Track vets gather for old-school racing
Canadian Historic Grand Prix hosts best of vintage speedsters
Calling all seasoned Canadian professional road racers. The 2012 Canadian Historic Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, northeast of Toronto, has invited speedsters from the past to join the Vintage Automobile Racing Association of Canada’s (VARAC) 33rd-annual weekend race fest next weekend, June 15-17. “A huge number of guys racing in vintage (cars) today weren’t around in the late 50s and 60s when motor racing was getting started,” said Gary Magwood, former racing champ, a pioneer of advanced driver training and freelance motorsport writer. He crossed the country several times from 1988 with the Labatt Road Scholarship program. The program was one of the first of its type in the world to teach professional driving skills at university and community college campuses from the Maritimes to the West Coast. He was also one of the co-founders of the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 1993 along with Lee Abrahamson and the late Toronto Star motorsport writer, Len Coates. There’s no better way to celebrate the accomplishments of the early competitors and Canada’s racing greats than by having them present at the famous track for the four-day vintage road racing event. “I’m really looking forward to seeing a bunch of people who spent a lot of time together in the past. I realize that geography will prevent many of them from attending, but I still want to acknowledge their con- tribution to the development of road racing in Canada by extending this invitation,” Magwood said.
In the early years of auto racing there were no major corporate sponsors funding competitions. Races and other auto events were organized by local car clubs and a community of like-minded motorsport enthusiasts. VARAC has asked automobile journalists across Canada to get the word out to those early competitors to get as many as possible to attend the event at Canadian Tire Mosport Park, northeast of Toronto, in two weeks.
Magwood will host the “Legends of Mosport” driver’s reunion and he’ll present one of the awards — the “Gary Magwood Trophy” for the Monoposto category, the single seat open-wheel vintage and historic car race.
The weekend event gets a jump start Thursday, June14 with a series of sessions on racing, high performance driving, club lapping and touring.
Friday begins with qualifying races and more performance and touring sessions, followed by an evening “Pot Luck” social in the marquee tent and the “Checkered Flag Charity Cruise” along the front straight stretch.
More racing and sessions are planned for Saturday with sponsor Wilson-Niblett hosting the “Hillfest” Corvette gathering at the marquee tent and Corvette-focused events in the paddock, capped by a banquet dinner.
On Sunday the “Great Canadian Racers Reunion” takes over the marquee tent with a meet-the-fans and press function from 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., followed by parade laps from the car show field in Corner 8 beginning at noon.
Drivers will compete in six different championship races.