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The Enhanced Performance, STANMECH Technologies, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions, Melanoma Canada #77 Formula Mazda Team had a challenging race weekend at the 2022 CASC-OR/CTMP Celebration Of Motorsport Races held at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. We were entered in the Formula Libre race group. There were a total of 18 cars in our race group including, Radicals, a Formula Renault, several Formula 4’s, historical Formula Fords and F1200’s. The weather was sunny and beautiful all three days – temperatures ranged from 15 to 25° C during the event. Over the course of Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were on track a total of 8 times; 4 on-track practices during the Friday test day, followed by combined practice, qualifying and Race 1 on Saturday, Race 2 on Sunday – we missed Race 3 due to a shunt during Race 2, more on that later.  Our best lap for the test day was a 1:23.300 flat on tires that were left over from the BEMC Late Summer Trophy Race weekend at CTMP two weeks before. Saturday morning, the weather was perfect – about 20°C and a clear sky. We scuffed in our race tires during our last session of the Friday test day. We set a reasonable P3 practice time of 1:26.421 on a very cool track. During qualifying, we set a blistering pace of 1:23.106 to grab pole for Race 1. During Race 1, we had a tremendous start and led the entire 15 laps, and set a best lap time of 1:22.891. That evening, we sat down with the race team to an amazing trackside meal. The weather on Sunday cool and the track was cold – the track was slick for at the beginning of the day – and before our race at 9:35 am. For Race 2, we started on pole because of our finish in Race 1. We had a great start, but spun going into corner 5a – it was in the shade and the track had zero grip. This spin resulting in dropping us back to 17th spot. We steadily made our way back through the pack over the next 9 laps to 5th position. During that lap, we thought we had a tire going down has the race car was feeling strange in some of the corners. As we approached corner 8 at about 160 kph, we realized that we had no front grip as the race car headed towards the outside wall of corner 8. We managed to slow the car down to about enough that the impact was moderate, but unfortunately our race weekend was over as the front-end damage was too great. We realized after talking to a number of drivers that the track had been oiled down by a race car leaking oil in corner 8. What a shame, as we were on our way to making a great comeback after our spin. And a big thank you to Bill and Shirley Vallis of Vallis Motor Sport for their trackside support during the CASC-OR/CTMP Celebration of Motorsport and to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park for hosting such a fantastic, safe event!!
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BEMC Late Summer Trophy Races at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park – September 16 to 18 Race Report11/22/2022 The Enhanced Performance, STANMECH Technologies, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions, Melanoma Canada #77 Formula Mazda Team had an awesome race weekend at the BEMC Late Summer Trophy Races held at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. We were entered in the Formula Libre race group. There were a total of 17 cars in our race group including, seven F1200’s, three Formula 4’s, two Radicals, one FC90 F2000, one Formula Renault and Marcel Lafontaine’s beautiful Formula Atlantic  The weather was quite nice Friday and Saturday with temperatures ranging from 20 to 25° C, Sunday was damp with an intermediate track. 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 practice, qualifying and Race 1 on Saturday, Race 2 & 3 on Sunday. Our best lap for the test day was a 1:23 flat on old Goodyear's from the CASC-OR Summer Classic Race weekend at Calabogie Motorsports Park. Saturday morning, the weather was perfect – about 20°C and a clear sky. We scuffed in our race tires during practice. We set a reasonable qualifying time of 1:24.741 – P1 in our class. During Race 1, we had a good battle with Jim Morton in his F4 Gamma – we finished P1 in our class and P4 in our race group with a best lap time of 1:23.747 The weather on Sunday was overcast at about 20°C. We had a great start at the beginning of Race 2 unfortunately, we picked up a puncture as a result of being too aggressive over the rumble strips on the apex of corner 5B. So we retired to the pits with 2 laps to go – we still managed to finish in P6 and P1 in our class with a best lap time of 1.24.729. Here is the link to our You Tube video https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8jJJU9nm2vg regarding our puncture. We started Race 3 in P2 on a damp, intermediate track and stayed on Jeremy Hills gear box for the majority of the race finishing in P1 in our class and P2 in our race group with a best lap time of 1:30.345.  And a big thank you to Bill and Shirley Vallis of Vallis Motor Sport for their trackside support during the BEMC Late Summer Trophy Races 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……….  SVRA U.S. Vintage Grand Prix at Watkins Glen International – September 7th through 11th Race Report11/22/2022 The Enhanced Performance, STANMECH Technologies, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions, Melanoma Canada #77 Formula Mazda Team had an awesome race weekend at the 2022 SVRA U.S. Vintage Grand Prix at Watkins Glen International. We ran in Group 9 – Monoposto Wings and Slicks. The weather was mixed with rain on a number of days with temperatures ranging from the mid-teens to the low 20’s Celsius. Over the course of Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were on track a total of 8 times; 2 on track practices during the spilt Wednesday/Thursday test day, followed by 2 practices, 2 qualifying sessions, Race 1, and Race 2. There was a large speed differential within the qualifying group!! We definitely had our work cut out for us, as most everyone in our group had much more horsepower than we did. Here is a list of the cars in our race group:  In the first practice session qualifying session, we placed 11th of 25 race cars, 1st in our 9F4 class. In the second practice session, we placed 13th of 24 race cars, 1st in our class with a best lap time of 2:01.160. In the 1st qualification session on the 9th of September, we qualified 13th out of 21 cars, 1st in our class with best lap time of 1:58.858. In the 2nd qualification session on the 10th of September, we qualified 11th out of 20 cars, 1st in our class with best lap time of 2:00.327. For Race 1, on the afternoon of the 10th of September, our race Group 9 included 24 amazing high powered open wheel race cars, including Lola’s, Elan’s, Ralt’s, Swift’s and a number of F5000’s. The weather was perfect for racing, clear and mild, about 20 Celsius. We started in 11th and finished in 14th position, 1st in our class, with a best lap time of 1:58.773, our best lap time of the weekend!! Here is the YouTube video link to our first race https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MabBBohvzfM. In Race 2, on the 11th of September, weather was abysmal with a ongoing down pour during out entire race. Sadly, only 5 race cars participated in the event – we finished 1st in our class and 2nd in our race group, with an acceptable full wet best lap time of 2:25.268 – here is a YouTube video link of our very wet 2nd race https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeQxRHMtY4k!!! An eventful race weekend and our #77 Formula Mazda performed flawlessly.  A special thank you Bill and Shirley Vallis of Vallis Motor Sport for their trackside support. A very big thank you to the SVRA for hosting such a great event!! And last, but certainly not least, once again we want to thank our long suffering and tormented family which follows us from racetrack to racetrack and allows us to continue to do the racing thing……. OSCC Calabogie Summer Classic at Calabogie Motorsports Park – August 19 to August 21 Race Report8/30/2022 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. 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!!
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. 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………. VARAC 41st Vintage Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park – June 16th to June 19th Race Report6/26/2022 The Enhanced Performance, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions, STANMECH Technologies, Melanoma Canada #77 Formula Mazda Team had an outstanding weekend at the VARAC 42nd Vintage Grand Prix, held at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (CTMP). We were placed in the Formula Classic Race group (Group 6). We had registered our #77 Formula Mazda in the VARAC Formula Classic group. There was a total of 31 cars in our race group including, Formula Fords, F2000’s, F1200’s, a Super Vee and several Formula Mazda’s as well as a few other historic open wheel cars. The weather ranged from raining to beautiful sunny days with temperatures ranging from 20°C to 27°C. Over the course of Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were on track a total of 9 times; 3 on-track practices during the Thursday test day, followed by one practice and on qualifying session on Friday, Race 1 & 2 on Saturday and Races 3 & 4 on Sunday. Our race class included some very nice open wheel race cars.  Tom Pixley's 1978 Wheeler Super Vee On the Thursday test day, the weather was mixed with some sun in the morning and some amazing rain in the afternoon with a high of 20°C. Take a look at this YouTube link !!!! Our best lap for the test day was a 1:24 – pretty respectable lap time with older tires from our 1st race weekend of this year. Friday morning, the weather was quite nice for the majority of the day – we went out for practice on sticker tires with the objective of scuffing them in, so we weren’t really looking to set a very fast time. As a result, we set a time of 1:29.132, which was still the best time for the session of all the other cars. During our qualifying session, we ended up with a fair qualifying time of 1:24.654, placing us in P1 in our race group and 1st in class. The weather on Saturday was sunny and quite cool with a high of just 17°. During Race 1, we installed another new set of tires to scuff those in for the weekend. 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 1:27.274. 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 1.25.535. 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 1:24.879 finishing P1 in out race group and P1 in our class. During Race 4, the lead from flag to flag setting a fast lap time of 1:24.454, finishing in P1 in our race group and in our class. All in all, a superb race weekend! This is our 1st race weekend raising money for Melanoma Canada, we are proud to say that we collected $420 on behalf of this charity. Please click on this link for more information regarding our partnership with Melanoma Canada.  A special thank you to our guest crew chief for the weekend Jack Brokenshire.  And thanks to Bill Davis & 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……….
Please give what you can to our very worthwhile cause, Melanoma Canada by clinking on this link SUBJECT MOTORSPORTS | Melanoma Canada (crowdchange.ca)
During the past few weeks, we have been customizing our racecar trailer - here is a video update for you to enjoy!!! |
