Canadian sportscar racers Peter Hanson and Spencer Deumer along with Chase Hanchar of Pfaff Motorsports, will participate in a Racing For Kids’ visit to Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital on August 13, 2026. The popular racers will engage with the young patients, who will be invited to sit in their race cars. The drivers will […]
JULY 17-19, 2026
“The Good, the Bad & the Ugly”
The third Round of the SPC season took us to the newly repaved Calabogie circuit. The original track surface, which was laid in 2006, was notorious for being a very abrasive tire shredder.
The new surface proved to be a big improvement in terms of grip and tire longevity. Another new change for this weekend was the use of the “Stadium” circuit. Instead of arcing left at the end of the Start/Finish straight to begin a lap of the full circuit, we turned right just past the pit exit to begin a lap of the Stadium circuit.
The weather forecast for the weekend was also calling for rain, which was cause for concern because our car struggles in the wet compared to our front-wheel drive competition.
The delightful Calabogie circuit was built on the rolling terrain of the Upper Ottawa Valley, weaving through a dense boreal forest. As such there isn’t a lot of open space available at the facility. To accommodate the legions of race fans for Calabogie’s largest race weekend of the year, the organizers elected to use the 2.8 Km Stadium layout. This made the remainder of the unused portions of the circuit available for the parking of campers and mobile homes.
It was terrific to see so many fans and families at the circuit. These kids are the future, so it makes me proud to be a part of their introduction to our wonderful sport. I can’t help but smile when I see so many colourful Racing For Kids hats across and about the Calabogie venue.
Practice (The Bad)
The new track surface was nice. Gone was the “pencil-eraser on sandpaper” feel of the tires grating across the old surface, to a much smoother feel punctuated by a distinctive tire howl.
The balance of the car wasn’t to my liking so we made multiple set-up changes throughout the day to get the car dialed-in. The team also spotted a small oil leak from the differential housing.
In the last session on Friday, as we neared the end of a lap, I caught a glimpse of smoke behind the car. There was no smell or sound to help ascertain the problem. Supposing the smoke had something to do with the differential housing I crawled back to the pits. Upon entering the pit-lane I saw some smoke billow from under the bonnet and immediately shut off the motor. As I coasted into our pit box the Team shouted on the in-car radio, “Fire under the hood; GET OUT of the car!!!” Before I could unbuckle the belts and extricate myself, the bonnet was up and our crew + pit-lane marshals attacked the fire with their extinguishers! Several bottles were spent while they made sure there was no chance of a re-ignition. Thankfully there was no fire damage to the engine compartment. It transpired the oil cooler adapter-plate gasket had cracked, spraying oil all over. Some oil landed on the exhaust header and that is what ignited.
Initially, after getting out of the car, I was upset with myself for risking the motor by bringing the car back to the pits. If you have a motor oil leak, the common thing to do is immediately shut off the motor, pull off the track surface and stop the car. If I had smelt motor oil, that’s exactly what I would have done. But upon reflection, if I had stopped the car at the side of the track instead of bringing it back to the pits, it could have burned to the ground because the nearest corner marshaling post would not have been able to respond as quickly as the pit marshals and they would not have had enough extinguisher bottles to stop the fire.
Luckily all of the motor oil did not escape the cracked gasket. The fact there was still some oil in the pan saved us from a damaged motor. We were also lucky to find a matching gasket at a local shop. With new gasket in-hand the team set about cleaning the car and getting it ready for the following day. This whole incident was bad but it could have been a lot worse.
Qualifying
Friday night brought rain which stayed with us through Saturday morning for the Qualifying session. As mentioned previously, our car struggles in the wet, so we weren’t expecting another Pole Position. I like driving in the rain (the notion of sliding a car through a wet high-speed corner in opposite-lock excites me) but while enjoyable, it can also be deflating as you watch your rivals pull away.
We qualified P6, with our championship rival, the #7 Hyundai Veloster N, in P1.
Race 1 (The Good)
The morning rain had stopped, the racing line was dry, but off-line the track was still damp. This was going to make overtaking difficult. The #51 Mini Cooper S made a great start and got ahead us into Turn-1, dropping us to P7, but we regained the position going into Turn-10. The #16 Hyundai Elantra N and #94 Honda Civic Si were battling ahead of us which presented me with an opportunity to get alongside the #16 Hyundai Elantra N in Turn-12. We raced side by side all the way to Turn 14 with the #16 Hyundai Elantra N getting ahead at the exit. He was a little conservative through Turn-15 which allowed me to gain on him and send it up the inside into Turn-16.
Next on the list was the #94 Honda Civic Si. I was able to catch him a lap later in the Turns 15 & 16 sweepers. It is such a great feeling being able to slide a car on the edge through these series of turns. The #12 Racing For Kids Subaru BRZ was working well and I knew I could lean on it without being surprised with a snap (i.e. sudden loss of grip). He protected his inside going into Turn-17, so with the extra momentum I had through Turns-15 & 16 I launched an attack on the outside of Turn-17, thus moving us into P4.
The top-three cars were battling a little ways up the road but we eventually caught up to them in the Turns-15 & 16 sweepers. The third placed #22 Toyota GT86 kept tight to the inside for Turn-17 so I sent it down the outside, but he fought hard, keeping his position. A lap later we repeated the same dance, catching him through the superfast Turns-15 & 16 sweepers, and him defending on the inside heading into Turn 17. Again he was able to keep ahead. He defended hard for the rest of the lap which cost us some time and allowed the top-two to break away and open a gap to us. Further around the lap his defence in Turn-12 had compromised his position & speed through Turn-13, and I was able to get him into Turn-14.
We’re in P3, two more to go, and they just happen to be our championship protagonists. I was slowly reeling them in, and I could see I was gaining in the Turns-15 & 16 sweepers, and Turns-17 & 18 loop. They were taking a traditional line through Turns-17 & 18. Me? Not quite so much; but it was working! The car will tell you where it is or isn’t happy. Our Suby told me and I listened. I caught the #34 Mini Cooper JWC through the Turns-17 & 18 loop and was now on his rear bumper. We shadowed him for the next two laps, waiting for an opening. The #7 Hyundai Veloster N (running in P1) faltered in Turn-14 which allowed the #34 Mini Cooper JWC to draw alongside. This however put the #34 Mini Cooper JWC on the outside for the high speed Turn-15 and compromised his speed. I was “on it” through Turns-15 &16 and sent it up the inside into Turn 17. The Mini conceded and did not put up a fight.
One more to go. A lap later we caught a back-marker as I was having a run at the #7 Hyundai Veloster N. We were on the right side of the track as we closed on the back-marker who moved to the left to get out of the way. With the back-maker on the left-side of the track and the #7 Hyundai Veloster N on the right-side of the track, I went up the middle. Whether the #7 Hyundai Veloster N saw me or not, he moved towards the middle of the track and we made contact. I had to lift, which stymied my momentum, but I was immediately back on it because I did not want him to get away. We got him through Turn 16 with a beautiful slide up the inside! From there on out it was a matter of being smart and managing the tires to the finish. We won!!!
This was a very special moment because this victory wasn’t a result of unusual circumstances or penalties to others. Every victory means something regardless of how it is achieved because it meant you did the right things to put yourself in a position to score that victory when others could not. This one was special because it wasn’t handed to us; we fought and earned it outright! The manner in which we won this race was something we could all be proud of.
Race 2
A couple of hours after the conclusion of Race 1 we staged for Race 2. In the interim the skies opened and soaked the track. After the random position reversal system to determine the starting positions for Race 2, we gridded in P6 behind the #34 Mini Cooper JWC in P4 and the #7 Hyundai Veloster N in P5. As we began our formation lap the rain stopped but the track was obviously still wet; not good conditions for our car. We made a great start (everyone else must have been asleep) and led the field into Turn-1, but coming through Turn-15 we had a BIG slide which allowed the #22 Toyota GT86 to slip by into the lead.
A few corners later the #7 Hyundai Veloster N went by; our car was struggling to accelerate off the wet corners. Half a lap later the #34 Mini Cooper JWC was by, dropping us to P4. While the track was still wet the leading pack of three slowly eased away from me, eventually opening a gap of six seconds. But as the track dried my pace picked up and I started to catch them. Then on lap 12, heading into Turn-1, there was a waved Yellow Flag. A car had spun but was now back on track although moving slowly. As I exited Turn-1 I could see the Turn-9A marshal waving a Yellow Flag as the slow moving car crossed into his zone. The leading pack of three then proceeded to overtake the stricken car! I, understanding the rules, slowed
down and held position behind the stricken car until I crossed the imaginary perpendicular line from the Turn-10 marshal station (who was displaying a Green Flag) then immediately overtook him. Meanwhile the leading trio had opened up the gap again.
Article 4.1.1 of the Race Regulations reads (copied and pasted here):
The yellow flag is a signal of danger of any nature at or beyond the station displaying the flag. Overtaking is not permitted. SLOW DOWN. The No Passing zone begins at the Flag Station where the yellow flag is shown and extends in a perpendicular imaginary line over the track surface and runoff area. It ends after a second perpendicular imaginary line across the track surface at the first Flag Station displaying a green flag.
Pressing onward we managed to erase the deficit and caught the leading trio on the last lap. We were on the bumper of the 3rd placed #22 Toyota GT86 as we crossed the finish line; if we only had a little more time. Along the way we posted the fastest lap of the race!
Afterwards when the official results were posted I had expected to see a correction of the finishing order due to the Yellow Flag infringements. To my surprise we were classified in P4, so we protested.
Article 2.1 of the Race Regulations reads (copied and pasted here):
2.1 PASSING IN A YELLOW ZONE 2.1.3 DURING A RACE a) Upon first offence, the offending driver shall be moved to last finisher in the class. b) Upon second offence, the offending driver
shall be excluded from the results. It’s right there in black and white but the officials took a different interpretation of the incident and refused to correct the results.
Race 3 (The Ugly)
The track was dry for the start of Race 3 on Sunday morning. We gridded P1, with the #34 Mini Cooper JWC in P2, the #22 Toyota GT86 in P3, and the #7 Hyundai Veloster N in P4.
We made a good start but as we drew alongside the last car on the SP grid he intentionally squeezed me off the track and onto the grass. This allowed the #7 Hyundai Veloster N (having another of his remarkable launches) and #34 Mini Cooper JWC to get by before we reached Turn-1.
We held position through the back section of the circuit but as we approached the somewhat blind Turn-12 there was a pile-up amongst the SP field. We tried to avoid the mayhem but were inconveniently collected by one of the spinning SP cars = CRUNCH! The carnage resulted in 7 cars eliminated from the race. My first instinct was to see if our car could move; it could, so we headed for the pits to assess the damage. On the way I could feel the left-front tire was deflated, so I radioed to the team to prepare for a wheel/tire change. As a result of the carnage the track was under a full-course Yellow which bided us some time to check the car. The impact pretty much destroyed the left side of our car: crumpled fender, broken wheel, bent front suspension, crumpled door, torn off lower sided-skirt, bent rear fender, etc. You get the idea, it was bad!
In our pit box the team quickly got our car on jacks to assess the situation. Although the suspension was bent it wasn’t broken. By this time the field was coming around to complete a lap so the team installed a new left front wheel/tire and got us out before the field made it onto the start/finish straight; otherwise we would have gone a lap down. A lap later, still under a full-course Yellow, I caught the tail-end of the field. Passing the accident scene I could see they still needed a lap or two to clear the track, so I pitted again so they could pull/straighten the damaged front fender and remove my side mirror which had somehow ended up in my footwell! The Team quickly got me back out to keep me on the lead lap thus allowing me to catch the tail-end of the field. We circulated for several more laps behind the safety-car as the clean up continued. I wasn’t sure how the car would behave once we got back up to speed but at the restart I could feel it was driveable – tally-ho. By the time the checkered flag dropped we had passed a few cars and clawed our way up from dead last to P5.
Not a bad finish considering how terrible the opening lap was. The points we earned has kept us P2 in the championship. Oh my, what a weekend. One moment you’re on top of the clouds and the next you’re clawing out of a hole. I’m so proud of the MD Autosport team for overcoming a few adversities this weekend. Well, it’s off to the shop to put our Suby back together again.
