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Leighton Irwin

Edenvale Revival

March 11, 2010
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Those of us who are older than dirt remember Edenvale racetrack near Stayner, Ontario. A WW2 RCAF training field about 15 minutes from Barrie on Hwy. 26, it was the first road racing track in Ontario, opening in 1950. It ran until 1959 when Harewood took over. I saw my first race there in [...]

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Formula Atlantic- The End of the Line?

March 10, 2010
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After 36 years it appears Formula Atlantic is finished. It has been the longest running series in North American road racing. In theory, according to Series owner Ben Johnston it is just a hiatus. I have my doubts. I loved the series and I was involved as a mechanic/crew chief in the series most glorious [...]

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Seeing Races up Close and Almost Free

March 6, 2010
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After being a spectator for years I finally became old enough (21) to get involved. I wanted to race but not enough money. So I decided to marshal. It was also the year Mosport opened. CRCA, the first organized marshaling group had been organized just a couple of years earlier. With Mosport opening membership jumped [...]

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Scary Charlotte

March 5, 2010
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Back in the 70’s we used to try to get in some testing before the Players Atlantic season started. Quite often we went to West Palm Beach, later Moroso, for two or three days of testing in late February or early March. We then would stay and run in a SCCA Regional. But that is [...]

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The case of the missing Lotus

March 2, 2010
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Forty years ago formula car racing was just beginning to become the major series in Canada that it would shortly grow into. Sports car racing, featuring sports racing cars had been the main racing with the pro events, highlighted latterly by the Can-Am. Outside of a couple of USAC races there had been no major [...]

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Is cheating always cheating?

February 12, 2010
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There is cheating, cheatin’ and creative interpretation of the rules.
Cheating is clear breaking of the rules including having a driver deliberately crash per Nelson Piquet Jr.in 2008. Deliberate use of illegal parts or oversize engines is real cheating.
Today a lot of ‘cheatin’ as the NASCAR boys call it in their series’ is inadvertent. Almost every [...]

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Up to no good

February 6, 2010
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Quite a few people think racing drivers, and by assocciation, all involved are crazy. Now I don’t believe that but we sure had a tendancy to get up to no good. This especially held true if you got a bunch hanging around together with a little time on their hands.
The old late 60’s early 70’s [...]

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Tales from race control

February 3, 2010

Now the spectators rarely think of Race Control except when there were unexpected delays. Drivers and crews usually curse at Race Control and figure everyone there sits in climate controlled comfort in easy chairs drinking fancy coffee and eating caviar. Maybe somewhere but certainly not at Mosport in the 70’s. Race Control was in a [...]

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The first ever race at Mosport

January 23, 2010

A while back I wrote about the early days of marshaling at Mosport.
Recently on the Canadian Motor Sport Historical Group site there have been some stories and many pictures posted of the first race at Mosport. It was not the Players 200 as many think. The first race took place a few weeks earlier and [...]

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Jean Todt’s Big Headache

January 19, 2010

With all the anticipation and euphoria over the seeming new era in F1 with Jean Todt in charge there is a major potential disaster looming. Everyone is looking forward to this year with all the new teams and the new rules banning refueling. Lurking in the backgound for 2011 is the 1,000 pound problem. Although [...]

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