December 2004

As we quickly launch into the holiday season, Jonathon and I want to wish you all the best, and tall cheers to a happy and prosperous 2005! Group 70+ will be in full swing next month, with lots of exciting announcements (including the 2005 schedule!)… stay tuned.

VARAC Annual General Meeting and Banquet

VARAC’s Annual General Meeting was held on Saturday, November 27th at the Boulevard Club. An incredibly good turnout and a fair number of nominations for various Board and Class Representative positions proved the strength and commitment of our club. Various nomination speeches proposed new bigger and better events, VARAC race series, potential sponsorship, increased racing coverage and promotion, improved intra-club communication, out-of-region representation and much more. There is certainly a lot to look forward to next season! If you haven’t seen the posting on the VARAC website contacts page, here’s the new Board…

President – John Greenwood

Vice President – Fred Samson

Treasurer – Craig Pick

Secretary – Gavin Ivory

Past President – Mike Rosen

Race Director – Stefan Wiesen

Promotions Director – Walter Davies

Festival Director – Ron Wanless

Directors At Large – Jon Brett, Daniel Thompson and Van Worsdale

The Annual Banquet followed the AGM. An amazing evening of a delicious dinner, fun awards and dancing to a featured 10-person band. Congratulations to Glyn Walters and Walter Davies who organized the grand affair.

VARAC’s 2005 Season

Tentative schedules have been released for the CASC Ontario Regional Series (posted at www.casc.on.ca/events.php). HOWEVER, the VARAC Historic, Open Wheel and G70+ grids are still in the works at this moment. VARAC will be hosting grids at some of the Regional Weekends, but our new President and Race Director are madly co-ordinating a more exciting schedule for us. A sneak peak suggests that we could be teaming up with other Vintage Clubs at venues such as Mt. Tremblant, Beaver Run and Calabogie! As soon as the schedule is available we’ll let you know!

On a side note, it was disappointingly announced that the Healey Feature races (which promised to bring almost 150 Healeys to our 2005 Vintage Festival, including some from Australia!) were cancelled due to a scheduling glitch. Unfortunately the Mid Ohio track forced SVRA into re-scheduling their Vintage Weekend to the exact same weekend as our VARAC Vintage Festival. Extremely unfortunate as we were all expecting an increased participation from the SVRA contingent – especially G70+!

Bill Hirst – In Memoriam

It is with great sadness that we received the news of Bill Hirst passing away in the early hours on the 10th of December. Bill was an avid Racer and a dedicated VARAC volunteer, most recently serving as the Vice President and Eligibility Chair of VARAC. The current BoD of VARAC has announced that they would like to honour Bill’s memory at the 2005 VARAC Vintage Festival. Starting next festival and for all future years, the race for the sports racing cars will be named “The Bill Hirst Memorial Trophy Race”. As well, a small portion of the paddock will be roped off with a memorial photo tribute of Bill during the 2005 Festival. A respectful tribute has been placed on the VARAC’s website, www.varac.ca.

Group 70+ is a VARAC promoted racing class that currently celebrates the history of racing from 1973 to 1987. VARAC is the association of vintage racecars in Canada that celebrates the passion of preserving, restoring and racing vintage racecars.

You're on this email list because somewhere along the line you expressed an interest in VARAC's Group 70+, perhaps in the capacity of driver, organizer, spectator or just plain keener trying to keep on top of things in the racing world. Let me know if you don't want to be on the list anymore, or feel free to pass it on to others who might be interested.

Diane Dale - lddale@hotmail.com (administration and promotion)

Jonathon Brett - kim.zachjess@sympatico.ca (technical eligibility)

Nick Pratt – varacmembership@rogers.com (VARAC memberships)