BCHMR Event Chairman, Tom Johnston has announced that the original late entry fee of $50 has now been dropped for any entry received prior to the start of the Race Weekend on Saturday, May 25th.
However, if you do leave it until the very, very last minute and wait until you get to the track to submit your entry, then the $50 late fee will still apply. So get those entries in!!
Your turn next at the 2012 BCHMR! – Hot Laps 4 Kidz is back for 2013.
Posted: April 30, 2013
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to ride in a luxury sports car around the race track at speed? Here’s your chance!! ‘Hot Lapz 4 Kidz’ is a real fan favourite at the BC Historic Motor Races and is being offered again this year – an opportunity to ride by donation in supercars driven by a professional driver around the 1.5 mile race track.
Check out the latest info on the Spectator page (here).
Everybody is racing to enter the 2013 BCHMR. The line forms on the right! – Jim Moody photo(s)
Posted: April 3, 2013
Registration is now open for both the Friday, May 24th Test & Tune / Practice Day and the BCHMR races on the May 25th and 26th weekend. Go to the Entrant Info – 2013 page under the Information menu or just click here.
See you at the track!
Westwood, Canada’s first real road racing circuit closed in 1990, but it is not forgotten. It has become a tradition at each British Columbia Historic Motor Races, for old Westwood veterans and fans to get together to recall those grand times. ‘Youngsters’ are very welcome too of course but be prepared to hear lots of ‘tall tales’ about legendary exploits – on and off the track!
Since this year’s BCHMR is being held over the May 25th – 26th weekend, the Westwood Reunion Barbeque will be held at the track at 5:00pm on the evening of Friday, May 24th. Your hosts for the evening will again be those two legends of Westwood; Eddie Clements and Gio Coletta. The cost is only $15.00 by donation (BYOB)
Posted: February 28, 2013
Local artist, motorsports enthusiast and long time BCHMR supporter Billy Richards (better known to everybody as ‘Billy R’) has really captured the fun-focussed spirit of the BCHMR and Vintage racing in general with his poster design. There is a already a lot of discussion among local Turn Workers and Vintage enthusiasts about who is most likely the driver of the green single seater – going in the opposite direction to the rest of the pack! There are several candidates!
Watch for the poster at many locations around the area. Thanks Billy R!
Updated: February 27, 2013
For immediate release: His agents have just announced that M.G. Morris, the Mission Moose will be making his traditional annual appearance at the 2013 BC Historic Motor Races.
At every BC HMR in recent memory, Liz and Bob Smith – his agents – have awarded a ‘M.G. Morris, the Mission Moose’ to deserving drivers in races or – on rare occasions – for other activities. Because the actual criteria for receiving an M.G. Morris is a state secret, it is impossible for drivers to practice and train to try to win one. Therefore, it is always a great surprise and honour to have Liz stop you in Pit Lane by the Big Moose sign and present you with your very own Mission Moose.
Leading the 2012 recipients was the legendary Al Ores. The 2012 BCHMR Program (here - see page 20) has an in-depth story explaining how the connection between Al and M.G. Morris may (or maybe not) go waaaaaay back to the earlt days of Westwood. Look below for photos of all of the 2012 winners.
Front: the Abbotsford Trophy; Back left to right: the SCCBC Trophy, ‘The Battered Cup’, the Pete Lovely Memorial Award, the Westwood Trophy – Tom Johnston photo
Tom Johnston, Chairman of the Vintage Racing Club of British Columbia’s upcoming British Columbia Historic Motor Races (the BCHMR) has announced that the Club is bringing back for the 2013 event, the racing trophies that they refurbished and presented in 2012. The Sports Car Club of British Columbia (SCCBC), the operators of Mission Raceway Park Road Course, the site of the BCHMR, donated three of these trophies from their artifact collection.
Image from Vintage Racecar online edition.
Vintage Racecar Magazine is “The International Source for the History, Collection and Competition of Vintage and Historic Racecars”. The current issue features our first BCHMR press release. You can see it on their web site (here). Look for ‘number 8′ on the home page slider. And while you are on their web site, check out all of the other excellent articles and then order your own subscription.
Marty Knoll brakes for Turn 1 at the Mission Raceway Road Course in the Tom Johnston Racing former Speed Vision World Challenge Corvette C5.
The very first Corvettes left the General Motors production lines in 1953. They featured a ‘fire-breathing’ combo of the Chevrolet 235 cubic inch ’Blue Flame’ (if you say so!) inline six cylinder and the two speed Powerglide automatic transmission. Fortunately for all enthusiasts, the Corvette has evolved quite a lot from that rather mundane starting point.
The 60th anniversary of the Corvette will be celebrated at this year’s BCHMR. We are expecting a big turnout of Corvettes of all years for our Display Corral. Stay tuned!
A typical Formula Ford battle for the lead; this time at the 2012 BCHMR – Jim Moody photo
BCHMR Event Chairman Tom Johnston has just issued the second press release (here) for the 2013 BC Historic Motor Races, which will take place at Mission Raceway Park Road Course on the May 25-26 weekend.
The big news this week is all about ‘The Hagerty Formula Festival’. Check out the press release.
As all enthusiasts know, Mazda has been heavily involved with many levels of motorsport for a long time and is a particularly important supporter of amateur road racing, including at Mission Raceway. Mazda is currently producing some of the most technically innovative vehicles for both racing and the road.
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Update: February 2, 2013 – Mazda at the Rolex 24 at Daytona
The story of Mazda’s participation in this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona clearly illustrates why the company has so many fans within the knowledgeable motorsports community. Mazda had been successfully racing their rotary-powered RX-8s for many years but decided the time had come to switch their corporate racing activity to another model.
Most manufacturers would go for the easy route and base a new car on an already developed race-ready engine from their existing arsenal. Not Mazda. Instead, they decided to build a race version of their innovative new Skyactiv-D four-cylinder turbodiesel, put it in a Mazda 6 body-shelled, tube chassis and enter it in the new GX experimental class at Daytona. You can watch a short pre-race video (here) about the car on the Grand Am web site.
Unfortunately, there was very little time available to get the cars sorted before the big race and as a result, the cars succumbed to minor bugs in the fuel delivery system. There is an excellent blog (with photos) on the Motor Trend web site (here) describing what happened during the race. We understand that the team is now hard at work on new ‘bits’ and expects things to go much better at the next race.
These cars are obviously not Vintage, but the whole Mazda approach to road racing: “Let’s have a go, try something new, never give up and most of all, have fun” really resonates with Vintage racers.
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So, the VRCBC is very pleased to announce that West Coast Mazda in Pitt Meadows is returning as one of our major sponsors for the 2013 BCHMR. West Coast don’t sell Vintage racing cars (at least not yet, anyway) but they do have a full complement of new and pre-owned Mazdas. Check out their web site here. You can also keep up to date on the latest news and activities at West Coast – and at Mazda in general – by joining them on Facebook (here) and checking their YouTube site (here).
Thank you West Coast Mazda; it’s great to have you back!
Walt Carrel (Porsche 911) leads Phil Roney (TVR Vixen) and Ian Wood (Volvo 142S) at the 2012 BCHMR – Paul Bonner photo
BCHMR Event Chairman Tom Johnston has just issued the first press release (here) for the 2013 BC Historic Motor Races, which will take place at Mission Raceway Park Road Course on the May 25-26 weekend.
Ian Wood (Rawlson CR11) leads Tony Carruthers (Swift DB2) at the 2012 BCHMR – Paul Bonner photo
The dates for the 2013 BCHMR have been confirmed as the May 25-26 weekend at the Mission Raceway Park Road Course. Check back soon for more details.
Paul Bonner, one of the VRCBC’s favourite Vintage Racing photo-journalists (and a long time supporter), has just had two of his stories about our 2012 BCHMR published. One is in the August 2012 issue of Vintage Drift (see cover above), the quarterly journal of our friends at SOVREN (www.sovren.org) and the other is in the Fall 2012 print issue of PRN Motorsport Magazine (www.prnmag.com) (see cover below). Great job Paul – thanks very much!
Unfortunately, neither article is available online but many VRCBC members will have already received their subscription copy of Vintage Drift. You can easily get your own subscription (only $25 per year for Canadian addresses) by contacting the Editor / Publisher, Martin Rudow, at Rudow Specialty Publishing, 6310 NE 74th #245, Seattle, WA 98115. Phone: (206) 527-5301.
PRN is available at larger newstands across Canada.
Battered Cup Winner: Stephanie Barnes, 1974 Triumph TR6 – Brent Martin photo
This fine example (or maybe not) of metalworking was rescued by VRCBC stalwart Ian Wood from a local scrap metal dealer. The Battered Cup is – well – battered. The Battered Cup was awarded at the VRCBC’s big Saturday evening Gala BBQ & Banquet to driver Stephanie Barnes and her husband / crew chief, Reg Sylvestre.
Stephanie and Reg were first time visitors to Mission and the BCHMR. They trailered their beautifully prepared TR6 across the mountains from Calgary, arriving Thursday evening in time for Friday’s practice session. Stephanie was just getting familiar with the track on Friday when the differential gave up; they did not have a spare with them. It seemed that everybody in the Paddock tried to help them locate one but it was late on the Friday afternoon of a holiday weekend.
Phil Roney in his 1969 TVR Vixen – Brent Martin photo
Posted: August 17, 2012
Ride along with Phil Roney in the first Vintage Group 2 race on Saturday. Phil didn’t get out in Qualifying so he had to start from the back of the grid and work his way through the field. This he does – except for a brief ‘off’ in Turn 1 on the second lap – turning times in the 1:20′s, until a universal joint fails – noisily – in Turn 5. Click here to watch.
Ron Dempsey, 1973 BMW 2002 – Brent Martin photo
Posted: August 16, 2012
Ron Dempsey in his 1973 BMW 2002 had a great scrap for the lead with Steve Clark in his 1969 Elva Courier during the Vintage Group 1 race on Saturday. You can watch the whole thing from over Ron’s shoulder in his onboard video. Just click here. If you watch closely, you can see Steve’s tires starting to give up.
The ‘Titans’: Mark Brown (1969 Lotus Seven S3) leads (for now) Dennis Repel (1974 Chevy Camaro) into Turn 2 – Jim Moody photo
These two stalwarts of the VRCBC Executive Team, Dennis Repel and Mark Brown, seem to have a good scrap almost every race weekend, and the Vintage Groups 1 & 2 Feature Race at the 2012 BCHMR was no exception. If you look closely at the photo above, you will see the onboard camera mounted on Mark’s roll cage. You can watch the entire race from that ‘bird’s eye view’ by clicking this link.
A ‘vintage’ Vintage Pace Lap – Tony Ioannou photo
The complete results and a selection of photos of the action during the BCHMR weekend are now available on this web site.
For the race results go to the Results menu above or just click here.
For photos go to the Photos menu above or just click here.
For release: August 2, 2012
Formula One racing has been around since the 1950s, and Canada has had its own Formula One race since 1967. Canada has produced several race winners and even one World Driving Champion, but there is only one man who can claim to be a Canadian Formula One team owner that actually won several races including the Canadian Grand Prix. That man is Walter Wolf, who is the Special Guest of the Vintage Racing Club of British Columbia at the 25th running of its British Columbia Historic Motor Races Saturday August 5th and Sunday August 6th at Mission Raceway Park, 70-km east of Vancouver.
Wolf, a successful Slovenian-Austrian-Canadian oil entrepreneur and business man, and a Canadian citizen since 1965, started his Formula One racing team, Walter Wolf Racing, in 1975 and went on to win (something never done before or since) the very first race it contested—the Argentine Grand Prix of 1977, with future world champion Jody Scheckter as his driver. Several more race wins followed, including the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport, also in 1977, with driver James Hunt. Wolf also supported the Canadian racing legend Gilles Villeneuve in a Can-Am effort in 1977 and supported well-known British Columbia Racing driver Kees Nierop in a challenge for the British Formula Three Championship.
A part-time British Columbia resident, Wolf still maintains an interest in motor racing and has generously agreed to attend the British Columbia Historic Motor Races, where more than 100 vintage and historic racing cars will compete on track over the weekend.
“The BCHMR weekend is a unique experience,” said event chairman Tom Johnston. “There is nowhere else in British Columbia where road racing fans can get close up and personal with these wonderful machines and their drivers, and where you will see some of the world’s finest race-bred marques racing for the chequered flag.”
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