• Exactly 30 different and unique cars showed up to participate in our full season of five races. (Now imagine what will happen next year when we all plan to show up to all of the races!)
• Race cars included 13 Porsches, 5 Datsuns, 4 BMWs, 2 Corvettes and a Volvo, Triumph, Jag, Ford, Camaro and Sports Racer
• 4 of the 5 races we had our own grid
• Mosport lap times ranged from approximately 1:30 to 2:00, room for everyone!
• Media coverage of G70+ was in Victory Lane, Vintage Racecar Journal, Inside Track, Vintage Motorsports, Classic Motorsports, BMW Roundel and the club newsletters and websites of VARAC, BARC, MCO, Porsche, BMW, Ontario Z Car, Triumph and more
• Postcards advertising G70+’s 2005 season and the VARAC International Vintage Racing Festival have been and continue to be distributed at races in the U.S., Canada and motorsports facilities all over the GTA and surrounding areas
• Emails, letters, phone calls, word of mouth and smoke signals continue to alert everyone of the upcoming and exciting G70+ grids

VARAC Annual General Meeting and Banquet

The most important event of the VARAC year is happening on Saturday, November 27th at the Boulevard Club. (See the flyer at www.varac.ca/events.html for more details and directions). It is essential to get out and support your club by voting in your favourite Board of Directors and Class Representatives at the Annual General Meeting. Many positions are up for nomination and every vote counts! If you know you can’t make the AGM, make sure you elect a proxy on your behalf to vote. (See last month’s newsletter for the form, or email me and I’ll keep you up to date.)

The AGM is followed by the Annual Banquet – a fun evening of dinner and dancing – this year featuring a 10 person band! It plans to be a great evening – finally a chance to catch up and socialize without the background noise of engines and interruption of failing parts. Tickets are $75 each and are available through many club members – including myself at LDDALE@hotmail.com. At this point it looks like close to 100 people will be in attendence – come join the fun! (Awards and door prizes to boot!)

CASC-OR’s Annual General Meeting and Banquet

CASC-OR held their AGM and Banquet this past Saturday, November 13, 2004. AGM topics included the directors and office reports (including the VARAC report delivered by our very own president Mike Rosen), the task force report (more on this in a second), a technical report regarding CASC’s newly vamped website and the annual election for CASC-OR’s office. I am happy to say that John Bondar will be continuing on in the role of CASC-OR president (he remained in his position, unchallenged). He has made significant changes to the racing structure and community over the last couple of years, we all look forward to his continued enthusiasm and support! A new V.P. was voted in – Scott Elllsworth from BARC. The positions of Treasurer (Graham Tulett), Solo One Director (Christian Sorensen) and David Hilton (Ice Race Director) were confirmed. On a fun note - ASN representatives confirmed that F1 will happen in Canada again next year (not really new news), the Grand Prix is confirmed for the next 3 years, the Molson Indy is confirmed for the next 4 and ALMS is definitely at Mosport next year. Other items discussed were CASC-OR’s privacy policy and an awareness discussion on Bill C-45, the Criminal Liability of Organizations and how that might affect racing.

One of the more interesting presentations was the recommendations made by the CASC-OR Regional Road Racing Taskforce. For those of you who remember, an 8 member taskforce was formed this summer to collect and recommend suggestions for improving and encouraging racing participation. The taskforce presented their findings – the next step is for the CASC-OR Board of Directors to explore and potentially act on these recommendations. Included were the following recommendations in priority order:

• Reduce the number of regional race weekends (people don’t have enough time or money in their schedules to race, volunteer or spectate at all the races, limit the weekends but have better events)
• Clarify and simplify the process for participation (establish training programs, a “New Racer’s Handbook” and mentoring programs)
• Increase consistency of race officiating (recruit corner observers, make consistent disciplinary actions and more in the hopes to reduce aggressive behaviour)
• Investigate participant demographics (facilitate participation of racers, workers and spectators)
• Increase variety of race weekends (encourage car club participation, combination events (Autocross, Rally, etc))
• Increase return on investment (offer entry discounts, door prizes, giveaways, vendors, alliance with educational institutions and charities)
• Decrease event costs (reduce the costs to produce an event)
• Promote and recruit more
• Open communication to other sanctioning bodies (explore other competition opportunities)
• Lower racing costs (develop education division to help racers determine realistic budgets, project plans etc. so that they save money in the long run and can participate more)

There were some really good ideas brought forward, congratulations for a job well done by the taskforce! (if anyone wants more details on what happened at the meetings feel free to contact Jon or myself).

And Just For Fun…

• Now that the summer racing season is over – prepare for ICE RACING! 6 glorious weekends in Minden, Ontario. http://www.casc.on.ca/iceracing.php for more information
• Check out www.racingsportscars.com – a historic photo archive that continues to grow!
• VARAC is registered as the second largest CASC-OR affiliated club (right behind Motorsport Club of Ottawa and right in front of BMW Club of Canada – Trillium Chapter)
• VARAC won the “A.B. Dick Award” for the Ontario Region’s best event in 2004. Congratulations to the hard work of Ron Wanless and other VARAC members in presenting the 25th International Vintage Racing Festival!
• VARAC’s open wheelers Gord Lowe and Glyn Walters won regional awards for their outstanding racing achievements this season – Congratulations!

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)