It’s been a great day of cooking and the odd celebratory beverage as we wait to welcome the new year. The house is about to get really rambunctious as 6 families arrive to share New Years Eve 2008. In these last few quiet moments I thought that a gallery of vintage F1 cars from this year’s VARAC Festival at Mosport would be a great idea. Grab a glass while it’s still quiet and enjoy this great show.

Created with flickrSLiDR.

Oh yes! Happy New Year!

Like so many other racing addicts, the fever was started with a Bugeye Sprite. In my case though, it wasn’t my own car but my father’s first race car a full 2 years before I was born. The seed was planted though and that propelled Bud on to race with some success over the next few years.

The car is obviously an Austin Healey Sprite, which us North Americans call a Bugeye, while the Brits feel it is more of a Frogeye. It looks like the shot was taken on the pre grid at Mosport, prior to the Formula 1 garages being built. I believe the year was 1965. A bit of success with this car led to the Mark II Sprite that Bud won the first ever Ontario Sports Car racing championship in 1967.

Unfortunately this photo isn’t in the best of shape, but I believe it is the only one of this car.

Ahmad Khodkar’s blue Datsun 240Z is somewhat legendary in Ontario. This is the car that took on the IMSA GT-U field at Mosport back in 1992 and beat the factory Nissan’s of Butch Leitzinger and friends, not to mention a bunch of other modern race cars. In it’s current state, it is powered by a Buick Grand National engine and is very, very fast.

In the following video, we see Nick Majors, aka Darth Viper chasing Ahmad around Mosport in the Viper GTS coupe.

An interesting quote from the CASA message board from Malcolm Strachan about Ahmad, in a thread titled: What I learned road racing this year…

-That you can be 70 years old and still push a car really hard and turn 1:25’s (Ahmad Khodkar = new hero).

And now, let’s just watch… Wait to see the crafty old guy close the door in corner 3. Classic Mosport move.

So you want to have some idea how NOT to lap the legendary Mosport track? It’s easy, just watch this great compilation by John Cosgrove & don’t do what any of these guys do!

There has been lots of talk in The Garage lately about vintage racing. One thing hasn’t been mentioned though and that is the involvement of volunteers. Even back in those early days, without legions of enthusiastic helpers there would be no organized racing.

Here in Canada, those volunteers have been helping racers race since 1959 under the banner of Canadian Race Communications Association. They have worked races at Mosport, Harewood Acres, Green Acres, the Canadian Grand Prix and the Molson Indy/Champ car race in Toronto.

During that long history, there have been some pretty incredible people involved. Club officials would like to try to get as many of those people as possibly together for the 50th Anniversary Celebration in 2009. If you are one of those people, or know one, then contact CRCA though their site.

Via Inside Track

What more can one say. These cars are all works of art!

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

At the request of Warwick Patterson, I delved into the archives to looks for some shots from the 2007 VARAC Festival at Mosport. It’s been months since I’ve been in that folder and I’d forgotten just how many photos I took that weekend. Over the next few days, I’ll post all sorts of great paddock shots of some incredible vintage race cars. For now, we’ve got a gallery including the 1977 Walter Wolf Racing Dallara WD-1 that Gilles Villeneuve drove in the 1977 Can-Am season. also in the group is stunning Ford Escort RS1600 and some on track Formula 1 action.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

I’m happy to introduce another new contributor to The Garage, photo buff Nelson Wu. Nelson was lucky to get some sunshine during his visit to the ALMS Mosport Grand Prix a couple of weeks ago and has a huge gallery to share. As the racing season winds down here in Ontario, this may be the last we hear from Nelson for a few months, but I’m sure we’ll see lots from him in the spring. You can see more of Nelson’s work at his Flickr page.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

I got my first on the road glimpse of Audi’s new supercar, the R8, on Highway 407 on Friday afternoon. The beast has hit the streets. It was fitting then that there were 2 in attendance at the Mosport Grand Prix on Saturday morning. The silver mid engined coupe looked somewhat forlorn sitting on the hill overlooking a wet and foggy turn 1.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

I must admit I’m getting soft in my old age. Given the choice between a nice, hot Starbucks at home or heading to the track on a rainy morning I’ll likely pick the java. Even if one of the family is racing. This weekend though, I had plans to meet up with veteran racer Randy Pobst.
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