Motorsport News
Driving His Volvo S60 Challenge Car, Bernard Franke Wins the 2006 GTO Championship!
By source: Franke Racing
Nov 26, 2006, 18:48

In his second year only on the road racing circuit, former pro rally champion Bernard Franke driving a Volvo S60 T-5 Challenge car, clinched the 2006 GTO Championship and the Manufacturer’s Cup for Volvo.

On Saturday September the 23rd, the ever changing climatic conditions caused havoc during the qualifying session. Unfortunately, a wrong set up decision had the Franke Volvo team end up way back of the pack. Determined to correct the situation for race no.1, the team waited for the very last moment to install the proper tires. The strategy paid off as it started to rain just as the cars got on the track. The Volvo pilot raced up the field and passed cars one by one. By lap 6, Franke passed his season long rival driving a BMW M3, George Moutafis. At the checkered flag, he had gained 10 positions, finishing 2nd in the GTO class.

The next day, necessary last minute decisions had to be made once again for the qualifying session. Franke went out hard and pushed the pace missing the GTO pole position by a mere one tenth of a second. At the start of race no.2, heavy rain started falling and the wind got really nasty as cars were racing down the back stretch at over 190 km per hour with zero visibility. Predictably, cars started to fly off the track. From that point, the safety car came out to allow safety vehicles to do their job. Five laps from the end, the race got going again and Franke, keeping his cool, drove his Volvo with precision and crossed the finish line second in GTO once again, thus winning the 2006 Championship!

“This Volvo S60 Challenge is the best car I have ever raced with”, said Franke. “It has been reliable, fast and it allowed me to finish on the podium every race I competed in. The other impressive feature of the car is that it is the first environmentally clean race car to win an open class championship with the same antipollution system as an everyday Volvo customer drives.”

With this championship Bernard Franke becomes one of the rare race car drivers to win a championship in both pro-rally racing and road racing. The Franke Volvo racing team also wins for the second time the Manufacturer’s Cup for Volvo cars.

This year’s new sponsorship partners include “Care by Volvo” from Volvo cars of Canada and Castrol oil products. The Franke racing team also benefits from long term sponsors such as Franke Volvo, Wurth Canada, Vitro Plus Ste-Agathe, Fix Auto Ste-Agathe, Infographie Boréale, and X-Vitres tinted glass.



Bernard Franke is co-owner and general manager of a Volvo new car dealership in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts located in the Laurentian Mountains, Québec. His past racing titles include Québec Rally Champion 1983, Eastern Canadian Champion 1984, Overall Canadian Rally Driver Runner Up 1984 and 1986, Québec Open Class Rally Champion 1986. For Volvo he won the Canadian Manufacturer’s Cup 1986. After a 13 year sabbatical he started racing F125 shifter karts in 2000 where he finished several times on the podium. He got back to road racing in 2005.

2006 Results

Date Track event Position
April 29th Autodrôme St-Eustache 3rd GTO
May 27th Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant 1st GTO
May 28th Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant 1st GTO + Pole position
July 8th Le Circuit Sanair 2nd GTO
July 22nd Autodrôme St-Eustache 2nd GTO
August 26th Mosport Ontario 2nd GTO
August 27th Mosport Ontario 2nd GTO
September 23 rd Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant 2nd GTO
September 24th Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant 2nd GTO

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