The Ontario regional road racing season came to a close in early October, with points titles decided in various divisions and classes for the VARAC Drivers Challenge.
While the divisions featuring more modern cars are run by CASC-OR, the vintage racing categories are organized by VARAC. The club’s year-end standings have a different points structure, where the competitors’ best five weekends are counted, and is called the VARAC Drivers Challenge.
In the Modern Classic division, championships were won by Reg Akers (MC-B), Marco Beretta (MC-A), Guy Tremblay (MC-1), and Peter Griesback (MC-2).
While the newest form of vintage racing has smaller car counts than the others, it was not without competition in the biggest event. Akers drove his 1999 Ford Taurus stock car to uncontested victories in seven of his starts, but faced Ian Crerar and Blaise Csida in the annual Vintage Grand Prix.
The prestigious weekend is part of CTMP’s major event schedule. Csida took the class win in all four races, driving a 2002 Pontiac GP, while Akers finished second.
“Time for a full rebuild and we’ll come back out in the spring,” said Akers. “I want to win the Vintage Grand Prix, overall; I want to be the first guy across the line of all the vintage cars. Because the big boys come up for that event, it’s a challenge, but I’ll get there…that’s why I do this, it’s all for the Vintage Grand Prix, the rest is just practice.”
In the Classic division, Robert Offley won the A class championship.
Offley started the season with two podium finishes in his first five starts before finding his stride mid-summer. He won eight races in a row, then ended the year with three runner-up finishes in the Celebration of Motorsport.
“It’s been pretty good, it started slow but it’s got better during the season,” said Offley. “I had to do some work to the car over the winter and it took time to dial it in but it’s working really well now.”
Offley drove his 1972 Porsche 911 to more starts than any other driver in the A class this year, with consistency and improvements to the car guiding him to the title. The British expat is starting to become a veteran driver in VARAC.
“I came across here and started racing in 2014,” said Offley. “I had a 944 and now I have a 911 and just upgraded and got faster and (CTMP is) just a great track to drive on…it’s also good because everyone races fair and gives people space and it’s a good group to race with, so it’s really nice.”
Also in the Classic division, championships went to Martino Beretta (C-1), Alan Morris (C-2), Jeff Gardner (C-3), and Richard Muise (C-5).
Rocco Marciello and Bryan Rashleigh added to their CASC-OR GT titles by claiming the points crowns in the C-B and C-4 divisions, respectively, while running just the two main events on the calendar – the Vintage Grand Prix and the Peter Jackson Trophy Races. Marciello piloted a 1976 Triumph TR7, while Rashleigh raced a 1989 Toyota GTS.
Some of the oldest cars are found in the Vintage Historic division, which is split into five classes. John Hawkes drove a 1964 Merlyn MK6A to seven wins in 10 starts to earn the VH1 championship, finishing runner-up to Steve Gidman in his Vintage Grand Prix starts.
Ivan Samila piloted a 1970 Lotus 7S4 to seven wins in 11 starts en route to the VH2 championship; points titles also went to Phil Cooper (VH3), Jim Biscoe (VH4), and Stewart Wigg (VH5). Lastly, the oldest open-wheel cars compete in the Formula Classic division. Championships went to Doug Durrell (Formula Vee), Kevin Young (Formula Ford), Bob Patterson (F1200), and Paul Subject (F90).
