While Saturday was a rainy, nasty mess at Mosport for the 2009 VARAC Festival, Sunday was bright and beautiful. A perfect day to for vintage racing. Over the past few years, my racing galleries have been mostly pit lane and paddock stuff as I just couldn’t seem to get the knack for using the manual focus on my point & shoot camera. It seems like the practice has paid off, as I can now take passable on track shots. This set was taken at the top of the hill on the Mario Andretti Straight, where the big cars like the Mustangs would be traveling somewhere north of 160 mph.

The classes here are what VARAC terms Historic Production Sedans & Sports Cars and Vintage Sports Racers.

Huge gallery after the break
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Perhaps the best part of a vintage festival, both for competitors and spectators is the incredible collection of wonderful cars and the people who own them. Just like any local cruise, car owners and drivers are always happy to talk about their cars. Not only do many tell stories, but often they learn more about the history of their car from someone who saw it race (or even raced it) back in the day. There is a great feeling of community, where everyone just feels comfortable and appreciative of the day.

After the break, we’ve got a huge gallery of images from the paddock at the 2009 VARAC Festival at Mosport
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VARAC’s Group 70+ class is basically a run what ya brung home for race cars from 1970 onwards that don’t meet the traditional classes that VARAC layed out oh so many years ago. It has also become home to some of the older traditional cars that don’t quite fit the profile of the other classes. Take Ian Lok’s Volvo 122S in the picture above: you are looking at an under 2.0 liter Trans Am car. As such, Group 70+ seems to be the perfect home for it.

Ian has owned and raced this car for a long time now and has been know to pull off some pretty incredible feats of driving. Things that just aren’t done. Today, in the pouring rain, Ian made a pass for the lead at the bottom of Mosport’s infamous Corner 2. Only 2 laps from the end, he made the pass stick and won the race.

Now, follow the break and check out the huge gallery of machines that little old, 4 cylinder, normally aspirated Volvo dominated. Mr Lok should be very proud, while perhaps some of the big budget guys should hang their heads in shame.
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I had nothing to do with the death of this poor little guy, but I just couldn’t help but take his photo to make all of you happy.

I managed to grab 442 photos today during my rain soaked visit to the 2009 VARAC Festival at Mosport. It will take a while to edit all of those, but for now this shot pretty much sums up the day.

The 2009 VARAC Festival got under way at Mosport yesterday under sunny skies. Today promises to be rainy all day, but for tomorrow should be bright and sunny again. What better way to celebrate Father’s Day that to check out some beautiful scenery and wicked old race cars!

Warwick Patterson was at the track yesterday and has already posted a bunch of photos including the one above. I’ll be joining him at the track shortly for day 2. Also at the track today is Andre Rousseau from 124racer.com, you can find him at the top of the Andretti Straight by looking for his blue Triumph GT6.

See you at the track!

While big pro race events are always fun, there really is no better way to immerse yourself in motorsports than to visit (or compete in) a vintage festival. Here in Ontario we are lucky to play host to one of the best festivals run by VARAC at Mosport each June. Its hard to believe that this will be the 4th year in a row that we’ll be bringing our readers along for to our favorite event of the year!

Whether you are a grizzled veteran or have never been to a race before, the VARAC Festival is the place to be in southern Ontario next weekend. The paddock is open and spectators are free to wander among the incredible machinery. Most drivers are more than happy to meet the fans and talk about their car and if they play their cards right, the kids will probably be asked if they want to sit in a car or 5.

Over the weekend, there is lots of activity: a Mini only race to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the little car, the German Joust for Teutonic racers, a classic car show and MiniMeet North

We might even set up a command post for readers of The Garage depending on how the week goes.

A few days ago an envelope from Porsche arrived in the mail. Yippee, Christmas arrived early…Porsche has sent me goodies I exclaimed as Mrs G handed me the envelope. Christmas indeed, as the envelope contained a cd full of pictures from the Porsche World Roadshow at Mosport last month. Pictures indeed! More like a stockpile of dreams. What else could you expect by collecting a bunch of teutonic muscle at a world famous race track and letting a photographic master like Paul Giamou loose with his camera?

Over the next few days, we’ll bring you an assortment of shots from that various driving events at the PWR at Mosport. Today’s gallery includes a variety of general shots from around the facility, the World Roadshow team and of course a few of the cars. This guy is so good he even managed to make me look pretty good!

Gallery after the break
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There are few race tracks left that still have the same spirit that they had back in the early days of Trans Am and of those, Mosport is arguably the most authentic. Our local track has a way of dishing out the lowest lows and the most rewarding highs and Victoria Day weekend 2009 was no different.

We have been following Mike Skeen as he runs his independant campaign in the 2009 Muscle Milk Trans Am series. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to be at the track this weekend, so Mike has provided a full race report, photos and a few laps worth of video. Only a few laps because the bad luck bugs bit again in the form of rocker arm troubles that led to lifter troubles and who knows what other internal damage occurs. During the video, it is interesting to note that Mike stayed in the top 4 until being sidelined, even though he had only had a few laps on the daunting circuit.

We have to commend friend of The Garage, Blaise Csida for coming to Mike’s aid with spare parts. It is always good to know that local guys will help out someone in need when they are far from their home parts bin.

Read Mike’s race report along with the video and tons of pics after the break
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