Hi Everyone, I hope you are all doing well. If you are looking for action on track look no further than this weekends’ BEMC races at Mosport. We have seven St Lac club members in attendance:

• Andrew Atkins in his Mustang,
• Danny Corcoran in his late model stock car in GT1,
• Pat Cyr in his BMW in GT2,
• William Ferguson in a Piper Honda F1600,
• Gary Allen in his Alfa GTV and
• John Kinnear in his MGB.

So how cool is that? Basically, we are represented as a club in most classes and in most races. If you have never attended a racing weekend at why not start this weekend? Viewing from the top of the hill overlooking corner 2 and the fast downhill descent into corner 3 is always thrilling. Similarly, walking down to the inside of corner 4 can lead to an assault on the senses in the GT races during the opening laps as drivers compete for the inside entry into 5a and the famous Moss Corner (for you youngsters that’s named after the great British driver Sir Stirling Moss not the green stuff growing on your parent’s deck). Or be a bit lazier and opt for sitting next to the pedestrian bridge as drivers jockey for the inside line leading into the very fast right-hander ,corner 8, at the top of the back straight. I guarantee if you spend the time and money to attend on Saturday or Sunday you will not be disappointed. Both Pat and William can come away with title wins in their respective classes if their weekend goes smoothly. William is also on his way to the UK in October as he won the very prestigious US scholarship placement for the best young open wheel driver in the US. He’ll be racing against Europe’s best young talent in the Formula Ford Festival where many famous drivers cut their teeth – Jenson Button and Mark Webber were both winners whom you will all know well from F1… Trust me when I say William has talent as we may be watching a future champion So I hope the “announcer’s curse” does not come into play as it did last week at our final lapping session.

ST LAP III

For those not in attendance last week I started the drivers meeting by complimenting everyone for not having had any mishaps throughout the year. So it was alarming, to say the least, to hear over the radio we had a car upside down in corner 1 midway through the evening. Fortunately, the driver was out of the car and, most importantly, uninjured. The car remarkably was lucky too as the soft bottle bags in front of the tire wall absorbed most of the impact to such an extent that the airbags didn’t deploy. Thanks to the quick response the car was righted and returned to the owner the next day by several club members and, I believe, will be back on the road with a little bit of hammer and dolly work and a new windshield. Needless to say this incident put a damper on the evening and made for a shorter night than anticipated. It has also led to many discussions among the Executive towards implementing changes to our future events in an effort to prevent a repeat of any future accidents. Notably, we will be striving towards better scrutineering vs the self check mechanical safety forms we currently use, more emphasis will be placed on ride-a-longs with any newcomers to watch their lines and better communication regarding all the basic rules will be our main goal. So next spring we will have a large track map clearly visible at the registration highlighting the passing zones etc along with a sandwich board outlining the key points towards a safe and fun event. There will also be a mandatory check in for late arrivals that miss the drivers meeting to ensure everyone is up to speed with the evening’s events

New people, new directions

On a lighter note we have obviously stoked the creative juices with some of our younger members. So look forward to our social media numbers improving as Yoma takes on the responsibility of both the Facebook and Instagram club accounts ( I guess I’m going to have to subscribe — argh!) and in an effort to drive new membership among a younger demographic, Al is preparing several proposals for the fall and winter months – notably a Sim Racing league for us to get together and compete on line and in the Spring a karting event at Mosport . This karting event would mean chartering a bus or van, and attending the fabulous karting track at Mosport for practice and a race for the group. Costs will need to be looked into in more detail based on how many members show an interest in this event but I for one think it’s a great idea and would be fun to go to a new venue. So stay tuned over the next month or two as these proposals develop.

CRX workshop

I will be hosting another CRX workshop the afternoon of the 24th of Sept from 1-4pm, as we want to try and keep the momentum on the club car headed toward the track for the spring. That’s it for now . On behalf of all the volunteers and executive thank you for making this summer’s Picton and St Lap III events a great success and for your ongoing support.

All the best DC