Antoine Cremer: a future star driving a Hyundai Tiburon
A car-racing passionate just as his father, Antoine takes great care of his very first race car: a modified Hyundai Tiburon that he uses in the Ontario GT Challenge Series. And FYI, the Tiburon has not been replaced by the Hyundai Genesis Coupe as many people might think. The model has been discontinued in 2009 as explained in this article.
Antoine Cremer is not a newcomer in car racing. At the age of 14, he started in Formula Kartz in the Junior races. The next season, he was still karting, but in the adult's division this time. He won two Ottawa Club Motorsports Championships in 2006 and 2008. Now that he has his driving license for road racing, we can watch him at the wheel af a real car for the first time!
"It's not realistic wanting to make a carreer in F1 while staying in Canada. In order to do that, I would have to move in Europe where racing in much more important. There's also an impressive structure in the United States. While I'm here, I hope to be able to race for a long time and become enougn successful that revenues will cover my expenses. I will have to win a lot of reces and meet the right people in order to do that." says Cremer.
Just like the veterans, Cremer will has to learn on the spot. He shares the expenses for his Hyundai Tiburon with a teamate, but they weren't able to complete any of their 4 first races since the beginning of this season.
"We encountered a number of mechanical problems. The Tiburon is not a car made for racing and we push it to its limits. There's always something that breaks and my teamate had an accident during our first endurence race. We also had engine problems at our secound race and it finally crashed during the third. And because we were replacing the engine, we missed the start of the fourth race. We're now hoping to make it in the fifth race."
Antoine Cremer continues to keep his focus; he is well aware that he practices an unusual sport for a young man of his age and he makes the sacrifices it requires. While his friends go out clubbing, he usually stays in his garage to tune up the Hyundai Tiburon for its next challenge. He is passionate and determined and he hopes to make people just as excited as he is about this extreme sport.
Photo: Simon Cremer