Hello everybody,

CRX Updated Update

I’ll start with some local news from my shop as Dan, el presidente, and I swapped out the transmission on the CRX on Saturday with another used unit to replace the pesky one that has a linkage issue and refused to provide a neutral clutch position – a first in all my years of wrenching- in other words as soon as the clutch was released the car would stall in neutral as it remained in gear. WTF Nevertheless Dan and I remain positive the old gearbox can also be repaired but at least that’s something for the fall and winter months- So from my selfish point of view its one less car I have to push around the shop- what remains now is to prime and paint the doors, scrub the interior and repaint it and the roll bar and reassembly of the body work and then we should be on our way to testing the Honda after its major refurbishment. Once we prove its viable we will then calculate a flat rate per lap for its usage and allow all of you to enjoy it. Ideally we’ll have it out for the lapping evening in late August – so stay tuned to your emails if you have a penchant for sanding bondo as I will be announcing the next workshop date soon ( most likely the weekend of Aug 20th). Don’t be shy as we can do with many hands on deck for this next tedious cosmetic phase. You will even be offered a cold beverage or two.
Here is a link of photos from earlier in the month of some of the work on the CRX : https://www.stlac.ca/2022/07/it-lives-an-update-on-club-hooptie/

Membership news

We now are at 120 members which is fantastic and i think near an all time high.

Alan Pawling Memorial Day of Lapping 2022

The lapping day, held in honor of Alan Pawling’s timeless support for St Lac, was held on the 13th- on a Wednesday. I took a lot of flak for the date but it was a risk that worked out in the end as we had 30 drivers in attendance and the weather was excellent. I know many of you would prefer a weekend date but the significant increase in track rental costs, the conflict with various regional race series and SMP’s busy schedule and the ST Lap dates were all in play when I rolled the dice in the spring choosing the date- When we do our survey of the membership in the fall one of the key questions will be whether or not the club does another full lapping day in 2023 and, if so, what day of the week would be a first choice- as maybe a Monday or a Friday is better suited. In the past these were make or break events for the club financially but we are fortunate enough now to have a buffer , and with Pat Cyr’s help we also had support from three local dealers- BMW, Volvo and Mercedes – Thus we managed to break even despite having to pay for 4 marshals. So a huge thank you to all that attended including the 9 new members that we signed up. To those individual welcome to the Club and we hope you will be back for more fun this year.

Here are some images from the lapping day: https://www.stlac.ca/2022/07/some-st-lap-iii-highlights/

Picton Autocross

The next update is a reminder of our Annual Picton Autocross that is coming up in mid August at Base31 -August 13th and 14th. Base 31 is the new rebranded name associated with our favorite WWII airfield in Picton We are very lucky this year to be hosting the only CASC sanctioned slalom in Ontario. Pre-registration numbers are excellent at over 40 participants already and the new management has paid camping on site which removes the hurdle of finding somewhere to stay in Prince Edward County that is affordable. We also have a new Syrian café on site this year so if you have a passion for falafels you can get your middle eastern food fix on site. Its worth pointing out that the CASC has trophies and prizes and the timing is geared to balance out fast and slow cars so that if you show up in a bone stock corolla you have just as good a chance at taking home some hardware as the highly modified cars ..cone races are the best way to teach young drivers advanced skills at zero risk so if you are talking to any enthusiastic car folks please spread the word . You don’t have to be a member to participate so if your neighbour’s kid with the load exhaust is driving you nuts send him our way The two day fee is 140 or 80 for a single day- all visitors are welcome and the links to registration and the speed-waiver can be found here:

https://www.motorsportreg.com/events/2022-casc-regional-autoslalom-championship-picton-airport-ontario-886597

ST LAC makes a difference

One last bit of Club news is that St Lac contributed 650.00 to the F1600 scholarship fund this past month- So a huge shout out to Chris Evans for this brilliant idea and for his voluntary time completing the race medicals earlier in the year. I am hoping we can even do better next year with better advanced notification to the members who had already completed their race medicals this year. I will send a link closer to the Formula Ford Festival at Brands hatch in the UK where our local contender from the TOYO F1600 series will be headed.

All the best – DC