Daniel Thompson
Nick Pratt
Bruce Farrow
Jonathon Brett
Joe Lightfoot
Hugh Kwok
Jeremy Sale
Brian Evans
Tim Sanderson

The 2004 VARAC vintage festival at Mosport marked a lot of "firsts" for me. It was the first time I had ever driven at Mosport, it was the first time I had ever driven my recently purchased 1966 Mini Cooper S, it was the first time I had ever driven a front wheel drive race car and it was the first time I had actually ever raced a car. It would even be the very first time I had driven a right hand drive car. Although I had successfully navigated a 3-day Formula Ford 1600 driver's school and a 1-day Formula Ford 2000 lapping day, at 42 years old I found myself finally fulfilling a lifelong dream and actually racing wheel to wheel.

I chose my car carefully, listening to the advice of experienced racers and choosing a car that was well built and fully sorted. This particular Mini Cooper S was built and campaigned by the late Dick Baker. The car had proven to be very quick and very reliable over the course of almost a decade in the hands of Dick's son, Brad. I purchased the car in late 2003, the same year I ran driver's school and obtained my very first race license. Wanting to get a bit more insurance that the car would be ready for its maiden race after spending close to 7 years on display in the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame, I engaged the services of Evans Motorsport (Brian Evans and Don Sobering) to race prep the car. They ended up spending over a month working on the car to get it ready. As is usual in racing, it took a concerted last minute push from Brian and Don to get the final touches done before Mosport. I loaded up my minivan with all the junk and tools I figured I might need and headed to Mosport on Wednesday afternoon. After a leisurely six-hour drive I met Brian at the track at 6pm, and we spent a few minutes going through all the stuff I needed to know before Thursday's test day. In hindsight, running a test day on Thursday was an excellent idea. There weren't many cars on the track, there wasn't any lap timing and there wasn't any time pressure. You could go out pretty well when you wanted, run 5 or 6 laps at any pace you were comfortable with and come back in when you felt like it. I ended up running in five different practice sessions that day and I was grateful to get to know which way the track went and get used to how the car felt. On a positive note, I felt comfortable in the car almost immediately and was able to get in a "flow" pretty early on. On a humorous note, the first couple of times I took the car out and accelerated along the entry lane, I found myself unconsciously taking my right hand off the steering wheel and reaching down to shift, only to come to the realization that the shift lever was actually on the left...

I didn't sleep very well on Thursday night, although I went to bed quite early. My dreams were punctuated by visions of braking points and apexes, and I'm sure I lost at least an hour's sleep worrying about turn 2. Friday morning's weather was as nice as Thursday's, although it was quite cool. I arrived at the track at 7 a.m., towelled the dew off my car and Brian's Merlyn and set about doing my morning chores. My first trip ever to the gas pumps at Mosport gave me a rude awakening: over $75 for a 5-gallon jug of 110 octane. At this rate, the gas for the weekend was going to cost almost as much as the entry fee!

Friday was very different from the previous day. They had grouped the classic sedans in with the historic production sports cars, which mean that we had something like 45 or 50 cars in our group. Not only that, but I found myself out there with everything from a practically stock MG Midget to a full race Trans Am Mustang. The fastest guy in the group was running about 1:37 while the slowest was running 2:09. Needless to say, traffic required your full attention! My goal was just to stay out of trouble, stay out of the way and hopefully find a hole in the traffic when I could put in a reasonably clear lap.

One incident that did grab my attention during that first day occurred in one of the practice sessions. It was the exploding motor of one of the Corvettes (yes, there were several running in our group). I was motoring along the front straight quite nicely heading for turn one when all of a sudden I found myself approaching a thick wall of white smoke, so thick that I could not see the apex of the corner from the turn in point. It was like somebody had turned out the lights all of a sudden. My instinctive reaction was to look at the flagger's station on the outside of turn one but all I saw there was a flagger shrugging his shoulders and holding his hands out to either side in that universal gesture that means "I don't know what's going on either". At any rate, I slowed down quite a bit and it's a good thing I did, because there was actually a slow moving car in the middle of all that smoke (not the Corvette, it had pulled off to the right after turn one). Several other sessions on Friday were punctuated by spinners or broken down cars and I think we also had a minor contact between a Mini and a Midget in the first practice session.

I slept a bit better Friday night but I was still dreaming about turn 2. My brain knew what line and what speed to take through that corner but somehow it could not transmit that information to my right foot. Every time I came over that rise on the entry to 2 and saw that awesome corner laid out before me some little voice in the back of my head would say "don't do it, don't do it, don't do it..".

Saturday promised to be exciting for me because it would be my very first time in an actual race. I was a little apprehensive about the rolling start, as I really didn't know what to expect although the whole idea looked good on paper. The morning qualifying session was another traffic jam. I tried my best to stay out of the way of the faster cars and managed to pass a few of the slower cars too. At one point I managed to find a bit of a hole in the traffic and put in what I thought was a reasonable qualifying lap, although I did screw up 5b a bit and undoubtedly lost some speed on the long straight because of it. Imagine my disappointment when I came back in the pits afterward only to be told my new transponder wasn't working and I had no officially registered times! Later on somebody apparently volunteered a hand-timed lap, which put me in about the middle of the pack for the first race. Probably all for the better anyway. The transponder problem turned out to be a bad ground and the car was running absolutely fine. I was not losing any fluids at all and not burning any oil. Don and Brian did notice that the main seal and diff seal were weeping a bit, likely the legacy of 7 years of inactivity and nothing to worry about for the balance of the weekend. For the Saturday afternoon race I was gridded (I think) 15th and rolled around on the warm up lap just trying to stay out of trouble and copying what the guys around me were doing. The pace car came in at the last corner, the green flag flew and we were off! Well, most of us anyway. I was far too conservative coming into corner one, this being my first time and all and I let a couple of cars get by me before we were through the first two turns. But I managed to stay out of trouble on the first lap and found to my surprise that I was able to keep pace with everybody and better still, I was catching the guys in front of me. I focused hard on being smooth and sticking to the racing line and managed to pass 3 or 4 cars before the checker fell. Lo and behold when the lap times came out my newly repaired transponder informed me that I had shaved more than 4 seconds off my "unofficial" qualifying time. So we were looking good for Sunday's races with a fastest lap only about 1.5 seconds slower than the fastest Mini. I was learning!

Besides the ever-dreadful corner 2, one corner that caught my attention was one that didn't look like much of a corner at all on the track map: corner 4. The Mini was coming out of corner 3 really well but I couldn't figure out what the correct line was for 4, which is really more of a slight "jink" to the left combined with quite a sharp drop in elevation. Finally I learned what to do while following one of the fast Minis in front of me. Basically in a Mini you can accelerate as hard as possible out of turn three, shifting into fourth gear on the way to turn four, then give the brakes a light tap just as the car crests the hill. This action combined with a little flick of the steering wheel settles the Mini nicely and gets it pointed in the right direction for the approach to 5a, allowing you to floor the accelerator again on the way down the hill. My coaches were right though, you'd better make sure the car is pointed in the right direction before you throw out the anchors for the approach to 5a or all sorts of wild gyrations will ensue. Sunday morning's group 3 and 4 race promised to be a lot of fun again. This time I was gridded something like 13th and I was getting more and more comfortable with the track and with racing in traffic. I made a much better job of the rolling start this time and even managed to pass one or two cars on the opening lap. After that it all happened really fast. I was on a fairly decent charge and passed car after car, culminating in a great dice with Nick Pratt's MG and Ian Lok's Volvo. I was fortunate to get the chance to pass them both. However, hair-raising drama was just around the corner in the form of a huge and powerful yellow big-block 1967 Corvette. This guy would just fly by me on the straights, but in the corners I would practically run into the back of him. At one point in the dreaded corner 2 I actually had to hit the brakes hard to avoid ramming him from behind. Finally I got a little tired of the whole thing and for some reason ended up going around the Vette on the outside of corner three. Why I did it there is beyond me, but it just seemed as though I was carrying so much more momentum than him in corner 2 that I was able to carry that through 3 and drive right by on the outside of the corner. I had several corner 3 spectators come up to me afterwards and tell me that it was a really exciting thing to watch. My response was "you should have seen it from the driver's seat!" When all was said and done I had somehow managed to finish 5th in that race, bettered only by a Mustang, another Corvette, a Porsche 914/6GT and a very quick Volvo P1800. I had also managed to chop another second off my lap times.

Sunday afternoon saw the most fun and exciting race of the entire weekend: The Mini-Sprite Challenge. The Festival organizers were going to line up all of the Minis and all of the Sprites/Midgets, gridded by lap times and let them have a ding-dong battle to the finish. Due to mechanical problems with one of the other Minis, I found myself gridded in 4th spot, behind Dave Morgan, Larry Coste and Bill Brack. Dave and Larry have been driving Minis for a couple of decades, and Bill Brack has been driving Minis at Mosport since I was in diapers. Add a couple of Canadian driving titles and a few F1 starts to Bill's resume and you can see that I was completely in awe of even being in the same event as these guys. The warm up lap was without incident and at the drop of the flag I managed to stay right on Bill's tail through the first series of turns. In my mirror could see the smiling face of Brian Hunt's Bugeye who looked like he was thinking about making an early move. A couple of corners later he wasn't back there any more and I never saw him again. Back around to the long back straight and we found ourselves running practically four abreast heading into turn 8. Bill managed to squeak by Larry and we ran pretty well nose to tail like that for several laps. I could see that these guys knew Mosport inside out and they never made even the slightest mistake. Back in 4th place I was basically going "oops, oops, oops" but somehow I managed to stay with them and even pull up alongside them on that long back straight. I pretty well knew all along that I wasn't going to be able to pass all 3 of them and besides, I didn't really have a game plan in mind should I find myself in the unlikely position of being in front. I was very happy to follow along behind. When I sensed we only had a couple of laps to go I figured I might try to pull a draft pass on Larry on the back straight, just to see if it could be done. So I pulled up right behind him through turns 2-3-4 and was right on his back bumper coming into 5a. What followed was a typical rookie mistake: Larry, probably sensing what I was going to try, carried a lot of speed into the 5a-5b area and ended up driving into the gravel trap. Yours truly, being the bonehead that I am, followed him right off the track and we both bounced along through the gravel until we were able to gather it all up and pull it back on the track. By now the two lead cars were 3 or 4 seconds up the road and the race was all but over. I took it easy on the last lap, as did Larry, and we finished Morgan-Brack-Coste-Thompson and then the rest of the field a little ways back. I pulled my fastest lap of the weekend about halfway through that last race.

What can I say about my first vintage racing weekend?

It was without a doubt the most fun I have had in my life and I wish I had started doing this many years ago. I can't wait to do it again. The VARAC people put on a wonderful event. But if there is one thing that will stick in my mind the longest about the weekend, it is the quality of the people. You couldn't ask for a better group of guys and gals; warm, friendly and completely genuine. It was a pleasure racing with them and I just hope I can one day live up to the high standard that they have set for anyone hoping to become part of the vintage racing community. See you all in Mont Tremblant!

Nick Pratt
MG Midget #89

I made a mini holiday out of the week by arriving at the track Wednesday morning in search of the ever-elusive 115V receptacle. I was also planning to do my yearly camping ritual on the outside of 8 as it is always quiet and one can get a decent shower in the rarely used facilities. The duvet I brought along with my sleeping bag sure came in handy for those nippy nights though I hear the mosquitoes had to get de-iced from Friday night on so they were few and far between. Tom Burge, who I think arrives about a week before to this event, had kindly held a spot for me where we were joined later in the week by Walter Davies and Glyn Walters. I got to drool over the beautiful Elva and March all weekend - beautiful cars. We had superb weather on arrival, which continued through the Test Day on Thursday. There weren't a whole bunch of cars for the day but our first outing following open wheel just before 10 was sheer bliss in the mid morning sunshine and lovely scenery that I never tire of. The weather continued picture-perfect for our Group (3 & 4) for the entire weekend. We nicely sidestepped the downpour the poor Vintage group had to suffer through in Saturday morning's Qualifying. Gidget performed flawlessly all weekend delivering me a first in class for the qualifying and two races I ran and despite flogging the life out of her, I really had nothing to do except wash her and do the in-between session checks. Thank you, engine gods!! The first race Sunday was a terrific battle for position. Hats off to Ian Lok and Daniel Thompson for a spirited session. And Larry Barcza in the Corvette sure made us work for every inch of pavement in that one! As we drove around on the cool down lap, it was a delight to see the vintage airplanes roaring over our heads as we headed up the back straight.

I had an unexpected invite to the Saturday Enduro from Fred Danovitz of Pittsburgh who shared the hour with the Midget in his 64 Spitfire. We had a hoot trying to chase down Mssrs. Lightfoot and Navin in the MGBs but regrettably didn't quite make it. On the social front, the Friday night pot luck was by far the best of the three we have put on at the Festival so June and Carol are to be congratulated again for their efforts. And last but not least, a big thanks to Ron Wanless for the months of effort he put in to executing another excellent Festival. Well done Ron!

Bruce Farrow
Porsche 911S, #59

Mosport always has tricks up its sleeve. Even the best prepared cars seem to break for no reason and fortune is fickle. No rain was predicted for the weekend. Saturday's morning qualifying session was rainy and since no rain tires were brought, the Porsche did not take to the track. Consequently the afternoon race was started in 17th spot. By the end of the race Bruce Farrow had climbed to 7th position. Next race was Sunday morning where the car ran well except for the last lap where it ran out of gas in the middle of corner 8. A lurid sidewise shuffling consequently resulted until some gas was picked up in the fuel cell and he proceeded on his way directly to the pits. A refill of gas for the afternoon race, and careful check of the level had the car sounding good and running well. Unfortunately during the afternoon race power was down caused by minor contamination of the fuel system. Hung on to finish in fifth place. Better luck next year.

Jonathon Brett
Datsun 240z, #9

Well amongst sundry tales of woe, including intermittent fuel pump operations due to short circuiting, radiator perforation, rad hose coming off, and a flat tire, I still had a great time. The car had a fresh engine in it and I was trying to break it in by doing slow laps in the Friday sessions, however, I only completed about four laps and got towed in twice, (fuel pump). Being sure that we had fixed this problem by Saturday morning, I went out for qualifying and completed about five laps and came in under my own power. The first race on Saturday afternoon resulted in an ugly spin at turn four when the lower rad hose popped off (after doing a rad change the day before), putting water under the rear wheels.

The Sunday morning race started off great, and I moved up through the field until I noticed the car starting to wallow around in the corners causing me to back-off, I suspected the right rear tire had a slow leak and knowing we were near the end of the session I tried to drive it out, but fell one lap short when I had to come in. Needless to say, the tire was wrecked and I had no spare, A quick check with Diane, produced a pair of Hoosiers which would fit my rim, but as they were to be mounted, we noticed sidewall cracks and determined they were unsafe. So, I was prepared to call it a day when again Diane came to the rescue and lent me a pair of brand new tires on rims. Unfortunately when we went to fit them they were rubbing on the fenders. The tire size was taller and wider than what I was running and needed a spacer to clear the rear brake calipers. A racer pitted near us lent me his compressor, generator and cut-off tool and we went to work grinding down the calipers so that the rims would fit without a spacer. With minutes to go before the final feature race, we re-fuelled and went out starting in 13th place.

The feature race was worth the whole weekend, the engine was running better, but the handling was compromised due to the new tires and subsequent raising of the ride height to accommodate them. This threw the balance out and I was tail happy most of the time. Paul Roberts and I had a great battle for the entire race, with me having a little better speed on the back straight, and Paul having a little better handling in the corners. In the end it was the best defensive drive I have ever had and taught me more about setting-up for a corner while trying to anticipate Paul's approach. In the end I finished .3 seconds ahead of Paul as we drag raced to the finish line.

Socially, we had a great time with a Bonfire and movie night on Friday, The Italian Job (first edition) was the feature movie, and 20 or so people were around the fire. The second night was also great, but no Movie. My parents and brother showed up on the Saturday to take in some of the event. The banquet was fun as was the Friday night Pot Luck to which we brought a meatball dish. Ron Wanless, Sally, Mike Rosen and others all did a perfect job with the event, and the Group 70 grid finally had a decent field of cars to show-off. We stayed over the Sunday night and had a leisurely drive home Monday morning, and we are looking forward to the next event.

Joe Lightfoot
MGB, #169

Memorable moments:

• Winning the Simms Cup all MG race (we won't mention the lack of competition from the US). I've come in second, for the past 4 years.
• Having a real battle with Larry Coste and Dave Morgan in the two fastest Mini Coopers.
• Discovering I had a bald tire on the car while sitting on the false grid waiting for the MG feature race to start. I had no choice but to go back to my paddock, grab the jack, another tire, the electric speed wrench and change the tire in NASCAR time. Made it back to the grid in time for the race.
• I really hate working on my car at the track but I was forced to change my differential pod, as the one we had installed was not locked and the car just spun it's inside tire on every corner. Later I had to change my carbs as they were starving out in corner two and four. Lastly we tried removing the rear sway bar, voila, the car handles like never before which made for many thrilling moments making outside corner passes on fellow competitors.
• Of course nothing beats being at the track with your racing buddies.

Hugh Kwok
Porsche Spyder, #928

As you may or may not know this was the pioneer race for the Spyder #928. I've been so busy taking care of my clients' cars and racecars that last weekend was the first complete race weekend for this car. So I must say I was pleased with the performance. All in all it was lots of fun and I really enjoyed racing with Diane in the Datsun 240z and Tony Guerin in the Porsche 911. We had a lot of fun playing with each other on the track. I was pleased to hold my position and in fact gain a couple of positions in the end due to some cars dropping out. Well, it was lots of fun racing in Group 70+, and all the drivers seem to be very good and clean.

Jeremy Sale
Austin Sprite, #86

Fred Samson had some problems with his "new" engine, went home Saturday noon and put his "old" engine in the car, started at 4pm, finished about 2 am, was back out for the first race Sunday!

Brian Evans
Merlyn Mk 6A, #40

I had the race of my life with Lee Talbot, driver of the beautiful red Ginetta G4, and discovered that I could actually pass someone for real on the outside of eight while doing 1:35 laps, which I didn't believe I could do. I found out that Lee started his racing career 57 years ago at the age of 18 - and has raced with BMC, Lotus, Rootes works teams professionally, done Le Mans, etc. No wonder he taught me a big lesson about passing on the inside of eight on the last lap - seems to be the one that counts! Off track he has been huge in the international environmental field for decades, been an advisor to three US Presidents, won the Albert Sweitzer Medal, among other awards. I think the "Order of the Lion" is the highest civilian award given by Senegal.

Order of the Lion, Republic of Senegal 1981; Distinguished Service Award, Amer. Inst. Biological Sciences 1980; Albert Sweitzer Medal (for outstanding contributions to wildlife conservation), United States 1975; CINE Golden Eagle Award, for documentary film on East African wildlife, with NBC 1969; Wildlife Society Award (jointly with Mrs. Talbot) for "Outstanding Publication in Wildlife Management and Ecology" 1963.

Amazing the people that you meet vintage racing...

Tim Sanderson
Porsche 911, #160

I had a blast. The racing was competitive and gentlemanly as predicted. I was exhausted just being pitted next to Tony Guerin and watching him run around all weekend. He had no shortage of challenges from cracked headers to dropping in a whole new engine in an all-nighter. As for the racing, I was disappointed with a 12th place on the grid for the first race on Saturday afternoon. This was due to a tire change from slicks to rains 20 minutes before our qualifying session when the mystery of Mosport's micro-climate descended upon us. I had not put my rain tires on since installing new, larger brake calipers. The tires went on fine but wouldn't role when I jumped in the car. By the time I figured this out everybody else in the group was gridding. I quickly did a full tire change myself as I had no help that day. As the rain poured down and the rest of the group was out qualifying I was sweating away changing the tires. As I turned the torque wrench for the last time on the final nut of the final tire the canopy over my head decided to release the contents of the accumulated rainwater directly on to my furrowed brow. In all honesty it felt refreshing.

I jumped in the car knowing our 15 minute session was winding to an end and on a crappy set of Kuomos, went sliding around corner 2, sliding around corner 3 and damn near off at 5A. By the time I got to the front straight, the checkered was out. I got a big thumbs up on the cool-down lap from the guys in corner 5 for saving what I was sure was going to be a major off. As my only qualifying lap time had begun from pit lane, I had a disappointing time and started 12th in Saturday afternoon's race. The chance to advance from 12th to 5th within the first lap was not only a huge rush, but also a testimony to the other drivers acting in a courteous and responsible manner. This would not have been the case in other race series in which I have participated.