VARAC 44st Vintage Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park – June 13th to June 16th Race Report

The Enhanced Performance, Good Cars Only, Gabo Solutions #77 Formula Mazda Team had an excellent weekend at the VARAC 44th Vintage Grand Prix, held at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (CTMP). We were placed in the Formula Classic Race 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. 
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Over the course of Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we were on track a total of 10 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, as well as the Ludwig Heimrath Open Wheel Challenge and Races 3 & 4 on Sunday. Our race group included some beautiful open wheel race cars.

​On the Thursday test day, the weather was mixed with some sun in the morning and a torrential rain storm Thursday evening.  

Our best lap for the test day was a 1:24 – a pretty respectable lap time, however off from our typical lap times in the 1:22’s. 

Friday morning, the weather was quite nice – we set a time of 1:28.994, which was the 2nd best time for the session of all the other cars. During our qualifying session, we ended up with a fair qualifying time of 1:26.083 – 4 one hundredths of a second off the leader, placing us in P2 in our race group and class.

The weather on Saturday was sunny and warm with a high in the low 20’s.  During Race 1, and together with the leader, we pulled away comfortably from the field on the first lap, we finished P2 in our race group and P2 in our class with best lap time of 1:24.474. During Race 2, once again we pulled away from the field on the first lap with the leader and finished P2 in our race group and P2 in our class with a best lap time of 1.25.705. 
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Late Saturday afternoon, we participated in the Ludwig Heimrath Open Wheel Challenge. There were 9 cars in total in our race group and we cruised to a P1 victory with a best lap time of 1:25.965.

​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 1:24.739 finishing P2 in out race group and P2 in our class.  During Race 4, we held steady in second place in a caution filled , shortened race, setting a fast lap time of 1:24.897, finishing in P2 in our race group and in our class. All in all, a superb race weekend!

​A special thank you to our guest crew chief for the weekend, Christina Murdoch.  And to Bill Vallis & 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……….