45th VARAC Vintage Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park – June 12th to June 15th Race Report

The Enhanced Performance, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions #77 Formula Mazda Team had an excellent weekend at the VARAC 45th Vintage Grand Prix, held at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (CTMP). We were placed in the Formula Classic Race group. There was a total of 43 cars in our race group including, Formula Fords, F1200’s and several Formula Mazda’s as well as many other historic open wheel cars.  The weather was beautiful with sunny days and temperatures ranging from 17°C to 22°C. 

Over the course of Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were on track a total of 11 times; 4 on-track practices during the Thursday test day, followed by one practice and on qualifying session on Friday, Race 1 & 2 on Saturday, as well as the Ludwig Heimrath Open Wheel Challenge and Races 3 & 4 on Sunday. Our race group included some beautiful open wheel race cars.

A Very Busy Grid - 43 Race Cars!!!

On the Thursday test day, the weather very nice.  Our best lap for the test day was a 1:24.881 – a pretty respectable lap time, however off from our typical lap times in the 1:22’s. 

Friday morning, the weather was quite nice – we set a time of 1:30.399 (way off our normal lap times because of the number of cars in our race group). This lap time was the best time for the session of all the other cars. During our qualifying session, we ended up with a qualifying time of 1:28.493 - once again way off our normal lap times due to the large number of race cars on track couple d with our inability to put together a clan lap. Luckily, everyone else in our race group had the same problem- as a result we qualified P1 in our race group and class.

The weather on Saturday was sunny with a high in the low 20’s.  During Race 1, we pulled away comfortably from the field on the first lap, we finished P1 in our race group and P1 in our class with best lap time of 1:26.899. During Race 2, once again we pulled away from the field on the first lap and finished P1 in our race group and P1 in our class with a best lap time of 1.24.953. 
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Late Saturday afternoon, we participated in the Ludwig Heimrath Open Wheel Challenge. There were 16 cars in total in our race group and we cruised to a P1 victory with a best lap time of 1:25.637. This is the second consecutive year that we have won the Ludwig Heimrath Open Wheel Challenge – it is an amazing honour for us to win this prestigious event.

The Ludwig Heimrath Grid on the Podium!!!

The weather on Sunday was just beautiful with sunny skies and a high of 23°.  During Race 3, we set a best lap time of 1:26.235 finishing P1 in out race group and P1 in our class.  During Race 4, we held steady in first place in a red flag filled (two red flags, in fact) race, setting a fast lap time of 1:26.254, finishing in P1 in our race group and in our class. All in all, a superb race weekend!

Here is a link to our video race report for the weekend.

A special thank you to Diane and Masha, our very talented crew for the VARAC VGP race weekend.

Masha & Diane with the Ludwig Heimrath Open Wheel Challenge Trophy

​And a big thank you to Bill Vallis & 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……….