Things have been a bit quiet on the JL Racing scene in the last few months. The 2008 racing season started in late July and there’s been three rounds so far.

The first round saw a technical DQ on day 1 whilst JL were in second place. The car’s ride height was slightly outside the parameters allowed by the competition regulations. Day 2 saw a power steering pump failure kill off the chances of a successful meet.

The second round, in mid-August, saw the car pushed into the wall due to another accident on the track on day 1. Unfortunately the damage was extensive enough to call a halt to the entire weekend’s proceedings for JL Racing.

Despite these setbacks, JL were pretty confident they had a fast car and the third round at Mosport last weekend (Aug 30-31) gave proof to their confidence.

How much proof?

How about taking first place in three of the four races and finishing second in the other race?

John Lockhart set the standard early Saturday by qualifying second on the pole. At the start of the race, John quickly took the lead but Chris Raymond in his Mazda was hot on his heels. With three laps to go, Chris took the lead while John kept nipping away looking for a way through. As they came through Corner 5 on the last lap, they both went wide and John managed to snatch back the lead. They roared through the last corner side by side and in a thrilling photo finish, the Saab 9-3 won by half a car length.

In the second race of the series on Sunday, John Lockhart once again demonstrated the superiority of the Saab by comfortably leading the entire race and took the chequered flag by a significant margin. This is the first double win by Saab in the Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship and so the champagne celebrations were lengthy.

Jordan Marrison drove the Saab 9-3 in the Ontario Regional Sprints and similarly threw down the gauntlet in a field of over 30 cars by qualifying second on the grid. He drove a flawless race to take second place. On Sunday morning Jordan again demonstrated his driving abilities and the strength of the Saab by dominating the race and took the chequered flag in first place.

A big congratulations to the cast and crew at JL Racing. That’s an extraordinary result and if they can keep the car on the track and out of trouble then they’re going to put a strong case together for a championship this year.

Check out the JL Racing website, including their shop. There’s photos, video and a whole event diary there as well.

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