Don Thomson Jr held off a charging 9 of Mark Dilley to take first in the Dodge Charger 200 race at Cayuga. Unfortunatly, there were way to many cautions, that just seemed to go on for too long.
Lots of lead changes, and a big congrats to the 11 team of Ron Van Es. In the opening laps, this kid was racing hard with the 4 of Thomson and was able to not just keep up, but pass him for the lead! But during a late race challenge between the 02 and the 9 car, the 02 ended up spinning in turn 2 and the 11 car had no time to react and smacked into Micks, ending his nite.
Also perorming well early was Doug Brown, again, he was able to lead in his new Dodge Charger.
Most of the nite is was the 4 and 60 of Beauchamp doing the battling, but near the end, it was the 9, 4 and 1 of Gibbons fighting for the lead.
One interesting change in the rules was the double file restart. With the change to the location of the restart line (used to be just at turn 4, now its further up the frontstretch), there was some bumping and pushing during the restarts. In one, one line jumped, and the other didn't resulting in cars being jacked into the air, and an eventual yellow.
Again, way to many yellows, just kills the rythem ofthe race.
And please, if this is the track, or Nascar's responsibility, get three bottle of champagne for these guys on the podium!! It ain't victory lane unless the drivers are spraying everyone with booze!!
With 23 cars starting the race, and some facing some costly repairs, I'm a little nervous about car counts for out east. I'm sure that the Montreal race will be fine, but Trois Riveires and the Riverside track in Nova Scotia might be hurting, specially as the NS race is the second last race.
Well, the series schedule is out, and includes the Montreal Busch race, which should be interesting. Hopefully the local Canadian drivers can show the Busch guys how to get around the track!
Andrew Ranger is now running the series, out of Dave Jacombs team, sponsored by Wal Mart.
Brad Graham has obtained a new sponsor, Full Throttle, a Coke produced energy product.
Micks has some sponsorship for the first three events on the schedule, which will hopefully lead to more sponsorship money.
Dave Whitlock will be driving the Dickies 39 car, and Mark Dilley will be with Dodge, in a new Avenger.
John Gaunt is running the series, and was testing in Cayuga, and at Mopar Day in Barrie.
Not much happening right now in the world of Nascar/Cascar. The schedule is still on hold, there's little action from the teams, and lots of talk on the message boards. The regulars are up to their regular "the end is near" predictions, but I think as always, a good season will be on hand. What I am worried about is the number of teams. Its been hard to get the money to run a full season for a lot of teams, and that has resulted in a drop in the number of teams per race. And lets face it, these guys are not getting a ton of money for entering and finishing the races, so hopefully that will change this year with some Nascar money behind it.
Well, who knows whats going on with the Cascar season. I believe it will still go ahead, but boy, there are some scary things going on right now, with Delaware declaring it won't have any Cascar races, at the same time as the Edmonton Grand Prix is announcing that Cascar will be there.
Sounds like some conflict between Nascar and Delaware, as the track also dropped the Dodge Nascar sanctioning. I have heard from last year that Nascar was really looking at safety at the tracks. And it resulted in changes at Delaware last year, in regards to pit row, and the barriers. Perhaps things escalated, with Nascar looking for more changes, and the track not willing to do them. It could be the cost of the repairs vs the cost to hold a Cascar race was too much of a stretch for the track, so they decided against it. I don't really know.
To add to this is the lateness of the schedule from Cascar. This could simply be a matter of the Indy as well. With the signing at Edmonton, we can only assume that Toronto would be interested in having Cascar back as well. In the past, its always seemed like a last minute thing for Toronto to accept the Cascar race, and this could be the same this year. And as much as I like Delaware, from the sponser point of view, the exposer at Indy is way more important at the Indy races.
No matter what, I do expect another great season of racing. I hope that the car counts can get back up to full fields, and I realy hope that something big comes with the whole Nascar "thing".
Looks like Stu is out, and Jason Hathaway will be driving the 3 car next season. Big two page article in the latest Inside Track magazine.
The Toronto Sun sports columnist Dean McNulty has indicated that Team 3 Red will be adding a second full time driver to the line up, with 19 Jessica Cyr, of Sechelt, B.C. in a new Chevy Monte Carlo, who will join Stu Robinson Jr for the 2006 season. Its not up yet on the Sun page, but check Dean's page here for details.
Strange news from the ALSTAR racing Series, as they will not be touring, and only having three events:
For Immediate Release - Nov. 20th/05
The SHOULDICE STONE ALSTAR Drivers meeting took place at the Blue Mountain Inn - Collingwood, Ontario, with a packed house. The SHOULDICE STONE ALSTAR SERIES will take on a new look for 2006. With recent developments the SHOULDICE ALSTAR RACING SERIES will not be touring as it traditionally has in the past. After contacting all participating tracks ALSTAR was unable to receive any commitments from the speedways.
With unprecedented sponsorship by SHOULDICE DESIGNER STONE of Shallow Lake, Ontario, and the backing of all top ALSTAR late model race teams. As well as series associate sponsors including - CRC, Quaker State, Rain-X, Spira Fire Protection, WIX, Five Star Stock Car Bodies, Hoosier Race Tires, and McColl Racing Enterprises - the 2006 SHOULDICE STONE ALSTAR SERIES will continue with a series of "Super Weekend Events." These events will be sure to please our ALSTAR Race fans need for speed, as well as increase the number of competitors and competition in this already highly recognized series. Teams will be competing for far greater purses then ever before.
These "SHOULDICE STONE ALSTAR Super Series Weekend Events" will all take place Sauble Speedway home of the ALSTAR Series, located in Sauble Beach, Ontario, Canada. This fan friendly racing facility will create three race experience weekends designed to entertain the race fan from the minute they get to the track. Including headline pre-race entertainment, autograph sessions, and tons of door handle to door handle SHOULDICE ALSTAR Super Series racing action.
Details of the SHOULDICE ALSTAR SERIES for 2006 will be released on www.alstarseries.com in the very near future.
We would like to thank all race teams that registered today. With today's registrations we have already exceeded the number of drivers pre-registered at this time last year.
To close out the racing season, I took in the sunday races of the Octoberfest and Autumn Colours.
Both ran relatively smoothly this year, compared to last, and had pretty good car counts.
In regards to Autumn Colours, I just have to ask myself "self, what the heck does this mean", after readin the summary of the race, on the Peterborough Web site:
".....With Emerson Ward (#48 Wheaton Diesel Dodge) having trouble and going slower than the leaders around the bottom of the track, Hathaway fell in behind and refused to pass Ward, even though he had ample time and opportunity. Finally, through no fault of his own, Tiemersma bumped Hathaway, knocking him out of the way and taking over top spot.
Since when does the guy writing the review get to decide what or how a driver was thinking.....and what the heck does "..no fault of his own" mean?!?!
Yes, officer, I did run the stop sign and crash into your car, but it was no fault of mine that it happened!!
Oh well, what can you do....?
Well, a long weekend of racing was compressed at Kawartha Speedway due to rain. I attended the Summer Sizzler event on Saturday (supposed to be Friday nite), and the double header Cascar race Sunday.
The sportsman guys had a great turn out, including a suprise visit from Jason Hathaway, who took no time in taking the lead and holding it. Brad Graham had the pole, but faded a few cars back before many cars started to pit during some cautions. At the end, it was Hathaway, Robblee and Dion Verhoven on the podium, and with that Dion also claimed the Power Water Cascar Sportsman champion, with Ron Lethbridge of Barrie getting top rookie honors.
The Super Series race saw a couple of teams fighting motor problems to make it to qualifing, with DJ Kennington capturing the pole. And boy did he back that up! There were a few swaps between himself and Don Thomson in the early laps, but DJ went buy and started picking off almost the entire field. Long periods of green flag racing meant that by the end, only 7 of the 29 cars were still on the lead lap. DJ was followed by Whtilock and Gibbons on the podium. Don Thomson stole the thunder from the Dodge boys by capturing his fifth championship title, with Tara MacLeod getting rookie of the year.
The race also saw my first experience with Nascar, which wasn't that great. People have been photographing races at Kawartha from the insides of both corners basically since the track opened. I know there is some concern about crossing the pit in and out entrances, but none of us taking pics wants to get killed, so we are pretty carefull about it. But half way through the Sportsman race, everyone was kicked out, and that came straight from the Nascar guy. Well, the funny thing was that he seemed not to have any problems with us on the back stretch, which is pretty much the least safest spot on the track. Its protected by a single line of low concrete blocks which are just sitting on the ground. Car hits that, its toast. Left a bad taste in all the photo guys mouths, including mine, and makes us wonder what the future holds. I know that I stopped visiting the Nascar web site the day they started charging money to see stuff on the site, so who knows?
In the end, however, I have to agree with Don Thomson who said that he was "proud to compete in the best stock car racing series in Canada". I've been to some other races, different series, local tracks, and still feel the Super Series and Sportsman races are the best overall. Its been a great year following the series, I've gotten to know a great many teams and drivers, along with officials from Cascar. Every one of them puts in a huge comitment to making the series great, and they should all be thanked for it.
As the season ends, just wanted to say thanks to Wendy at the Cascar site for all her help for me, and for keeping up the official web site; to Chris Mann, a great photographer at the track who has given me tonns of pointers to taking photos (cause I need them!) and providing me with some of the history of Canadian racing; and to Greg MacPherson of Inside Track, the best racing magazine in Canada, for all the great stories he provides via the magazine, not just about Cascar, but all sorts of other racing (thats a subscription that I have no intention of letting lapse!); and also to Vicky at Inside Canadian Racing, for getting me access to the closest Cascar race to my own home, that being the Molson Indy. Would not be possible for me to be there without her help.
I also like to thank some of the teams for taking time from their weekends to say hi and teach me a bit about racing, like the 10 Napa team, the 19 Challenger team, the 22 Erb team, the 88 Lou's BBQ team. Also Sean Gibbs and Richard Coughlin from Cascar have been great to me as well. I can honestly say that I've never had a bad experience with any team, or any Cascar official, at any of the Sportsman or Super Series races. All have gone out of their way to treat me well, and I very much appreciate that.
Now, lets see what next year brings to the racing calender!!
Another great race last nite in the Super Series race at Cayuga. Don Thomson had the pole, and he and Peter Gibbons led most of the race. This was the most pit stops I think I've seen at a Cayuga race, with it seems almost 80 percent of the field coming in during cautions. A couple stayed out and were able to use it to their advantage, but both Gibbons and Thomson were able to put the stops to good use. Near the end, it was Thomson out front over the 19, 39 and 23, but the 1 was coming strong. When the 8 got spun on the front stretch, it left three green flag laps, and at the end of two, Gibbons had the lead, followed by Thomson then by Whitlock. The 23 of Lapcevich tried to get by the loose 39, but couldn't and the 19 was a little dissapointed for the bump from "the purple car" as DJ Kennington said in a press release, that dropped him from 3rd to fifth.
Ok, congrats to Peter Gibbons for once again conquering the Delaware Speeway track. The 39 and 4 car started on the front row, but things changed quickly. The 4 car lost some spots, with the 39 and 02 up front, along with the 10 car. But pits stops and on track action saw these guys jump all over the place in position, including the 9 car of Dilley ending up in the pits and falling off the lead laps.
A big crash out of turn 2 saw some cars seriously bent up, including the 37, the 44, the 71, the 72, and the 28 and 52. Some were able to get back into it, but during the clean up, some laps were run without counting, and this would come back to haunt Brad Graham.
Brad held the lead for a good portion of the late stages of the race, until the 39 was able to get under him. He had a great car in long runs, but never seemed to get that near the end. And finaly, after a spin in one brought out the last caution, there was 5 laps to go, and Brad ran out of gas. His crew rushed out to push, but fueled the car outside his pit box. Trying to start, they pushed down the pits, until the 77 car of Pete Vanderwyst, to the cheers of the entire crowd, pushed the 19 car until the engine caught. But now, for pitting outside the box, Brad had to serve a penalty. He came in before the green flag, and had to return. Very frustrating day for him.
But for Gibbons, it was a great run. In those last 5 laps, so much happened that I really don't know what it was, cause I saw the 39 go from first to outside the podium, a charging 17 car and lots to jocking for position.
In the end, it was Gibbons, Thomson and Lapcevich on the podium!
Well, after a couple of rain delays, both big and small, both races, both Super Series and Sportsman, were run today. Rain washed out the races on Saturday nite after about 8 laps. So at 12 today, the Power Water Sportsman took to the track, with Brad Graham on the pole. Brad was challenged by the 32 of Mike Alguire, but held his position. Some of those in the back battled, including the 28 and the 77,with the 28 ending up on the infield grass then shooting up across the backstretch right into the 95 car, who had no where to go.
Lapped traffic played some big parts in the race. At one point, some cars a lap down tangled, causing both the 6 and the 32 to get by in the grass, with the 32 leading. Then, later in the race, another tangle between the 36 and 38 cars found both first and second trapped behind the accident. When the green flag waved, it was the 81 of Chad McGlynn in the lead, and the 09 of Kent Nuhn in second. When the checkered flew, it was 81, 32, and 6
In the Super Series race, they tried to move the race up by 1/2 hour, but to no avail, as a shower ended up causing about an hours delay in the start. Once the track was dry, the 02 of Micks stormed to the lead, but at the first caution, he gave up the lead, and headed to the pits, along with the 4 and 1 car. Out on the track remained the 60, 19 and 39, among others, who decided not to pit at all. There were a few more cautions, including the 71 punting the 37 into the turn 4 wall, and the 10 car, which lost a right front wheel, which bounced into the pits, with no damage.
The final green white checkers laps found the 60 in front, followed by the 02 and the 19. Behind them were the 39, the 22, the 1, and the 4 car. On the green, the 19 slowed, as he had a tire going down. Cars dived to the inside, and passed him. On the final lap, the 02 made some contact with the 60, but gave him a chance to recover, and Beauchamp held on for the win, followed by Micks and Whitlock.
Great race at the Power Water Sportsman race in Barrie. Beautiful nite weather wise, and 22 cars to take the green, with Brad Graham on the pole, followed by Verhoven, Mike Gold and Lethbridge, the local Barrie driver.
On the start, the 6 car took the lead. There were lots of green laps in the begining, but on each restart, the 77 car charged after the 6, trying for the lead. Near the end of the race, a series of one or two car spins had the cars lined up, and again, the 77 challenged. After a few laps, the 6 car suddenly got loose in 1 and 2, and both Verhoven and Robblee got by, with the 6 spinning on the backstretch. The 77 car won, followed by the 28 and 32 of Mike Alguire.
Another great race at Mosport last nite. Perfect weather as the cars took to the track, with the 4 of Thomson on the pole. It didn't take long for him to start pulling ahead of the field, leaving the next few cars to follow in his tracks. In the early part of the race, it was from about 6th back that had lots of action. A couple of early yellows saw some teams pit, which put them into a pack. Cars like the 19, the 10, the 88 and 84 were fighting throughout the nite for positions. A caution past the half way found them up front, as the leaders came into the pits. Brad Graham led the way for a while, with the 9 diving in hard in turn 1 to pass, only to drift up and have the 19 take it back. But eventually he got by, along with the 4 car, and the 39 (after he punted him out of the way!). But all along, the 17 car was steadly moving up to the front. A late caution saw the 17 second to the 4, but the 17 couldn't get by on the low side, so on the second last lap, he started making a move on the outside, and finished it off in turn 4 for the win. The 4 followed, with the 60 of Beauchamp taking the final spot on the podium.
Congrats to Steve Munro, who ran an excellent race to take the first win in two years!! The 77 of Verhoeven had the pole, and the 00 and 28 were quick to battle for second, with the 28 of Robblee falling back a bit near the half way mark. That left a chance for Munro to start and close up on the leader, eventually taking him in three and four. He then led the rest of the way. The 95 of Lethbridge, the 6 of Graham both faded, and the 32 of Alquire was caught up in an incident with the 36, and had to start at the back of the field, but made his way through the pack to get a fourth. Mike Gold in the 97 had a solid run, making up 5 spots to take fifth.
Was a hot day, and even saw the sun peak its way out every now and then. Saturday's qualifying was done with little problem, and it was nice to see all the drivers back after the rain delay. Went through some heavy showers in the Hwy 403/Hamilton area, but once I got south of Hamilton on Hwy 6, it cleared up. Threatened a few times, but no rainfall during all of the Sunday racing. Congrats to Cayuga for sticking with it, and getting the race completed.
Well, day three is done, and with it finds the 02 of Micks in first, Gibbons in second, and Thomson in third. At one point, the 4 car had a huge lead, but his tires started going away, letting both the 1 and the 02 buy.
Couple of quick cautions right of the bat, and on the restart, Kennington dived into the pits for some reason, and gave up the lead. Couple of close calls in turn 1, including the 37 and the 39, braking hard into the turn and locking the wheels up. Lots of battles through out the course, and I was also glad to see that a big amount of people hung around after the lame drifting show, to watch the Cascar race.
Brad Graham had a great race, grabbing a fifth place finish, and the battered, but still fast 8 car of Marc Miller posted a seventh.
Day two at the Indy, and the Cascar teams finally got a chance for some valuable track time. But it was also qualifying time, so the teams jumped onto the track to set their positions. D.J. Kennington held his spot, and has the pole for the race tomorrow. Another incident near the end of the run red flagged the action on the track. Hopefully any damaged cars can get back into the race for tomorrow.
Long day at day one of Indy. Cascar was the second last event of the day. Indy only gave them 30 minutes for practice, and there was an early accident with the 18 and 42 that red flagged them for about 10 minutes. Big field of cars, something like 34, and they did their best to get around the track for their only practice. Tomorrow, straight into qualifying.
Well, getting all geared up for the Ste Eustache race. I remember one year, I debated going down to the race, as there was the threat of a rainstorm washing out the race. Well, it didn't happen, so the race went ahead. Unfortunately for me, it was the race where Peter Gibbons, with half his car still in the pits, one the race! It was amazing on TV, and I couldn't believe I missed it.
So like the past few years, I will be heading down the highway to catch the action. The track is great to watch from. Its flat, with just the pit carts allowed in the infield, leaving the rest wide open. Of course, the idea of protecting myself my a bail of hay, well, not to sure about that, so I usually hang out in turn 4. And I've seen my share of action in that corner!
May 22, 2005
Well, congratulations to the 60 team of Ron Beauchamp Jr, for winning the Mopar 250 at Delaware. By the end of the race, the 60 was the class of the field, well ahead of second and third, Dave Whitlock and Mark Dilley. A great Mopar/Dodge day, sweeping the podium.
Lots of attrition today. Some cars out early for mechanical problems, and others spent a lot of time in the pits, including the 02, 10, 18, 50.
The early battles were between Whitlock, Thomson and Micks. Both Micks and Gibbons had some problems, with Micks ending up in the pits for an extended time.
A few spins and a few crashes created some cautions, but lots of green laps for long runs. Which gave Beauchamp a chance to charge from the back all the way to the win.
A full weekend of events in Barrie during the holiday's. First up was the pit stop challenge. After being on view during the day, the cars paraded down the streets of Barrie to the Lakeshore, where the competition was on. The eventual winner was the 60 team of Ron Beachamp Jr.
Next up, Saturday nite, was the Sportsman race, with the 6 of Brad Graham on the pole, followed by local driver Ron Lethbridge in the 95 car. The 95 got the jump on the start, and led all the way, staying on the bottom line through the turns. Near the end, the battle was for second, with the 77 of Dion Verhoeven trying anything to get by the 6 car, but had to settle for third. There was a big pile up in Turn 2 early in the race, but it seemed to thin out the field a bit, allowing for long periods of green racing. However, after the time trials, the practice and the race of the Cascar cars, the track was found to be taking a beating.
To start the last day, Sunday saw concrete patches put down in the corners, in an attempt to help the track. With Micks on the pole, it was tight action right from the begining. It seemed that no matter who was in the lead, trouble followed. The 23, the 60, the 50, the 84, the 19, the 25 plus more all felt the outside wall in turn 4. Twice, the red flag was flown to try and sweep the track. But once you ventured out in the high line, you hit the marbles and kissed the wall. And to make matters worse, lots of the lap cars were using the low line in the corners, and therefore holding up the lead cars. Lots of mistakes cost drivers both positions and damage to their cars. Lots of bent up machines at the end of the day. The crowd sure did get a show, thats for sure. By the end of the race, the track was littered with chunks of asphalt everywhere. Hopefully they can get the track fixed, both for their local guys, and for a return of the Cascar series.
In the end, Dilley took the race, with Micks and D.J. Kennington finishing out the podium.
Great weekend of racing at Mosport, both the oval and the road course, with both series, Super Series and Sportsman.
First, the sportsman race. Lots of rookies in the 23 car field, which made for some interesting times on the track for the regulars. Brad Graham started on the pole, with a new record qualifing time, but was sent to the back for a weight infraction. That left the 77 of Dion Verhoven on the pole, with the 95 of Ron Lethbridge. They battled side by side for a bunch of laps, with the 77 finally getting out front. The 6 car charged hard and early, along with the 28 of Steve Robblee, and marched to the front. With 77 in first, and the 28 in second, the 77 spun in turns 3/4, and ended up having the front end clipped off by a passing car. With the 28, the 95, the 32 of Mike Alguire and the 6 and 00 of Steve Munro duking it out for the top spot, the 6 car spun in 4, falling to 8th. On the final lap, there was contact in 1 that saw the 95 backwards into the wall, and Robblee claiming top spot, followed the Alguire and Steve Munro.
ON the road course, it was Gibbons on the pole, followed by the 4 of Thomson. Gibbons led early, but Thomson played some pit strategy, and ducked in for four tires and fuel right before a caution. He restarted about 4th, and powered his way to the front. By the end, he had a commanding lead. Some of those battle for top spot included the 25 of Lacepvich, the 02 of Micks, the 1 of Gibbons, and the 84 of JR Fitzpatrick, who scored his first podium, with a third. Contact on the last lap between the 1 and 02 dropped them back, and a strong run by Lapcevich captured a second place. On the cool down lap, Micks stormed to the front to "talk" with Gibbons, with Gibbons spinning on the Turn 5 hairpin!
Scary moment for Sean Stafford when his car went hard into the turn 4 tires. Fortunately, he was ok. Couple of other drivers took some hard licks, but all walked away.
Great battles throughout the race, and a loud field, as the mufflers were gone for the race!
Interesting nite in St Eustache last nite. Peter Gibbons had the pole, and faced quick pressure from Kerry Micks Dave Whitlock and Don Thompson. A quick caution ended the nite for local Quebec driver Andre Coursol, and was a sign of things to come.
Seems like there was a lot of contact, with a bunch of cars taking some big damage around the flat track. Gibbons eventually faded back, with Whitlock, Micks and Thomson battling for the top spot for almost the entire race. They were chased hard by the 88 of Dave Jacombs and the 17 of DJ Kennington.
Late action saw the 39 turned in turns 3 and 4, and in the final few laps, the 39 car went out on the track after a pit stop and carched into the leaders, and once again, turns 3 and 4 saw a top car turned, with Thomson losing his spot. Tempers flared in the pits, with the 39 and 4 teams side by side, but it allowed the 60 of Ron Beauchamp to move onto the podium, joining Micks for his win, and Kennington with second.
May 18, 2005
Well, pretty impressed with the coverage for Cascar on TV. Lots of stations had some footage from the Media Day event at the Vaughan Mall. New VR indicated that they would be having results from all the races on their sports update, which is great!
May 17, 2005
Ok, been far too long, as someone pointed out today, since I've updated my web site, so heres some stuff:
Media Day was today,and a great turn out of cars/teams was on hand for the event. The big news on the series side was that with the help of Nascar Marketing, the Cascar contingency funds have increased by 30 % this year.
The big news team wise was the introduction of Dodge back into racing. Dodge unveilved the new Charger, and with Mark Dilley on hand, brought the #9 Dodge Charger to Cascar racing!!
lots of other Mopar teams are now running the Charger body style, including the 19 Challenger, the 50 Atto and the 60 Mopar car. Some new faces, and some returning to the series were also on hand. All in all, a really good day for Cascar. First race is only days away!!
Here's some other cars
Also, if anyone has caught the new Super 7 or Sympatico High Speed commercials, some Cascar teams are front and centre in the ads.
For Super 7, the winner is with "jesse streets" and instead of buying a "new car", they go for the "new RACE car"! In the ad, its a Whitlock Dodge (you can see the logo through the screen in the front bumper.
In the Sympatico commercial, it opens with a close up of a couple in a car, and pulls out to show the 88 car of Dave Jacombs.
December 17, 2004
Well, done a pretty crappy job of updating anything this season, thats for sure!!
But I did go to the Toronto Cascar meeting and here's some info:
The first part was a sort of a FAQ about the season, by Tony N:
Nascar buying Cascar? No, Nascar has long term relationship with Cascar.
Change bodies of cars? No, other than minor body updates.
Rebrand/rename the series? No, hopefully close to securing title sponsor.
Big changes this year? No, this is a long term relationship.
Richard C. then talked about the "solid" program they are working on, and hope to have a press conference in January to give greater details. Richard described the Nascar deal as the "best thing to happen to racing in Canada".
Returning sponsors include Castrol, Mopar, Dodge, Snap-on, Power Water, Choko, Fast Eddie, AP, NGK, Racing Radios, Goodyear belts (expanding number of "fast lap" winners), and as a direct result of Nascar, they are working with Best Western to get deals for hotels for the teams during the season.
The rough season is
May 21-22, Delaware,
June 4, Peterborough,
a swing out east around June 9, with a double header Thursday/Saturday race, (format would be twin 50 then 150, to reduce number of crew needed on the trip- less pit stop crew),
June 18 Mosport road,
July 2, Cayuga Canada Day shoot-out,
July 8-9 Molson Indy toronto,
then a trip out west which I didn't hear the details of but including Sunvalley (and it was categorically stated that what was mentioned about Cascar being unable to run the Edmonton Champ Car race because of the Nascar deal was wrong, the staff member saying that was mistaken, as they were looking at a race date, but because the event is so new, there was going to be too big of a delay in negotiating an event date, so in order to try and firm up the schedule, Cascar said they would look at the following year)
Aug 6 Mosport oval,
Aug 26 possibly Montreal Indy,
Sept 3-4 Delaware,
Sept 17/18 Kawartha
(opps, somewhere in there is a Barrie date as well, but I forgot when!)
Lots of interest from teams about Sportsman series, hopefully another 7-8 race schedule, combined with super series, and for the stand alone events, they will be tied into local tracks regular program, for a larger turnout.
New president of Carquest recently appointed, so all marketing meetings from November were pushed back to January, but they are hopefull that Carquest will be back as title sponsor. Not sure about a Quebec date, thats up to Carquest.
Western series similar to last year, 8 race event.
Tony then talked about membership drive, and that likely membership would go up, but include an insurance component. Currently, the series is protected by the tracks insurance, which does little to help with anything that happens to the race teams. There have been some close calls, such as the crew member falling from the car hauler at Cayuga, which fortunately haven't been extremely serious, so they are looking at providing some protection for this.
2005 rules, "if your legal in 04, your legal in 05"
Spec engine, not likely for this year. Nascar is looking at a spec engine, which would be a "perfect fit" for the Cascar cars, with only changes in the carb between super series/sportsman cars. Cascar is looking for an across the board spec engine, for the three makes.
Last comment was about any team not returning to advise Cascar so they could free up the car numbers for other teams who may be interested in them.
There were some questions as well, from those attending:
TV package would not change, Rogers Sportsnet/CTV
Was Nascar asked to the meeting? Yes, but it was an info session, and Nascar guy was unavailable.
It was unlikely that Cascar will be at Speedorama
Can teams use Nascar Logo? No. Does Cascar want to be able to use it? Yes. Will this change, Tony didn't know.
Question about Nascar Dodge series, which Tony referred to as a totally different deal
Updated marketing package is being worked on
Question about avoiding a conflict with the Michigan area Nascar race vs Cascar at Mosport, Tony replied scheduling is very hard to do.
Thats about all I got written down.
Some of the teams I saw were the 10, 88 Dave Jacombs, 02 Kerry Micks, 39 Dave Whitlock, Snap on team, Brian Cathcart, Robin Buck, 16 Paul DeJong and some others from the Ottawa area.