The VARAC Vintage Grand Prix at Mosport continues to be the thrill of my
racing calendar. The Canadians are really great hosts, spectacular
competitors, and it's all about good, hard, clean racing. The off-track
activities are pretty special as well, VARAC's president does double
duty as the event chair. I think this was his fourth year doing it, so
all the off-track stuff runs like clockwork. And the track... Just ask
anybody who ever ran Mosport!
VARAC has always gridded races based on your finishing position of the
last race, not by best lap of the weekend. You are challenged to run
hard every lap, and if you are a DNS/DNF, you start in the back for the
next race. Plus, VARAC changed their format on run groups a year or two
ago, now we are essentially Bracket Racing! You state within a 5 second
window what class you want to be in, and they group all the Historic
cars accordingly. (The Classic (newer, heavier) cars do the same thing,
but in their own run groups) For every lap you break out of your minimum
time, you get penalized one lap, so your starting position gets pushed
back. Our own Mike Moore had a spectacular weekend but kept running
1:44's busting his bracket, so his starts were further and further back,
but the smile on his face made it clear his was having a ball.
The Triumph/MG Challenge race was another win for Triumph! When the
finishing order has Triumphs in the top 4 spots, it's tough to fudge the
math to give the honors to the Octagon Guys. Plus, after our 4th place
car crossed the finish line the starter waited 57 seconds for the first
MG to make it around! We kicked butt.
We had only 6 Triumphs there, plenty of room for more next year!
Henry
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