July 2004

It was an absolute thrill to see Group 70+ hit the VARAC Vintage Festival with such a full, competitive and fun grid. (22 cars registered!) VARAC celebrated its most successful event ever and it felt great to be a part of it. Touted as ‘VARAC’s new kids’, the Group 70+ was a big hit – I was approached by many people in the paddock, racers and spectators – admiring all the “new” old cars and looking for info on more events and how to get involved. Congratulations to all the racers, their crews, friends and families on a fantastic showing! Results are now up on www.mylaps.com. Register your transponder number for all your race results, lap times, comparative charts etc!

From participant feedback I’ve pooled the following fun highlights of the festival!!! Feel free to keep the feedback coming – we’re compiling a gallery and notes of the event.

Group 70+ Festival Highlights

• Congratulations to Doug Beatty (#99 Corvette), Markus Garner (#2 BMW CSL) and Tim Sanderson (#160 Porsche 911) – the top three in the Group 70+ A Class!
• Certainly not stinted by a ‘low population group’ – a fantastic performance by Raymond Lum (#008 Porsche 944) and Albert Cohoe (#04 Datsun 510) – the top two in the Group 70+ B Class!
• Malcolm Strachan pulled off the fastest lap time of the weekend (a 1:25.473) in the Strudwick Motorsports Corvette – apparently the fastest lap time ever in that car’s history! (Malcolm was the 2003 CASC Touring-GT Series Champion and Inside Track nominee for Up and Coming Road Racer of the Year – check out www.malcolmstrachan.com)
• The ‘First Aid Paramedic’ award and huge thanks goes to Bruce Farrow for all his never ending assistance with just about every racecar on the grid. Between him and Phil Strudwick, most of the cars kept running and made it to the final grid. (And Bruce – who knew such an inventory of parts fit in such a small trailer!)
• The ‘Most Towed Home’ award goes to Jonathon Brett whose never ending list of entirely different mishaps in each session (except the last!) got him ‘inside track’ viewing from almost every corner at Mosport a lovely lift from ‘Bob’s Towing’. Congrats on his final race – he must have finished because his fiancée Kim was at the starting grid!
• The ‘Least Sleep and Most Perseverance’ award goes to Tony Guerin whose mechanic kindly LEANT him a motor after his was pooched on Friday. They started installing it at 9pm Friday night – finishing just in time to make it to the grid on Saturday morning. (And Tony – I’m not sure how many bandaids were welded onto that header!)
• Team Pumpkin (of CASC Regional weekend notoriety) had their matching set of Orange Datsun 510s out! It was great to meet Albert Cohoe – a new racer this year, and a particularly cute moment when I saw John Blouin literally ‘sitting’ on the mock grid (in driving position with a ‘virtual’ steering wheel) when his car unfortunately didn’t make it there with him. (I laughed for a couple of laps on that!) Mike Palladino was also out in his Corvette – you can find him on the CASC GT circuit as well.
• Mike Harper gets the ‘Most Relaxed’ award. The lucky (and extremely smart!) guy still drives his ride to the track! A nice, clean, sleek 911!
• Markus Glarner gets the ‘Most Versatile’ award. We were lucky enough to see his BMW CSL for the races on Sunday after mechanical problems took his M1 off the track on Saturday. I suspect Markus Glarner and Aram Tourikian have the most historically significant cars of the Group 70+ cars – their BMW M1s and the CSL have a long line of wonderful heritage – watch BMW’s Roundel magazine over the next couple of months for a feature on them!
• Al Fergusson had out his beautiful Jag – you have to get a close look at that car!!!
• Peter Bulkowski’s Triumph TR8 made a beautiful VARAC debut – Peter race-prepped the car after being reunited with it – he was the original owner!
• Filling out the remaining spectrum of beautiful Porsches (besides Tim Sanderson, Tony Guerin and Bruce Farrow) were David Margolese (the 914/6 was also run by John Hawkes who came in 2nd place in the Historic Production final race!), Michael Vong, Raymond Lum, Paul Roberts and Hugh Kwok (with their most unique Porsche and ‘matching’ trailer system – it’s beautiful!!!)
• Oh yeah, and I guess I get the “Hostess with the Mostest” award for being such a social butterfly – serving the most coffee and donuts at the Group 70+ breakfast meet-and-greet – we’ll be doing that one again for sure – I think the whole paddock came by!!! (Wow – and the coffee was still hot at 3 in the afternoon!)

And on a general note – there’s so much to say about the Festival. Thanking Ron Wanless, his wife Sally and Doug Durrell (who organized the Canadian racecars, builders and special events) – all of whose tireless efforts made the Festival possible. Thanking all the volunteers, marshals, corner workers, crews, family, etc. that it took to organize such a big festival. And really a huge thanks to all of you who participated – in racing, crewing, spectating and even those who were there just in spirit because they weren’t able to make it out. Mike Rosen said it best in the Festival Program – “What we really are is a group of men and women who think that preserving and racing cars of the 50s, 60s and 70s [and 80s!] is both an obligation, a way-of-life and probably the most fun imaginable.” Walking around the paddock meeting up with the new Group 70+ participants – I really felt this huge sense of ‘community’. What a fantastic weekend – I can hardly wait until the next one!!!

G70+ Racing Schedule – Next Events!

Regional Racing takes a bit of a break for the summer – but Group 70+ is back at it in full force in August. Don’t forget to mark the following events on your calendar!

• August 14/15 is a BARC-OC Canadian Touring Trophy Races at Mosport. VARAC’s Group 70+ and the Vintage/Historic grid will be running.
• September 4/5 is the mini-VARAC festival (co-hosted with CRDA) – The Labour Day Sprints at Mosport. VARAC’s Group 70+ and the Vintage/Historic grid will be running.
• VARAC’s Vintage/Historic grid is running at the BEMC Indian Summer Trophy Races, September 18/19 at Mosport. Group 70+ will not be ‘officially’ running as a class – but you can register to run the CASC GT Grid if you can’t stay away from the track!
• October 2/3 is the CASC/Panoz Celebration – the CASC seasonal finale for racing of all classes! VARAC’s Group 70+ and the Vintage/Historic grid will be running.

Group 70+ Feedback…

I’ve been receiving some great feedback from Group 70+ participants regarding the festival (i.e. the schedule, class breakdowns, event ideas, etc.). Please – keep the ideas and comments coming!!! We’ll be using them as input for planning next year!

And Just for Fun – Attention to Wives, Mothers, Daughters and Female Friends!

The Saab Owners’ Club of Canada Enhanced Driving Schools (www.computer-ease.com/socci) will be holding a “Women’s Only” driving school at Mosport’s Driver Development Track (the smaller track at Gate #1) on Saturday July 31st. (There will most likely be advanced student/lapping sessions for co-ed participants as well). Excellent instruction, driver exercises including skid pad and car control are all in the day’s agenda. Street legal and race cars permitted (passenger seat required for instruction).

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)