Toronto Molson Indy

[Al Craighead]

Hi all,

For those interested, I thought I'd give you the top-10 from the first qualifying session at Toronto. Track was pretty, with rain showers coming and going throughout the day.

Didier Schraenen
Christopher Guerrieri
Frederick Lelievre
David Clubine
Eric paradis
Dan Burchill
Walter Koller
Lew MacKenzie
Ashley Taws
Steve Pickering

Guerrieri is only .oo7 behind Schraenen, with Lelievre .6 back.

Cheers,

Al.

[Al Craighead]

Above is supposed to say pretty slick, though I do enjoy my home track. Very tired [img]smile.gif[/img]

Cheers,

Al.

[Al Craighead]

Hey all,

After the second qualifying, which many in the media centre was a race with all the side-by-side race action, the top-10 is as follows:

Schraenen
Clubine
Lelievre
Taws
Paradis
Pickering
Guerrieri
Koller
Audette
Burchill

Schraenen is the only driver in the 1:19's, with Clubine a mere 0.03 behind. Should be a good race.

Cheers,

Al.

[Garey Guzman]

Do you know what cars they are running?

[capricorn1]

Garey,
They are Formula Fords. It is a Canadian National Series. See www.formulaford1600.com for more information.

[Garey Guzman]

Thanks Jerry,
I guess I should have been more specific with my question:

Do you know what Make of car each driver is running? I find it interesting to see what cars work well with the treaded tires used in that series.

[Comp89]

Didier Schraenen Mont St-Hilaire, QC 97 CMV
Christopher Guerrieri Pickering, ON 96 Vector
Frédérick Lelièvre//Mont-Joli, QC 95 Vector
David Clubine Brantford, ON 01 Van Diemen
Eric Paradis Châteauguay, QC 02 Mygale
Dan Burchill Mitchell, ON 90 Aero
Walter Koller Toronto, ON 92 Van Diemen
Lew MacKenzie Bracebridge, ON 91 Van Diemen
Ashley Taws Newmarket, ON 91 Aero
Olivier Lambert/Pincourt, QC 92 Van Diemen
Steve Pickering/Kingston, ON 90 Van Diemen
Michael Forest Edmonton, AB 03 Van Diemen
Mathieu Audette Mirabel, QC 96 CMV
Michel Bonnet St-Damase, QC 00 Harfang
David Thilenius Howell, MI 98 Van Diemen
Dan Denison Ann Arbor, MI 98 Van Diemen
Brian Nielsen Bowmanville, ON 92 Van Diemen
John Wagner Ann Arbor, MI 98 Van Diemen

[Al Craighead]

Hey Garey,

Not sure if you're familiar with all those manufacturers, so thought provide little more info.

The CMV, is a car built by three french-Canadians. I believe three or four were built in the mid-90's. It has been very successful, with Schraenen winning the Canadian championship twice.

The Aero was built by Keith and Ian Willis in Toronto. The brothers, who are engineers, built two cars, originally driving themselves, with Ian winning numerous times. Since 1995, they've run numerous drivers, winning four Canadian championships.

The Harfang I don't know much about, but I believe it was built by a french-canadian engineer in the past few years.

The Vectors are english built cars and have been run by Mauro Lanaro in Canada for several years, winning several races.

The Mygale is a french built car, that's been very successful in Europe. Paradis car was originally a Zetec car and was converted and brought over from France just before the Montreal race.

Of course you know all about Van Diemen.

Cheers,

Al.

[Al Craighead]

Wow what a race. Once again the Canadian F1600 race at the Molson Indy, was likely the best race of the weekend. Numerous passes both for the lead and in the top-five, as well as great side-by-side action, with a few contacts. In the end David Clubine won, after swapping the lead with Schraenen several times. Unfortunately, Schraenen was involved in an incident with Lelievre on the pneultimate lap, knocking him out of the race. After a great battle all race long between, Koller, Guerrieri, Lelievre, Burchill and Taws, Guerrieri and Koller completed the top-three.

If only it was shown on speedvision

Cheers,

Al.

[Dave Hopple]

Here's some photo's of the cars @Montreal from the Canadian Formula Ford Championship website. I only briefly saw these cars at Lime Rock, the CMV is interesting, very clean aerowise it could be quick on the long tracks like Elkhart.
The Toronto Atlantic race on Speed Saturday was very good also! .-Dave

CMV


Aero


Harfang


Vector


Mygale

[Garey Guzman]

Thanks Al and Dave! That's the stuff I was looking for!

It's interesting that we have so many highly competative DB-1 and DB-6 using slicks in the US but none are used in the Canadian series with the Hancocks.

[Chris Robson]

I think that one of the reasons for the lack of DB-1's is that it was one of the only FF's every developed specifically for racing slicks. Most (all) FF's to that point, execept for the AAR Eagle, I think, were imported from countries which still ran FF's on "treaded" tires. I know of one DB-1 (or 6) racing in the series.

The Canadian FF's were built to work on these types of tires. Most FF's built before 1994(?)were also built to run on these tires and can easily "converted" back to their original spec's. Again the exeception is any car built here in the USA.

One of the great things about this series is that you do not need a brand new FF to be competitive, The series spec tire is a tremendous equalizer. In fact, 4 of the top 5 cars in the points were built before 1992! I have seen 1988-92 Reynards/Crossles/Euro Swifts/Vectors and older be very competive.

I am going to race at 3 Rivers in two weeks and will run the same set of tires that I have used in the previous events. By the end of the weekend, I will have over 15 heat cycles and 250 miles of track time on them with almost no loss of competitiveness. I have been in the "set(s) of tires a weekend club" during my National days, and would not think twice about buying a new set of tires every weekend if I thought I would go faster, but it is just not the case.

I would reccommend that anyone within a days drive come up and check this event out. You will become a convert.

Chris Robson

[Rob Howden]

Chris is correct...this is an excellent series with two awesome venues on its schedule: Toronto Molson Indy and the Canadian Grand Prix. Add in the GP at Three Rivers and the ALMS race at Mosport and the series plays in front of some big people at fantastic tracks.

We'll have a series profile in the next issue of FormulaCar and will be running regular race coverage as well.

If you run a F1600 in the Northeast or Midwest, you need to really think about coming up for some of these races.

RH
FormulaCar Magazine
www.formulacarmag.com

[ccambern]

I suspect a DB1 would be at a slight disadvantage because of weight distribution and camber curves. However, Brian Grahm was fairly competitive in his DB6 at Montreal. The series uses radials that are essentially the same size front to rear, so you need less rear weight than with slicks.

I set up a DB1 for Tom Reinsel at Toronto a few years ago and we ended up with less rake and a bigger front bar. He complained of oversteer, which could be a welcomed change for Swift drivers!

Truthfully, it is pretty hard to be completely "out to lunch" with your setup on Hankooks. Typically, they need 3-4 deg. of negative camber, a bigger front bar, and a bit less rake. Other than that, you just need to drive harder!

Surprisingly, corner exit traction is not as big an issue as it is on slicks. Consequently, you don't need to compromise your setup around it and can tune for neutral balance.

-Clark

[M.L.Sauce]

The Canadian FF Series is the best bang for the buck in Road Racing anywhere.A Db-1 or Db-6 can be competitive if adjustments for extra camber can be made. I ran the same spring rates,positive rake,a stiffer front bar and 1.8 negative camber in front and 1.5 negative in the rear.My results were against the Aero car,90-94 VanDiemens and a CMV.I am sure the newer cars are somewhat better but I think the tires are the big equalizer.A decent car properly set up and driven well will be competitive in that series.

[Dave Hopple]

Some photo's from this past weekends raceToronto photos

Take a close look at these photo's of Walter Koller,despite the damage, he was able to finish 3rd in the race!



"As for Koller, it was one crazy race: “ It was a great race watching what was going on. Contact on the first lap damaged my right suspension… I basically had to wrestle the car around the track for 19 laps. I went through the last accident and the right front began collapsing on the last lap in turn nine. I didn’t have much control. At the finish line, I touched the brakes and the suspension broke.”

[Tim FF19]

It would appear that all that stuff about alignment is highly overrated!

[Dave Hopple]

Yeah Tim I was wondering about that too! I'd also like to know how much $$$ you get if you wear a Formula Car Mag t-shirt on the podium? -Dave