term partnership between the two parties and will see the track change names, now known at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. The newly named track will host the season opener for the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series in May.
“For the Canadian Tire Series to do their season opener at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park is absolutely ideal scenario for us,” Fellows said. “And then having a marketing partner like Canadian Tire, we feel its going to grow Mosport and create a lot more auto racing interest.”
Through his years of racing at Mosport, Fellows has had a lot of accomplishments there. Some of these accomplishments include winning in a Ferrari back in 1997 and first TransAm win in 1989.
