The CASC-OR and VARAC regional road racing seasons came to a close during the Celebration of Motorsport at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Champions were decided in various classes, while most of the seven grids contested three races; here are results, notes and podium photos from the weekend.
Pirelli Super Touring Sprints
The fastest cars can be found in the Pirelli Super Touring Sprints, which features GT1 and GT2 classes. Rocco Marciello entered the weekend with a 55-point lead over Dan Corcoran in GT1, where the championship battle come down to the wire.
Corcoran qualified ahead of Marciello and finished in front of him in the first two races, before Marciello took care of business in a race three that was delayed due to inclement weather and ultimately shortened. He took the lead from Corcoran in the closing laps, as the windshield of Corcoran’s 2008 Chevrolet Impala stock car started to fog up, ending the season with a victory.
“It was an awesome battle; (Corcoran’s) a great competitor and we raced hard all year long,” said Marciello, talking about the championship fight. “Coming and winning overall (in race three) on the last weekend and to win the championship feels great…every race was fun and racing here, with these guys, is fun.”
The title is Marciello’s third straight and sixth overall; the recent championships coming aboard his current 2016 BMW M235iR ride.
“Having the heaviest car and the smallest car in the field, against all these high-horsepower cars, it’s a great feeling to be able to keep up with them, let alone beat them in the championship,” said Marciello. “We’re a family team and we prepare the car to perfection. Three back-to-back championships with zero DNFs feels amazing.”
In GT2, Pat Cyr entered with an 81-point lead in the standings over Geoff Johnson. Podiums in the first two races allowed Cyr to clinch the championship early.
“To work hard all throughout the off-season and leading into the season itself, to be able to pull this off, it’s quite rewarding for all the long hours that go in away from the track,” said Cyr. “Approaching every weekend with the mindset that we’re racing for October, that’s basically how we always approached things. Trying to be competitive week-in and week-out is important and sometimes not necessarily pushing and making mistakes is more important for the long haul.”
Cyr’s second championship in three years continues a streak of consecutive titles for RMP Competizione, which includes Daria Khachi winning GT2 last season. The team also unofficially claims the top two overall points totals between all GT classes, with Cyr scoring the overall title ahead of Marciello.
Pirelli Super Touring Sprints Winners (Celebration of Motorsport – provisional results):
Race 1: Anthony Martella (GT1), Chantal Carter (GT2); Race 2: Dan Corcoran (GT1), Carter (GT2); Race 3: Rocco Marciello (GT1), Geoff Johnson (GT2)
Pirelli Grand Touring Sprints
The championship battles went right to the finish in the Pirelli Grand Touring Sprints, which features GT3, GT4 and GT5 classes. Krystian Palka entered with a 45-point lead over Khachi in GT3, Hugo Girard entered with a 43-point advantage over Michael Sylvestre in GT4, and Stephen Di Cesare and Ron Rhead started the weekend tied for the GT5 points lead.
Palka won the opening race, before a fourth-place finish in race two, meaning he would need to start and complete more than half of the final race to secure enough points regardless of other results. A flat tire brought Palka’s 2003 BMW M3 to a stop in the turn one runoff, but with only a few laps to go in the delayed and shortened race, Palka was able to secure his first class championship.
“Even though I didn’t finish three races, I was still able to win, so feels very good,” said Palka, who won at least one race each weekend. “There are a lot of cars that are way faster on the straights than my car; it was a bit challenging, there’s a Subaru and some Porsches that are way faster on the straights, but at the end I was able to win most races over them.”
Sylvestre (GT4) and Rhead (GT5) also won championships.
Pirelli Grand Touring Sprints Winners:
Race 1: Krystian Palka (GT3), Michael Sylvestre (GT4), Stephen Di Cesare (GT5); Race 2: Jonathan Rashleigh (GT3), Sylvestre (GT4), Di Cesare (GT5); Race 3: Bruce Wylie (GT3), Sylvestre (GT4), Ron Rhead (GT5)
Miata Canada Cup
The inaugural season of the Miata Canada Cup concluded its four-weekend schedule at the Celebration of Motorsport. FEL Radical Cup Canada regular Owen Clarke entered with a 56-point lead over Matt White in the largest class (MCC1), while Di Cesare (MCCU) and Rhead (MCC2) already secured their class titles.
Clarke qualified ahead of White, finishing in front of him in races one and two to clinch the championship. Clarke finished runner-up to Kurt Langeveldt in the opening race before ending the season with two straight class wins. He was quick to praise the new series.
“It feels great; they built a really nice series here, it’s going to be great next year as more people see how much fun it is,” said Clarke. “It’s nice to have an inexpensive spec series; there are lots of spec series in Canada but none that are nearly as cost effective as the Miata Cup and Miatas are just awesome to drive.”
Clarke and White battled close all season, finishing on the podium together in nine of 12 races. The competition also stands out to Clarke.
“Me and Matt had a great race in the second two races (at Shannonville), side-by-side in every corner, it was really good,” he said. “Everybody’s racing really clean, no contact, and we’re having a good time racing within an inch of each other and not hitting. It’s really nice.”
Miata Canada Cup Winners:
Race 1: Kurt Langeveldt (MCC1), Ron Rhead (MCC2), Stephen Di Cesare (MCCU); Race 2: Owen Clarke (MCC1), Rhead (MCC2), Steve Gidman (MCCU); Race 3: Clarke (MCC1), Rhead (MCC2), Gidman (MCCU)
Formula Prototype Challenge
While most grids had three 25-minute races on the schedule, the Formula Prototype Challenge held two longer races (30 and 40 minutes). Kevin Poitras claimed the championship in the Platinum class, while a close points battle saw David Ivichek edge Tyson Balbosa for the Radical class title.
It was an eventful weekend for Ivichek, who couldn’t get a lap in during qualifying, due to a red flag, and lost fuel pressure within the last five minutes of race one, due to a clogged fuel filter, coming to a stop on the last lap. He was still able to finish third in class to maintain a slight advantage entering the finale.
“In this one, the car was flawless,” said Ivichek, after race two. “Got first-place right off the start and built the lead on the first three or four laps and just kept it together. I saw Tyson coming in at the end, he made me work for it definitely.”
Ivichek scored the victory to clinch the championship in his first season. He compares the Radical to a four-stroke kart; he says that you need a lot of roll speed and it’s got a whole lot of stick, an adjustment that he continues to learn with.
“I won six Canadian championships in karting and this is the same as a go kart, just a little quicker on straightaways; a bit more finicky on driving than a kart but it’s a beautiful car to drive,” said Ivichek. “After 30 years of racing, I’m still learning. These cars push you to the limit; they’re not overpowered, so you need to be really smooth. It’s just pushing myself to new limits.”
Formula Prototype Challenge Winners:
Race 1: Kevin Poitras (PL), Tyson Balbosa (RA); Race 2: Poitras (PL), David Ivichek (RA)
Formula Classic/Formula Libre/F4
VARAC and CASC-OR combined with four classes in the open-wheel grid.
Formula Classic/Libre/F4 Winners:
Race 1: Shepherd Aubry (F1200), James Morton (F4), Ed Luce (FH), Mike MacNeil (FL); Race 2: Aubry (F1200), Morton (F4), Luce (FH), MacNeil (FL); Race 3: Aubry (F1200), Morton (F4), Luce (FH), MacNeil (FL)
VARAC Classic/Modern Classic
Six classes made up the VARAC Classic/Modern Classic grid. Tim Sanderson won the first two races overall, in his 1982 Porsche 911SC, before missing the finale. Guy Tremblay finished third and second overall before winning race three in his 1999 Porsche 911.
“It was a good weekend; what I enjoyed the most was fighting with Marco Beretta (in race one),” said Tremblay. “I may not have won, but we had a great race and fought for 25 minutes; that was the best of the weekend for me.”
Beretta won the opening race by a mere 0.405 seconds over Tremblay but did not start the other two contests.
VARAC Classic/Modern Classic Winners:
Race 1: Del Bruce (CL-1), Jeff Pabst (CL-2), Tim Sanderson (CL-A), Peter Griesbach (MC-2), Marco Beretta (MC-A), Curtis Smith (VH-D); Race 2: Bruce (CL-1), Pabst (CL-2), Sanderson (CL-A), Griesbach (MC-2), Guy Tremblay (MC-A), Smith (VH-D); Race 3: Bruce (CL-1), Diane Dale (CL-2), Griesbach (MC-2), Tremblay (MC-A), Smith (VH-D)
VARAC Vintage Historic/Classic/Modern Classic
VARAC Vintage Historic/Classic/Modern Classic Winners:
Race 1: Perry Mason (CL-3), Bryan Rashleigh (CL-4), Simon Tomlinson (MC-4), Andre Gagne (VH-2), Anselmo Beretta (VH-3), Gord White (VH-4), Fred Samson (VH-5); Race 2: Russ Bond (CL-2), Mason (CL-3), Rashleigh (CL-4), Tomlinson (MC-4), Gagne (VH-2), Nick Pratt (VH-3), Ted Michalos (VH-4), Samson (VH-5); Race 3: Bond (CL-2), Mason (CL-3), Rashleigh (CL-4), Tomlinson (MC-4), Gagne (VH-1), Stefan Wiesen (VH-2), Pratt (VH-3), Michalos (VH-4), Samson (VH-5)
