BEMC Late Summer Trophy Race at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park – September 18th to 20th Race Report

The STANMECH Technologies, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions #77 Formula Mazda Team had a great  weekend at our second race weekend of the truncated 2020 racing season.  The event was the BEMC LATE SUMMER TROPHY RACES, 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 15 cars in our race group including, Radicals, a Reynard, an F1000, an F2000s and three Formula 4’s.  The weather was absolutely perfect for the entire race weekend, with beautiful sunny fall days, ranging from the upper 10's to the low 20’s Celsius. 

Over the course of Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were on track a total of 8 times; 5 on-track practices during the Friday test day, followed by one qualifying session, Race 1 on Saturday and Race 2 on Sunday. Our race class included some very nice open wheel race cars.

With our Mazda 13B rotary engine rated at 200 horsepower and weighing in at 1350 pounds, we were very much underpowered compared to the Formula 4’s, the Radicals and the F1000 – we had our work cut out for us.

As this was our 1st race of the 2020 season at CTMP, we spent quite a bit of time on the test day ensuring that the #77 Formula Mazda set up for the track. The race car performed beautifully during the test day as a result of careful preparation and the ideal chassis setup. We were using test day tires from our race at Shannonville in August, so we weren’t really trying to set a race pace. Our best lap for the test day was a 1:26.355 – pretty respectable lap time on older tires.  During the last test session of the day, we scuffed in our new race tires for the weekend.
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Saturday morning the forecast for the day was expected to be sunny and cool – it was quite cool at 7:30 am when we arrived at the track. During qualifying, we set a lap time of 1:26.717, placing us in P11 in our Race Group and 1st in class. During Race 1, we battled with a few Radicals and Bob Long in his Formula 4. In the end, we finished in P9 ahead of Bob Long and we finished in P1 and 1st in class with a best lap time of 1:23.144 – we were well on our way to our theoretical best lap of 1:22.495.

​The weather on Sunday was simply stunning clear, sunny and cool.  After Saturday’s race, we had removed the rear tires and had them de-mounted and flipped on the rim, putting the inside edge of the tire on the outside and vice versa. 

We had a tremendous start in Race 2, making our way to sixth place by mid-race. Sadly, our header failed at the flange. Insert broken header photo. We retired from Race 2 in lap 10 of a total of 18 laps finishing in P14 with a best lap time of 1:24.830. Unfortunately, we were unable to repair the exhaust system in time for the start of Race 3, so we were finished for the weekend.

Overall, an awesome race weekend and a terrific showing for the STANMECH Technologies, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions #77 Formula Mazda Team for our 1st race at CTMP of the shortened 2020 race season. A very big thank you to our sponsors; STANMECH Technologies, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions and to Bill Vallis and Bill Davis 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……….