Apologies in advance if I fail to mention someone. Nick and Harold's tales of the weekend follow:
 
BEMC didn't disappoint meteorologists' predictions though we escaped all rain on Saturday, unlike folks back in the city. VARAC had 16 cars out, a downturn again from 2002 and reports from BEMC said entries overall were down 30%. That's why they put the prices up this year -- great logic eh?
 
Poor Bill Hirst never got off the mock grid for Saturday morning's practice and I can only surmise he had oil pressure or water temp problems that he wanted to investigate vs risking any damage to the Lola's powerplant.
 
Jim Reid, through superhuman effort, was back from a blown engine in the BARC event, only to experience low oil pressure in the morning practice summoning white flags as he crawled up the back straight and back to the pits. He tried again in the qualifying session but obviously things had gotten a lot worse because I saw the Healey stalled coming off the pit lane into the paddock with ominous pooling of fluids underneath.
 
We had honoured guests galore on Saturday -- Brian and Catherine Evans, John Greenwood, Mike Jennings, Ron Wanless, Walter Davies and Gavin Ivory to name a few. John and Mike stayed through Sunday as well.
 
It was great to see Stefan back with the MGA and Tom Burge was out with his yellow Mini. From tentative 1:50s in the morning, he turned a personal best 1:46 in Race 1. The Cheshire cat couldn't have had a wider smile on his face than Tom did that evening.
 
John Demaria drove his Bug Eye in his usual classy, on the edge style but it cost him a broken half shaft in the second last lap of the first race. While the assembled VARAC multitude sipped wine, quaffed beer and devoured great cheese and crackers at the Burges' evening soiree, John was pulling a NASCAR type repair on `the Sprite as he had a birthday engagement in Lindsay later that evening.
 
Jon Nicholls was out -- sorry Jon, I never got a chance to say hi -- along with Glyn Walters in the March. John Hawkes was out with the Blue streak which is not something you want to try and draught up the back straight if you value your hearing. Gord Lowe got the most outlandishly dressed man award at the Driver's meeting and had the usual pack of paddock dogs at his heels, each wanting a sniff of this highly festooned individual! Glyn was in stitches after Gord informed him that a two-piece driving suit was not in the scrutineering book of suitable racing garb.
 
Gord himself was piloting the Reynard round the track this weekend and experienced two separate incidents of his throttle cable disengaging. We can all blame Sunday's weather on Ian Lok's rain dance around Tom's motorhome on Saturday evening. Ian does very well in the tank -- whoops Volvo -- in the rain and Sunday was no exception, netting him a second and first place finish respectively in the two races.
 
Tom took first place in the bucketing down rain of the first race. I briefly toyed with Ian's rear end (now, that didn't come out right) before Gidget decided she had been too long away from a hard wall and met up with same coming out of 5C in Lap 3 when I hit a patch of standing water. Coming to rest, I had buried the rear axle in mud and a young marshal, bless his little heart, pushed and pushed while I tried to blast my way out of the bog, finally coming unstuck and back out on to the track. I can't imagine what he must have looked like after a good full frontal 30 second plastering of mud. My race was soon over however, as the mud had put my rear wheels so badly out of balance, I couldn't get about 5500 rpm without violent shimmying of the rear end. The bodywork, well that's another story. Our second race was a testament to triumph over the elements, whatever the cost. As I stood in my trailer peering out at the pouring rain as our grid was called, lo and behold, up went Joe, then John, then Mike Rosen. What open-top troopers they were! So I followed and joined Fred Samson and Ian Lok who were comfortably ensconced in their dry cocoons -- with wipers!!
 
Tom and Richard Poxon had gone home or got more sense by this point, more's the pity as it would have been great to have the Magnificant 8 out again as we had in the morning. We sat on the grid, anticipating a quick getaway and we sat and we sat as the rain came down relentlessly. With the 1 minute sign finally up and engines nicely warmed up, along came a grid marshal with a "Start Delayed" sign. The fog had rolled in and you couldn't see more than 50 feet in front of you. Thankfully the rain ceased at that point and we squirmed through the next 30 minutes of the Fog Bowl. Various washroom calls were made - Fred simply drove off to pay his visit and re-joined at the 5 minute sign.
 
The fog lifted abruptly and as we sailed around Turn 1 on the pace lap, we were greeted by a staggering vista of endless blue sky and bright sunshine. You had to have been there all day to appreciate how profound was the sight that greeted this ragtag band of VARACers.
 
Joe Lightfoot put down some great times in the final race which challenged everyone with alternately soaking wet, sort of wet, semi dry and as the race progressed, dry spots. I passed John Demaria on the back straight (whoop de doo - great skill in that) then took some atrocious lines through 8 and 9, finishing up fishtailing through 10 where I waved him by. My wee morning wake-up call had taken the heart of me a bit so I spent the rest of the race practicing picking the driest line in the corners. I believe Ian won by a country mile but I can't vouch for that, having not yet looked at the lap times.
 
So, it's onward and eastward to the Mont Tremblant Spring Classic. See y'all there.
 
Nick.....