INCREDIBLE!!! VARAC’s 26th Vintage Racing Festival was a HUGE success! With close to 250 entries and perfect (but warm) weather for the entire four days – VARAC, and even more specifically, Group 70+ have so much to be proud of!!!

Results are up on www.mylaps.com

VARAC Driver Championship standings are attached.

Many Thanks

An enormous thank you to all those who participated last weekend on the grid, and off. Group 70+ managed 28 registrations over the weekend – and 22 cars in the final race. This is fantastic – and by far our largest grid ever. I can’t tell you how encouraging it is too see how much fun we’re all having out there and to see the grid grow. (Pretty soon there will be waiting lists!)

Many thanks to our fearless festival director Ron Wanless and his wife Sally for their dedication and hard work. Never mind the talents of Stefan Wiesen (race director), John Greenwood (VARAC president), Walter Davies (VARAC promotions director) and all the Board of Director members (including our own Jonathon Brett) who played host to racers from all over North America. June Van Worsdale and Carol Burge helped organize the popular and very successful Friday Night meet-and-greet. Never mind the hard work of the BARC officials and workers who endured mighty high temperatures and humidity to give us a wonderful and safe weekend.

This year’s theme was ‘fun and friendly’. A theme that easily filtered throughout the paddock and onto the track – wow.

VARAC Vintage Festival Highlights

• Thursday’s Test Day included a special lapping grid for street cars – great to see some so many beautiful Lotus Super 7’s out there; a zed or two, and some more modern vehicles.
• Friday’s Practice unfortunately saw an end to Jonathon Brett and Bruce Farrow’s weekends of driving – an enormous and unavoidable oil slick just over the crest of turn 4 (all the way down to 5a) caused some bad luck – very sad news for the weekend we’d all been waiting for. (Many thanks for Jon & Bruce for sticking around / returning for the weekend – you were with us in spirit on the track!)
• Friday night’s potluck meet-and-greet was extremely popular. An abundance of delicious food, some revealing and inspirational historic VARAC picture displays and of course, great socializing.
• Saturday morning’s G70+ breakfast brought round some BARC officials & marshals and the G70+ drivers. A great opportunity to put faces to the names, see who’s under those helmets and finally get a chance to meet who you’re waving at on those cool down laps.
• After a great day of racing, the 6th Annual VARAC Lawn Chair Races took place in pit lane – a hilarious set of entrants, a TON of spectators and some great fun was had. VARAC’s G70+ entry took the top podium (not without a controversial ‘corner 2’ moment in the hair pin corner that probably should have been black flagged – I think 13/13 is in order for next year!) The Florida entrant was hysterical – Hawaiian shirts, black frizzy wigs and a lounge chair to die four. Corner 2’s toilet seat entrant was nimble and quick and very fast to recover from the forced-off-track excursion – hilarious!
• The evening banquet was a splendid meal, some honoured awards presentations (including the first annual Bill Hirst memorial trophy race), some excellent door prizes and a great way to reward your crew with an ‘evening out’ at the track.
• Weekend racing was incredible with so many people to mention. Group 70+ is growing into some nice pockets of competitive and fun racing – our mission is to keep filling in the gaps!
• The ‘ground pounding’ cars of Frank Fusillo, Mike Palladino and Strudwick Motorsports (Blaise Csida and Jerry Simmons) wrestled with the front running BMW M1 of Markus Glarner. I’m always amazed at their lap times – and the beautiful sound of Markus’ car graciously and courteously passing the other cars.
• Russ Gorochowski’s car (and racing skills) ran flawlessly all weekend – participating in intermittent racing packs with our token sports racer Glenn McKay (nice moves!), the beautiful 914s of Dave Margolese and Michael Vong and Tim Sanderson in his Porsche 911 (who even without a 2nd/3rd gear combination was able to run great lap times – now that’s talent!)
• Paul Roberts and Diane Dale had a fantastically close race ALL weekend – it was like they were joined by a short tow rope (or twist tie!) – some great starts had them worrying about newcomers John Noble and Bob Kraus (BMW Club Racing background) who stayed right with them through all the corners.
• The same held true for Mike Harper and Jamie Sutherland’s twin Porsches – joined at the hip with periodic interludes with Patrice Breton (our new visitor in a familiar 928 Spyder) and Peter Schlag (another extremely well driven BMW newcomer!)
• Congratulations goes to all the newcomers who were in their first official VARAC race (and some their first race ever!). You’d never know it by the lap times they were pulling – all of them made incredible improvements from the first practice to the last race. Peter Schlag, Bob Kraus, John Noble and Josip Dukovac did a great job in their inaugural VARAC races – and for JD it was a new car, a new race AND he’d never been to Mosport – WOW – fantastic job!
• Amazing lap times by Rob McCord who was out for his first official race in the new Datsun 240z purchased this spring. A few fuse/electrical problems – but apparently he’s getting used to the car fast! He had fun mixing it up with the other cars… (I think his Dad’s excellent racing skills are rubbing off on him!)
• Unfortunately some mechanical troubles and sorting out with Peter Bulkowski’s IMSA TR8, Walt MacKay’s new-for-this-year Mustang, Larry Barcza in the Corvette and Al Fergusson in the jag (two timing with the open wheel Ferret MK 1 in the Monoposto Group!) Great to have them out, we’ll cross our fingers for better luck at the next race!

Sorry if I missed any highlights – let me know and I’ll gladly print them!!!

BLOOR-YORKVILLE Molson Indy Street Party!

If you’re in town on Wednesday, July 6th – don’t miss out on the Bloor-Yorkville Molson Indy Street Party! The party being held on the closed streets of the Bloor-Yorkville area from noon until 10pm will feature VARAC Vintage Race Cars on display (oh yeah – and some Indy cars as well). Our very own Markus Glarner (BMW M1), Peter Bulkowski (IMSA TR-8) and possibly Jonathon Brett (the new European Jag!) will have their cars on display.

VARAC Dates to Remember

The festival has passed – but there are still four Group 70+ races left!!! Get your car ready for the following events (keep Group 70+ alive and well!)

• July 9, 10 (Historic/Vintage cars ONLY – not G70+) at BeaveRun Motorsports Complex
• August 13, 14 – BARC Canadian Touring Trophy at Mosport (optional test day August 12)
• August 27, 28 – CRDA/VARAC Regional at Mosport (optional test day August 26)
• September 23 to 25 – Fall Classic at Mt. Tremblant
• October 1,2 – Panoz/CASC Celebration at Mosport (optional test day September 30)
• November 26 – VARAC Annual General Meeting and Banquet

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)