500th post!

For my 500th post, I decided it would be fun to post a series of race reports from the only year I really committed full-time to a season of racing. Back in 2005, I ran a full season in a Quebec race series called "Hankook Touring". It was a series that sort of copied the formula of an American series called World Challenge. The cars were modified production cars and had to be less than 12 years old. After crashing my 1991 Civic in the Spring of 2004, I spent the summer preparing a low-budget entry for the series, a 2000 Civic Si coupe that I bought as a shell and built up with used parts. I ended up keeping that car for 10 years before selling it to my good friend Carl, who still owns it.

I wrote a series of race reports back in 2005 which I posted to various automotive forums. I didn't have this blog until 2007, so now, for the first time, I will post those reports here, in two separate posts. Enjoy!

Quebec Touring 2005 Race 1 - St-Eustache, May 8th, 2005

Well, after trying out various series since I got my license in 2002, this is the first year I where I would commit to a full season of racing in Quebec. I was supposed to do this championship last year but I totaled my race car before the first event. It took me most of last summer to build a new car and I ran it at one event in the fall where it overheated badly.

Over the winter, I changed the head gasket which solved the problem. It didn’t take too much other work to make the car ready for the series. Quebec’s Touring series is modeled after the World Challenge Touring car series. It’s starting to really show, as more and more ex-World Challenge cars are showing up at the events (six or seven at last count). There are more and more of these high-dollar cars and the series is taking off, in part due to a new promoter taking over last year. The series is supposed to comprise of 7 events on 7 different tracks, including Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve and Tremblant. The races will even air on TV on RDS, the French language sport network (several month delay though).

The car I built is eligible for the series in that it is less than 12 years old and it’s not a V8. In fact, Hondas are quite popular, as one can put together a pretty fast car economically. All swaps are permitted as long as you keep the same engine location and it’s under 2.8 liters. The minimum weight is calculated based on the engine you have. Last year, if you chose to run a 1.6 Honda, you could weigh 200 pounds less than a 1.8, which was pretty fair. However, after some 1.8’s did really well, the rule was changed and the difference is now 400 pounds. In a way, that sucks for me because I have a 1.8. However, the good part is that my car is already at the minimum weight, despite being street legal and having power windows, a heater, etc. That means that the lightest 1.8’s are not any lighter than me, although they can have the ballast where they want it.

The other issue is that my 1.8 is not the strongest. It only makes 140 hp at the wheels and the power falls off big time after 6700 rpm. I couldn’t get any dyno time before the first event, but I wasn’t too worried. The track used for the first event is not a power track, and the engine was making good torque. I decided I would shift around 8000 and just keep in in the meat of the torque.

My friend and racing partner Carl Wener (BBQMan) would be driving the car in the GTU class (a catch-all class for cars under 3.0 liters). This meant we would have to swap tires between every session on Sunday since I had to run a spec street tire (Hankook K104) and he could run any tire. He chose to run some Hankook Z211’s that I had picked up last season and which were about 50% worn. We saw that about half of the GT cars were running slicks and Carl knew he would have his work cut out for him. There is no minimum weight in GTU, so most cars had more power, less weight and more tire than Carl.

The whole event was to be run on Sunday, with each of us getting practice, a short qualifying race (8 laps) and then the feature. We had attended the test and tune the day before and all seemed to be going well. We were still burning a lot of oil but it was manageable. We started replacing my 20w50 with Motul’s 20w60 Endurance oil whenever we added more oil. We tried out a new prototype brake pad that Carl was testing for a supplier and decided that it was good enough to use for the race. Carl only got one 15-minute session on Saturday as he was managing Trac Racing’s open house on the same day. Trac Racing is located at the track where the event was being held, so he was running around all day.

Racing against Carrier's Jetta

Probably getting lapped by this E36 BMW

The Civic on track, looking pretty nice

I went out first for my practice session and, as expected, I was well off the pace of the fast cars. I was giving up over 60 hp to the Tiburons, BMW’s and a couple of the Hondas. However, I was not a “moving chicane”, as I could hold my own in the esses and nobody could outbrake me at the end of the back straight before the bus-stop (probably because I could brake very late with my lower top speed). There were about 25 cars in the practice. I was hoping to score a top 10 as this was shaping up to be the race with the lowest attendance of the season, since many of the 39 cars signed up for the championship were not ready yet. One of the Tiburons, in fact the 2004 champion’s, had some sort of suspension failure right behind me and lost a wheel. The session was red-flagged for a while as a result of this. As the practice session went on, I realized that the top 10 was not realistic unless a few cars DNF’d I also realized that I was being too courteous with the other drivers in letting them pass. I vowed to be more aggressive in the qualifying race.

Carl’s practice was uneventful. However, we were surprised to see that there was not really anyone passing him. We were also surprised to see that he was passing quite a few cars… in fact, almost all of them. We realized that Carl was pushing a lot more than the other guys. There was a quick looking first generation RX-7 (wide-body, slicks) that seemed like it was sand-bagging. However, we surmised that Carl could easily end up in the top half of the finishing order. In theory, my car should be less competitive in GTU but in practice, most of the big-money teams are gravitating towards Touring these days. In fact, the 2004 GTU champion was driving a Touring car. Basically, the fast Touring cars are as fast as the GTU cars.

For our qualifier, they had selected the starting order randomly, which was fair enough. I believe that later in the season, they will use championship standing to determine starting order for the qualifying race. I was starting 18th out of 25 cars. This was fine with me. I figured that if they had transponders, that’s about where I would have been anyways and I was relieved to know there would not be a ton of really fast guys having to get around me in only 8 laps. 8 laps is not a lot of laps to sort everyone out. On the grid, I was lined up beside an ex-World-Challenge Jetta VR6 and behind a fast Kensai Racing RSX. When the green dropped, I anticipated it well and managed to stick to the tail of the RSX despite the power disadvantage. I went through the esses off-line but at reduced speed because we were all jammed together. I managed to get ahead of the Jetta who had started 17th right from the beginning and by the time we reached the Carousel, there was nowhere to go but slow. I saw Yves Bedard, a front runner, bump drafting the other Kensai car who seemed to be holding things up. As I had predicted, I could brake later than most for the bus stop and I was able to relax in that area, knowing it was unlikely someone would try to pass me off-line in the braking zone. Things sorted themselves out in the first two or three laps. I was holding my own. I came up on a 240 SX that had been very fast in previous years but had recently found a new owner. I managed to pass him under braking for the hairpin before the front straight and eventually, the Jetta passed him too. The Jetta was always there, but never close enough to make a move on me. The car in front of me was one of the ex-factory Tiburon’s driven by JP Papineau, a guy with some open-wheel experience who I believe is exchanging seat-time for wrenching. He was slowly pulling away, probably about a half-second per lap. I figured that our relative positions would not change and I was right. There had been 2 DNF’s. I was scored as finishing 13th. I was happy because I had made a couple of passes and no one had passed me. Also, I noticed that I was gaining on some cars as I could see them from a distance near the end of the race whereas I hadn’t seen them in the previous laps.

After yet another tire change and oil top-up, we were ready for Carl’s qualifying race. He had drawn 8th position out of 14 cars. His start was also uneventful and he seemed to be doing well, picking off some semi-tube framed car on slicks once in a while with the field spreading out. At that point, my parents arrived at the track and I was talking with them for a bit. When I turned back to the action, my friends pointed out to me that Carl was already running in 4th! There was no way he would catch the cars in front of him: the RX7, a BMW Touring car (which won some Touring races in 2004) on slicks and a 1990 Civic with 230 hp at the wheels. He managed to hold onto 4th and was even gaining on 3rd by the time the checker fell. Carl was going to be starting his race in 4th.

After lunch, it was time for my race. Since it was the first race of the season, they had us park all the cars at an angle on the track, like an old Le Mans start, and pose in front of the cars. The announcer then came by and said a few words to or about each driver. When he came to some drivers, including myself, he would say “And here we have… what’s your name?”, and then we would say our name. He knew a good number of the drivers, but I have never raced in any of the FAQ series in Quebec. I found it a little insulting when he got to the next guy (Papineau) and said “Ah, here we are, now we’re starting to get to some of the well-known drivers.” We finally got back into the cars and my crew headed back behind the pit wall (although they were mostly there for moral support, I hadn’t even brought a spare tire with me…). I lined up with the Jetta right behind me and the Tiburon beside me. He was on the “good” side. Actually, I don’t really know how we ended up that way, since 12th and 13th are not supposed to be on the same row… Any way, I again got a decent start, as the green fell very late and no one up front jumped the gun. I was beside Papineau and we went through the first turn, the braking point, the 3 turns of the esses, the Carousel and the back straight, all side-by-side! I can’t believe we found room everywhere that far off the line because we weren’t going that slow. I finally passed him in the Carousel or on the straight and he was right behind me after that. We settled in that way. The Kensai Integra Type R, driven by Valerie Limoges who competed in the Fran-Am formula car series last year, missed the braking zone for the bus stop and went straight through. The instructions in the driver’s meeting had been crystal clear: if you put four wheels off there or go straight through, you have to enter the pits at the end of that same lap for a stop-and-go. If you wait until the next lap, it’s an extra 10 seconds in the pits and if you wait longer than that, you’re disqualified. Not long after that, I came across Etienne Borgeat in an E36 BMW facing the wrong way in the hairpin, but it was easy to avoid him as it’s a slow corner getting onto the oval and there’s lots of asphalt on either side. The race went on and I was eventually was caught and passed by both the penalized Integra and the BMW which had spun. I caught and passed a Mercedes C280 that seemed to be running off the pace. I don’t know if that was a pass for position or if I was lapping him. My car was getting more and more loose and I had some nice tail-out action a couple of times, which I caught by standing on the gas. On about lap 18, I came upon three back markers, a Geo Storm, a Neon and one of the Echo Cup cars. I lost some time passing the Storm and a lot more time with the Neon. I definitely have to learn to be more assertive when lapping traffic (a situation which I hadn’t expected…) because Papineau was right on my tail after this. He had done a better job lapping the back markers. I passed the Echo aggressively, but the Tiburon was filling my mirrors as he had followed me by. The Echo was driven by an experienced and fast driver who knew how not to interrupt a battle for position. The Tiburon was right on my tail all the way down the straight and I was determined to brake as late as possible as I saw him pulling up beside me. That’s basically when I choked and blew the corner. I braked a little later than usual, locked it up a couple of times in the straight and was headed straight for the “penalty area” beyond the cones that would force me to take a stop-and-go penalty at the end of the lap. Somehow, I got the car stopped before the cones (just before them!) and made the turn, but Papineau managed to drove right around me and even pull away a bit. At least I only lost the one position. I never got close enough to him to try another pass and even if I had, it would have been extremely tough. Those cars have excellent power from their 2.7-liter V6’s and Papineau was driving with more confidence after he had righted the wrong of losing out to me on the first lap. I ended up 13th and I’m satisfied with the result, especially since there was not a single DNF in the race. Basically, I must have passed 3 cars for position (the Integra, the E36 and the Tiburon) and was re-passed by the same 3 cars. My only regret is choking at the bus-stop and losing out to the Tiburon, but that’s a mistake I can live with. The race was won by an E36 BMW followed by the 2004 Champion Jacques Gravel in his Tiburon and Yves Bedard’s 20v Golf III.

Carl’s race was next. He started 4th and was holding his position. I was in the pits with my fiancée and Bruno, the “one-man-crew”. Carl seemed to be doing OK, but at one point, he didn’t come around. We were worried, but he finally showed up… in last place, by a wide margin. The car seemed to be in one piece and I timed his next lap. Everything seemed to be in order, so we assumed he had some type of little off. It didn’t take him long to catch the second-to-last placed car. He started to pick off the back markers, but could not manage to pass a tube-framed CRX. It seemed he was struggling with the car late in the race. He ended up 8th and in the post-race debriefing, he described how he had spun early on in some spilled coolant and how the car would simply not turn at the end of the race. We had never run the Z211’s hard for 30 minutes like that and in yesterday’s race, they could not handle it. The race was won by the RX7 after a long battle with the E36, which eventually broke down with a flat tire or suspension issue. Second was a wide-body Golf VR6 on slicks and 3rd was the 1990 Civic.

I’m quite satisfied with the day we had. The car didn’t miss a beat and I was proud to load it up and drive it back home, passing trailered cars on the way. I really feel that, except for the mistake that cost me one position, I ran as high as one could expect with the car I had. All weekend, we saw other cars changing springs for different rates and adjusting things while we sort of laughed, since nothing is adjustable on my car except ride height. Carl seems to think we need a rear sway bar to make the car rotate better and we both agreed that it’s easy and fun to drive the way it is. I ended up top rookie and will receive a 100$ Motul voucher. It looks like I may be in the hunt for rookie of the year if I can keep this up… we’ll see.

The car performed reliably and we both had a great time. I was happy to have my fiancée and my parents on hand to see the race and I benefited from an excellent crew. Thanks Tom, Bruno and Rob, you did a great job with the 5 tire changes! I also have to thank Trac Racing for including me in their team and letting me use their tent, and Motul, Progress and TK Race Heads for helping put the car together and keep it running. I’m also glad I’m sharing the car with a guy like Carl, who seems to always have the feedback (and parts!) we need to have fun out there.

Quebec Touring 2005 Race 2 - Sanair, May 29, 2005

From mid-pack to back-marker.

Carl and I headed out to Sanair near Montreal for the 2nd round of the FAQ road racing championship this weekend. Sanair is a small track that incorporates a drag strip and a mini-oval. Lap times hover around the 1-minute mark. We knew this would hurt us because we are way down on power compared to the competition (we have 140 whp), who are building cars to World Challenge levels, or, as is the case for several teams, just buying ex-World Challenge cars.

I had done OK at the first round, finishing 13th and top rookie. I knew this weekend would be tougher because I didn’t have a ton of experience on this track and because the drag strip would kill us.

By the time I went out for my first practice, I could see that indeed, I was losing a lot of time on the drag strip. I was also happy to note that elsewhere on the track I was as fast as most of the other racers. Also, I was able to brake quite late as I was not going as fast at the end of the straight, and this would prove useful all weekend. I managed a 1:03.4 and the 2 fastest cars were under the one-minute mark. There were many cars between 1:00 and 1:01.5, and I knew that I would never be running with them. I figured I could get down to the 1:02’s, but it would still be lonely there as there was only one other car running those times: Stephane Carrier’s Jetta. Although I never really met Stephane until this year, I am getting to know him better and better. We battled most of the first race and our times are always remarkably close. We always get to talking in the paddocks and I think we have developed a solid mutual respect for each other.

Carl was running my car in the GTU class and this meant we were swapping tires from the Hankook K104 street tires to his race tires after every session. Carl got down to 1:01 and I knew that I should be in the 1:02 range with my setup. I went out for my second practice session and things were going well until my gauges started acting funny. My battery was dying and I guessed that I had probably lost my alternator belt. I barely managed to complete my lap as there was barely any spark and I ended up missing half the session. We opened the hood and found that the alternator belt was there. One of the TRAC crew came over and tested the alternator, pronouncing it dead. As Carl started to take it out (neither of us are mechanically inclined, but Carl did a pretty decent job of taking it out), I went to visit the 5 or 6 other teams that were running Honda B-series cars. None had a spare, so I headed for the closest auto parts store, which was almost 30 minutes away. I only had 30 minutes before the stores closed. I drove “briskly” and got there with 3 minutes to spare. My alternator was from a B16a1, so I didn’t really know what to ask for, but he had nothing even close to what I needed in stock anyway. I drove back to the track and called a friend who was coming the next day to watch the races and who happened to have a B16a1-powered CRX sitting at home. This friend is named Carl Rondeau and he has to sit out this season due to health problems. You’ll rarely meet a nicer guy and he immediately agreed not only to take out the part and bring it to us, but to get up at the crack of dawn to meet us at the track. Of course, he would not accept any money for his troubles. Thanks to him, our weekend went on with only a morning warmup missed (Carl’s, not mine… sorry Carl!).

I went out for the warmup and took it easy until I could confirm that our problem was solved, which it was. I put it some hot laps and all was going well. I managed a 1:02.7 and was quite satisfied with that. Carrier in the Jetta was 1/10^th of a second faster. It was shaping up to be another battle between us. We headed out for qualifying and I felt I had a good session, but I only managed a 1:03.4 while Carrier managed a high 1:02. I was a little disappointed, but even if I had posted my best lap, I would only have moved up that one position. The next car ahead of us had qualified with a 1:01.2, so we figured we would never see him again. It turned out we were 18th and 19th out of 23 cars. The 4 cars behind us were lapping 1:04 and slower, so we were basically only one notch up on from the back markers. In a 30-lap race, we were going to get lapped, something Carrier and I had managed to avoid at the season opener. The guy who was just behind me in the rookie standings, radio personality Babu, was 9th in one of the Tiburons. Given that I had only beaten him by one position in the first event, it looked as if my lead in the rookie standings was going to disappear after this event.

When they lined us up for the start, the 17th place car asked to be placed last. He was facing electrical problems and planned to do only one lap to score some participation points. It was generous of him to offer to move out of the way like that. The starter asked me to move up to his spot and plug the hole, but I mentioned that this was not fair to Carrier, as he out-qualified me and should not lose the position before the race even started. My plan was to pass him on the track, not on the false-grid! The starter agreed that the right thing to do was to have us crisscross right at the start of the warmup lap, and we did so. As we came around for the green flag, I gunned it as early as possible, but it was a joke. I was almost laughing when I watched the video of the race. The whole field was just pulling away from me, as a group. As there is a hairpin at the end of the straight, I was able to catch the back of that group. There is a lot of room in that turn (the runoff from the drag strip continues in a straight line) and I elected to stay on the outside and try to drive around the slower cars in the group. I was too far away to do this effectively, but I did manage to get ahead of Carrier as I had hoped. I exited the hairpin right behind one of the Tiburons. It pulled away in the esses, but the group was massed at the braking zone for the tricky left-hander onto the mini-oval. I dove inside and managed to pass the Tiburon in that turn. At this point, the field started to spread out. The Tiburon easily caught me in the straight and passed me at the hairpin. It turns out it was Babu driving that Tiburon and I don’t know how I managed to pass a guy who started 10 positions ahead of me on the first lap, but the glory was short-lived anyhow. I now had to concentrate on keeping the Jetta behind me. I could see the 16th and 15th qualifiers pulling away lap after lap and eventually, it was just me and the Jetta. He was slowly reeling me in and was simply driving faster than me mid-race. He passed me in the hairpin, but had to take a weird line that allowed him to take the position back immediately. On the next lap, he made it stick and began to pull away by a couple of car lengths. At this point, the leaders began to lap us and we began to lap the back-markers. It was an interesting period in the race. I managed these passes better than Carrier and ended up right on his ass with about 5 laps to go. With 3 laps remaining, I made my move and decided to try to out-brake him at the hairpin. I briefly locked up, but managed to make the turn on the inside of the Jetta. I held him off for the last 2 laps and we finished two seconds apart. We ended up 15th and 16th, as there had 3 DNF’s ahead of us, all mechanical. Babu ended up 14th, so we’re now tied in the rookie standings. Stephane Carrier and I congratulated each other after the race and we were both all smiles. It turns out we were one of the only on-going battles during the race, so we may have entertained others besides ourselves.

Now 15th out of 18 is not really where I was hoping to run this year, but I can’t complain too much. I have no budget to build a kick-ass engine and this is the type of track where it becomes most obvious. The field is deeper every year in this series and there is less and less room for the little guy. When I look at the caliber of the cars and teams ahead of me, I don’t feel so bad. There are 4 weeks before the next event, so I have time to try and find some cheap horsepower. Stay tuned.

P.S.: Thanks to Carl Rondeau for his help, and thanks to Carl BBQman Wener for his help and for sharing the race season with me. Thanks to my sponsors TRAC Racing, TK Race Heads and Motul.

Video of my race: 

Quebec Touring 2005 Race 3 - St-Felicien, June 25-26, 2005

Our St-Jean-Baptiste weekend 

Like most teams, Carl and I were looking forward to this weekend's race in St-Félicien. Our girlfriends joined us for the weekend and it was like a mini summer vacation. Also, we had a volunteer "crew" to help us with the car: Marie-Ève, Sébastien and Max.

I took the day off Thursday to enjoy a relaxing day of tourism with Alexandra. We left Montreal at 6:00am and at 11:00, we were having lunch on the beach in Roberval. She did not find the trip uncomfortable in the Civic despite the noise, the fairly firm suspension and the lack of a radio. Also, it's easy enough to overtake people on highway 155, despite the weight of all our gear.

When we arrived at St-Félicien, we decided to go for a drive around Lac St-Jean with the Civic. I did not realize it was about 200 km, but it was very nice and the lake is beautiful. Also, we were very pleasantly surprised at the quality of our hotel, the Hotel du Jardin. There was a pool, whirlpool, bar and restaurant. This is the nicest hotel where I’ve ever stayed for a race.

The Civic on street wheels, with our Integra Type R support vehicle

Friday, we went to the track for testing. Unfortunately, the session started an hour late because the paramedic was not present. During the day, we managed to catch up. Carl quickly learned the track and achieved lap times in the 51-second range from the first session. It took me longer to become comfortable in the oval. Even in the fourth practice, I was not pushing hard in this double turn. In fact, throughout the weekend, I had seen all sorts of lines through this turn. Roberto arrived in the middle of the day for his first race in the series with his new Integra. I could not wait to run against him because we have pretty similar cars and a similar level of experience. There was a parade of the racing cars to downtown around dinner time. It was very cool as an idea, but there were not many people from St-Félicien present. Everyone was in a good mood however and it was a very pleasant experience. Afterwards, we returned to the track for evening practice. Roberto and I were together during the whole session. The day ended without incident for us and I regretted not having pushed harder. I felt I was wasting my track time by staying too long in my comfort zone without pushing myself. In fact, the car inspired confidence and was running very well. I knew I could not blame the car for my lack of speed. We left Friday night with the gang from SD Racing (Carrier’s team) and I fell asleep around 4:00am  still thinking of the damn oval!

On-track action with the Geo Storm

Saturday during practice, I felt that it was going better. I pushed more in the oval (not yet at the limit, but a little faster) and the braking point of the hairpin, ending up briefly on the grass. Also, the "check engine" light came on once and I lost power, but I turned the engine off and on again in the straightaway and things were back to normal. After each incident, I managed to regain ground on Roberto in front of me, so I knew I was going faster. Carl was not going faster and remained at around 51 seconds during his practice. I was in the 53’s, which I considered normal (I drove on K104 street tires and Carl on Z211 race rubber). I was very far from the leaders however, Kuno Wittmer having achieved a lap in the 49’s. At qualifying, I managed to get down in the 52Ms and I knew that I could not go much faster. I would be starting 23rd behind Roberto (2/10 seconds) and Rémi Villeneuve, who was running at a good speed for his first race and considering that he still had less acceleration than Roberto and me. Steph Carrier had a good lead over us and I could see that I could not battle with him any more as I had in the first two races. The fact that we were starting 22nd and 23rd proves that the series has really evolved. Before, you could arrive with a Honda with 180 hp and hope to end up in the top 10 from time to time and end the season in the top 6 or 7 in the championship. Now, there are so many fast cars with motivated drivers that it has become very difficult for low budget teams to get good results. Now, when a motor blows up during a practice session, the mechanics change it before qualifying! I cannot complain that the series is so successful that people are willing to spend that kind of money and energy. I chose to participate in this series with a really small budget, and if I invested $ 5000 more in my car (I would still be one of the lowest budgets), I could battle with another class of competitors in the middle of the pack. I have to live with my choices and gain experience in the series. There is no point spending more on my car before I am performing to my full potential as a driver with the equipment I have.

This is the "fan card" I was handing out to interested passers-by

Carl's GTU race took place before mine and he had a good race. He did not make a single mistake, he turned laps in the 50’s and everything went well. However, while changing a tire after the race, we broke a front wheel stud and it had to change before my race. I was stressed, but thanks to Sébastien from my crew, and Stéphane Sansoucy who gave me a stud, and the fast work of Martin Couture and Jean-Louis Arpin, the stud was changed in a few minutes and I was not even late showing up for the grid. Without the help of all these people, I would not have been ready for my race. Thank you guys! So I prepared for my Touring race and was looking forward to a good start. In the first races of the year, I had had good starts and I had gaines at least one position in the first lap. Carl told me to keep the inside at all costs for the oval and that's what I was going to do. I was next to Roberto and behind Remi. At the green flag, I kept the inside, hoping to overtake Rob at the braking zone for turn one. Unfortunately, the lane I chose was the slower one, and I found myself caught behind Remi who was caught behind the next. Roberto managed to keep his position in front of me and the orange Jetta, who not run in qualifying, managed to pass me. I wanted to attack Rob, but there was the Jetta between us. I was putting pressure on the Jetta and went off track at the end of the hairpin. The way was clear to try to get Rob and Remi, but I had the blue and white Tiburon just behind me. Suddenly, I saw that my speedometer needle was bugging out. I knew from Sanair, where my alternator had died, that this indicated a voltage problem. I turned off my lights to see if it made a difference. Everything seemed normal for one lap, but I was given the meatball because I was driving without lights. I was losing power anyway and I went into the pits. I was trying to negotiate the right to go back out without headlights while the race was going on, but in any case, the engine was about to stall, due to a lack of voltage. I went to the paddocks to park the car. I was extremely disappointed. My goal this season was to collect points using the reliability of my car, so I could not afford a DNF. I had just changed the alternator after the Sanair race and I thought I had settled the issue. I felt at that time that I had wasted my weekend. I did not see the accident involving the Geo Storm that brought out the pace car or the accident between Pichette’s Civic and Giguère’s 240 SX which sent Giguère to the hospital with a broken ankle. As I thought about it later, I realized that the day could have been a lot worse. I hope that Nicolas Giguère’s recovery will not be too painful. The day ended on a dark note following this incident that ended the race. I was not in a good mood and I went to bed early.

The GT-class cars ready for action

My crew had promised to get me a new battery at Canadian Tire in Roberval. It was decided that the battery had taken a hit at Sanair when the alternator had let go and I had to change it before going back to the track. Since Canadian Tire only opened at 9:00 am, I had to borrow Gehant's battery (he had blown his engine the day before) to start the day. I lined up for the Touring Invitational Race, and there was nobody except me and Roberto. Eventually, Paul Sarrazin and another car joined us. Carl was talking to the official to find out what was going on, and he was told that they had decided with the drivers to cancel the demonstration race. They wanted us to join the GTO-GTU race. I was not happy, as no one had consulted us and I could not drive in GTU because Carl was going to use my car. We started the session anyway. After two laps, I lost voltage again and had to go back to the paddocks. There was smoke coming out of the alternator. We started looking for an alternator among the other teams. The Gavronski team had one, but it did not fit. Paul Sarrazin helped me remove the pulley from the dead alternator. Alain Demers and his mechanic decided to lend us their alternator. Several other drivers and crew joined us and there was a nice atmosphere of cooperation between tames. After starting to pull the alternator out of Demers’ Civic, Carl realized that the connector was of the wrong type for my car. We decided at that point to forget about the other races and focus on returning to Montreal without an alternator. I was not angry anymore. In fact, I was pretty impressed by the willingness of others to help us. It was surprising how the other drivers and crew came to our rescue without hesitation. It almost made me forget Saturday's disappointment.

In the end, we decided to drive back to Montreal without an alternator, using only the power of the battery. In fact, I should say “batteries”. Before leaving, I borrowed 2 batteries, Roberto’s and one of Yvon Frigault. I still had Géhant’s battery and my new Canadian Tire battery, as well as a portable battery. So with six batteries, I was thinking I would get to Montreal without any problem.

The demonstration race was canceled and Roberto headed home. He brought Alexandra back with him, leaving me room on the passenger side floor for the five extra batteries. I stayed to watch the Echo race (quite annoying for the spectators, no overtaking after the first lap) and the GTO-GTU race (very interesting, great comeback by Mathieu Jarry and a good Corvette / Porsche battle) and I left. I changed my battery pre-emptively at La Tuque and by necessity a little bit after Trois-Rivières (I accidentally had turned on the ventilation fan, drawing a lot of juice) and had to change batteries a third time just east of Montreal (The battery of Frégault did not fit in the space for the battery under the hood, so I left it on the floor and I made an "extension" with booster cables and duct tape). I made it to Pierrefonds without any problems, just as it was getting dark.

Multi-battery setup for the return drive

So, on the racing side, it was a weekend to forget, but I cannot say it was a bad weekend over all. I had a great day on Thursday with Alex and I saw firsthand the spirit of cooperation that allows small teams like ours to participate in the FAQ race series. Also, there are worse things than having to buy a new alternator ...

Thanks to :

Alexandra, Carl, Trac Racing, Marie-Eve, Sébastien, Max, Stéphane Sansoucy, Paul Sarrazin, Marc Gavronski and team, Alain Demers and team, Paul Sarrazin, Martin Couture, Jean-Louis-Arpin, Jean-Luc Géhant, Yvon Frigault , Sarah, and others!