News on Ron Fellows
03-20-2009, 06:00 PM
#1
Racer
Thread Starter
News on Ron Fellows
Is there life after racing for Ron Fellows?
Canadian's non-driving role at this year's 12 Hours of Sebring may be the shape of things to come
Mar 20, 2009
Ron Fellows is one of Canada's best-known international racing stars, and I was chatting with him about the American Le Mans Series recently when he dropped a kind of bombshell.
At the time, Fellows and his family were driving south to Florida for the 12 Hours of Sebring, the first race of the ALMS season, which takes place this weekend. We'd been discussing the series and the financial crunch facing everybody and I asked him if he'd ever considered becoming a team owner.
"As a matter of fact, for the last six months or so I've been working on getting a team going in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series," Fellows said. "We'd be partnering with Peter Klutt, who has a wonderful facility at his Legendary Motorcar business in Halton Hills.
"Nothing is finalized but I'm optimistic we'll be able to do something for this season. The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series makes sense. It's got great value and has a lot to offer.
"We're looking for sponsorship, of course, but the goal would be to run three or four races in '09 with the aim of running the full season next year."
Fellows was quick to point out that he has no intention of driving for his own team, but that – as he did for many years developing young Canadian formula car drivers through his Ron Fellows Karting Series – the aim will be to develop young Canadian talent to move south in stock cars.
"I'd hope a future Sprint Cup champion could get his or her start with our team," he said.
But that's then and this is now and Fellows has mixed feelings about being in Sebring and not being one of the six pilots employed by Corvette Racing for this weekend's 12-hour race. He's there continuing in the role he started last year as a goodwill ambassador for General Motors and Corvette but last year he was still driving "the long races" (Sebring, Le Mans, Road Atlanta), and this year he's not.
"No, I'm not upset that I'm not racing," he said. "But I admit that I will miss driving the GT1 Corvette. I haven't driven the GT2 yet, but I hope to before long. And I would have liked to do one last 24 Hours of Le Mans.
"However, I knew this time was coming. You never lose the desire to drive racing cars, but the businessman in me says it's time to do some transitioning, to prepare for life after driving and to pick the spots where I really want to drive.
"I've got a lot fewer races in front of me than I have behind me so I'm being choosy. My immediate, part-time, future is in NASCAR. I fully expect I'll be doing the two Nationwide Series races this year (including the one at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal that he won last August). So far as the Sprint Cup is concerned, as difficult as things are to get sponsorship, I think we'll have that deal (for two road races) done in about a month."
Talking about "transitioning," there's also the brand new Ron Fellows Performance Driving School at the Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch about 65 km west of Las Vegas, a deal that was nailed down last October.
Fellows, of course, started on the road to a professional racing career back in the 1980s by instructing at the old Spenard-David Racing School at Shannonville and the irony is not lost on him.
"Yes, it's a little serendipitous," he said. "I'm out there and I'm thinking, `If Richard (Spenard) could only see me now ...'"
But back to the American Le Mans Series and prospects for the 2009 season.
"Because the money supply is down, there's no doubt that grids will likely be down post-Sebring," he said. (Audi announced late last year that it would leave the series after Sebring; Peugeot is running Sebring-only.)
"The ALMS is heavily dependent on manufacturers – whether they be cars or tires – and everybody, it seems, is in `wallet lockdown.' Everybody's just trying to survive, to make it through the recession.
"It's possible some of the bigger teams might find themselves in difficulty toward the end of the year. If some of the contracts end in '09, the companies and corporations concerned might be reviewing some of that spending now and this could impact some teams going forward.
"But let there be no doubt: the ALMS will survive and it'll survive because it's a great series, a creative series. It's a great place for manufacturers to come and showcase their products. Remember, this is the first time in the 11 years of the series that there's been a problem. This is really the first blip."
Fellows says he's optimistic the post-24 Hours of Le Mans races will generate some excitement as a result of Corvette dropping down from the GT1 class to GT2.
"I don't see a great deal of difference between GT1 and GT2 anyway," he said. "Corvette is just going to where the competition is (the marque has been pretty much by itself in GT1 in recent years). The Automobile Club de l'Ouest (which makes the rules for Le Mans-style sports car racing in Europe and North America) is believed to be looking at a single GT class in the near future, which would be a good thing.
"Personally, I think there should just be one production class and one prototype class."
So who's going to win the 12-hour race, Ron?
"The new Audi is definitely the car to beat," he said. "But I have a sneaking suspicion – when you look at the development they put into the car, and the speeds in practice – that Peugeot could come out on top.
"Either way, it'll be a great race."
The 12 Hours of Sebring can be seen on Speed TV Saturday, starting at 10 a.m. At noon, there will be a two-hour break for NASCAR coverage from Bristol but when the network returns to Sebring at 2, it will continue straight through, non-stop, until 11 p.m.
Tony Burgess of Toronto is the only Canadian in the field. He'll be behind the wheel of a P1 Lola entered by Autocon Motorsports. He's co-driving with Americans Bryan Willman and Chris McMurry.
Norris McDonald writes about motorsport each week at Wheels.ca. nmcdonald@thestar.ca
Toronto Star
Canadian's non-driving role at this year's 12 Hours of Sebring may be the shape of things to come
Mar 20, 2009
Ron Fellows is one of Canada's best-known international racing stars, and I was chatting with him about the American Le Mans Series recently when he dropped a kind of bombshell.
At the time, Fellows and his family were driving south to Florida for the 12 Hours of Sebring, the first race of the ALMS season, which takes place this weekend. We'd been discussing the series and the financial crunch facing everybody and I asked him if he'd ever considered becoming a team owner.
"As a matter of fact, for the last six months or so I've been working on getting a team going in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series," Fellows said. "We'd be partnering with Peter Klutt, who has a wonderful facility at his Legendary Motorcar business in Halton Hills.
"Nothing is finalized but I'm optimistic we'll be able to do something for this season. The NASCAR Canadian Tire Series makes sense. It's got great value and has a lot to offer.
"We're looking for sponsorship, of course, but the goal would be to run three or four races in '09 with the aim of running the full season next year."
Fellows was quick to point out that he has no intention of driving for his own team, but that – as he did for many years developing young Canadian formula car drivers through his Ron Fellows Karting Series – the aim will be to develop young Canadian talent to move south in stock cars.
"I'd hope a future Sprint Cup champion could get his or her start with our team," he said.
But that's then and this is now and Fellows has mixed feelings about being in Sebring and not being one of the six pilots employed by Corvette Racing for this weekend's 12-hour race. He's there continuing in the role he started last year as a goodwill ambassador for General Motors and Corvette but last year he was still driving "the long races" (Sebring, Le Mans, Road Atlanta), and this year he's not.
"No, I'm not upset that I'm not racing," he said. "But I admit that I will miss driving the GT1 Corvette. I haven't driven the GT2 yet, but I hope to before long. And I would have liked to do one last 24 Hours of Le Mans.
"However, I knew this time was coming. You never lose the desire to drive racing cars, but the businessman in me says it's time to do some transitioning, to prepare for life after driving and to pick the spots where I really want to drive.
"I've got a lot fewer races in front of me than I have behind me so I'm being choosy. My immediate, part-time, future is in NASCAR. I fully expect I'll be doing the two Nationwide Series races this year (including the one at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal that he won last August). So far as the Sprint Cup is concerned, as difficult as things are to get sponsorship, I think we'll have that deal (for two road races) done in about a month."
Talking about "transitioning," there's also the brand new Ron Fellows Performance Driving School at the Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch about 65 km west of Las Vegas, a deal that was nailed down last October.
Fellows, of course, started on the road to a professional racing career back in the 1980s by instructing at the old Spenard-David Racing School at Shannonville and the irony is not lost on him.
"Yes, it's a little serendipitous," he said. "I'm out there and I'm thinking, `If Richard (Spenard) could only see me now ...'"
But back to the American Le Mans Series and prospects for the 2009 season.
"Because the money supply is down, there's no doubt that grids will likely be down post-Sebring," he said. (Audi announced late last year that it would leave the series after Sebring; Peugeot is running Sebring-only.)
"The ALMS is heavily dependent on manufacturers – whether they be cars or tires – and everybody, it seems, is in `wallet lockdown.' Everybody's just trying to survive, to make it through the recession.
"It's possible some of the bigger teams might find themselves in difficulty toward the end of the year. If some of the contracts end in '09, the companies and corporations concerned might be reviewing some of that spending now and this could impact some teams going forward.
"But let there be no doubt: the ALMS will survive and it'll survive because it's a great series, a creative series. It's a great place for manufacturers to come and showcase their products. Remember, this is the first time in the 11 years of the series that there's been a problem. This is really the first blip."
Fellows says he's optimistic the post-24 Hours of Le Mans races will generate some excitement as a result of Corvette dropping down from the GT1 class to GT2.
"I don't see a great deal of difference between GT1 and GT2 anyway," he said. "Corvette is just going to where the competition is (the marque has been pretty much by itself in GT1 in recent years). The Automobile Club de l'Ouest (which makes the rules for Le Mans-style sports car racing in Europe and North America) is believed to be looking at a single GT class in the near future, which would be a good thing.
"Personally, I think there should just be one production class and one prototype class."
So who's going to win the 12-hour race, Ron?
"The new Audi is definitely the car to beat," he said. "But I have a sneaking suspicion – when you look at the development they put into the car, and the speeds in practice – that Peugeot could come out on top.
"Either way, it'll be a great race."
The 12 Hours of Sebring can be seen on Speed TV Saturday, starting at 10 a.m. At noon, there will be a two-hour break for NASCAR coverage from Bristol but when the network returns to Sebring at 2, it will continue straight through, non-stop, until 11 p.m.
Tony Burgess of Toronto is the only Canadian in the field. He'll be behind the wheel of a P1 Lola entered by Autocon Motorsports. He's co-driving with Americans Bryan Willman and Chris McMurry.
Norris McDonald writes about motorsport each week at Wheels.ca. nmcdonald@thestar.ca
Toronto Star
02-23-2011, 01:51 PM
#2
Advanced
Member Since: Jul 2009
Location: Brampton Ontario
Posts: 69
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Met Ron Fellows this past Monday at the 2011 Toronto auto show, friendly guy to meet. he signed a few items I removed from my vette. We are lucky as Ron lives in greater Toronto area and you can see him at different local shows. Might even catch him in Kentucky in September
as my wife and I have a factory tour booked same week.
as my wife and I have a factory tour booked same week.
02-23-2011, 02:09 PM
#3
Le Mans Master
Met Ron Fellows this past Monday at the 2011 Toronto auto show, friendly guy to meet. he signed a few items I removed from my vette. We are lucky as Ron lives in greater Toronto area and you can see him at different local shows. Might even catch him in Kentucky in September
as my wife and I have a factory tour booked same week.
as my wife and I have a factory tour booked same week.
mr hand was also there
