Over the past several weeks, we have managed to complete a lot of our off-season maintenance.

Here are some photos from the SVRA U.S. Vintage Grand Prix at Watkins Glen International.

The Enhanced Performance, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions, Melanoma Canada #77 Formula Mazda Team had a reasonably good race weekend at the 2023 SVRA U.S. Vintage Grand Prix at Watkins Glen International.

We ran in Group 9 – Monoposto Wings and Slicks.  The weather was mixed with very hot weather the first few days and rain on the final day with temperatures ranging from the high-teens to the low 30’s Celsius. Over the course of Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were on track a total of 8 times; 2 on track practices during the spilt Wednesday/Thursday test day, followed by 2 practices, 2 qualifying sessions, Race 1, and Race 2.  There was a large speed differential within the qualifying group!!  We definitely had our work cut out for us, as most everyone in our group had much more horsepower than we did. Lots of beautiful race cars!

In the first qualifying session, we placed 7th of 11 race cars, 1st in our 9F4 class with a time of 1:57.269. In the 2nd qualification session, we qualified 6th out of 7 cars, 2nd in our class with best lap time of 1:59.404 (we were scuffling in new tires).
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For Race 1, on the afternoon of the 9th of September, our race Group 9 included 12 high powered open wheel race cars, including Lola’s, Elan’s, Ralt’s, Swift’s and a number of F5000’s.  The weather was perfect for racing, clear and mild, about 24 Celsius. We started in 10th and finished in 9th position, 1st in our class, with a best lap time of 1:56.771, our best lap time of the weekend!! Here is the YouTube video link to our first race https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPWOh2Z7dxQ – our race begins at about time mark 5:07.22. In Race 2, on the 10th of September, weather was light rain, which continued throughout the race. We made the mistake of going out on slicks. The majority of the race, we were able to navigate our way around the track without too much trouble. Sadly, we hydroplaned in corner 11 and made contact with another car that had contacted the tire wall on drivers left. Our race car had too much damage to continue. 

Lots of work to do over the winter to repair our #77 Formula Mazda – stay tuned for repair updates on our website www.subjectmotorsports.com, our YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkrPKqGp6WSukj3qKzMiKhw, and our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SubjectMotorsports/.

Despite the damage to the #77 Formula Mazda, we did manage to finish 3rd in our class and 9th in our race group. A special thank you Bill and Shirley Vallis of Vallis Motor Sport for their trackside support.

​A very big thank you to the SVRA for hosting such a great event!!  And last, but certainly not least, once again we want to thank our long suffering and tormented family which follows us from racetrack to racetrack and allows us to continue to do the racing thing…….

Here are some photos from the race weekend at the VSCDA Vintage Grand Prix au Grattan XXXVI at Grattan Raceway

​The Enhanced Performance, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions, Melanoma Canada #77 Formula Mazda Team had an fantastic weekend at the VSCDA Vintage Grand Prix au Grattan XXXVI held at Grattan Raceway. We had registered our #77 Formula Mazda in the VSCDA Formula Classic (Group E). There was a total of 24 cars in our race group including Vintage Formula Fords, Club Fords, S2000’s, a lightning-fast Formula Continental, a Brabham and as well as a many other historic open wheel cars.  The weather was beautiful all weekend with temperatures during the weekend ranging from 20°C to 25°C. Over the course of Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were on track a total of 7 times; 2 on-track practices and the first qualifying session on Friday, followed by the second qualifying session and the Sprint Race and the Heat Race on Saturday and Feature Race on Sunday.

On the Friday test day, the weather was very nice with a sun cloud mix.  Our best lap for the two practice sessions was a P2 1:23.377 – a pretty respectable lap time considering that we haven’t been to Grattan in 15 years. The leader, Scott Durbin in a very nice yellow Formula Continental, was P1 at 1:21.382 – so we had some work to do. During our first qualifying session on Friday, we were a bit slower, P2 1:23.835, while Scott bettered his practice time to 1:20.549 – clearly, we had to improve our on-track performance if we were to challenge for the win.
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The weather on Saturday was perfect, sunny and 24°C. During our second qualifying session, we improved our lap time to P1 1:22.315 (Scott decided not to waste his tire for the second qualifying session). With qualifying over, and based on the best qualifying time, Scott qualified P1 and we qualified P2.  During the Sprint Race, we managed to get a good start and gapped Scott down the front straight to turn 1. Scott caught us in the technical portion of the track and passed us during the first lap. Scott finished in P1 with a best lap time of 1:20.802, while our best P2 lap time was 1:22.471. During the Heat Race, once again we managed to beat Scott to the first turn – we battled for 2/3rds of the race – Scott was able use the back markers to his advantage and developed a gap of 7 seconds at the finish.  He finished in P1 with a best lap time of 1:20.585 compared to our P2 best lap time of 1:20.922 – we were definitely making progress.

On Sunday, the weather was once again beautiful a per day to be on the track. Our last race of the weekend was scheduled to start at noon – it was delayed by 20 minutes due to track clean up from a shunt in the previous race. During the Feature Race, I managed to get an excellent start, beating Scott to the first corner. He and I battled for the first three laps, and then my tires started to go away due to the abrasive nature of the track. In the end, Scott finished in P1 with a best lap time of 1:19.949, we finished 16 seconds behind him in P2 with a best lap time of 1:21.539 – clearly, our tires were done. A fantastic weekend and a great race result!!!!

A very special thank you to our guest crew chief for the weekend, Christina Murdoch.  We would not have been able to accomplish what we did during the weekend without her expert help. And many thanks VSCDA Vintage Grand Prix au Grattan XXXVI for hosting such a fantastic, safe event!!  

The Enhanced Performance, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions, Melanoma Canada #77 Formula Mazda Team had great weekend at the BARC Canadian Touring Trophy Races, held at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (CTMP). We were placed in the Formula Libre/Formula race group). We had registered our #77 Formula Mazda in the VARAC Formula Classic 90 class. There were a total of 14 cars in our race group including, Formula 4’s, F2000’s and F1200’s.  The weather varied greatly during the race weekend. It was very hot on the Friday, wet and rainy on the Saturday and absolutely beautiful and sunny on Sunday with temperatures during the weekend ranging from 20°C to 35°C. 

Over the course of Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were on track a total of 7 times; 3 on-track practices during the Friday test day, followed by qualifying and Race 1 on Saturday and Race 2 & 3 on Sunday. As always, our race class had some very nice open wheel race cars including the blazingly fast Formula 4 race cars.

On the Friday test day, the weather was very warm with a sun cloud mix and a high of 35°C.  Our best lap for the test day was a 1:23.0 – pretty respectable lap time on new who’s Hoosier RB35’s. 
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Saturday morning, the weather was wet and very rainy (see this link on our YouTube channel) 

​We decided to skip practice to preserve our rain tires for qualifying. We set a best practice P2 time of 1:47.472. In the afternoon on Saturday, the weather brightened up considerably provided us with a dry track for our race. We started in P2 and pursued the leader for the entire race passing on the last lap to finishing P1 with a best lap time of a 1:24.021. The weather on Sunday was beautiful with a mix of sun cloud and a temperature of 25°C. We started Race 2 in P1 and soon lost that position to the F-4 of Mike McNeil and Jim Morton. We finished Race 2 in P3, P1 in our class, with a best lap time of 1:23.797. We started Race 3 in P3 and began to track down the leaders, Mike McNeil and Jim Morton, catching them by lap 5. In corner three, Mike and Jim came together on the race track, making contact with the barrier on the inside apex of the corner. This put me in P1 – the race track went full course yellow for the 5 remaining laps. Consequently, we finished P1 with a best lap time of 1:24.566!! A great result!!

​A special thank you to Bill & Shirley Vallis of Vallis Motor Sport for their trackside support during the BARC Canadian Touring Trophy Races and to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park for hosting such a great event!!  And last, but certainly not least, we want to thank our long suffering family which allows us to continue to race……….

​The Enhanced Performance, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions, Melanoma Canada #77 Formula Mazda Team had an unfortunate weekend at the VARAC 43rd Vintage Grand Prix, held at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (CTMP). We had registered the #77 Formula Mazda in the VARAC Formula Classic group (Group 6). There was a total of 30 cars in our race group including, Historic Formula Fords, F2000’s, F1200’s, a Super Vee and as well as a many other historic open wheel cars.  

The problem began during the test day on Thursday, 15th of June. Each time we went out on the racetrack, the carved reach about 5000 RPM and shut off. Over the course of the day, our crew chief, Bill Vallis and I, tried to problem solve the issue without any success. As a result, we withdrew our registration prior to the races starting on Friday. Even though we weren’t able to race the weekend, we stayed to assist with our Vallis Motorsport team.

Over the course of next 2 weeks, Bill and I spent a lot of time brainstorming the problem to determine what the cause was. Luckily, we were able to get some dino time at DL Motorsports in Burlington which is how we found the problem. As it turns out, our fuel-cell pickup was blocked which didn’t allow fuel to be pumped into the carburetor. Once we cleaned that out, the car ran perfectly. 

Such is the life and times of a race car driver.

A special thank you to our guest crew chief for the weekend, Christina Murdoch.  And to Bill & Shirley Vallis of Vallis Motor Sport for their trackside support during the VARAC VGP and to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park for hosting such a fantastic, safe event!!  And last, but certainly not least, we want to thank our long-suffering family which allows us to continue to race……….

For the most update news and videos, please visit our YouTube page that is updated weekly.