The official newsletter of VARAC - see our BEMC Race Report

Videos from the CASC Celebration of Motorsport at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park – October 2nd to October 4th

Photos from our race weekend at the CASC Celebration of Motorsport at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park
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​The STANMECH Technologies, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions #77 Formula Mazda Team had an outstanding final weekend of the shortened 2020 racing season. The event was the CASC Celebration of Motorsport, held at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (CTMP). We were placed in the Formula Libre/Formula 4/Radical/VARAC Formula 90 Race group. We had registered our #77 Formula Mazda in the VARAC Formula 90 class. There were a total of 11 cars in our race group including, 5 Radicals, a Reynard, an F2000 and three Formula 4’s.  The weather ranged from cold and raining, to a beautiful sunny fall day with temperatures ranging from 4°C to the upper teens. 

Over the course of Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were on track a total of 9 times; 4 on-track practices during the Friday test day, followed by one qualifying session, Race 1 on Saturday and Races 2 & 3 on Sunday. Our race class included some very nice open wheel race cars.

On the Friday test day, the weather was mostly cloudy with some sunny breaks and a high of 13°C. Obviously, it took a long time for our race tires to reach any kind of reasonable temperature to provide good adhesion. Our best lap for the test day was a 1:25.211 – pretty respectable lap time with older tires on a cold racetrack. 

Saturday morning, the weather was mostly cloudy with sunny breaks and again very cool with a high of 11°C during the day. We discussed in our race tires during the practice session in the morning with a respectable 1: 25.239 lap time. During qualifying, we set a lap time of 1:26.159, placing us in P6 in our Race Group and 1st in class. Prior to our 1st race, we discovered that our clutch pedal felt a little soft so we bled the clutch slave cylinder to remove any residual air in the system. During Race 1, we battled with a few Radicals and Bob Long in his Formula 4 and lost our clutch at the midpoint the race. In the end, we finished in P6 in our race group and 1st in class with a best lap time of 1:23.576 – we were well on our way to our theoretical best lap of 1:22.832.

​The weather on Sunday was dismal with misty rain on and off during the day and a high of 11°C. Once again, our clutch pedal was not cooperating and we had to bleed the clutch before the beginning of Race 2. Three race cars in our group did not start because of the damp weather and the intermediate racetrack. Luckily, we very much enjoy racing in the rain resulting in a P3 and 1st in class finish on a very wet track with racing slicks and a best lap time of 1:30.216. Once again, we lost our clutch at the beginning of the raised. 

Prior to the start of Race 3, we bled our clutch once more to allow us to leave the mock grid in 1st gear. The race track was dry in some spots and damp in others as we began our race. We started in P3 and maintained our position during the entire race (the track was progressively more challenging as the racing surface change from dry to damp). Fortunately we were able to maintain a very respectable race pace with a best lap time of 1: 25.075 (without rain tires) finishing in P3 and 1st in class. All in all an excellent ending to our shortened 2020 racing season.

A very big thank you to our sponsors; STANMECH Technologies, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions and to Bill and Shirley Vallis of Vallis Motor Sport and to our biggest fan Teddy Subject Murdoch. 

Click here for more photos from this race weekend.
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A very big thank you 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……….