The Enhanced Performance, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions, STANMECH Technologies, Melanoma Canada #77 Formula Mazda Team had a problematic race weekend at the Calabogie Summer Classic held at Calabogie Motorsports Park (CMP).  We were placed in the Formula Libre race group, we had registered our #77 Formula Mazda in the Formula Libre class. There was a total of 19 cars in our race group including Marcel Lafontaine’s beautiful Formula Atlantic, four Formula Renault’s, four Formula 4’s and a mix of other cars including F 1200s and Radicals. The weather ranged from quite warm to wet and rainy with temperatures upwards of 32°C. 

Over the course of Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were on track a total of 8 times; 4 times on the Friday test day, 1 practice, 1 qualifying session and only two races. We missed the last race as we had thought that we had damaged our transmission during Race 2.
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Our best lap time for the test day was a 2:11 on fresh 470 Goodyear tires. This was quite a change from our previous times in 2021 where we were able to record a best lap of 2:06 on softer tires. We decided to stay with the 470 Goodyear tires to mitigate our tire wear issues. 

​Our afternoon qualifying session was cut short due to a red flag, which did not allow the field to come up to full speed, we did manage to end up in P5 with a qualifying time of 2:29.260. During Race 1, we struggle to find grip on the 470 Goodyear tires resulting in a loss of 2 positions finishing in P7 with a best lap time of 2:13.627

​The weather on Sunday was abysmal with torrential rains during Race 2 – there are pools of standing water everywhere on the racetrack. After one pace lap, the Clerk of the Course pulled all of the cars into pit lane to ask everyone if they wanted to continue. The race was restarted with 2 pace laps so that everyone could see the condition of the racetrack. During the race, we hit one wet patch and spun up the gearbox and were worried that we damaged 4th and 5th gear as the shifter wouldn’t allow us to shift into either of those gears. As a result, we limped around in 3rd gear for the majority of the race finishing in P8 with a best lap time of 2:50.525. Suffice it to say, we were done for the weekend as we were concerned that we had damaged our transmission. 

Overall, a bit of a disappointing weekend. A special thank you to Bill & Shirley Vallis and Bill Davis of Vallis Motor Sport for their trackside support during the Calabogie Summer Classic and to Calabogie Motorsports Park for hosting such a fantastic, safe event!!  We were able to raise another $400 for our charity sponsor Melanoma Canada. 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, STANMECH Technologies, Melanoma Canada #77 Formula Mazda Team had a wonderful race day at the VARAC Peter Jackson races, held at Shannonville Motorsports Park (SMP).  We replaced our engine with a freshly built 13 B Mazda rotary engine during the 2 weeks preceding the August 6 race day. We were placed in the Formula Classic race group. We had registered our #77 Formula Mazda in the VARAC Formula Classic 90 class – FC90. There was a total of 14 cars in our race group including Doug Beatty’s beautiful Formula Ford, one F2000, one Formula Vee and a number of F1200’s.  The weather was quite warm with temperatures upwards of 28°C. 

Over the course of the day, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were on track a total of 4 times; one practice, one qualifying session and two races.

During the practice session on the SMP Pro track, our best P1 lap on 470 Goodyear tires (these are hard compound tires and perfect for the very abrasive surface at SMP) was 1:11.215.

During our qualifying session, we improved our best P1 lap time to a 1:09.226, which is about 2 seconds off our best lap time on 255 Goodyear tires (these are the soft compound tires that we use for high-speed, smooth racetracks like CTMP, Watkins Glen and Mont Tremblant).

Race 1 was held just after lunch on Saturday. We managed to have a great start and maintained our P1 position for the entire race finishing 30 seconds ahead of the next closest competitor with a best lap time of 1:10.199. The 420 Goodyear tires showed minor wear and performed quite well during Race 1.

​Race 2 started just after 3 PM on Saturday. Once again, we had a great start maintained our P1 position for the entire race finishing 47 seconds ahead of our next closest competitor with a best lap time of 1:10.290. Overall, an excellent race weekend with our new engine. It performed flawlessly with constant oil pressure and great water temperature throughout the day. We are looking forward to our next race weekend with his engine which will be coming up later in August at Calabogie during the Calabogie Summer Classic.

​A special thank you to Bill & Shirley Vallis of Vallis Motor Sport for their trackside support during the VARAC Peter Jackson Races and to Shannonville Motorsports Park for hosting such a magnificent event!!  And we managed to raise an additional $560 for our charity sponsor Melanoma Canada!! 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, STANMECH Technologies, Melanoma Canada #77 Formula Mazda Team had an engine low oil pressure problem that was discovered at the BARC Canadian Touring Trophy Races at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park on the 23rd of July. Hopefully, we caught the problem in time before we seriously damaged the engine. In the meantime, we were able to expedite our spare race engine from our engine builder just in time to install it during the period after the BARC race weekend. Over the course of the next 7 days, we installed the new engine, started it so we could seat the apex seals in the combustion chambers and we were able to successfully run the engine up to water temperature, oil temperature and oil pressure.

​We are now in great shape for the VARAC Peter Jackson Races to be held at Shannonville Motorsports Park on the 6th August!! Make sure to follow us for our next race report!!

Some great photos from the BARC Canadian Touring Trophy Races

​The Enhanced Performance, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions, STANMECH Technologies, Melanoma Canada #77 Formula Mazda Team had disappointing 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 ranged was very nice with beautiful sunny days and temperatures ranging from 20°C to 27°C. 

Over the course of Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were on track a total of 7 times; 4 on-track practices during the Friday test day, followed by practice, qualifying and Race 1 on Saturday. Unfortunately we did not start for Race 2 & 3 on Sunday as we had an intermittent oil pressure problem and did not want to damage our race engine. As always, our race class had some very nice open wheel race cars including the blazingly fast Formula 4 racecars.
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On the Friday test day, the weather was beautiful with a sun cloud mix and a high of 21°C.  Our best lap for the test day was a 1:23.0 – pretty respectable lap time with practice tires.  

​Saturday morning, the weather was bright and sunny, we set a best practice P2 time of 1:25.239. Just after lunch, we set a qualifying P3 time of 1:25.667 – we were P1 in our class. In the afternoon on Saturday, we finished P3 in our race – P1 in our class with a best lap time of 1:24.904. All during the race we notice that our red oil pressure light was coming on during periods of low RPM and slow speed corners, especially corner 5A and 5B. We commend the paddock after the race, we spent quite a bit of time talking with her crew chief Bill Vallis about whether we should go out on Sunday for Race 2 and 3. We decided that we did not want to risk ruining our race engine so we decide to park the car for the rest of the race weekend. Better safe than sorry!!

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 the event!!  On a positive note, we raised more that $560 for our charity sponsor, Melanoma Canada. Click here for photos from the race weekend. 

​And last, but certainly not least, we want to thank our long suffering family which allows us to continue to race……….