2023 Race Director’s Report
Another exciting season of regional racing in Ontario. The 2023 series consisted of 6 events, 4 at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, and one each at Shannonville and Calabogie.
The average entry in 2023 was 113, up from 101 in 2022. The increase was due in large part to our ability to “sell” extra track time to outside organizations to help cover our costs. In 2023 we had the Superproduction Challenge Series join us at Shannonville, and the FEL Radicals join us at Calabogie. We are waiting to hear if SPC will be joining us in 2024.
2023 saw the introduction of a new run group, Formula Prototrype Challenge, specifically for higher speed formula and protype cars. The group attended 3 events as planned and we added a 4th because track time was available. The group is being run as a hybrid. Rilli Racing is promoting and organizing the off-track experience for the cars in the series, and they are buying blocks of track time from CASC and collecting their own entry fees directly. The group has committed to 4 event sin 2024 and we are hopeful that it will continue to grow.
We were fortunate to add Motomaster as a sponsor in 2023. We created a mini-series within the regular series and awarded drivers and officials the status of “Track Master” if they competed at the 3 designated events (one at each of three tracks we ran at). A total of 41 drivers and 8 officials attended all 3 events this year.
Once again Pirelli was the sponsor for GT Sprints. In 2023 the run groups were officially separated into Pirelli Super Touring for GT1-2, and Pirelli Grand Touring for GT 3-4-5. I believe the split has improved the number and quality of the entries on each grid, and the racing experience for the drivers involved. 36 drivers registered to participate in the Pirelli Championship Fund, with a total of $35,000 being awarded.
The schedule has been set for 2024 – 6 events at the three tracks, similar to the 2023 schedule.
On behalf of all of the competitors, I would like to thank the officials and other volunteers that make regional racing possible. We hope we you enjoyed the “show” as much as we enjoyed racing.
Ted Michalos, President
(VARAC member)