Calabogie Race Summary

Wow. All I can say is WOW - Calabogie Motorsports Park is amazing. It's a brand new track in Ontario, about 1.5 hours west of Ottawa, in the middle of nowhere. An incredible 3 mile track with 22 turns - it's very technical and FUN. Since it's hours from everywhere and about 3-4 hours from the American border, we decided not to run a RaceFAAN event. But I did well and even though I didn't have any in-class competition, I held up the Spec E36 banner and flew the RaceFAAN flag high.

Friday was a torrential rain storm - we're now 3 for 3 in rain events this year! Interestingly, it's a new track with a high-tech asphalt surface so it provided tons of wet grip - and the rain line is the same as the dry line! (for now...) Practice was good and i was able to pick up the track quickly, so that by the time race 1 came around I was ready to run. All weekend long the car ran beautifully, and I was able to feel how the car ran in different conditions. However, the Spec E36 tires were slippery and unpredictable, so I did a bit of off-roading at different times. More than 5 people came to me after the races and said "man, it looks like you're having fun out there!" And I was - just trying to keep it on the track. It turned out to be an almost incident-free weekend - as a racer I can tell you there's nothing better than rolling your car back onto the trailer after a race weekend with no damage.

So I came away from the weekend safe and sound with three (unopposed) class wins, but with a real desire to understand whether everyone in Spec E36 was having these issues or just me. Stay tuned!!

Many thnaks to Louis Payant from the Ottawa chapter who championed this race and made sure we could put on this event. Without him, it would never have happened. Also, thanks to the steards who volunteered their time!!