This is it! The highlight of the racing season – the 27th Annual VARAC Vintage Festival – and what we hope will be the biggest Group 70+ grid EVER. Entries are piling up www.varac.ca/Festival/Entries2006.htm See you all there!

Hot on the heels of the festival is the Group 70+ participation in the ATTO Canadian Vintage GT Challenge support race at the Toronto Molson Grand Prix. WOW – what a year for racing.

VARAC Vintage Festival – TRANS AM Feature (June 23/24/25)

VOLUNTEERS ARE DESPARATELY NEEDED! If you, your friends or your family have ANY time to spare over the weekend, please contact John Greenwood at haggisbasher@sympatico.ca

ENTRIES for the annual LAWN CHAIR RACES are desparately needed! Put your chair on wheels, decorate it up, put on a funny costume and enter the REAL races of the weekend. Either way – make sure you come to spectate - there will be lots of fun for the kids! (In Pit Lane – immediately after the last race on Saturday (before the banquet)).

Besides that G70+ will have it’s biggest grid of the year. 27 already pre-entered! Enter now if you haven’t…

• Check out who’s coming… www.varac.ca/Festival/Entries2006.htm

2006 VARAC Driver’s Challenge

SPECIAL NOTE!!!! At the BEMC race almost all of our Class F cars ‘broke out’ into the faster group. So with much consideration we’ve decided that our middle break-out time was a little too narrow. We’ve re-classified the Group 70+ break out times for F class. The new Group 70+ classes are as follows:

Group E – up to and including 1:37.000

Group F – from 1:37.001 to 1:41.000

Group G – including and over 1:41.001

(Some G class cars have been reclassified as well … see Stefan for your new sticker!) Make sure you’re registered for the Driver’s Challenge for the next event – see Stefan Weisen, our race director to register. And yes – the entry form and classifications for the festival are by engine displacement – these will be different than the regular classifications for the Driver’s challenge. Confusing? Yes – but don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions! (And read the attached rules for clarity!) Points are posted on the VARAC events page www.varac.ca/events.html

Event Report - BEMC Spring Trophy Races (May 13/14)

A fantastic turnout for the first G70+ race of the season. Typically the worst event attended, we rivaled our peak regional attendance from all of last year. With a total of 21 cars on our grid over the weekend (including a few Club Sport drivers) it shows our tremendous growth and what I hope is the shape of things to come. (Last year the first race of the season we only had three participants! Although our weekend regional attendance skyrocketed after the festival.) We saw quite a few new members out - great additions to the grid.

• We finally got to see the beautiful Group 44 Jaguar now owned by Steve Moore. I spoke to many people who’s comments were (“I think I remember that car…”). Yup. It’s the real deal! Talk to Steve about the history.
• We’re excited to see that Ian Lok and his familiar Volvo have joined our grid – his excellent race craft is one to learn from! Have you ever watched him???
• 944 drivers J.D., Russ and Michael Strelbisky had interesting weekends. Russ – excellent results as always; J.D. didn’t make it past the test day with a blown engine; Michael an unexpected incident, but back out on Sunday to finish the weekend.
• Welcome to the new 240z car on the block. The father/son team of Neil and Kevin Young made their Group 70+ debut, with a few mechanical glitches (did anyone happen to pick up their transmission parts at the inside of corner 2?). Take a close look at the car, it’s beautiful! (And a Targa Newfoundland alumnae)
• Rob McCord is back this year with his beautiful 240z. I understand he’s taken up skilled car ballet, avoiding other Z parts on the track – kudos for keeping it together.
• Welcome to another newcomer Steve Anderson; an unfortunate mechanical glitch in his Omni ended his weekend early, but all is ok – looks like he’ll be back out for the festival.
• Great to see the historic BMWs of Peter Schlag, John Noble and Brock Gilboe; I noticed some new BMW-racing style trim on Peter’s car – looks great!
• It was great to see the Porsches of Del Bruce and Doug Forster out for their season debut’s. Del’s car – a stellar example of every driver’s dream. Doug? You’ve picked up the pace! Looks like you’re getting used to the 914 and driving it extremely well!
• Mike Harper and Jamie Sutherland rounded out the Porsche attendance with their beautiful black 911s. Sigh… we love those cars.
• Bad weather? A projected weekend of full on rain storms turned out to be perfect sunny racing weather! Goes to show you that you can never tell. Mosport has it’s own unique ecological weather zone. (Although my canopy did get sacrificed to the Wind Gods when it was reverse lifted upside down on top of the neighbouring semi – including the anchors!)

Toronto Molson Grand Prix (July 7/8/9)

Time Warp Racing in association with the Toronto Grand Prix Association is presenting the ATTO Canadian Vintage GT Challenge race that will take place July 7, 8 and 9 at the Toronto Molson Grand Prix. Many Group 70+ cars along with select SVRA Group 6 cars will be competing in this exciting event. If you’re not racing with us – be sure to come cheer us on! Contact Jonathon Brett (twr9@execulink.com) for more information.

2006 Group70+ Schedule

• June 23/24/25, VARAC Vintage Festival at Mosport
• July 7/8/9, Canadian Vintage GT Challenge at the Toronto Molson Grand Prix (presented by Time Warp Racing – non-points race)
• August 12/13, BARC Canadian Touring Trophy at Mosport
• August 26/27, VARAC/CRDA Presidents Cup at Mosport
• September 30/October 1, CASC-OR Celebration at Mosport
• November 26, VARAC Annual General Meeting and Banquet (note – important G70+ rule changes to be voted on at the AGM!)

Entry forms are available to register for regional weekends at www.casc.on.ca/forms/raceontarioentryform06-a.pdf

Optional test days are available for all Mosport events. www.casc.on.ca/forms/PanozTestDays06.pdf for details and entry form.

And Last but not Least…

• Of particular interest to our Jaguar, Porsche and BMW drivers may be the upcoming Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix Association’s Historic Races at BeaveRun on July 7 to 9 (If you won’t be at the Toronto Grand Prix). At this exciting race weekend Jaguar (any model or year) is the featured marque. In addition there will be a BMW/Porsche Challenge Cup race (any model or year). Many of our VARAC vintage/historic comrades will be attending this race along with our friends from VRG. www.cloverleaf-auto.com/beaver.htm for more information.
• Does anyone have any ideas of any future events/happenings/socials they’d like to see for Group 70+? Input is ALWAYS welcome. Send ideas to group70plus@hotmail.com
• Group 70+ has been invited to the July BARC-OC club meeting to “tell them what we’re about”. Excellent timing as we’ll have plenty of beautiful pictures and stories from the festival, and it will be only days before the Molson Grand Prix. BARC-OC hosts two of the best CASC-OR regional weekends AND supplies over 650 volunteers (most of the workforce!) for the Molson Grand Prix.

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 - twr9@execulink.com (technical eligibility)