Mosport: Series spotlight - Scott Sharp

                     MOSPORT FULFILLS THE NEED FOR SPEED

              Fastest venue in American Le Mans Series history

Scott Sharp has been racing at Mosport International Raceway long enough to appreciate the challenges and thrills the historic Canadian venue presents. At the top of the list? Speed...pure, mind-blowing, sheer speed.

"This is one of my favorite tracks," enthused Sharp, last year's LMP2 winner with Patron Highcroft Racing teammate David Brabham at the Mobil 1 presents Grand Prix of Mosport. "The unique characteristic to Mosport is that so much of the track is high speed. There is really nothing like it. And to go fast, you are very much on edge. You can't have any understeer. For most of the lap you are in fifth or sixth gear, so to be coming over the top of a hill at 150 mph - that is awesome!!!!"

The excitable Floridian has five career victories at Mosport in everything from prototypes to Trans-Am and showroom stock dating back to 1988. As they have since winning at St. Petersburg in April, Sharp and Brabham enter Mosport with a LMP1 championship lead that expanded to 13 points (20 go to Sunday's winners) with a victory just shy of two weeks ago at Road America.

But given the treacherous nature of the circuit, the saying "anything can happen" is doubly true. After all, Mosport is the fastest track in the Series not just for prototypes but GT2 as well.

"Last year we saw 160 mph on the uphill back straight," said Risi Competizione technical director Rick Mayer. "You don't want to go off track here as there's very little runoff relative to the speed of the corners. History shows if you go off track the car is usually damaged."

The next round of the American Le Mans Series is the Mobil 1 presents Grand Prix of Mosport at 3:05 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 30. The race will air live on SPEED. American Le Mans Radio presented by Porsche and Living Timing & Scoring will be available on Racehub at americanlemans.com. Live coverage also can be heard on Sirius 126 (in the US) and XM 242. You can follow the Series on Twitter (almsnotes).

The race will also mark the eighth round of the 2009 MICHELIN® GREEN X® Challenge. Tickets are available at americanlemans.com and mosport.com.

-credit: alms