Mosport 200 Mile Race 1976

George Follmer finished second overall on a McLaren M20

Mirage-GR8- chassis-802 at the 24-hour race of Le Mans 1976 with Jean-Louis Lafosse at the wheel. In Mosport, Vern Schuppan drove this chassis to fifth place in the overall standings

The 1976 Mosport 200-Mile Race , also known as Player's 200, Mosport Park , took place on August 22nd at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park and was the eleventh round of this year 's World Sports Car Championship .

The race

The Mosport 200 Mile Race had some notable reports. Most noticeable was the black Shadow DN4 . This vehicle was developed in late 1973 and was the dominant racing car of the 1974 Can Am season . Jackie Oliver won four races in the Canadian-American Challenge Cup and became the overall winner. Due to financial differences with some organizers, the 1975 Can-Am season was canceled. There were no races in 1976 either. The chassis with which Oliver competed in 1974 was registered by Shadow Racing Cars for this world championship run. The DN4 had been in a garage for 1 ½ years and was brought up to the technical level of the Group 7 regulations before the race weekend. As a driver, Shadow owner Don Nichols hired Jackie Oliver, who is familiar with the handling characteristics of the DN4

The second car of note was a McLaren M20 driven by George Follmer . The chassis used in Mosport was the car of David Hobbs and Scooter Patrick in the 1974 Can-Am season. In contrast to the Shadow, the McLaren was used in racing in 1975. The third interesting racing car was the Mirage GR8 . The chassis 802 driven by Vern Schuppan in Mosport was the Gulf GR8 , driven by Schuppan and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud , and finished third overall in the 1975 Le Mans 24-hour race . Now known as the Mirage GR8, Jean-Louis Lafosse and François Migault drove the chassis in Le Mans in 1976 to second place in the overall standings.

Against the plant - Porsche 936 by Jacky Ickx and the two Alpine-Renault A442 of Patrick Depailler and Jean-Pierre Jabouille especially the old Can-Am cars were given by specialists no chance of winning. The qualification training already showed that experts can be wrong. To the amazement of the Porsche and Alpine team management, Jackie Oliver set the fastest lap time in the Shadow. It takes Oliver 1: 15.320 minutes to lap the 3.957-kilometer circuit once. This time corresponded to an average speed of 189.146 km / h. He was 7/100 seconds faster than Follmer in the McLaren. The strength of the Group 7 cars continued in the race. Until the end of the race, Oliver and Follmer fought a tough duel for overall victory, which Oliver brought in with a margin of eight seconds. Jacky Ickx had to use all his driving skills in the Porsche in order to be able to follow the two competitors. At the finish he was 50 seconds behind the winner Jackie Oliver. Patrick Depailler in the only classified Renault-Alpine came fourth, one lap behind. Hindered by technical problems, Vern Schuppan crossed the finish line in the Mirage, three laps behind, in fifth place overall.

Results

Final ranking

Item	class	No.	team	driver	vehicle	Round
1	Size 7th	101	Shadow	Jackie Oliver	Shadow DN4	80
2	Size 7th	8th	US Racing - Herb Caplan	George Follmer	McLaren M20	80
3	S 3.0	20th	Martini Racing Porsche System	Jacky Ickx	Porsche 936	80
4th	S 3.0	1	Renault	Patrick Depailler	Alpine-Renault A442	79
5	S 3.0	11	Grand Touring Cars	Vern Schuppan	Mirage GR8	77
6th	S 2.0	47	Tony Cicale	Tony Cicale	Chevron B26	75
7th	S 2.0	69	United Racing Ltd.	Mike Hall	Lola T294	74
8th	Size 7th	22nd	Bruce Langson	Bruce Langson	Lola T310	69
9	Size 7th	98	Carter Crompton	Charlie Nearburg	McLaren M8F	69
10	S 3.0	39	Auberge Gavroche	Gary Hirsch	Porsche 908/02	69
11	S 2.0	7th	Viking Competition	Carl Thompson	Lola T290	68
12	Size 7th	3	Orlie Pacheco	Orlie Pacheco	McLaren M6B	68
13	S 2.0	38	South Gate Auto Service Limited	Roman Pechmann	Porsche 910	67
14th	Size 7th	54	Auto World Inc.	Oscar Koveleski Bertil Roos	McLaren M6B	63
15th	S 2.0	18th	TR Outcault	EB Lunken	March 73S	62
16	S 3.0	16	Dennis Aase	Dennis Aase	Porsche 908/02	58
17th	S 3.0	2	Renault	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Alpine-Renault A442	51
18th	Size 7th	72	Jeff Jones	Jeff Jones	McLaren M8C	41
Failed
19th	S 2.0	6th	Dave's car radio	Dave Johnson	Lola T290B	30th
20th	S 2.0	73	Brian Burgess	Brian Burgess	Chevron B21	28
21st	Size 7th	76	Janke Auto Co.	Leonard Janke	McLaren M8C	16
22nd	S 2.0	14th	Noah Lacona	Noah Lacona	Lola T292	1
Not started
23	Size 7th	13	Team Reno	Randolph Townsend	Porsche 917/10	1

¹ engine failure before the race

Only in the entry list

Here you will find teams, drivers and vehicles that were originally registered for the race but did not take part.

Item	class	No.	team	driver	chassis
24	S 2.0	43	Bill Roush	Bill Roush	Chevron B19 / 26
25th	Size 7th	66	Stanley Szarkowicz	Stanley Szarkowicz	McLaren M8D
26th		74	Heimrath Racing	Ludwig Heimrath senior	Porsche Carrera RSR
27	Size 7th	86	The Winner's Circle	David Giorgi	Lola T160

Class winner

class	driver	vehicle	Placement in the overall ranking
Size 7th	Jackie Oliver	Shadow DN4	Overall victory
S 3.0	Jacky Ickx	Porsche 936	Rank 3
S 2.0	Tony Cicale	Chevron B26	Rank 6

Racing data

• Registered: 27
• Started: 22
• Valued: 18
• Race classes: 3
• Spectator: unknown
• Race day weather: sunny, hot and dry
• Route length: 3.957 km
• Driving time of the winning team: 1: 45: 57.592 hours
• Total laps of the winning team: 80
• Total distance of the winning team: 316.590 km
• Winner's average: 179.270 km / h
• Pole position: Jackie Oliver - Shadow DN4 (# 101) - 1: 15.320 = 189.146 km / h
• Fastest race lap: Jackie Oliver - Shadow DN4 (# 101) - 1: 16.240 = 186.864 km / h
• Racing series: 11th round of the 1976 World Sports Car Championship

literature

• Peter Higham: The Guinness Guide to International Motor Racing. A complete Reference from Formula 1 to Touring Car. Guinness Publishing Ltd., London 1995, ISBN 0-85112-642-1 .

Web links

• Race results

Individual evidence

1. ↑ About the Shadow DN4 (English)

Previous race 6 Hours of Watkins Glen 1976

Sports car world championship

Successor to the 6 Hours of Dijon 1976