CASC-OR Road Racing

2022 SEASON COMES TO A CLOSE WITH TWO EVENT IN 14 DAYS

Story by J. Wally Nesbitt

Two events in a 14-day span, both run at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, brought the 2022 CASC-Ontario Region racing season to a successful and fulfilling conclusion.

GT SPRINTS

As has become a recent tradition, the GT Sprints field was blessed with the presence of a handful of maritime competitors, much to the chagrin of the CASC regulars. For the Late Summer Trophy Races, the GT Sprints fields were split with the top end GT-1 and GT-2 racers getting a trio of 25 minute races, while the same schedule was offered to the GT-3,4,5 entries.

To no one’s surprise, local lead foot Blaise Csida (No. 120 Camaro) captured the GT-1 and overall checkered flag in Saturday’s opening round, edging out past champion James Beaton (No. 2 Corvette) by a mere 0.653 seconds. Unable to take the green flag in Sunday morning’s wet race due to rear end issues, Csida could only watch from the pitlane as Beaton exacted a measure of by capturing the victory, fending off repeated challenges from the east coast’s Leigh Pettipas (No. 706 Monte Carlo). However, it was Pettipas stepping up in the weekend finale by outdistancing Dan Corcoran (No. 125 Impala) by an amazing 51.435s.

John Hansen (No. 30 BMW) topped the charts in GT-2 in the opening two rounds, but it was Gary Kwok, aboard his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo who scored the class win in the third contest, finishing in third place, overall.

GT-3 checkered flags were captured by New Brunswick’s Christopher McCrea (No. 506 Fusion) and twice by Marc Lafleur (No. 03 BMW), but it was another east coast entry that attracted much attention.

The yellow No. 149 Honda CRX was co-driven on this weekend by Nickoli Roussakov and Daniel Dugdale, thee pair also teaming up to enter the Late Summer Enduro. Although the car failed to see the end of the 100 lap endurance contest, in the weekend’s first appearance, Roussakov charged from the tailend of the 19 car pack to be credited with a fourth place result. A pair of ‘breakouts’ cost Dugdale two laps in the middle stanza but he was able to rein in his loud petal to earn a well-deserved sixth place finish in the last race of the weekend.

CELEBRATION OF MOTORSPORTS

The 2022 CASC-OR campaign wrapped up on the first weekend in October with the annual Celebration of Motorsports at CTMP. Again, the GT classes were split with plenty of Detroit grunt at the front of 38 Inside Track Motorsport News

the GT-1/2 field, including five pick up trucks, along with a few audacious BMWs keeping the pressure on.

More the most part it was the Blaise Csida/ James Beaton show in GT-1 as Csida put his No. 120 Camaro on the pole and powered away to the win in the opening round with Beaton running in lockstep, the yellow No. 02 Corvette crossing the line a mere 0.119 in arrears of the winning Camaro. Youngster Jack Polito (No. 221 Mustang) finished in a very respectable third spot.

Noticing a bad vibration at high speeds, Csida’s crew changed a variety of parts on his mount for the second race, however the vibration was still evident and the No. 120 retired after the opening lap. Beaton looked apparently free to coast to the twin checkers, although Rocco Marciello had his No. 53 BMW m235iR within striking distance and John Hansen (No. 30 BMW 328is) was close enough to keep Beaton watching his mirrors. It was another race victory for Beaton in the season finale, but it was Csida who was the show, carving from the tail end of the field to finish in a closing runner-up position after 19 laps of lead foot racing.

In GT-2, it was the No.199 BMW M3 of Daria Khachi who was in control of the class for the opening two races, his absence in the final allowing Fred Roberts (No. 89 Mustang) to enjoy the top step in the trophy dash.

Cornwall, ON’s Marc Lafleur was prepared to put his stamp on the 2022 GT-3 championship and got off to a strong start by guiding his No. 30 BMW M3 to the pole position and then following up with two early wins. Lafleur’s streak came to an unfortunate end however as in the last race of the year as he spun in turn two on the opening lap although he rebounded to be in a challenging position for second place by lap ten. Trying to snatch the runner-up spot from Andrew Danyliw (No. 138 Porsche Cayman), the two made contact and Lafleur was forced to abandon the race with a broken tie rod end. Benefiting from Lafleur’s misfortune was Bruce Wylie who went flagto-flag aboard his No. 67 BMW M3 to claim the win in the finale.

The GT-4 class was sorely under-represented on this weekend, but it was Steve Kent and his No. 69 Camaro who swept the class wins. GT-5 was more unpredictable with Michael Bos (No. 16 Honda), David Dal Bello (No. 135 Porsche Boxster) and Joseph Comacchio (No. 155 BMW) sharing top honours in class.

CELEBRATION NOTES

A glorious assortment of Radicals and open wheeled machinery ran under the Formula Libre banner with the competitive F1200 cars enjoying their final trio of points paying races.

As usual, positions were exchanged with alarming regularity and it was now eight-time F1200 champion Phil Wang (No. 173 Caracal C) who captured victories in the first two contests, but finishing in third spot behind Van Peter Hansen (No. 95 Mysterian) and Daniel Demaras (No. 19 BRD) in the incident-shortened last round.

LATE-SUMMER RESULTS

RACE 1: GT-1: 1. No. 120 Blaise Csida, 2. No. 02 James Beaton, 3. No. 706 Leigh Pettipas // GT-2: 1. No. 30 John Hansen, 2. No. 199 Daria Khachi, 3. No. 24 Ed Caranci // GT-3: 1. No. 506 Christopher McCrea, 2. No. 03 Marc Lafleur, 3. No. 67 Bruce Wylie // GT-4: 1. No. 942 Bruno Vendittelli, 2. No. 69 Michael Murrillo // GT-5: 1. No. 155 Joseph Comacchio, 2. No. 16 Michael Bos, 3. 115 Roger Pitter. RACE 2: GT-1: 1. No. 02 James Beaton, 2. No. 706 Leigh Pettipas, 3. No. 53 Rocco Marciello // GT-2: 1. No. 30 John Hansen, 2. No. 199 Daria Khachi, 3. No. 5 Darren Scott // GT-3: 1. No. 03 Marc Lafleur, 2. No. 43 Ian Law, 3. No. 138 Vince Partap / / GT-4: 1. No. 942 Bruno Vendittelli, 2. No. 69 Michael Murrillo, 3. No. 149 Daniel Dugdale // GT-5: 1. No. 155 Joseph Comacchio, 2. No. 115 Roger Pitter, 3. No. 277 Robert Turner. RACE 3: GT-1: 1. No. 706 Leigh Pettipas, 2. No. 125 Dan Corcoran, 3. No. 53 Rocco Marciello // GT-2: 1. No. 66 Gary Kwok, 2. No. 30 John Hansen, 3. No. 24 Ed Caranci // GT-3: 1. No. 03 Marc Lafleur, 2. No. 54 Marek Petruczynik, 3. No. 67 Bruce Wylie // GT-4: 1. No. 942 Bruno Vendittelli, 2. No. 69 Michael Murillo (DNF) // GT-5: 1. No. 16 Michael Bos, 2. No. 115 Roger Pitter, 3. No. 155 Joseph Comacchio. LATE SUMMER TROPHY ENDURO: 1. No. 77 Radical GT-1- R. Nalbandian/ K. Poitras, 2. No. 28 Radical GT-1- K. Smith/ P. Neely (-1 lap), 3. No. 09 Audi RS3 GT-2- R. Franczak/ J. Woolridge (-5 laps), 4. No. 46 Radical GT-1- G. Kubay/ R. Burgess (-6 laps), 5. No. 238 Audi RS3 GT-1- R. Tomlinson/ M. Tomlinson (-6 laps).

(Opposite page) A slew of Maritime racers plumped up the GT classes. (above) Phil Wang won two of three F1200 races

at the Celebration of Motorsports. Photos by Richard Coburn

CELEBRATION RESULTS

RACE 1: GT-1: 1. No. 120 Blaise Csida, 2. No. 02 James Beaton, 3. No. 221 Jack Polito // GT-2: 1. No. 199 Daria Khachi, 2. No. 23 Patrick Cyr, 3. No. 89 Fred Roberts // GT-3: 1. No. 03 Marc Lafleur, 2. No. 67 Bruce Wylie, 3. No. 252 Allan Lewis // GT-4: 1. No. 69 Steve Kent, 2. No. 99 Brad Ransom // GT-5: 1. No. 155 Joseph Comacchio, 2. No. 135 David Dal Bello, 3. No. 137 Alexander Wenzel. RACE 2: GT-1: 1. No. 02 James Beaton, 2. No. 53 Rocco Marciello, 3. No. 30 John Hansen // GT-2: 1. No. 199 Daria Khachi, 2. No. 89 Fred Roberts, 3. No. 23 Patrick Cyr // GT-3: 1. No. 03 Marc Lafleur, 2. No. 67 Bruce Wylie, 3. No. 138 Andrew Danyliw // GT-4: 1. No. 69 Steve Kent // GT-5: 1. No. 135 David Dal Bello, 2. No. 137 Alexander Wenzel, 3. No. 155 Joseph Comacchio. RACE 3: GT-1: 1. No. 02 James Beaton, 2. No. 120 Blaise Csida, 3. No. 53 Rocco Marciello // GT-2: 1. No. 89 Fred Roberts, 2. No. 23 Patrick Cyr, 3. No. 96 Walter Bobko // GT-3: 1. No. 67 Bruce Wylie, 2. No. 252 Allan Lewis, 3. No. 961 Marc Hannah // GT-4: 1. No. 69 Steve Kent // GT-5: 1. No. 16 Michael Bos, 2. No. 155 Joseph Comacchio, 3. No. 137 Alexander Wenzel. F1200 RACE 1: 1. No. 173 Phil Wang, 2. No. 95 Van Peter Hansen, 3. No. 19 Daniel Demaras // F1200 RACE 2: 1. No. 173 Phil Wang, 2. No. 49 Nathan Yu, 3. No. 19 Daniel Demaras // F1200 RACE 3: 1. No. 95 Van Peter Hansen, 2. No. 19 Daniel Demaras, 3. No. 173 Phil Wang. IT