We at Ontario Time Attack are just a bunch of regular folks who enjoy the camaraderie and experience of being at the track to test our cars and our driving skills. It’s great fun, and as I’ve said before, there’s a lot of instruction available and plenty of safety features involved in our events.
We’re also all volunteers, with the exception of the marshals and safety people. Most of us don’t have individual sponsorship, so we do the best we can with the cars and budgets we have. The classing system really works well though, so a basic Honda Civic from the ’80s can be just as competitive in its own class as a Shelby GT350R, a Corvette Z06 or a Radical is in theirs.
As a volunteer-based organization, we constantly have to watch our budgets too, 2015 AUTO HANDBOOK 93 and the Club Representatives do a good job of that at our monthly Ontario Time Attack Organizers meetings. And at the track, we are always counting on the competitors to help out with running the grid, timing, registration, scrutineering and organizing the events. Some jobs are easy and some require more work, but it is this group effort that makes it all a success and worthwhile.
We have also completed two of our annual schools that we hold each year. The Instructors’ School, held at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park Driver Development Centre (CTMP DDC), teaches our existing competitors how to take new people out onto the track and safely guide them so they too can compete solo with us if they wish. The second school we run is the Drivers’ School (also known as the DDT School), which is also held at the CTMP DDC track. It teaches new entrants high-performance driving, with in-car instructors, classroom instruction, skid pad, slalom and on-track exercises. The two schools were a great success. We now have even more instructors available, and a number of new people will be joining our ranks at our competition events.
Our first competition weekend of the season took place at the CTMP DDC track at Canadian on June 6 and 7. The weather cooperated and we had a great turn-out with several familiar faces and many newcomers to Ontario Time Attack, which we are extremely pleased about. The car classing system worked well and as it turns out, there was a good competitive group in almost all classes. The new crop of novices proved to be a great group too and the mix of old and new entrants is making for a very promising season, which next visited Toronto Motorsport Park (TMP) on June 20 after an absence of a couple of years.
After TMP there were still six more events throughout the rest of the summer, and then the final “shoot-out” event in the fall. There’s still time for anyone who wants to join us, and we will provide the instruction if you are new. We’re a welcoming group and we love new people joining our ranks, so hope to see you at one of our events.
