Finally it’s time for the 2008 VARAC Festival. The focus this year is on the Can Am series. If you’ve never seen the ground pounders in action, this is your chance to see some of the most exciting machines ever built. This year’s gathering is also a stop for the Lola 50th anniversary tour. Of course there will also be the usual collection of sedans, sports cars and open wheelers. The Festival is at Mosport today and tomorrow. You can be sure we’ll have tons of photos over the next few days.

Racing is under way in Ontario for the 2008 season. Yippee!

We only had a couple of hours at the track early yesterday morning and a bunch of that was spent in the showers cleaning poo off the 7 year old. Thankfully for him the Panoz team actually installed water heaters a couple of years ago!

While we didn’t have time to hear many stories, at least I was able to grab a couple of hundred photos around the paddock. With all the Mother’s Day festivities going on (ok…she’s doing kid stuff and I’m going to a wedding) there won’t be much time today to edit and post photos. No worries though, we’ll have a huge gallery soon!

The Escort RS you see above is reflected on the curvaceous posterior of a vintage, front engine open wheeler of some sort that was just stunning. The owner wasn’t around and there were no visible markings so I’m not sure what it was. I would guess that it is an early Formula Junior. I’ll do some digging to see if I can find the answer.

Falling squarely in the “I gotta get me one of these” category is the just announced 50th Anniversary poster from Lola. In fact, I may just have to get 2. You see, this somewhat unique poster has images on both sides.

The poster has drawings of 50 Lola race cars, one for each year of the company’s existence, beginning with the 1958 Lola Mk1 to the 2008 B08/80. It will be available for free at selected events that are involved in the 50th Anniversary Celebration. The first two events will be at Brands Hatch World Sportscar Masters race in May and the Oulton Park Gold Cup in August. Let’s hope that they free up a few for the VARAC Festival at Mosport in June.

More images after the break
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While we’ve lost the Toronto Grand Prix for 2008, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t some great racing to be had in Ontario this year. Just up the road from downtown Toronto, at Canada’s home of motorsport, is the annual VARAC Vintage Racing Festival. The focus for 2008 is on the thundering Can Am cars and what better place to experience these beasts than at Mosport.

Owners of these incredible cars are well aware that some of the most historic Can Am battles took place at Mosport and are always happy to bring their monsters back to the track. We’re still 4 months away and the entry list is already impressive.
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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!

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.

It’s been a while since I’ve updated any shots from the 2007 VARAC Festival, so for today I’ve added a bunch of paddock shots to the gallery.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

I had heard from one of the drivers in the historic sedan (I think) class at the VARAC Festival that there was a bit of a disaster in corner 1 at the start. I didn’t see it, as I was trackside at the bottom of the hill in 2. Today I happened across some in car footage of that incident, courtesy of Youtube user celovskya.

Video after the break
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It’s funny sometimes how a forum thread can stir up a whole bunch of real world details! One of the forum members over at The Jalopy Journal’s H.A.M.B. found a Yeakel Bros license plate frame and asked about it’s history. The next thing you know, up pops Fred Yeakel with some real history and a great Cheetah website.
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