VARAC Peter Jackson Races at Shannonville Motorsports Park – August 6 Race Report

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……….