British Columbia Historic Motor Races

August 17, 2012

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.

August 16, 2012

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.

August 9, 2012

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.

August 2, 2012

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.”

May 24, 2012

The view from the lower right front wishbone of Mark Brown's Lotus Seven

The Sports Car Club of British Columbia (SCCBC) has done a lot of work in the off-season to enhance the Mission Raceway Park Road Course. The most noticeable for the drivers are that the blocks on driver’s left entering Turn 3 have been moved well back, the sight line in Turn 6 has been substantially improved and the corner repaved, and the entrance to the Pits has been opened up.

Mark Brown, Lotus Seven S3 - Paul Bonner photo

You can get a real ground level view of these upgrades from Mark Brown’s video taken from the front wishbone of his two-time VRCBC REVS champion Lotus Seven S3 at the Vintage races during this year’s May 12-13 Mother’s Day Weekend event. And you get the added bonus of being able to look behind at the same time as well!

Just look for the video in the column to the right or click here.