The Link - mco.org Link-2004-05.pdf · Web Site Manger • Aleida Dikland • C: (613) 298-5918 •...

The Link

2 Motorsport Club of Ottawa The Link May/Jun 2004 http://www.mco.org

Board of DirectorsPresident • Ron Woltman • H: (613) 831-8682 • W: (613) 863-5360 • [email protected] • Bennett Leckie • H: (613) 258-0348 • W: (613) 822-1765 • [email protected] Wheel • John Blouin • H: (613) 443-3507 • W: (613) 945-0329 • [email protected] Wheel, Public Relations • Sam Mandia • H: (613) 745-4227 • W: (613) 228-0250 • [email protected] II • Charles Payne • H: (613) 792-1083 • W: (613) 772-7349 • [email protected] Muise • H: (613) 241-9983 • W: (613) 765-9169 • [email protected] Microys • H: (613) 822-7204 • W: (613) 765-5744 • F: (613) 763-8312 • C: (613) 761-0306 • [email protected]

Appointed Officers and Executive MembersKarting • Paul Swinwood • H: (613) 720-3468 • W: (613) 237-8551 x133 • F: (613) 230-3490 • [email protected] • Craig Hamm • H: (613) 727-3192 • W: (613) 596-7107 • [email protected] I • Jeff Graves • H: (613) 258-0497 • W: (613) 843-3000 x5859 • [email protected] • David E. Butler • H: (613) 596-5518 • W: (613) 226-7755 x16 • F: (613) 828-4400 • [email protected] Membership • Albert CohoeTreasurer • Robert Benson • H: (613) 837-2051 • W: (613) 995-7374 • [email protected] • John Powell • H: (613) 835-2910 • F: (613) 835-3471 (call first) • [email protected] Merchandise Co-ordinator • Warren Haywood • H: (613) 286-6252 • D: (819) 682-5000 • [email protected] Site Manger • Aleida Dikland • C: (613) 298-5918 • [email protected] Editor • Steven Fong • C: (613) 868-0476 • [email protected] Editor • Alan Ritchie • H: (613) 745-6424 • [email protected]

Associated ContactsOntario Race Committee Rep • Cindy Armstrong • H: (613) 489-2725 • [email protected]

General meetings are held the first Tuesday of every month at 7 pm. All are welcome. Meetings are held at:

Louis’ Steakhouse1682 Cyrville RoadOttawa, Ontario

You can contact and find more information about the MCO by phone, web or mail.

Hotline telephone (613)788-0525

Web Site http://[email protected]

Hosted by:

MailM.C.O.P.O. Box 65006Merivale Postal OutletNepean, OntarioK2G 5Y3

RallySportOntario

Affiliated with

Canadian Automobile Sport Clubs - Ontario Region (CASC-OR)ASN Canada FIA

RallySport Ontario (RSO)Canadian Association of Rally Sport (CARS)

Ontario Kart Racing

Motorsport Club of Ottawa The Link May/Jun 2004 http://www.mco.org 3

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The LINK is the official publication of the Motorsport Club of Ottawa. The opinions expressed in the LINK do not necessarily reflect those of the LINK Editorial Staff or the Club’s Executive. Though all efforts are made to ensure that facts stated in the articles herein are accurate, the individual contributors should check the accuracy of their articles prior to submission.

A new award will be presented at this year’s MCO Awards Banquet in November. While the Golden Pen Award goes to the most prolific contributor of stories to The Link, the People’s Choice Writing Award will recognize the creative talents of just one writer.

Stories from Link issues from November 2003 to October 2004 will be eligible. As you receive each issue of The Link throughout the year, take note of the stories you like the best. In October, choose your favourite story and cast a vote. One member, one vote - but that’s not to say you can’t try to influence your MCO friends and family in this matter!

The purpose of this award is to recognize the best story in The Link. It might involve a motorsport memory, working an event, competing or perhaps a story of your favourite car, an incident, or a motorsport friend. It will be up to each member to cast a vote.

So keep track of your favourite story or, better yet, write one yourself. You might be the first winner of the extremely cool People’s Choice Writing Award!

Full page with web link $150Half page with web link $75

Quarter page $35Business card size $25

Business card size for MCO members FREE

The summer driving season is in full swing now. There are vacations to plan, races to see and competitions to prepare for. People are starting to go off and do their thing, whether it is Solo, Rally or Road Racing. A very busy time. So little time to prepare a club newslet-ter!

Set aside some of your summer time. There are a few MCO events that would greatly benefit from your sup-port. The Performance Control School is June 26. This driving school (Solo2 boot camp) is an introduction event to prospective MCO members. Spread the word to prospective students and/or volunteer some time for worker duty. There is also some small event called the Ted Powell Race Weekend on July 2-4. I hear it is might be a big deal (wink, wink). Can you wave a flag or do odd jobs? Volunteer for THE MCO EVENT of the year. You won’t be disappointed. You’ll never be this close to racing and the associated benefits...

This issue contains a few articles that detail the MCO’s operations just be-fore the summer season. These include the CASC-OR/MCO booth at the Ottawa-Hull International Car Show in March and the MCO Race School at Shannonville. There are some memories of classic racing moments. One pictorial of how off-road some rallies really get, another of Mr. Powell’s first enduro race. (Note: this editor didn’t exist before this enduro race ... not trying to say anything John).

I would also like to take some time to welcome CanUPease as a new MCO sponsor. They have supplied the club with a highly discounted collapsable tent. It is currently being used as the timing tent for Solo 2 events. Most weekend racers would definitely benefit with portable shelter to work on their cars. Please check out there new full page ad in this issue.

I know driving is what we do, and now is the time to do it, but still re-member the Link needs content. Send pictures, send email, send articles, hell send cookies (those soft ones please).


Subject: Re: Car show - HUGE SUCCESS and BIG THANKS!!!

Robert Microys writes:The bustle of ‘serious’ activity

started about last week at this time. The dust has now settled and I’ve been able to take a few spare breaths and now survey the scene.

The CASC-OR/MCO car show was a big success! I think we reached out and touched more people than ever before! Speedorama usually sees a pretty knowledgeable crowed when it comes to Solo II and a number of the CASC-OR divisions - but this time we have touched more people who have never heard about us than at any event before, that I have participated in. We handed out EVERYTHING. I’m glad that’s over for another year. I’ve learned a few new things about going to car shows. I would say that this show, although more expensive than ‘Speedorama’, provides a better forum to catch people’s attention, as the racecar was certainly an attention magnet for people of all ages.

Thanks are in order, to the following, I hope I remember everybody, I apolo-gize for anybody I left from this list :

- Ian Madden for graciously offering his freshly painted Touring GT Champion-ship car for the show.

- Perry, John and Steve at CASC-OR for springing for the cash to get the booth, car stickers, sending up the flyers, banner, to help spread the gospel and to make us all look pretty snappy!

- Bennett Leckie and Hovey Indus-tries for supplying their display booth to give a very nice backdrop for the booth.

- Jean MacGillivray for making a great display of photos and content showing club members in action, it was an eye catcher at the side of the booth, and certainly help to display the various disciplines (not to mention nicely cov-ered the big unsightly wall that the fudge booth setup next to us).

And of course to the booth workers, setup and tear down crew, the people who stood all day during their shifts, pro-moting CASC-OR and all of it’s divisions, and member clubs...

Tuesday Setup: Sherissa Microys, Gord Acorn

Wednesday Setup: Alan Ritchie, Charles Payne

Thursday: Alan Ritchie, Sam Mandia, Bud Limbrick

Friday: Richard Muise, Sherissa Microys, Jeff Graves

Saturday: Cindy Armstrong, Chris Krepski, Sherissa Microys, Sam Mandia

Sunday: Steve Pomeroy, Dave ButlerTear Down: Steve Pomeroy, Dave Butler,

Mike WhiteVideo tapes: Jim Holtom for providing

the CGTCC banquet tapes. Mike White in the #120 VW Jetta, which provided most of the stellar close in car racing action, with his huge slide at the top of 2 being a crowd favorite.

Thanks again! We couldn’t have done it without a lot of help!


I am just returned from a ‘quick’ trip

to Houston, Texas where I picked up a car I bought on E-Bay! It’s quite the interesting story, which I intend to tell at a later date, but for the moment, how-ever, another Legend is in the driveway. Okay, one small side bar from Canadian Customs.

There were two young and enthu-siastic male and female types who greeted me inside to “review my paper-work” (take my money) for the importa-tion of the “Legend”.

When the young, and not unattrac-tive female CCRA official asked me what type of car it was, I replied, somewhat confidently: “It’s an Acura Legend”, I said with a wry smile: “It’s the only car I could find with my name on it”!

Whereupon, until now silent young male official shot back without as much as a missed beat: “Your name is Acura?”

While I was able to help only the Sunday – having spent the Saturday in Toronto prepping for my role as Deputy Steward for the new Honda Michelin Challenge Series – MCO again outdid ourselves in putting on another very suc-cessful Racing School. I am NOT about to name all of the GENEROUS VOLUN-TEERS who contributed – as that has been done and we ALL know who they are – rather I simply want to say THANK YOU TO EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU.

This segues to my next topic. The Ted Powell Summer Trophy Races -- July 2, 3, 4 at SMP. Every club member

During the first two months of 2004, an analysis was made of actual membership costs and it was deter-mined that $ 60 per Single individual and $75 per Family for all members of the same family living at one residence address would be sufficient to maintain this Club as a viable entity associated to ASN Canada FIA and all of its affili-ated organizations in Racing, Rallying and Karting. Therefore, the decision to eliminate the Social Membership was taken. As far as the current By-Laws are concerned, this action has not been ratified but a motion to that effect will be drafted later this fiscal year for inclusion in the changes to be considered during the 2004 AGM in November. If you are currently listed as a Social Member, you will be able to discuss and to vote on the disappearance of that classification at that time, unless a Special Meeting is called or requested before the regular AGM.

From time to time, people have indicated that they would like to maintain an association with the Club without being classed as Members. Since the “Social” designation is disappearing, a suggestion off and on has cropped up for a designation simply known as

Friends of MCO (or FoMCO) being a registry of people affiliated with the club. These people may be additional resourc-es to whom the Club members can turn to for assistance – like during a Race Weekend or specialized services. Should there be a cost associated to that desig-nation? Maybe! If there are costs for the record keeping, then a nominal annual fee (say $15 or $20) could be assigned and a special Newsletter other than The Link, which is now posted for free on the MCO Website simultaneously with being sent out to members might be the result. Both current and former mem-bers are encouraged to comment on this suggestion. This is your Club, make it work for you!

Since taking over (again) as the Membership Chairman during the middle of last October, I have re-learned this position and all of the intricacies related to its functioning in what we hope you are finding to be a somewhat seam-less manner. There were probably a lot of designated members who did not receive a “new” member package nor their permanent membership cards and decals. For that, we can only apologize and attempt to do better in the future. If you were one of those individuals

owes it to him/herself to be there in one capacity or another. It should be consid-ered a per-requisite for MCO member-ship, I believe. Guaranteed to be FUN to boot. PLEASE SEE ME SO I MAY PUT YOUR NAME DOWN AGAINST A JOB!

Mike Lowe, principal author of the new completed “The Motorsport Club of Ottawa: The First Fifty Years”, was in attendance at the May meeting to announce officially the good news. THE BOOK IS FINISHED!!

In about 12 or so weeks it will be in your hands! If you have not ordered a copy, DO SO NOW. They will be all gone in a flash and no more copies will be printed.

See Donald Tarte.

or families and you would still like the package, please let me know. All new members since my take over either have or will receive that package. The only exceptions being those persons who failed to either re-issue or replace their 2003 membership payments that were stale dated during the drives to replace the Membership Chairperson. There are now only 15 former members in that cat-egory and their names are permanently in our records. No renewals will ever be issued to them without the replacement being paid.

Near the end of your current mem-bership, a Membership Renewal form (in one of 12 different colours) will be sent out to you. You are expected to sign your form and along with your cheque or a copy of your credit card receipt send it either directly to the Membership Chairperson or to the Club’s postal ad-dress. Issuance of your new cards and decals takes about two or three weeks. And, yes you may pay by credit card through the CASC-OR website, listed elsewhere in The Link.

BTW, you, the members are now more than 250 strong, making MCO one of the largest in the province. Congratu-lations!


Ontario Regional Race #1 -May 1-2 2004 – Mosport

After facing the conditions for the first race weekend, I think Baseball has the right idea. You know 47 people pull-ing a huge tarp across the infield, the TV commentators making small talk about nothing really important. If only ...

Well, it didn’t happen that way. A small turnout, miserable cold, fog, and wet conditions greeted us on Saturday morning and continued throughout the weekend. The reason we are all here is to race, rain is the great equalizer, when it rains it rains on everybody.

Stefany Malanka competed in both FF and GTD. In the Saturday race she finished 2nd and set fastest time for her class for the weekend. In the two races held Sunday Stefany finished 3rd in both events. In GTD, she finished 5th in all 3 races, even after a big spin at corner 5 during the last race.

Richard Muise, running in the TGTC finished 14th in the 20 min race, and 13th in the 40 min race. Richard was as smooth as always.

Matthew Cornford had an engine expire, I believe sometime on Saturday.

Sam Mandia running in F1200 finished 5th, 3rd, and 7th.

NOTES:From the drivers meeting – John

Bondar, the President of CASC an-nounced that CASC – OR is approaching 3000 members.

A new support service will now exist at all Regional events. Shortt’s Motorsports Support will be selling Leaf racewear at the track.

Contact – Garry or Sherry Shortt tel. – 1-519- 940-9960, e-mail: [email protected]

Next event BEMC May 15-16 Mosport

(below, pictures by Alan Ritchie) Ian Madden’s freshly painted

Touring GT Championship car sitting in the booth in the Congress Center.


Herewith the blow-by-blow saga of my first endurance race which, as noted in this month’s Miscellaneous Rumblings II, I wrote for the fall 1968 edition of R.P.M., The Journal of The Sports Car Club —Toronto. I have reproduced it in its entirety, the only changes being to correct spelling and grammar errors. It’s a look at a bit of history, but it also shows that, for the amateur racer, some things haven’t changed very much.

Unfortunately, I have no photo-graphs, as in all the panic surrounding the event none of us thought to take a camera, but that’s rather immaterial right now anyway, as my scanner just quit. Before we get on with the story, a word of warning: the style is, perhaps, not as polished (?) as my current ef-forts, and even more “wordy”, if that be possible. So for the strong and patient reader, here goes . . .

“1968 Sundown Grand PrixEver since I first spectated at the

Sundown G.P., it has been my intention to enter it when it became possible. This year that ambition was realised, however, if I had known that the prob-lems that appeared were part of it all, I probably wouldn’t have bothered. You’ll read all about them as Brian Hillis has requested several times that I write an R.P.M. article about our effort in this year’s event.

I suppose the best place to start is preparation. You know, it really takes a lot of work to convert a road car into a racing machine, and in the case of my M.G.-B, this process is not completed, as the engine is still virtually stock. We decided, in setting the car up for the Sundown, to concentrate on handling, and here the help of Tony Simms was invaluable. I shan’t go into all the details, one reason being that I’m not too sure that Tony would appreciate the fact that I might reveal some of his little secrets. Suffice to say that, as his car is probably the best handling ‘B’ in the area, we decided to duplicate his set-up

as closely as my limited budget would allow. The wide wire wheels were un-obtainable due to the postal strike any-way, as was the limited-slip differential, but we did intend to convert to close-ratio gears, had the time and money been available. Work on the cylinder head was a must, though, as we had blown a head gasket at the meeting at Harewood prior to the Sundown, and this was the cause of 75% of our prob-lems. We also intended to have Hugh McGregor port and polish the head, but due to a hold-up in the machine-shop, we only had time for a rough clean-up and a 50 thou. cut off the face. Up to this point, that is a week before the race weekend, everything had been progressing quite smoothly, but now the problems really began to appear.

The first such problem was the dual fuel pump set-up, something that is a must for a six-hour race due to the questionable reliability of the S.U. elec-tric unit. Lack of parts (fittings, hoses and brackets) at B.M.C. meant much running around for neoprene hoses, hose clamps, and jury-rigging my own bracket. The fitting problem was only solved after sitting on the floor of the showroom at Superior Automotive on Eglinton for two hours one Sunday afternoon, with two fuel pumps, hoses, millions of brass fittings, and a very patient sales clerk for company.

The next two nights’ work were un-eventful, except that bolts that should have come off easily were all seized up, and other minor irritations. Wednesday night the cylinder head came back from High, and Thursday morning it went out to have the seats faced. Thursday night Tony and his crew came over to help finish the preparation, and when they started to lap the valves in, it was found that the seats were not machined deep enough, and the valve guides hadn’t been reamed for clearance.

When I heard about this, my spirit fell to its lowest ebb, as I felt that we could never get the car ready in the one day that remained. At this point the moral support I received from a club

member who we all know proved to be invaluable. The assistance I received from Cliff Taylor for the rest of that night and all day Friday was the real reason that the car was sitting on the grid on Sunday. Other club members whose assistance was deeply appreci-ated were Mike Penny, Dave Jameson and Dave Halliday.

The car was finally finished at a quarter to five Saturday morning after much hard work by all of us, the only event worthy of note being a minor electrical fire while wiring in the lights. So all work done, we closed up and went to catch a few hours of sleep before heading out to Mosport for practice.

I towed the car out myself, having had only three hours of sleep, arriving about 12:30, and started to prepare the car for scrutineering. After getting through inspection, Tony’s crew came over and did a tune-up, while our crew sorted out other minor problems. One of these was a wiring mix-up that gave us ignition on the headlight switch, a problem soon cured by Tony when he went over the wiring with a volt meter. All through this I was getting in the way as I was worrying and fussing and not in the best condition due to lack of sleep. I was finally told in no uncertain terms that the best thing that I could do was quit bothering the workers and get some rest.

The final blow came during night practice, when, after Tony and I had done five laps each, the car started to run really rough. A compression test showed zero compression in number three cylinder, and when the valve cover was removed, we found that a valve had seized in the guide. Now I was really right out of it, tired, discour-aged, and so on. It got so bad that Tony told them to get me to bed, and as Cliff led me away, I was told not to show my face outside the tent before ten o’ clock the next morning.

After I was safely out of the way, Cliff, Mike and Dave went to work and pulled the head and removed all the


a

bb

b c

ed

fa) cap ....................................................$15b) windbreaker and track pants.............$40c) travel mug .........................................$6d) pen....................................................$7

case ..................................................$8pen and case ....................................$15

e) 2” diameter MCO badge ...................$3f) key chain...........................................$5

bits and pieces. They started in again the next morning, and by the time I got up were all well at work. After getting a new valve from the B.M.C. van, and bor-rowing a pushrod from Jim Vollink, who came up from Michigan for the race with his M.G.-B, the car was gassed-up and ready just in time for the sprint race.

The sprint race is worthy of mention only for two reasons. First, I missed a shift coming out of Moss’s, and bounced a valve, so I pulled in to the pits for one lap while it was checked out. The second was unin-tentionally testing the controllability of the car with our suspension work by getting all sideways going down Corner Two.

Up to this point I was still running on the (Pirelli) Cinturatos, which are excellent tires, but not quite up to the job, so after a look at the clouds, and praying that it wouldn’t rain, we went over to the Firestone truck and had a set of Indy 500s fitted. We were now all set to race.

Tony got off to a pretty good start, and soon settled down to two-minute laps, a good time when you consider that we are giving away at least 20 to 25 horsepower to the other M.G.-Bs, and we were running a full load of gas. We didn’t consider this to be a formida-ble handicap, however, as we gained in reliability some of what was lost in speed. This was borne out as the car ran consistently and well through Tony’s first driving session, except for a fluctuation in oil pressure while corner-ing. This was due to not having time to make up a deep oil sump, but the problem was solved by over-filling by one quart.

After about 2½ hours, Tony pulled in and after the car was gassed up, I went out. This being the first time that I had driven the car on the Firestones, I was not aware of the immense differ-ence in controllability and cornering power that they made. This difference was impressed upon me when I lost concentration for a moment and went into Corner Two a little too fast, and a little off line. When I crested the hill and put the power on to pull the car through the second apex, it immediately went dead sideways across the track for the second time that day. As the ‘B’ swung past the point that would have had the


Pirellis scrabbling for grip, I began to get quite concerned, remembering the condition of the TR3 that had barrel-rolled at that spot. Everything turned out OK though, as the Firestones merely scrubbed off the extra speed, enabling me to regain control and steer out of a very uncomfortable situation.

Two other points that I discovered during my turn at the wheel were that the Firestones, contrary to what I had been told, were not uncontrollable in the wet (it did rain a little after all), so long as the track is not really wet. I found this out when I started to pull back on an (Sunbeam) Alpine that had passed me in the dry. The last point is that a stock engine is nowhere up that long back straight at Mosport, because as it began to dry out again, the Alpine just out-dragged me up to Corner Eight. The worst part of the lack of power was not when the other three ‘B’s just drove past me up the straight, but when I caught up to the Ecurie Shoestring M.G.A. 1600 Mk. 2, I had to slipstream him up the hill and out-brake him going into Corner Eight to get past.

After about two hours’ driving, I began to feel a bit tired and the engine began to overheat a little, so I decided to pull in a little early and have the water level checked, and also to hand over to Tony for the remainder of the race.

Things began to look a little better in the positions, as one by one the faster cars began to have their little problems, and quite a few retired. Our

car ran steadily, except for one stop for water, with the engine sounding quite good. We had moved into the top ten, much to my surprise, during my driving stint, and Tony moved us up one more position while he was at the wheel. Then came the last lap.

We were all waiting for Tony to ap-pear, figuring that he would be due just as the flag fell, as he had been turning laps of two minutes even. At 2:05 we wondered where he was, at 2:15 we were a little concerned, at 2:25 we were downright worried, but at 2:35 he appeared and took the flag, the ‘B’ running at a very odd angle. When he pulled into the pits, we found the left rear tire flat. We had checked tire clear-ance earlier on, and although they were rubbing on the inside of the wheel well, we had not considered it to be critical. In fact it was, as the tire had finally let go when Tony was going down through the chute at about 95 m.p.h., and he only just managed to keep the car under control.

When everything was all straight-ened out, we found we had finished in 8th position. Tony considered this to be a very good showing, considering the state of tune of the car and the prob-lems that we had encountered, and I was also quite pleased with our effort. The final satisfactory touch, though, was receiving a cheque for $70.00 in the mail a couple of weeks later. Now I could replace the $50.00 tire that was destroyed. Racing does cost money!”

Well there you are, folks, the end

of a story which now seems almost as old as the Icelandic Sagas � and just as long. You will note that a club news-magazine editor’s continual pleas for contributions is not a new problem, so Steve, take heart.

Jim Vollink (the borrowed push-rod, remember) was quite concerned about getting back home to Michigan if we bent his pushrod in the race. Cliff Taylor, ever the pragmatist, calmed his fears by reminding him that there would be seven others left, and it was unlikely that all of them would be destroyed too. As for the tire clear-ance, under the SCCA rules we were running then, the outside of the fender had to remain stock, so we couldn’t flare them and run wheels with more offset. The fix for the ‘B’ was to cut the inside of the wheel well and move it back about three inches, as was done on Tony’s car. We hadn’t had it done on my ‘B’ prior to the race due to time and money issues, but after the incident with Tony driving, the car didn’t even get off the trailer when we got home. It went straight to George Comacchio’s Europa Coach Works in Milton, Ontario, for the fix. Oh, and one final point, we actually got prize money at some races back then!

And for those interested in sta-tistics, below are the final results of the 1968 Sundown Grand Prix, and MCO old-timers may find some familiar names here:


NORTH TORONTO MOTORSPORTS CLUBSUNDOWN GRAND PRIXSUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 1968- PERMIT No. FIA-CAN-68-8 -________________________________

THE SEVENTH ANNUAL SUNDOWN GRAND PRIX OF ENDURANCE

Pos. Car # Driver Car Laps Time1 8 Maurice Carter / Nat Adams Camaro Z-28 190 6 1:28.42 33 Rainer Brezinka / Horst Petermann Porsche 904 189 6 1:58.03 51 Chris Harrison / Dick Brown Chevy II 189 6 2:07.24 471 Cam Champion / John Mann MGB 178 6 1:41.05 305 Leon Alain / Norhand Perron Camaro Z-28 176 6 2:09.06 302 Doug Weaver / Robert Long Camaro Z-28 174 6 2:08.017 110 Fritz Haefele / Fritz Hochreuter Porsche RSK550 171 6 3:06.08 296 John Powell / Tony Simms MGB 170 6 1:33.09 950 John Trevethick / Tim Eddington Sprite 169 6 3:05.510 116 Gill Baker / Bill Johnston Morgan 4/4 167 6 3:15.211 201 Ron Schantz / Paul Lambke Austin Cooper S 166 6 2:17.012 100 John Cordts / Stan Ward Shelby 350 163 6 3:07.413 101 Bob Attrell / Bob Griffith Volvo 122S 163 6 3:33.014 109 Ken Christensen / Ed Hicken Sunbeam Alpine 151 6 3:14.015 361 Stephen Bell / Dave Lawler Camaro 149 6 2:48.016 125 David MacKenzie / Peter Bell Lotus S7 143 6 2:13.017 53 Keith Arkley / Harold Hunter Sprite 141 6 3:15.018 63 Bob Tanner / Paul Strangways Lotus Cortina 139 6 2:58.019 174 John Baldridge / Richard Harms Sprite 138 6 1:38.020 28 D. Lincoln Kinsman / Al Souter Lotus Super 7 121 6 3:14.221 0 Gord Brown / Ted Powell Barracuda 85 6 2:12.0

D.N.F. 145 Don Lowe / Craig Hill TR4A 141 Louis Donolo Jr / Rudy Bartling Elva BMW 25 Doug Durrell / Doug McArthur Kiki Mk III 6 John Barton / Jack Boxstrom Barco Chev 13 Paul Bowen / Terry Welch Corvair Corsa 114 Doug Hoy / Ted Lorenz MGB 850 Bill Brack / Tom Spencer Austin Cooper 480 George Ferland / Ron Evans MGB 115 Bill Brewer / Jerry Romanick MGA Mk II 84 Martin Chenhall / Werner Gudzus Corvair Stinger 118 Eric Cassidy / Eppie Wietzes Shelby GT350 441 Randy Fraser / Andrew Aitken Triumph Spitfire 154 Richard Puertas / Gordon Harrison Ginetta G4 157 Francis Bradley / Peter Hanes MGA

Elapsed Time: 6 hours, 1 minute, 28.4 seconds

Fastest Lap: No. 14, Car No. 141, Time 1:40.8


Meeting starting at 6:30pm

AttendeesRon Woltman, Jeff Graves, Richard

Muise, Sam Mandia, Dave Butler, Bennett Leckie, Charles Payne, Bob Benson, Aleida Dikland, Steve Fong, Alan Ritchie, Jim Mor-row, Jean McGillivray, Evan Gamblin, Klaus Willroider

Secretary- It will be hard to replace the wonder-

ful work done by the former secretary John Powell. However a new club secretary is required.

Ted Powell Weekend- A meeting had been held about the

Ted Powell weekend on March 9th.Attendees were Ron Woltman, Sam

Mandia, Aleida Dikland, Richard Muise, Paul Swinwood and Bob Armstrong. A draft schedule for Friday’s activities was put forward. It had about 110 minutes for each group (each level of lapping, plus open and closed wheel test sessions for race cars). It was felt that there would not be as many open wheel cars and that time not used by them would be given to the other (non-rac-ing) lappers. A

- This evening, a second proposal was put on the table that provided for 120 minutes of testing for the race vehicles in 3 sessions throughout the day. Non-race vehicles would get about 170 minutes. The costs would be lower for lapping as that longer time would be split over a much larger number of drivers (the track is about $1500 per hour of operation). There was no specific allocation of track time for workers or for open wheel testing.

- The track booking for Friday was extended to 1800hrs. According to SMP, there is no restriction on the on-track start time, but it was agreed that it would be no earlier than 8:30am.

- Sam Mandia again mentioned that there was likely to be a low turn out for

open wheel vehicles.- A brief discussion was made over the

number of lapping groups - three vs four. Scheduling was easier with four groups.

- A estimate of track workers was 4-5 per track or about 9-10 for long track. The new Friday schedule did not use Pro Track except for the race vehicle test sessions.

- Bennett mentioned that last year had 62 paid lappers, and he expected the at-tendance might be higher this year.

- Charles proposed that we vote to accept the schedule as our starting point, as it was able to accommodate everyone’s needs. For: 4, Against: 0, Abstain: 1. Vote passed.

- Dave suggested that we find a sepa-rate weekend for the lapping activities next year, and there was general agreement.

Treasurer- Bob reported $42,691 in the bank of

which there is $25,132 disposable income.- The current status of the winter activi-

ties was showing a profit of $8,488.

Race School- Rob Microys submitted a report that

the school was low on entries. He sug-gested that it will pick up as the date gets closer, but urged everyone to put out the word.

- Richard will bring up the school at ORO (March 17th) and discuss with the VARAC representative.

Flyers- All disciplines in MCO are asked to

forward pictures of their activities to Steve Fong for inclusion in the new MCO flyer. This flyer would be used to represent the club activities to interested people (i.e. Car shows). Deadline was for the next monthly meeting.

Web- Aleida showed some handouts of

the upcoming web site changes. It will take about a day to switch over to the new layout. During the switch over time, there would be a temporary page indicating that the web site was being redesigned.

Solo- Jeff would be attending the CSC/Solo

open house in April.- Charles asked for some new equip-

ment, including a new laptop and tent. The laptop would come in around $300 for a used Pentium-266 and required PCMCIA cards. The PCMCIA cards would provide extra serial ports for our timing hardware.

- He brought up a company that could do a personalized three-colour MCO tent

10x10 feet. Normally this would be $1200, but if we were willing to display the name of the tent manufacturer on the tent, the price would be closer to $550 plus shipping. This was approved.

- Pat Weightman appears to be willing to loan the timing display again this year.

- Charles has already started discus-sions with the Corel Centre, but scheduling is still a problem until the Senators season is over.

Other- Sam has received a large sponsor-

ship package from Sunoco. The contents will be distributed to all MCO disciplines.

- Ron would like to donate some filing cabinets for storage of the MCO club docu-ments (historical and otherwise). Richard agreed to take them in a few months. John Powell would like to move his extensive files.

- Sam has been contacted by Gleb Esman, who would like to be the club photographer. A number of issues were brought up, including ownership of the images, insurance and taking pictures of license plates.

- Dave has two quotes for bulk pur-chasing wristbands. It was estimated that we might require 5000+ for this year.

- Dave noted that the membership was now up to date. Jeff agreed to test the new online CASC-OR membership renewal and report back. The membership forms have been updated to reflect the new fees. Aleida agreed to look into online credit-card processing - the winter schools had about 10% no-shows.

- Steve was still working on the March/April issue. The deadline for articles is 2 weeks before printing.

- Richard noted that the twice-monthly email notice has been set up and the first messages sent out. It is open to anyone on the internet. It lists upcoming MCO activities, meetings, regional meetings and international motorsport events (i.e. TV viewing schedule). The signup page is on the MCO web site.

- The 2004/2005 club insurance has been submitted.

- The MCO 50th Anniversary book is only days away from going to press.

Meeting closed, 8:50pm.


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In Britain they call them punctures. A puncture is something that happens to people who wear ascots and drink gin and tonics while the kitchen staff roast the pheasants that were blasted out of the sky during the morning hunt. Unlike those ascot wearers, I have flats, not punctures, and I have had a lot of them. I have had a flat with nearly every car I have owned. Although it is probably not a record, it certainly feels like one.

My first car was a white 1971 Peu-geot 204 4-door sedan that I bought in 1976 when I was a student. A couple of months after I bought it, on a cool cloudy late spring day I was leaving campus to go home and a rear tire went flat. A bolt had pierced the Michelin. The next few minutes might have been fun to watch as a “funniest home video”. I had to consult the owner’s manual several times because the necessary pieces of equip-ment were hidden all over the vehicle in places that were not obvious to me. The jack was hidden in a compartment in the trunk, but the twisty handle thing that is used to turn the jack’s screw was clipped to the bodywork underneath the front hood, of all places. I panicked when I did not see a spare in the trunk but then remembered that it was underneath the trunk, hanging “outside” near the gas tank. Naturally, the spare’s holding brack-et was rusted stuck. I also remember that the wheels on that car had 3 bolts, which made me nervous somehow.

About a year later I owned a 1974 FIAT 128 (the ownership of which would be a good topic for a separate article) and was living in Toronto. I was traveling on the 401 eastbound, and crossing over from the express lanes to the collec-tor lanes near the falsely named Allen Expressway. The right front tire started to soften very quickly. Luckily I was in the right lane at the time and got onto the shoulder without drama. I only remember two things from that episode, that the wheel had 4 bolts, and how noisy it was underneath an overpass on the 401 near midday. Less than a year later, that same tire, which I had by then mounted on the rear, went flat in Stratford, Ontario. We were headed there for a play and made it

with plenty of time to spare, due partly to my growing expertise in wheel changing. The tread had separated, probably start-ing near where the tire had been repaired. I remember that the tire was very hot to the touch.

I then owned two Hondas in succes-sion, a red 1980 Accord sedan and a blue1984 Accord hatchback. I did not have any flats in the red 1980 model but had 2 of my 3 automobile accidents with it instead, the first occurring 2 days after taking delivery. Given the 2 accidents, a flat would have been superfluous for that car, over the top, even. But the ’84 Ac-cord’s right front tire was punctured by a bolt in the second year that I owned it.

Next came a 1986 Toyota MR2, red as can be. I did not have any flats with it, in the strict definition of the word, but I had to have 3 of the tires re-mounted because of air leaks. It was at that time that my hatred of alloy wheels began. And even though it was red, I had no acci-dents with it. Just after the MR2, I owned a 1980 VW rabbit, which was in really sad shape. I never had a flat with it but that’s about all that did not go wrong. That was the only car I have ever taken to a scrap yard. A friend and I had lunch on the $50 that I was paid for it.

At around that time my ex owned a 1985 Honda Civic on which I had a flat on the way to a long weekend’s stay in Ottawa. We were living in Toronto at the time.

After the Rabbit I owned a 1984 Tercel hatchback that was used mostly in ORRC’s. We flattened and ruined two Dunlop winter tires, ripping a 2 inch tear through the sidewall of one during PM-SC’s President Prize rally one year. I can-not remember where we were when we had the other flat. After the Tercel came a 1986 Colt Turbo, an underrated car that had the most sensible transmission ratios I have owned. Its 5th gear was a true over-drive, yielding low rpm at highway speeds out of a 1.6 litre engine. Now, why can’t others do that? There were no flats with the Colt but the previous owner had stripped the threads on the lug bolts by using non-metric nuts so when I tried to put on winter rims I had to pay someone a lot of money to install new bolts on all 4 wheels while I nursed back spasms.

After the Colt came a brand spank-ing new red 1992 VW Golf, which I sold 8 months later to be replaced by a 1992 Suzuki Swift GT, for reasons that I cannot

remember. In turn, I kept the Suzuki for only about a year. No flats with either car but had I owned them longer, I am certain that I would have. By acting quickly, I cheated fate. The next car, a 1991 Honda Civic, gave me unbelievable gas mileage, no flats, and a sore back from the too-reclined driving position.

By the way, the red 1992 Golf was hit by someone while parked by the curb a couple of weeks after taking deliv-ery. This was my 3rd of 3 lifetime auto accidents, all of them happening with a red car. I do not wish to make an invalid statistical inference by asserting that accidents are caused by owning red cars. But I do not see how my life would be improved by gathering further experimen-tal evidence either so I will never buy a red car again.

The Civic was replaced with a 1990 Subaru Legacy sedan, whose right front tire was pierced by another bolt, but only after I had installed new tires. After the Legacy came a 1995 Ford Escort GT, a nice fun car except for a short 5th gear whose purpose defeats me. What’s the point of an overdrive that isn’t? The right rear went flat, another bolt, technically on the 401 but this time I was on the exit ramp at Bayview Road so I did not feel so at risk when changing that tire, compared to the FIAT episode several years before.

After the Escort came another Leg-acy Sedan, a 1993, which remained “flat free”, but it made up for that by dropping a flywheel onto the pavement in Graven-hurst. Months later, someone offered me more for the Legacy than I thought it was worth and I quickly replaced it with a Jetta whose tires were in such terrible condition that the mechanic who certified it should have been investigated. Still, ignoring reality, I left for a driving vaca-tion to the Charlevoix area in Quebec, where not only did I have a flat but had to buy a used tire from a local garage. The flat happened on highway 40, just west of Quebec city, on Labour Day, where I learned a lesson about keeping spare tires properly inflated, especially on statutory holidays when service stations in small villages are closed. I bought new tires after the vacation, an excellent example of bad timing. After moving to Ottawa, I managed to put another bolt into one of those new tires last summer. I sold that Jetta last year and am now using my wife’s Golf, which has remained flat-free, so far. But it won’t last.


Subject: Re: An Incident during the 2003 Tall Pines Rally

How about 3 at a time, times 2 for the story in pictures.

During my working stint for the above-noted event, the car shown in these pictures was competing and then suddenly, it just wasn’t there. A local resident brought out his equipment and extracted the car from its lucky rest-ing spot over the side of the cliff. Hope you like this pictorial story! ... Dave B.

----- Original Message -----From: David E. ButlerTo: Ross WoodSent: Friday, May 07, 2004 5:29 PMSubject: An Incident during the

2003 Tall Pines Rally

Ross: Sometime next week I hope to send you pictures of an extraction of one of the competitors in the sec-tion where I was working on last year’s event. Unfortunately, I misplaced the email address of the citizen who just happened to be living at the right place with the right type of equipment to get the competitor out. If you review where I was posted because of a bulldozer on the side of the road, you may be able to get his email address again. It occurs to me that it was something like name @ look.ca. I’ll check my notes again and see if I can find that address.

...{exerpt deleted}... Neverthe-less, as I am preparing to become Ryan Huber’s backup as the Safety Officer for The Black Bear Rally at the end of June, I started thinking about your efforts for The Tall Pines and realized that I must get those pictures to you. It should prove to be an interesting local story.

... David E. Butler

Subject: An Incident during the 2003 Tall Pines Rally


Whether he’s wearing fatigues or a racing suit, Maj.-Gen. Lew Mac-Kenzie is a force to reckon with.

Canada’s most famous peacekeeper will be leading an army of horsepower through the twists and turns of the island when he competes in September’s 2004 Targa Newfoundland rally.

“It’s pretty unique,” MacKenzie told The Sunday Independent in an exclusive from his home in Bracebridge, Ont. “I mean where else can you close off the roads to the towns and villages and the people, rather than protest, will turn out to cheer and watch the event.”

The Targa is unique to this prov-ince and is a first in North America. A European creation, the rally offers no prize money, just plates (which in Italian means targa) for the winners of each

her somewhat shocked son to turn around and take her back to her home in Truro, N.S.

“So I never really did make it,” says MacKenzie.

Retiring from the military in 1993, MacKenzie is recognized as one of the most experienced peacekeepers in the world. Even superpowers like the U.S. regularly call upon Canada’s most-recog-nized soldier for his peacekeeping skills.

MacKenzie and co-driver Nigel Mor-timer will bring their decades of racing experience, which include everything from stock cars to open-wheel formula Ford cars, to the event which is quickly gaining international recognition. Com-peting in a specially prepared Dodge SRT “pocket rocket,” the pair hopes to add one more trophy — they are consid-

he was on the phone to Mortimer, who almost “came through the phone” with excitement over the idea of competing in Targa Newfoundland.

But for the soldier who made his name confronting bandits and rebels in the former Yugoslavia, he says the fear of losing control of a car at full throt-tle and staring down the barrel of an enemy’s gun are two different things.

“It’s a different type of adrenaline,” he says. “It’s not like Sarajevo’s six months of adrenaline where you’re not hungry and you’re not tired because you are working on adrenaline, which is, you know, a self-produced drug,”

The race, he says, is often much less stressful than preparing the car, attracting sponsors and getting the car to the track.

When the thrill of driving a car to its limits, and sometimes beyond, turns to fear, he says that’s when he’ll know that it’s time to hang up the racing suit and watch the races from the pits or on TV.

“When the first lap of the first event of the season is fear rather than excite-ment (it’s time to quit), and you never know when that’s going to happen.”

While preparing the car for the track is very much a team sport, MacKenzie says things change once the green flag is dropped.

“It’s the opposite of a team sport …when you are in the race itself, it’s a very individual sport.”

Being a soldier in the Canadian Armed Forces has helped his racing through the organizational skills he developed on dozens of military opera-tions, which require meticulous planning. But racing also helped him communicate with his soldiers who often had more pimples on their faces than stripes on their arms.

“It’s a helluva gap both by age and by rank. I always say that Canadian sol-diers have got two things on their minds: Their girlfriends in one hand and their car keys in the other.”

http://www.theindependent.caReprinted from the The Sunday

Indempendent, Newfoundland and Labrador

stage. Covering 2,200 kilometres of roads that wind through the eastern and central part of the province, the drivers compete against the clock with specific sections set aside for full-out racing. The event, which debuted in 2002, attracts competitors from across the globe.

“So that to me is as close to a race on public highways as you can get, especially with the faster cars starting at the back every day separated by 30 seconds.”

MacKenzie led the international peacekeeping force in Sarajevo and was responsible for saving thousands of lives when he managed to reopen the airport to international mercy flights.

Given that his mother was born in Harbour Breton, the race is a sort of homecoming for MacKenzie. With his only memories of his late-mother’s home being “faded-yellow pictures,” a few years ago he tried to bring his mother home on a pilgrimage. After getting off the ferry in Port aux Basques and driving 300 kilometres, his mother decided that the trip home was just too far and asked

ered to be one of the strongest contend-ers in the event — to the hundreds that already line the walls of their respective homes.

Mortimer has prepared MacKenzie’s formula Ford car for years.

“He quit (driving) three or four years ago because he felt he was too old and he was so humiliated watching me race,” says MacKenzie, who’s a few older than Mortimer. “So we embarrassed him into starting again and I’m delighted he’s back.”

Beginning his racing career while stationed in Germany in 1975, Mac-Kenzie admits that his vintage presents some unique challenges when being “obsessed with driving” meets the mid-dle-age spread.

“During the winter a guy my age has to workout every day just to make the (seat) belts fit in the spring in the open-wheel car,” says MacKenzie.

In fact, he was working out on a treadmill and watching a videotape of the first Targa when he decided to enter the rally. The tape had barely finished and


May 2004

photo by : Flair Photo

Why? …… Because it’s fun! … O.K., maybe

that’s a bit skimpy. What I mean is that motor racing is fun and that’s why I race. And it’s satisfying, and challeng-ing, and … well folks, this is another of my works that started with a few notes and then grew … and grew … and …. sort of turned into something like an essay. So, read on …

Why I race - the short answer.I’ve been asked several times why I

drive a racing car, and especially “… at your age?”, and I guess that the short answer really is because it’s fun. But there’s more to it than that, much more. There’s the mental and physical chal-lenges; the sense of satisfaction when things go right and coping successfully when things go wrong; the sense of accomplishment when driver and car are performing on the edge without going over it, and better yet, managing to save it if you do go over the edge; and measuring your performance against a fellow competitor, to name a few characteristics. In other words, it has all the essentials of participating in a worthwhile and enjoyable athletic activity.

But is it a “real” sport?There has in the past been a gen-

eral feeling by many people, especially some sports announcers and those in “establishment” sports such as track and field, that motor racing as not a “real” sport, and racing drivers aren’t “real” athletes. A few, who should know better by now, are still of this opinion, which I find extremely irritating. Much of what I have to say in this article about the various aspects of our sport is addressed to these doubters, and I’d first like to make a couple of introduc-tory points.

Motor racing in general, and road course racing in particular, is one of the few athletic endeavours that continually challenge both the mind and the body over extended periods of time, under adverse physical conditions, and where the consequences of mischance or error can be immediate and extensive, both financially and physically. My con-tentions, and I would like to emphasise them, are that motor racing is ath-letic, even at the amateur “weekend

warrior” level, and that most of our amateurs really are just that! Unlike establishment “run and jump” and simi-lar sports, for our amateur athletes there’s no government support. We have no “carded” athletes receiv-ing monthly Federal government subsidy cheques, nor, in Ontario at least, any level of government building training and competition facilities for us, or providing free training and coaching, whether by the governments themselves or through Universities or other agen-cies.

Our amateur provides, amongst other things, his/her own tools, equip-ment, training, and through entry and other fees, track time, facilities, vehicle recovery and emergency medical sup-port. In addition, he/she does most of the equipment (race car) preparation him/herself. All the financing for this comes from themselves or their fami-lies, and occasionally for the fortunate ones, some help from sponsors, mainly in the form of discounts on equipment repairs, parts, service and supplies. And despite the lack of government support, our sport has produced many “world class” athletes, who actually win races and champion-ships at the highest levels, and are renowned, and some even revered, worldwide. There are many ex-amples, but I only need one here - Gilles Villenueve!!!

So what’s “athletic” about prepping a race car?

Let’s now look at the challenges of the “grunt” work. As noted, owner/driv-ers at the amateur level working with a limited budget, have to do most of the car preparation themselves. Is this athletic? Well how about: lugging around heavy parts; climbing in, around and under the car to work on it; heaving on nuts and bolts that don’t want to budge; cleaning and polishing; and, making adjustments that are delicate but also need an application of significant force. All this requires physical strength, and control of that strength, conditioning, and flexibility. As for mental exercise, brain twisters in such areas as planning, organizing, analysis and evaluation, problem-solving, decision-making, and continual monitoring against objec-


tives often bedevil the mind. A racing mechanic is not just a “grease monkey”, but has to be an intelligent, skilled technician (at the higher levels of the sport, many are graduate engineers), and also has to be in excellent physical condition. His/her effective and effi-cient contributions are essential, as the best driver in the world won’t win races in a poor car or one that breaks down, and, to emphasize the point again, our amateur owner/driver usually is this technician for his/her car.

O.K., but what about just sitting in a car and driving around?

This aspect is where our week-end warrior shares a lot with the top professional drivers, the main difference being, perhaps, the level of intensity. Both mental and physical conditioning, excellent vision and reflexes, and a high degree of controlled strength are es-sential to success, even at the amateur level.

Regarding the physical aspect, balancing the car on the edge of control exercises all of the body. Lower body muscles are used for: braking and accelerating; simultaneously coordinat-ing the clutch and accelerator when changing to a higher gear, and adding to these, the brakes when down-shift-ing; frequently making delicate precise corrections in braking force and the ap-plication of power; and, while all this is going on, resisting “g” loads in all four directions and continually sensing the behaviour of the car through the “seat of your pants”. Upper body muscles are used for: steering, again making fre-quent delicate and precise corrections while sensing and reacting to feedback through the steering wheel; changing gears; constantly moving and focusing the eyes, and controlling the move-ment of the head; and, again, while at the same time resisting “g” loads in all directions.

The use of muscles to perform these tasks not only involves movement and the direct application of force, and resistance to the application of exterior forces, such as the “g” loads mentioned above, but also applying direct force with one set of muscles while apply-ing a controlling counter force with the

opposite set. A good example here is in maintaining control during cornering. For a left hand corner, the right side of the upper body is applying force to steer the car in the desired direction, while the left side is applying varying degrees of counter force to regulate movement of the steering wheel in order to avoid excessive inputs. Such excesses would upset the balance of the car, frequently bringing disastrous results.

As for mental exercise, consider playing a game of chess in your mind with an equally skilled opponent while driving down an icy road, albeit one with which you are familiar, as quickly as you dare because it’s an emergency trip. The road itself goes up and down hills and around left and right hand turns of varying radii, and these often traverse those hills, thus making them “blind” corners. Now to make things interesting, let’s say that in addition to having to avoid losing control of the car through a physical miscalculation or not adapting to changing road conditions, every time you lose a piece through mental error, you also momentarily lose control of the vehicle, thus slowing you down, with the severity dependent on the rank of the piece. Further, if your King comes under “check” you go off the road, and have to stop then try to get going again. And if you come under “check mate”, you’re off the road and in the ditch with, at a minimum, severe damage to the car.

Muddying the waters even more, your opponent’s moves, mistakes, and responses to your moves are frequently unpredictable, so that you’re continually faced with having to change tactics and strategy. Oh yeah, and that’s all just for the guy in front that you’re trying to pass. There’s another driver behind who’s trying to get past you, and you’re playing another game of chess with him or her at the same time. And if you’re in a pack of several cars all trying to pass each other, and at the same time being lapped by a faster car or lapping a slower car, … let’s just say it all gets really “interesting”.

If you understand this analogy, you will appreciate that a racing driver’s mind must be receiving, analysing, and evaluating data and making deci-sions on several planes simultaneously. He/she is continually processing and

reacting to physical feedback from the vehicle and visual observations of the road direction, conditions and traf-fic; assessing opponents’ moves and mistakes and developing short-term tactics to take advantage of them; and, monitoring all of these factors over time and amending his/her long-term strategy in order to achieve the best finishing result possible under the particular circumstances. All of this mental effort, together with the physical effort outlined previously, is expended continually and simultaneously with little opportunity to relax, even on long straights, for periods of time ranging from twenty minutes to two hours or more at a stretch. Compounding this is a hot, smelly and sometimes dusty environment, usually with little or no ventilation, and wearing a helmet and fire resistant driving suit, which by their nature, do not breath well. My argu-ment, then, is that motor racing is a sport, and it is athletic. In fact, it is one of the most satisfying, but also one of the most demanding of athletic sports - period!

So it’s a sport and it’s athletic, but what about you, you old fart?

Well as I said at the start, racing is challenging, satisfying, good mental and physical exercise, and just plain fun. Now, why do I race at sixty-three and a half year’s of age?

It’s a bit of a story, and one I’ve gone into before, so I’ll just summa-rize a little. I had been farming part-time for about 16 years, raising veal calves, which lost money, adding a few sheep, and losing more money, and finally changing to a small cow-calf beef operation. I didn’t lose as much money with the beef, but the damage was done, and I finally had to give it up in 1998. A few years later I was looking for something to do in my retirement, and in 2000 some money became available in my RRSPs. I considered returning to farming, but decided that it was ridiculous to raise beef at a loss so that the major supermarkets could sell it at a handsome profit, and this was before the current BSE crisis. As I had raced in the 1960s with some degree of success, and had enjoyed myself thoroughly, I decided to investigate a


return to racing in a Vintage car, espe-cially if I could find the 1965 MGB that I had raced in 1969. I found the car at the 2000 Vintage festival at Mosport, but the current owner wasn’t interested in selling it, so I began searching for another car.

In the spring of 2001 bought a race-ready 1983 GTC Mazda RX7 and formed Team RRSP (Registered Racer’s Savings Plan). I spent the rest of 2001 and all of 2002 in trying to convince CASC that I was not too old and de-crepit to drive, passing the time run-ning the car in Mosport Test Days, and adding Solo I in 2002, where I finished the season first in my class, admittedly against sparse fields. My medical was finally accepted by CASC in the spring of 2003, I received a new Novice Race Licence, and went racing again in the CASC Regional GT Sprints series.

My first season back was fun, but it did have its challenges. First and fore-most was a very steep learning curve due to technological improvements over the last thirty or so years, and which I have not yet fully mastered. Much more is know today about vehicle dynamics, and even the amateur driver has to be much more well versed in what makes a car perform well, such as suspension geometry and set-up, aerodynamics, and tire technology to name a few. Also, the level of grip of modern tires is light years ahead of what I knew back in the ‘60s, and I am still learning how to assess their limits of adhesion. I cur-rently race on Toyo RA1 “R” rated radial tires, which are technically street-legal, and the grip level greatly exceeds even that of the pure racing tires that I ran on the MGB. I estimate that, if the Toyos had been available in 1969, I could have knocked off up to four seconds a lap from my best time at Mosport in the “B”, and four seconds a lap is a long time in motor racing.

There were other issues to deal with too. We had some problems with getting the correct tire pressures, some ignition woes, and a fuel system prob-lem, all of which related either directly or indirectly to lack of familiarity with the car and tires. Then there was the big “off” at Mosport at the BEMC Spring Trophy Races, my first weekend back in racing. In the second sprint race, in the rain, I was getting used to the car in the wet, and my lap times improved

considerably until I was lapping as fast as the quickest cars in my class. Then coming out of turn one on the seventh lap, I aquaplaned on some standing water, got all sideways, and wound up going into the wall two-thirds of the way up towards turn two. The damage to the front end of the car was extensive and expensive, and I didn’t get it back on the track until two months later. But there were also successes. I found that I hadn’t lost my ability to “tiger” and my skills and reflexes were still good enough to be competitive in my class. And on our best weekend of the season, we qualified first in class for our first race and got a best finish of second in class in our third race - my first racing trophy in thirty-four years.

Was it worth it all? Damn right! And I’ll keep on racing, even at my age, until the money runs out. So why do I race, and why did I return to racing in my sup-posedly “mature” years? Well, if you’ve made it this far, I think you know why.

But …… notwithstanding what I have said

above, ordinary life has a nasty habit of getting in the way. And yes, the saga continues. There seems to be some sort of force that is continually trying to make it really difficult for me to get on with my racing (and if there is, it hasn’t counted on my Celtic bloody-minded obstinacy!). And as I’ve said before, I don’t claim to be alone here - many of you will understand this from your own experiences. Also, this is not just about my racing, but also about having to break a commitment that I made to the Club, the reasons for which will, I hope, be more understandable to you as you read on.

When I started the process of getting back into racing, I figured that I had enough money and time to do the job. There were some issues in the background regarding household finances, but I thought that they would be resolved before they became a problem. Then in the late fall of 2001, I accepted the appointment as Club Secretary, thinking that the time require-ments would not be that heavy. Wrong on both counts! In December of last year, the financial bubble began to show distinct signs of bursting, and by late January of this year I knew that I was in

trouble.The financial issues meant that I

had to hold the racing funds as a finan-cial reserve for household expenses in case of an emergency, and spend time in finding some answers. One is on the horizon, as we have some land that we might be able to sell, but that involves a severance, which involves (I feel a rant coming on) the Byzantine bureaucracy of our new Mega-mini City, which in turn involves time spent on land titles and re-search, forms, consultations with plan-ners, trips to downtown Ottawa, and, ……. oh how I long for the old Township days! Anyway, there’s a ray of hope there, but in the meantime, vehicles and appliances which are getting old, and should be replaced, are breaking down (often) which again consumes time and money. The latest here are a washing machine that doesn’t (at least, not very well), a u-joint gone in the van, and a bad exhaust leak in the pick-up caused, I am told, by a rusted-out and crumbling header. The last two are the latest in a series of vehicle “issues” dating back to last November, to the point where I don’t feel now that I can trust either one of them not to fail at an inopportune moment.

Compounding all this regarding the availability of time, I underestimated the requirements of my duties as Club Secretary. Being a perfectionist (oh all right, a nitpicker!) I tried to prepare real minutes of meetings, not the skimpy summaries that pass for such in too many organizations these days, but I don’t have shorthand, so note-taking at meetings was hectic to the point that I usually didn’t know what really went on until I tried to decipher my scribblings prior to preparing the draft minutes. Also, my typing skills are somewhat rudimentary, with the result of all this being that, on average, preparing a set of minutes took about twice the time as attending the meeting itself, including travel time. In addition to this there were the other duties, including combing through reams of “executive” e-mails in order to find, print, classify, and file the few that were required for the Club’s permanent files. This again required much more time than I had first estimated.

By mid-February, the demands on my time due to the financial issues and the duties of Club Secretary had meant


that, other than some research on vehicle handling dynamics, I had done nothing on my 2004 racing program, not even a draft budget. In fact, other than to drain the cooling system for win-ter, I hadn’t even touched the RX7! Something had to give. Time spent on the household finances was obviously the first priority, and, as I had explained to the President when I accepted the appointment as Secretary, my racing takes precedence over other pastimes. In view of this, my only choice had to be to resign from that Office, which I did effective at the end of February. I regret having had to make this decision, as when I was asked by Ron Woltman last October whether or not I would be continuing as Secretary, I advised him, after some thought, that I would. I be-lieved at that time that I would be able to handle the time requirements, but unfortunately events proved otherwise. As I was raised to honour my commit-ments, I believe that I owe this brief explanation and an apology to the Presi-dent, the Board of Directors, and more importantly, to you the members, for having to make the decision to resign, especially on such short notice.

As for the future, the situation is now such that I will have time and a budget to do some racing this year, hopefully by late June or mid July, and I will continue to volunteer at Club events as time permits. And for my faithful readers (all five or six of you?) this column will continue, aided by the fact that we now only publish bi-monthly. So in the next issue I hope to dispense with such weighty topics as the forego-ing, and return to my normal format of opinionated rants, some history or other interesting subjects, the exploits, or lack of same, of Team RRSP, and dashes of my admittedly strange sense of humour, such as …

Birthin’s, Marryin’s and Dyin’sI won’t be at the Ted Powell week-

end this year, not with the race car (as you can surmise from the foregoing top-ic), nor without. You see, the Supreme Being informed me back in February or so that one of her nephews would be getting married in July, and that my at-tendance was “requested”. When I was apprised of the date, I replied “but that’s the Club’s race weekend, so I guess I won’t be able to … .”

Now I have looked into the eyes of Death before … several times. Some I don’t remember, such as the German bombs falling around my mother and me at the moment of my birth, but some I do.

At the age of four, I watched the shadow of a German flying bomb blat-ting its way across the night sky, and was whisked down into our air raid shelter by my mother just seconds before it landed in the field behind our house. In 1962, on a back road just outside of Bancroft, I lost the MG Midget on a deceptive corner and almost drove off a 30 foot embank-ment into a swamp. Then in 1970 there was the Kiki Mk. 6A F5000 car getting airborne at 130 mph at Hare-wood and going end over end three times. And the most recent episode, before the one now under discussion, was in 1994 when Cal, our yearling Simmental bull, who had been fairly easy to handle up until then, decided one day to “test” me to see who was the boss. With me alone, on foot, and out in the middle of a twenty-five acre field, my options were limited. I was reminded then, while trying to maintain my composure and looking for a way out, of two old farm tru-isms. “There’s no such thing as a tame bull” and “More farmers have been killed by tame bulls than cross ones”. So, I very sternly told him to stop the nonsense, which made him pause to think (as much as bulls can), and took the opportunity to deliber-ately walk away from him, trying to show no fear but with one eye behind my back. And desperately trying to remember how toreadors perform a “Veronica” in case he decided to charge!

Anyway, back to our story. With my life beginning to flash before my eyes, and under the baleful gaze of the Supreme Being, I managed to save myself just in time by switching in mid-sentence from “… go to the wedding.” to “… go to the race.” So that’s why I won’t be at the Ted Powell weekend this year. As for next year, I’m going to send a copy of the race schedule out to all family members, on both sides, with a notice that birth-in’s, marryin’s and dyin’s will not be permitted on race weekends..

Parting Shot It seems to me that over the last

few decades, some “pop” psycholo-gists have made lucrative careers out of analyzing people’s personali-ties from what they do or how they approach things, either consciously or subconsciously. You know what I mean - if you do “X” then you must be a “Y” personality. Well, I was replac-ing an empty roll of toilet paper the other day, and it occurred to me that some people hang it so it unrolls from the front, and others so it unrolls from the rear, and this sort of set me to wondering … .

Wanted: Datsun Roadster U20 motor or parts car....any leads concidered. Please contact Al Boettcher 613-830-7961 or e-mail [email protected]

Until recently my brother was restoring this 1976 Ford Mustang with GHIA trim. However, he has decided that he no longer wants to complete the task and has decided to sell it in its present condition. He is asking $7000. If you are interested, please call Rene Harps in Cornwall at 613-937-3098.


Alan Ritche visits the land of the rising sun to take these pictures in the twilight hours.

The Link - mco.org Link-2004-05.pdf · Web Site Manger • Aleida Dikland • C: (613) 298-5918 •...

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Transcript of The Link - mco.org Link-2004-05.pdf · Web Site Manger • Aleida Dikland • C: (613) 298-5918 •...