Bowmanville, Ontario --- In one of the more bizarre ALMS events in memory, the buzz at the Grand Prix of Mosport was more about officiating than the tremendous racing that occurred at this historic Canadian venue. Many of the teams throughout the field suffered the effects of officialting decisions, but none more than the Autocon duo of Chris McMurry and Toronto native Tony Burgess, who was making his debut in the JeanRichard Creation prototype.

Up until race time the event was productive for the Autocon effort. Throughout the test sessions and the official practice prior to qualifying McMurry and Burgess made progress each session. Burgess, who was new to the car got the edge in laps in practice but when qualifying time arrived McMurry showed a lot of speed and put the Creation into an outstanding third on the P1 grid with his best lap of the weekend. Things certainly looked positive for the Sunday main event.

McMurry followed his qualifying effort and started the race in good stead. At about the one hour mark a full course yellow was called and that yellow began the unraveling of organization on the course and in the pits. There was confusion on the pace car picking up the leader, confusion as to whether the pits were open or not, and multiple cars were called for passing under the yellow. Chaos reigned supreme. For McMurry the chaos resulted in being called for exiting the pits when a red flag was displayed, a fact he disputes with vigor. That brought a two minute penalty served under green flag condition and took Autocon out off any contention for the desired overall finish.

But the penalties were not finished for McMurry. After serving his initial penalty he was called for crossing the blend line at pit out. "Again, not true. All together we were penalized for two minutes twice, plus one stop and go. They claim I crossed the out line from pit lane with both wheels. I’m not that stupid. That would put me out into the middle of the track entering the most dangerous corner. It likely cost us 5-6 minutes at least. The car was good, but the race, and the officiating was frustrating.”

Nonetheless the Autocon group soldiered on and, with one hour remaining Chris turned the car over to Burgess, who literally cut his teeth in racing at Mosport. He did more than impress his teammates and fellow competitors turning consistently fast laps until he set a few team best laps just a shade away from qualifying times.

“It felt wonderful to drive in P1," stated Burgess who had been racing most recently overseas. "I was wondering what was going on over in Europe, wondering if it was me, but now I realize it was more the car than it is me. The Creation was drivable everywhere on the track. I really had a great time and hope to be with the guys again soon.”

Burgess brought the car home is a valued 3rd position in the P1 class and the entire Autocon crew celebrated their second podium finish for the 2007 season, albeit hampered by the penalties. Indeed the controversy spilled over long after the race finished with virtually every team affected in some way by officials decisions. Days after the race the results remain provisional as officials try to sort out a very confusing weekend of racing.

Autocon is electing not compete at the upcoming Detroit race event and is concentrating on the 10th annual Petit LeMans at Road Atlanta, the event that launched the American Le Mans Series. This ten hour, 1,000 mile event is the only ALMS event that offers an opportunity for an invitation to the next year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, an event very much on the radar screen for Autocon.