FEL MOTORSPORTS LOOKS AHEAD TO 2024

By Bryce Turner

Withthe 2023 Sports Car Championship Canada (SCCC) and Radical Cup Canada (RCC) seasons in the rear-view mirror, FEL Motorsports is hard at work preparing for 2024.

This season saw a number of firsts for FEL, including a condensed schedule, featuring three races per weekend, across four weekends. Canadian Tire Motorport Park bookended the calendar, which also featured stops at the Indy Toronto, GP3R (SCCC only), and Calabogie Motorsports Park (Radicals only).

“I would say the number one highlight of the year was the Honda Indy,” said FEL Motorsports manager Jessica Benevides. “The event as a whole was excellently executed, all of the races went really well. We were able to live stream one of them and we had that collaboration with the Radical Cup North America, which was also great.”

Another highlight for Benevides was the Calabogie event, which broke a record for the largest Radical car count in Canada, with 21 Radicals on the grid. While the Indy Toronto field was larger, that included two series. Also new for 2023 was the addition of a TCA class in the SCCC.

“TCA was a huge hit this year, we brought out some amazing talent,” said Benevides. “I think the TCA class really did what it was supposed to do and that was to bridge a gap a little bit. The TCA class is a much more affordable entry, it’s a way for younger, or maybe even a little less experienced, drivers to get up into the professional racing scene.”

Benevides admitted that they would’ve liked to see a larger variety of manufacturers in the TCA class. Looking ahead to 2024, the variety of cars is something already being talked about for GT4.

“Right now, everything is rumours… that’s how it always has been this early in the off-season, before any financial commitments have been made,” said Benevides. “We heard that the GT4 field is supposed to grow. We know that BMW has GT4s that have been allocated for sale within Canada. We’ve heard of people interested in purchasing Porsche GT4s for next year. Then we also know that Multimatic and Ford have the new Mustang GT4.”

2024 Schedule Planning

As for next year’s schedule, Benevides says that a decision was reached with teams to return to a less condensed calendar. She says that having three events per weekend was a bit chaotic and that they’ll go back to two races per weekend, with 40 minutes per race, for 2024.

Having fewer races in a weekend will mean more events. While work on the schedule is ongoing, the interest exists for further expansion outside of Ontario.

“We know for sure that we’ll be going back to GP3R, we have a three-year contract with them,” said Benevides. “We had a meeting with teams on the last weekend and there was definitely interest in doing a US race. There was also interest in extending into Quebec for another race for both series. Going to GP3R is not enough; since the beginning, we always wanted to engage Quebec teams, so we’ll be looking at how we can do that in 2024.”

Another change for next year is additional prizing. Benevides says that there will be a draw for teams that have attempted to participate in every race, where the winner will receive their full-season registration back. FEL holds draws, with various giveaways, at each weekend, with prizing being a point of emphasis for president Chris Bye.

Benevides says that they’d like to see a consistent car count of at least 20 cars per race in each series. With FEL acting as an entry level into professional racing, affordability is something that they’re stressing to potential teams and drivers.

“The question I’m usually asked the most is ‘is it cost comparable to a full season of karting?’ and the answer to that is ‘yes, it is,’” said Benevides. “We are going to be posting our pricing and our schedule within the next couple of months and, at that point, we’re going to be pushing pretty heavily to try and see what the interest is from the karting community and trying to get more kids moving up.”

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