What an event! Some of the biggest names and Teams are here and everyone is trying to show their dominance early. In the Shifter and ICA classes, there were a lot chance takers early on. A few pooched engines and your fair share of spins were on the docket for the day. I noticed quite the aggressive driving which really doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, but it makes for entertaining practice sessions.
The J3 Competition.com team had it’s ups and downs for the day. A few spins, and even a bent frame were just the norm it seemed. My driver, Victor Cabrera, showed brilliant speed during practice and sits comfortably in the top dozen drivers; but as the day came to a close - so did the nice weather. Last rounds of practice were held in the rain which created some mild chaos as everyone again tried to show who was king. Rain seems to be the weather of choice for the weekend, and with over 50 entries in most classes, setup and qualifying are going to be at a premium. Canadians to watch for, as far as I could tell, come from the province of Quebec. Tomorrow should prove to be both entertaining and interesting to say the least, so hold on boys and girls - this one is going to be a wild one!

Blair Valley Media is happy to announce the launch of our new toy blog, The Jumping Bunny. This is our first blog that is outside the realm of blogger, so it has been an exciting learning experience.

The Jumping Bunny is a essentially a toy review blog, but at times we may talk about all sorts of kid stuff. We hope you will come and visit soon.

With some of the work I’m doing with some of the other Blogs we are building around here, I’ve been spreading myself a little bit thin. With the launch of our new toy blog, we are now up to 5 blogs and one retail web site, along with our full time jobs, so we’ve decided to start looking for a few contributors.

So, if you like the feel of The Garage and think you might like to add some of your thoughts, contact me by comment & I’d be happy to talk.

Well now. I may be a bit younger than some of my readers, but my life long involvement in racing goes back to my toddler years in the late sixties. In 1969, my old man raced what may have been the fastest A sedan race car in Canada. An outrageous red, white & blue AMX. Now recently, some 36 years later, I have found out that the car was so unbelievably illegal that I thought that maybe the memories were becoming cloudy. The car was chopped & channeled in the interest of saving weight. There was a panic in the paddock on the first weekend when a TR3 parked next to the car with it’s top up was the same height as the AMX. The car was that low.

Now how does that apply to me, the straight laced, would never knowingly break a rule guy? Simple. The old man was the first ever sports car racing champion in Ontario. Win at all costs. I’ve been crew for a few championships, but they were a result of hard work & solid driving. The old man was the real deal. Spare no expense, make the car fast. His cars would either win, or blow up trying.

So what’s my point? Well, the current powers that be in at least one major series (ie; NASCAR) seem to have forgotten their roots. What about Smokey Yunick? What about all those bootleg moonshine runners? Even big old Roger Penske had some light weight Camaro’s running around. Something about a vinyl top because the roof was so thin it dented too easily. Now I’m not saying that anyone should be condoning “cheating”, but a big part of winning has always been creative interpretation of “the rules”.

It has happened at all levels of the sport and will continue to happen at all levels of the sport, as long as we continue to race. Every team will always look for an edge over their competitors. Will The Garage Guy racing team ever resort to ebnding the rules? Not likely, because we don’t have the budget for it. Will we get mad at the teams who can afford to? Nope. They are doing what comes naturally. Long live the hunt for that extra edge!