Returning to Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for the BARC‑OC Open Wheel Invitational felt like coming home. CTMP has always been a place where the Enhanced Performance, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions #77 Formula Mazda comes alive, and after the heartbreak at the VARAC Vintage Grand Prix, I was more motivated than ever to get back behind the wheel and put down the kind of laps this car is built for.

The last outing hadn’t gone the way any racer hopes. An engine failure before I could even take the green flag hit hard. Months of preparation, tuning, and planning evaporated in a moment, leaving me standing in the paddock with a silent car and a weekend that ended before it began. But racing has a way of reminding you that resilience is part of the job description. We rebuilt, re‑prepped, and refocused.

The Invitational proved to be the perfect place to reset the season. BARC‑OC created something special with this event: a true celebration of open‑wheel machinery, from Formula 70 and Formula 90 to F2000, Formula Atlantic, and everything in between. The class structure placed Formula Mazda right where it belonged—among fast, capable cars that rewarded precision and bravery. With more than 115 minutes of race‑weekend track time, plus an optional 2.5‑hour test day, there was no shortage of opportunity to dial in the #77 and push hard.

Here are some images of some of the wonderful race cars that were on track during the Invitational weekend.

I had strong runs here before. Winning Race One in Group 6 during the inaugural Invitational reminded me how well the Formula Mazda suits CTMP’s rhythm. The Grand Prix circuit rewarded commitment, and the rotary engine’s punch out of the corners made the car a joy to drive. Coming back with fresh power and a clean slate, I was eager to see what we could do against a deep and competitive Formula 90 field. Although, the engine was still experiencing a power loss, as it had before, careful RPM management allowed us to win our three races, P1 on our class.

There was something energizing about rolling into the event with unfinished business. The #77 was ready. I was ready. We closed out the weekend with fast laps, good racing, and a renewed sense of momentum.
I have some more work to do to find the source of our power loss, but I am confident that that will happen prior to our next race weekend.

Here is a link to the complete Google photo album from the weekend, the drone photos were particularly coo!! – https://photos.app.goo.gl/QUJdjcSwevRJGfQC8 – enjoy!!!

And last but certainly not least, special thanks to my long-suffering family, who continues to encourage my addiction to racing. 

The Enhanced Performance, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions #77 Formula Mazda Team had an excellent Saturday at the 2025 Peter Jackson Trophy Races at Shannonville Motorsport Park. We were placed in the Formula Classic Race group. There was a total of 10 cars in our race group including several F1200’s, Michael Cross’s F2000 and Mike MacNeil’s F1000.  The weather was sunny and hot with temperatures in the low 30’s °C. 
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Over the course of the day, we were on the Shannonville Pro Track a total of 4 times; 1 practice, 1 qualifying session in the morning, followed by Race 1 & 2 in the afternoon. Our race group included some beautiful open wheel race cars.

During practice, we set a fast lap of a 1:09.666, during qualifying, we set a fast lap and of 1:09.038, placing us P3.  
During Race 1, we battled with Michael Cross and Mike McNeil, finishing P2 in our race group with best lap time of 1:10.948. During Race 2, we battled with Mike McNeil, finishing P2 in our race group with a best lap time of 1.11.373.

All in all, a superb race weekend!

A special thank you to VARAC for putting on the 2026 Peter Jackson Trophy Races and to Shannonville Motorsport 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……….

The Enhanced Performance, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions #77 Formula Mazda Team had an unfortunate race weekend at the VARAC 46th Vintage Grand Prix, held at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (CTMP). We were placed in the Formula Classic Race group. There was a total of 33 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 20°C to 25°C. 

Over the course of Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were on track a total of times; 4 on-track practices during the Thursday test day, followed by one practice and on qualifying session and the on Friday. Our race group included some beautiful open wheel race cars.

On Thursday test day, the weather very nice.  Our best lap for the test day was a 1:24.00 – a pretty respectable lap time as we were breaking in a new engine, however off from our typical lap times in the 1:22’s. 
Friday morning, the weather was quite nice – we set a time of 1:30.783 (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 1:29.568- once again way off our normal lap times due to the large number of race cars on track coupled 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 P3 in our race group and class. Unfortunately, during the Ludwig Heimrath Open Wheel Challenge, we experience what we thought was a rotor seal failure – the engine lost power on the back straight at high RPM. We medially pulled into the pits and went into our paddock area where we heard quite a noise from the engine will we shut the engine off. Sadly, that was the end of our weekend.
For the balance of the race weekend, I worked in scrutineer and helping to tech cars and working on pit lane. Although it was lots of fun, it was not nearly as much fun as I would’ve had in the racecar.
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Only afterwards, when we got back to our shop after the race weekend, did we realize that we had a bad plug which caused the same effect as having lost a rotor. Once again, our Formula Mazda teaches us a lesson on how to be more thorough in our problem-solving.

Always lessons to be learned at the racetrac,!!!

And a big thank you to my very patient family for putting up with my fun at the racetrack……….