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Every time David Brabham completes a racing lap in his American Le Mans Series Acura at Mosport International Raceway this weekend, he'll be helping to save a life or two.

Brabham and his Patron Highcroft Racing co-driver Scott Sharp teamed up with charity Malaria No More at the beginning of the ALMS 2009 season to raise awareness of the deadly disease.

The program's website, http://www.milestoendmalaria.org, asks fans to pledge as little as a penny a mile that will go toward buying insecticide-treated nets. The nets serve as an effective barrier to malaria-carrying mosquitoes that spread the disease when they bite.

"There's going to be quite a lot of money raised by the end of the year, which will undoubtedly save lives. It's a great thing to think that you are out there doing your thing and helping a really worthy cause," Brabham said. "The car has been super-reliable, which means we've been clocking up the miles and the mosquito nets."

So far in 2009, Patron Highcroft Racing has attracted pledges of $16.88 a mile and completed 2,583 miles, putting the total from the first seven races at $43,601.04. There are three events and about 2,000 miles left on the 10-race ALMS calendar, including this weekend's stop at Mosport.

A preventable disease, malaria kills a child every 30 seconds in Africa.

As they rack up the miles on track, Brabham usually finds himself fighting fellow Acura team de Ferran Motorsport. Acura moved up to the Prototype 1 (P1) class in 2009 after running in Prototype 2 last year and hoped to test its mettle against the all-conquering Audis, but the German manufacturer pulled out of ALMS before the season started.

"Obviously, we'd like more competition, but the intensity at the front is no different than it was last year when we had more cars," Brabham said.

"You still have to win and when you look at any type of racing - maybe not NASCAR - there's always a couple of cars that are out front anyway that the focus is on and that's what's happening with us in ALMS."

Highcroft and de Ferran have taken the P1 win in every race this season, except the opener in Sebring, Fla., where Audi and Peugeot brought their turbo-diesel cars for a warm-up to the 24 Hours of Le Mans and dominated.

Despite having four wins to Highcroft's two, de Ferran trails its rival by 13 points. Owner-driver Gil de Ferran will be looking for better luck at Mosport this year after he ran out of gas with two corners to go in 2008 and saw the P2 win slip through his racing gloves.

"It was one of the closest near-misses of my career," de Ferran said.

"I have to say it was one of the greatest disappointments of my long career, but it is what it is and you just have to move on and get on with the job."

A two-time IndyCar champion and 2003 Indianapolis 500 winner, de Ferran will retire from racing at the end of the season. He plans to add an IndyCar team to his stable in 2010.

Unfortunately, Canadian race fans will have to choose between going to Mosport this weekend and heading to Montreal for the NASCAR Nationwide race. With the NASCAR Sprint Cup taking the weekend off, the Nationwide race goes Sunday and conflicts with Mosport's event.

In Montreal, Canadian veteran Ron Fellows arrives as one of the favourites at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve after a rain-soaked victory last year. And coming to the track named after his hero as defending champion will keep him smiling all weekend.

"It still feels pretty good," Fellows said with a laugh. "Obviously, I want to go and win another one, but I have the trophy so anything else in a bonus."

Other Canadians racing in Montreal include 1997 Formula One world champion Jacques Villeneuve, former IndyCar and Sprint Cup driver Patrick Carpentier, who was runner-up in both Nationwide races in Montreal, part-time IndyCar driver Alex Tagliani and NASCAR Canadian Tire racer Andrew Ranger.

Despite the bevy of Cup regulars coming to Montreal, betting against Chevy driver Fellows to repeat as winner would probably be a poor wager.

Earlier this month, he once again proved his uncanny ability to hustle a stock car around a road course in the Nationwide race at Watkins Glen, N.Y.

When a penalty for an errant tire dropped him to 30th place with 35 laps to go, Fellows put on a passing clinic in the second half of the race, overtaking 25 cars to finish fifth. The penalty also gave him a chance to size up the opposition.

"We got a good look to see how we stack up against the Toyotas and they are going to be tough," he said.

"We know we have to be better than we were last year in the dry [in Montreal] and I feel we have a pretty good practice plan to evaluate some different setups. But we will see."

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