Subject: [Fot] 2026 Kastner Cup weekend - Race Reports

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2026 16:35:37 -0400

Track time was plentiful, 10 sessions plus more if you ran test day. 
Friday was an easy day, a morning practice session, then an afternoon 
qualifying session. Unfortunately for Mike Deweerd, his TR8 was out for 
the weekend on Friday. This made it a little clearer what to expect up 
front the rest of the event, with only one TR8 running it was Tim Cook's 
time to shine up front. Spoiler alert, he did not disappoint!

Our first special race was the Frank Mount Memorial MG/TR Challenge. To 
give you some history, Triumphs have dominated this race for a while 
now. The Canadians might just be a little bit sore about that fact, and 
the rules for the race are always weighted heavily on participation 
rather than finishing order! This year, they really didn't try to hide 
their bias, they arranged the starting order as first come, first served 
with the MG's taking the first 15 grid spots! Just to be sure we had it 
as tough as possible, they put Tim Cook with his TR8 in the race group 
immediately preceding the MG/TR Challenge race, so his participation 
would be questionable. Then an added deterrent, the scheduled the MG/TR 
Challenge just before the lunch break, and the Kastner Cup just after 
lunch, so with minimal turnaround time many of our guys chose to sit out 
the Challenge race. I am not sure what else they could have done to us, 
other than leaving one plug wire off per car!

Waiting for the grid to open, we strategized to put me in the TR250 
first, Phil Gott and Bob Lang lined up behind me. Also in line were Greg 
Thompson, Walt Hollowell, Stewart Wigg and Dave Riddle. I had talked to 
Tim Cook, his plan was to run the Challenge race if things went well in 
his group race immediately prior. On the MG side, the car to beat was an 
MG Midget piloted by the very talented and always fast Nick Pratt. Nick 
and I have had some epic David and Goliath battles, Goliath has had the 
slight edge in the past and has been victorious.

The race starts with me taking a couple laps to clear the lion's share 
of the MG's. It seems to me they are doing a great job blocking me in 
wherever possible, but nobody is so obvious I can cry foul. When I 
finally get clear track Nick has been doing fast laps by himself, and I 
have over 7 seconds to make up. I settle in to the job at hand, and the 
gap closes. Then, as I am motoring up the back straight, I see in my 
mirror a white dot getting bigger! Tim made the race, and he in on the 
hunt as well! The TR8 blows by me in a flash, and I'm thinking the good 
guys have this one in the bag, if time runs out for me at least Tim will 
be first. Then two laps later on lap 8, I turn my best lap of the race, 
a 1:40.1 and I pass Nick on the back straight. Triumph 1 - 2, and I keep 
Tim in my sights as he stays about 3 seconds in front of me for the last 
4 laps.

So it's Tim on the top step of the podium, I come in second and Nick 
Pratt third. Bob Lang ran 4th overall. So I am not sure how the math 
worked out for which team won, but I am pretty sure we didn't stand a 
chance with the schedule effectively benching most of our team. But of 
course, it doesn't matter, we all had fun and the streak of Triumphs 
dominating the top spot is unbroken!

Next up, the Kastner Cup race!

Not much to say here other than I started second and finished second. I 
was driving the wheels off the car trying to keep up with Tim's TR8, I 
kept the gap between 1.5 to 3 seconds most of the race. Unfortunately, 
when Pat Darrow had his little shunt in 1, that caused a waiving yellow 
for the rest of the session, and I caught traffic on lap 11 and 12 in 
the yellow flag zone, so the gap opened up to 5.5 seconds at the end. 
Tim's comment to me after the race was thanks for keeping him honest, my 
comment to him was I thought I had to work way harder than he did, in 
which he agreed with me! My best lap was a 1:41.19 vs Tim with a 
1:40.95, so that made me feel pretty good about the race.

Then on Sunday, the Jack Drews Memorial Race, formerly known as the 
Reunion Race!

Tim had to get home on Sunday, so was packed up and gone by the time 
racing started on Sunday. I was on pole, and Jesse Darrow did all he 
could to keep me honest! I put about a 2.5 second gap on Jesse when Oily 
Bob did his thing for the last time, putting a layer of oil up most of 
the back straight. We reported to the pits and waited a solid half hour 
for the track to get cleaned. I was sure we were done, but VARAC 
announced they were going to let us go green for another 10 minutes! 
This time it was Jesse driving like a man on a mission, keeping me 
honest until suddenly, he was gone. In fact, I saw nobody in my mirrors 
for the last two laps, upon finishing I see I gapped Chuck Gee in second 
place by 14.2 seconds in 6 laps! Thanks for the motivation, Jesse! At 
the podium, Jesse tried to sneak into Chuck's second place pedestal, too 
funny. Apparently, Jesse ran out of fuel! Bob Lang took third.

Finally, my group race!

My bracket, VH3, means don't go faster than a 1:40. For whatever reason, 
I happen to run at the bottom of that bracket, a 1:40 is a good time for 
me. As such, I do well with the bracket. This year was no different, I 
finished first in VH3 in the 3 races leading up to the feature race 
Sunday afternoon. This year we had a bunch of Mustangs that had never 
run with VARAC before, and for whatever reason they put them with us in 
Vintage Historic. Not a great fit, and the one that was always gridded 
with me had a problem with his fuel cell, he kept dumping gas on corners 
at the beginning of the race. It was a slippery situation, to say the 
least! And it took him several laps to put down a couple of faster laps 
than me to be out of my hair. So in the feature, I am coming around turn 
10 finishing up lap 2, and I am too close to the fuel spilling Mustang. 
The second place VH3 car, a 911, gets a better run than I do and passes 
me going into 1. I fall back behind him and find out he has a bit more 
straight line speed, but is absolutely hopeless in 1 and 2. For 3 laps I 
follow watching closely, figuring out where I am going to get him, 
hoping I have a shot somewhere other than turn 2, as he is all over the 
place and completely unpredictable. It's apparent I am going to have to 
man up and do the deed in turn 2, so I give it a go with no joy. The 
next time around I get next to him at the first apex of turn 2 on the 
outside and we slide our way down the hill side by side. As we approach 
3, now I have the inside line and he gives it to me. I proceed to drive 
it like I stole it, I need to gap him so he doesn't take me on the back 
straight. I proceed to put down a great lap, and can barely see the 911 
in my rear view mirror. I take the checkered flag knowing I should be 
golden for another class win, hoping I didn't break out. I hold my 
breath and at the podium I am given the first place trophy. All good, I 
think...

I pull out Speedhive to see I ran a 1:39.2, my best lap ever at Mosport. 
I broke out, but Colleen didn't realize at the time! We will see if I 
get penalized that lap at some point, but I have the hardware!

So that's it, my time as Kastner Cup chair has come to an end. I hope 
everyone who came enjoyed the experience as much as I do, and I look 
forward to next year to see how many Triumph racers will now say their 
June event is Mosport!

Cheers

Henry
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