Au petit matin, plusieurs compétiteurs étaient déjà présents avec leur remorque et VR dans les paddocks.
Notons la présence de Nissan Magog Racing Team et de Lachute Performance qui ont participé à cet événement.

Pas moins de 13 pilotes ont roulé en bas de la minute sur le circuit routier de Sanair. De grandes batailles se dessinent pour la dernière course à iCAR. Au classement du Championnat, en TA-6, un nouveau meneur est à la première place, les 10 premiers pilotes se bataillant les 5 premières places de très près. En TA-2, la deuxième place est accessible à 4 pilotes! C’est en TA-3 où sévit la plus grande bataille puisque les positions 2 à 5 ne sont séparées que de 0,353 points au classement. Lors de la course de Sanair, ces 4 pilotes ont roulé à l’intérieur d’un écart de 0,25 seconde! Lors de la course à ASE, 0,3 seconde les séparait.

Le classement du Championnat est disponible à : http://www.trackandtime.ca/index.php/classement

Les temps sont disponibles à : trackandtime.mylaps.com

Le championnat de time attack de TRACK AND TIME est rendu possible grâce à la collaboration du Groupe EuroSport, du Docteur du Pare-Brise de Blainville, des signaleurs de l’ASRQ et des 10 organisateurs que nous remercions chaleureusement.

La prochaine course aura lieu sur le circuit de iCAR à Mirabel le samedi 24 septembre 2011. Les inscriptions sont ouvertes et limitées.

Mieux vaut s’inscrire tôt pour s’assurer d’y avoir une place.

Merci aux pilotes pour leur participation!

Track and Time
info@trackandtime.ca
www.trackandtime.ca

Picture from www.climbtotheclouds.com

This weekend coming is going to be great. The Mount Washington Hill Climb is going to take place in New-Hampshire, USA. With 70 entries so far, from Vintage cars to Open Class rally cars, sunday should be a toss up of fresh air, beautiful scenery, and of course the sound and feel of a rally car blaring by us.

Enough said. Check it out and www.climbtotheclouds.com.

Don't forget to check out our friends from Vermont Sports Car via links on the site.

See you there!

I'll just recap quickly the beginning of the season:

St-Eustache was the first event on snow and ice with small patches of pavement. Really needed to place the tires at the right place at all times and modulate throttle and braking as well. We finished 4th out of the 20-some eligible teams. Not bad for a 2wd.

Next, we made it to ICAR, in Mirabel and were expecting ice and snow. Turns out it was wet tarmac and 4-5inch puddles.

 Our 4 brand new studded tires were of no use. Thanks anyway RTuning and Nissan Magog!! We ended up using the tires that drove us up there: almost new Yokohama winter tires. They had too much tread for the tarmac. This combined to our high tire pressures (we never blame it on the driving) made us lose 12 secs after 2 stages.

We fought a good fight all day, but to no avail. We finished 6th overall and 3rd in 2wd class.

We couldn't make it to Sanair in April, but I count on being at the next gravel RallyX in August sometime. New co-driver this time around, I think....stay tuned as I confirm and possibly cover the training of a new RallyX co-driver.

We missed the first event of the year because we didn't even know RallyX existed at the time. At Sanair we got our licences and competed in the rainy tarmac rally despite our father having a heart-attack the day before the rally school. 1st Rookie, 1st 2wd, 5th overall.

At the Hôtel-National RallyX, I had J.-F. Fréchette as a rookie co-driver at the hardest event of the season. 3rd 2wd, 10th overall.

Mike was back in the death seat for the Des Blés RallyX and it absolutely rocked. It was hard, yet fun. 1st 2wd, 2nd overall.

And now this was it, the closing of the season. With very little to prove to ourselves, 'no stress - lots of fun' was the plan. As we were getting setup on site, it was cold and snowing. It was snowing so much, there was talk in the service area about wether or not a snow tire would have been a good choice. Car 0 (the car that opens the way before the stage) was at 12:33pm and the weather called for 6°C so I was quite sure that the snow would melt some. Either way, the ground didn't seem very frozen so the gravel tires would dig in just the same. Fortunately the sun was out by the time it was our turn. All was good.

Names pulled from a hat days before had decided we were 1st on the road. Great!!! That would mean the road would have less abuse and be smoother for us right? The first stage (Autodrome 1) was so smooth, the car was floating....floating over an inch of damned asbestos mud that is. Our time was quite pathetic, but it was the best we could do with the tread jam packed with mud.

After SS1 - Autodrome 1: 9th Overall, 3rd 2wd, 2nd Group2.

During the event we had 3 competitors to watch:

• Overall championship contenders Lamarre/Hornblower - Mazda 323GTX (AWD)
• 2wd & Group2 championship contenders Lamontagne / Toupin - Toyota Echo (2wd)
• 2wd & Group2 event contenders St-Pierre / Lortie - Nissan Sentra (2wd)

After stage 1 we were now behind Lamarre(+10sec) and St-Pierre(+15sec), and only 1 second ahead of Lamontage.

We knew we could do well on stage 2 (MJ Lessard 1) as it was very much the same as the Lessard stage from the RallyeX Hotel National. A few minor tweaks in the pacenotes during the recce, and I knew what I had to do. I have a good memory for road layouts so while waiting in the start box, I called the the 2.2km stage back to Mike, my co-driver. He confirmed everything was in check. We followed National Rally driver Ugo Desgreniers' pre-rally advice: 'Petal....to the metal....' 4th fastest stage time.

After SS2 - MJ Lessard 1: 7th Overall, 2nd 2wd, 2nd Group2.

After stage 2 we were now behind Lamarre(+9sec) and St-Pierre(+2sec), and now 21 seconds ahead of Lamontage.

Stage 3 (Autodrome 2) was a repeat of stage 1. The road surface had a lot more grip. 5th fastest time just behind St-Pierre.

After SS3 - Autodrome 2: 7th Overall, 2nd 2wd, 2nd Group2.

After stage 3 we lost another 2 secconds to Lamarre, but they had hit a cone for a penalty of 10 seconds(+1sec) and 1 second to St-Pierre(+3sec), and were now 33 seconds ahead of Lamontage.

Only time for a brief service and we were off the stage 4 (MJ Lessard 2). I knew where I had potential to make little adjustments to try and trim down the stage time, like the blind crest into medium left where I though that if I changed my line and laterally preloaded the suspension before the turn-in point, I could save a bit of time....maybe.
That stage was awesome. It felt so right. Breaking points were great & exit speeds were in check. The blind crest was very fast, but required trail braking sideways during the heel&toe downshifts. A very nice feeling, but is it faster?

With a stage time the very same as the first MJ Lessard, we made up 1 seccond to Lamarre (tied) and 3 seconds to St-Pierre. We would have now been three rivals tied for 5th, but a two minute penalty meant St-Pierre was far enough behind not to worry about, and were now 56 seconds ahead of Lamontage. Life is good.

After SS4 - MJ Lessard 2: tied for 5th Overall, 1st 2wd, 1st Group2.

Stages 5 and 6 (Autodrome & MJ Lessard 3) were like clockwork. We managed to pull off a 3rd fastest time in stage 5 and the very same time in MJ Lessard 3 as we always ran. This placed us 10 seconds ahead of Lamarre.

After SS5 & SS6: 5th Overall, 1st 2wd, 1st Group2.

For stages 7 and 8, there was a seeding done. This means that they change the order dependant on a certain criteria. In our case the start order was from last place to first place. So the slowest team started first and the fastest team ran the stage last. We were scheduled to run 5th last. During the recce, we had noticed that because of a light snowfall on a new piece of the speedway we would rally on (up on the banked oval) an odd cambered chicane (i.e.: braking point up the bank and chicane off camber down the bank) was very slippery. What was more bothersome was that the mud thickened between the trail braking point and the turn-in point. (Simplified explanation: there was risk of understeering off the track). In my mind I would simply put on a bit of a show and lock up the rear at the braking point and drift into it. As you slide you can get a good feel of the changing road surface and compensate for it while maintaining oversteer. Sounds simple right?

Between the recce and our stage run, we checked the tire pressure and decided to lower it to where we thought it would grip the best for the conditions. Once on the stage, things were going ok and as I entered the corner in question, I started to slide the car....

As the rear slid out, grip....grip....grip. There was no way I was going to be able to prolong the slide the original way I intended. The higher unanticipated levels of grip were caused by the 4 cars in front of us that packed things down a bit and the fact that we lowered the tire pressure for more tire contact patch. I tried a few subtle driving inputs to keep the car sliding long enough, but it wasn't enough. We wound up stalled right beside the chicane cone.....

From my point of view we were ok. No cones felt dropped. As I started the car back up and dumped the clutch, I feel a 'thud' from under the the front left tire. I was disapointed. I just knicked the cone.

Despite the seconds lost from the stall, we still managed to keep our 5th overall position, but with Lamarre only 1 second behind. And the cone we hit? Turns out it was out of place to start with and wasn't called as a penalty.

The last stage was without incident, but the AWD 323 of Lamarre managed to steal back another 7 seconds to claim 5th place overall.

So that ended the season with us in 1st place 2wd, 2nd place Overall and Rookie of the year. Sorry it took so long to post this. Catch you all soon.

Kurt

Final car prep will be done tonight at Nissan Magog and the Shifted Racing Team is looking forward to seeing both fans and fellow competitors at East-Broughton Speedway. Once the event is over, I'll make sure to write up an article about what went on. Catch you soon!

Kurtis Duddy

Shifted Racing Team RallyX Driver

La météo était clémente et une journée intense attendait les participants.  Les voitures présentes étaient, encore une fois, très bien préparées et tous les participants ont poussé très fort afin d'améliorer leur position au classement.

De mon côté, mon Sentra était prêt pour tenter de remporter le championnat du Québec de Time Attack 2010 classe GT-1.  Pour les 2 séances de pratique du matin, j'ai roulé sur des pneus NT-01 et j'ai poussé juste assez fort pour me retrouver dans le premier groupe lors des séances chronométrées de l'après-midi.

Pour les séances chronométrées de l'après-midi, j'ai mis des Hoosier R6 et dès les premiers tours de roue, j'ai poussé très fort afin de m'assurer une bonne place dans la classe GT-1.  J'ai fait un temps de 59.087sec.  Ce temps m'a placé en première place et m'a permis de remporter le championnat classe GT-1.  Lors de cette journée, les 3 Sentra ont vraiment bien performé.

En classe GT-1, les 2 premiers rangs étaient occupés par des Sentra SER Spec-V.

En classe SGT-2, un Sentra SER Spec-V Turbo s'est classé au deuxième rang.

Les résultats sont ici...

Résultat Sanair 24 Juillet 2010 (classe)

J'aimerais en profiter pour remercier mes amis qui m'ont permis d'apprécier cette saison 2010 au plus haut point.  Non seulement la compétition était intense et tripante mais le fait d'avoir partagé ma passion avec des amis aussi authentiques est vraiment la cerise sur le sunday.  Un gros merci et au plaisir de vour revoir l'année prochaine sur les circuits du Québec et de l'Ontario pour un championnat encore plus relevé.

Bruno Toussaint

At the beginning of the day, no one was sure if it would rain or not. After some weather analysis, I decided to prepare my car for a dry day. I’ll worked out great since it didn’t rain a drop all day.

The calibre of vehicles present was once again very impressive. The event was ‘sold out’ and we could feel the show was going to be awesome.

During the first timed run, I was already fastest of my class.  Things went well all day despite a few issues. Among other things I broke my lower tie bar. The circuit is really bumpy and needs to be repaved, especially the infield of the oval.

Both Nissan SE-R SPEC-V Sentras were running in the top 10 of the Time Attack GT-1 class all day long.

In the end, I finished 1^st in my class and gained a serious advantage in the Time Attack Quebec championship GT-1 class.

Résultat St-Eustache 20 Juin 2010

It’ll all come down to the last event of the season at Sanair on the 24^th of July 2010.

Bruno Toussaint

La journée a débuté sous un ciel vraiment incertain. Après avoir analysé la météo, j'ai décidé de préparer ma voiture pour une journée sur le sec. Je me suis pas trompé car finalement il n'a pas mouillé de la journée.

Le niveau des voitures au rendez-vous étaient encore une fois très élevées. L'événement était 'sold out' et le spectacle s'annoncait excitant!!

Dès la première seance chronométrés, je roulais déjà le temps le plus rapide de ma classe.  La journée s'est bien déroulée même si j'ai eu quelques petits problèmes.  Entre autre, j'ai brisé ma barre de renforcement inférieur (lower tie bar).  La raison est que le circuit est vraiment bossé et est dû pour un repavage, surtout dans la portion à l'intétieur de l'ovale.

Les 2 Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec-V de Time Attack classe GT-1 ont roulé dans le top 10 toute la journée.

En résumé, j'ai terminé premier dans ma classe et j'ai pris une sérieuse option sur le championnat du Québec de Time Attack en classe GT-1.

Résultat St-Eustache 20 Juin 2010

Le tout se décidera lors du dernier événement à Sanair le 24 Jullet 2010.

Bruno Toussaint