Photo Credits: Jerry Chen, Joe Miller and Daniel Kirby

It is a full slate of rF2 racing this week at CMS, with Round 4 of the WSC 1991 championships at Monza for the Tuesday MNRL and Saturday VWSC leagues, while it was ‘Rad, man’ for the NARS as they started their new 8 race Radical GT3/SR3 series at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.

The worshippers gathered at the temple of speed for the high stakes racing of the Group Cs, with raincoats and umbrellas deployed for a rainy practice session.  By the start of qualifying however, the sun had broken out, drying the track sufficiently to make the use of slicks once again.  It was PURIST Ben Boorman that led the field with a 1:31.313 in his Peugeot 905 followed by the top PRO, Jason Whited in his Nissan R90CK at 1:32.842.  Tom Mountjoy’s Porsche 962C took the AM pole, with a 1:33.813.

19 drivers took the green on the updated Ben Boorman 1991 circuit, which proved a good challenge for the field, in particular the historic chicane layouts.  While Boorman prevailed over the field, as he did in Suzuka, it was not without strong challenges from first Whited and then another PRO, Pedro Crulas Gomes in his Porsche 962C.  At the checkered, only Boorman and Gomez remained on the lead lap to claim their class victories, with Troy Uyan, in yet another Porsche claiming the AM win and P5 overall.

In the championships, Ben Boorman extended his lead over PURIST rival Ross Smith, Jason Whited drew level with PRO championship leader Jon Uyan while Coen Garling closed the gap on AM leader John Maher.

On Thursday, it was NARS going ‘full radical’ the GT3 Turbos running against the SR3s.  In additional twists, the PRO drivers are obliged to drive the SR3 while the AMs have the opportunity to experience multiclass passing ‘from the other side’. Plus, for sprint races, the starting grid of second of the races is the fully reversed finishing order of the first race.

The inaugural pole of the series was taken by AM Troy Uyan with a 1:14.957, while PRO Eduardo Beninca was able to power his SR3 around the circuit in 1:17.003, a whisker ahead of his perennial rival, Daniel Kirby.

With a double file rolling start and GT3 mixed with SR3s, the racing was intense from the drop of the green.  While the GT3s had the superior speed, the SR3s had the advantage in holding speed through the apex, making for challenging conditions for both classes in tight racing situations.  More than once near-disaster was averted as mixed groups of GT3s and SR3s went through Moss Corner and the esses, working hard to maintain maximum speed for themselves as they juggled with the differences in car capabilitiesy.  By the checkered flag, Uyan had gained a buffer of 16s over his nearest challenger, Paul Ibbotson, with PRO Beninca slotting into P3 overall and the class win,only a minute behind Uyan.

The second race, now with the GT3s at the back of the field, heightened the racing tension as the faster cars worked to thread their way through the bunched SR3s. Drivers picked up where they left off in battling for positions, with some nifty passing going on in T1, the T2 sweeper and along the back straight from the draft.  By race end, Uyan had worked himself to P1 once again, however this time Ibbotson was tight behind him after almost a full race of side-by-side opportunities. In the PRO field, it was equally tight, as Ben Boorman led Daniel Kirby over the line by less than a second.

Saturday was a return to Monza with the Group C cars for the VWSC and this time with a field of 33 drivers, all under the knowledgeable gaze of livestream commentators Jake Samson and Troy Uyan.  Dire predictions of a rainy event proved in the end to be unfounded, though like the MNRL event, the practice session was mostly wet, drying in time for the qualifying session.  It was Wouter de Bruijn in his Team Rookie Monsters Porsche 962C that took both the overall and PRO pole with a steamy 1:29.552.  Top PURIST Ahmed Abdallah was just behind in his Peugeot 905 while top AM qualifier Eric Moinet registered a 1:33.565 in his Ecurie Mistral Porsche.

Once again, the curbing on the chicanes and the slightly wet track off the racing line proved to be a considerably challenge for many drivers, with some exiting moments as a result.  De Bruijn proved their mastery of both car and track, leading from flag to flag to take the overall win and PRO class victory.  In PURIST, Abdallah claimed the class victory and P2 overall, but only by a 2s margin over the Peugeot of Ross Smith, who moved handily up the race order for an overall P3 finish.  It was Eric Moinet taking the AM win at P10 overall to go with his start from class pole.

The updated individual and team standing for the VWSC 1991 series can be found at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yvQ1CDl8jF9kD6c4IVRX1A0rm6Pck_mW/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=10487642720

The coming week has just one event in our rF2 leagues with the NARS Radicals visiting Road America for the first of the ‘endurance’ one hour races.

Don’t forget, you can catch our race streams on the CMS Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7Kdp07PvIeW47f0_sM0emw