Woods Racing

The more I go to these Indy events the more they amaze me. It’s really an amazing show these folks put on. Of course, Toronto where I’m from, has quickly become one of my favourite events. Not only for the fact that it’s on Canadian soil, but for the track and the action also. It’s an intense circuit with non-stop action throughout the whole weekend. You surely get your moneys worth when you attend this event..
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It was really double duty for me this round in Toronto as the Fastco boys were racing in the CTC class with the Hyundai’s and I was there to do some testing on the transmission’s of the 74 and 75 car. In the 74 they ran the standard Castrol and in the 75 we chose Amsoil’s MTG 75w90. This week I’m taking a lab sample of each so we can see how each fluid is holding up. Stay tune for results!
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It was a great balance between working there, watching the events and hanging out with my sister. Between our schedules it’s nearly impossible to get time together, so we take advantage as much as we can.
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The whole trip to the Toronto Indy is a work/play environment and I love it when it turns out like that. I got in on the Wednesday and headed up to Barrie and stayed the night with my godfather, got to see my Grandmother, Aunt, family friends and wrapped up a great night. Thursday I headed into Toronto where I checked in at the Westin Harbor Bay Castle. I think the funniest parts of staying in hotels is watching the valets trying oh so hard to park the WR04. With its stage III clutch it’s nearly impossible to drive if you don’t know it well. So there the WR04 stayed parked right in the lobby since the guys eventually just gave up.
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Thursday and Friday I was in and out of the track checkin in on Martin and the Fastco crew, meeting some contacts in the Nascar North Series and of course, eating great meals and enjoying a few Molson Canadians. It was also super cool because I caught up with a buddy Dave that I haven’t seen in years…gotta be 10-15 since we last chatted together. It was a great afternoon that’s for sure!
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Saturday was the first CTC race and I hung out with those guys in the Fastco pit and watched Glenn and Lee rip it up in the Fastco colours.
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After all that was said and done, we enjoyed some pizza and beer on the rooftop pool area before heading downtown with the Fastco crew and the boys from GT Racing. We hit up a few places around the T-Dot, had a great time, but it wasn’t too late of a night because Sunday…is race day!
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I was a tad late waking up Sunday morning, but hit the trackside just in time for the CTC race. This one really ended well for us with Lee placing 6th overall. With 40 cars in tow, it’s quite the action packed race and I’ll tell ya…these cars rip. SO MUCH FUN!
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After that race, I had a bunch of friends coming in so I was back and forth between the paddocks, trailers and the front gate. It’s great that people give the effort and come down for the event, it’s a great day and I thank them all for that.
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I brought in my buddy Dave that I mentioned above and he brought his lil guy Connor. It was his first ever race event and let me say, I surely made a race fan of this little tyke! Despite the hot weather, he kept on being amazed by the noises, cars, action…who knows, maybe we’ll see this kid in future go-cart races!
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Before the race started, I was lucky enough to meet up with a buddy Nick Ford who is workin on Dario’s car. He was kind enough to give me and the Fastco crew a quick tour of the area they work in. As many times as I see it, I’m always again amazed at how well these guys are set up. The talent mixed with the equipment is as awesome as it comes. Nick plays his part in this team that’s for sure and once again, I thank him for taking the time to chat with us on such a busy day. He’s also building his own Mustang project back home in Indianapolis and I can’t wait to help him out with a supercharger setup! Gonna be great!
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Before heading up to the grandstands, one of my favourite things to do is get out on the starting grid for the fly-by and National Anthems.
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Taking it all in right there in front of the cars, the pits, the people is still priceless every time.
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Once I collected everybody and got up to the stands for race start, we settled in and simply waited for the carnage that this Toronto track always leashes out. We didn’t wait long though as on the 2nd lap TK got slippy causing the first of many cautions. From there on out it was a battle for everyone. Spins, contact, pushing, shoving, we all got one race of a show. When it came time for the white flag I was ecstatic to watch Dario pull away to the checkered and tape up a win for him and my buddy Nick. I love it when friends come up and win in “my” country..just gives me a good feeling. So again, a big congrats to Mr. Ford and his crew, for a job well done!
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Off to victory circle we went and watched the celebrations. I ended up snagging Dario’s winning champagne cork and giving Nick a well deserved high 5. I love victory circle!
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After that was all said and done, it was back to the hotel and dinner with old friends Ricky, Keith and their brides, a few beers and goodbye’s and off to Hinchcliffs party with Bec and Lauren. Pretty wild ride over there I tell ya! Great times though.
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Cheers to the Mayor of Hinchtown!
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And like that, comes Monday morning and a reality check. It was check out, WR04 and an open highway back to Woods Racing…despite all the fun, there was work to do back at the shop with the Drift-zilla.
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Stay tuned for news from that crew because I know you’re all asking questions, but we will have a press release about that early next week.
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Once again, thanks everyone for reading my blog and staying current in this crazy world of racing I live in. Also, BIG BIG shoutout to Rebecca, Lauren, Mark, Brian and the rest of the Indy team. Another awesome show you guys put on, you are the back bone of it and it wouldn’t be the same without you!
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Cheers! Stay fast everyone!

Jul 15th by Bannon

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Anyone in racing will tell ya, race long enough and you will hit the wall. It’s bound to happen sooner or later and when it does, you got to pick up the pieces and get going because the one thing a wall won’t do…is put you back together.
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This is what we’re doing right now in preparation for Round 3 in Victoriaville Quebec this coming weekend.
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Round 2 was trouble from the get go. The week leading up was rushed and scattered between other clients here at the shop and waiting on parts to arrive. As you know this Drift-Zilla is a four door right hand drive 1993 Toyota Mark II imported from Japan, it’s not like you can just call up Napa and order some flanges. Most everything we’re putting back on the car after breaking it, wear and tear or upgrading is pretty much custom made. Add in aftermarket turbo’s, fans, lights…etc and you need a lot of imagination and time. The latter is usually the scarce one.
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All in all, before I shipped em off to Icar the car was good, I was confident in the performance but both Mats and I had a bad feeling. Something wasn’t sitting right with either of us as we watched the weather network…and the dark clouds roll in.
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Basically, by the time practice came around it hadn’t rained enough to stop the race, but rained enough to make it sketchy. This situation is the most dangerous for a driver. Not to mention the fact that drifting is a controlled slide on dry pavement, so you can imagine what that means when it’s slippy.
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The track was wet, and out Mats went. The first couple rounds his spotter and Dad said he was killin it out there. Mats said the car was good but needed to come closer in the line. Pretty much on the next practice out the ice rink he was on got the best of the drift-limo.
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He hit the wall at about 95 with the rear left quarter, slamming the front left into the wall, climbed the K-rail and finally came to a halt after grinding it for a couple seconds. He shook it off and brought it back to the pits where they tried to max out the left side suspension. After the questionable handling characteristics that the car had after another trial lap, it was decided that it would be safer just to pack it up and get it back to the shop sacrificing the points in that round. Hey, better that then ending up in the wall again.
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So what we had was a bashed in rear quarter, no more rear windshield and a front left suspension pushed in about an inch and a quarter. Since I wasn’t there to see it, it took me a little while on the lift to place everything, do the inspection and tally up the damage. I brought Marty up (who is currently pulling the frame on Matt’s pro-am car) to have a look since he is the body/frame specialist and he gave me some pointers and spotted some stuff for me.
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Basically what we are dealing with, is trying to get the front left suspension back out by at least an inch to give Mats the control he needs. The ball joints were both destroyed, the spindle arm was bent and lower control arm was bent. We made a plan to make the lower and upper control arms adjustable to push the wheel back to the outside of the fender and called in Simon from Sims customs to help out with the welding and fabrication.
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It was really great of him to drive from Cornwall that same night, pick up all the busted pieces and have em back the next night all set and ready for testing. At the same time Mats had some custom lower ball joints made up and everything looked alright to go ahead and start fitment.
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This is where it became tricky. To much outer adjustment on the control arm and we max’d out the tie rod creating a toe out condition. Mats likes his toe a certain way but we were way over an inch. After removing adjusting, cutting, welding, banging and praying, I finally got the fitment right and got everything reassembled in time for practice on Sunday.
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So we packed it up and headed to St. Eustache for Driftnight. On the radio he was telling me that all felt ok so yup, it was pretty much keep going harder and lets see if this stuff breaks. He was having to deal with a lack of response from that front left during transition, but otherwise all looked ok. Then…
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The GoPro…and the wheel said it all. The adjuster on the lower control arm was just not strong enough. I was worried about that before we left and am not really surprised that it broke, but we had to give it a shot, at least to see if the adjustment worked.
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So now that we know it does, I removed the piece and it’s off to the welding shop to be braced together so nothing breaks again and we’ll be all set for round 3 in Quebec.
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I won’t be going to that round because this falls on the same weekend as the Toronto Indy race and I’ll be down there with them and the Fastco Motorsports team who is racing the CTCC race. We’ll be testing some Amsoil gear fluid in those Tiburons so hopefully the Woods Racing camp will do good all around the country.
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And on the dirt side of things Dave and the team 7x were out there on the track ripping it up also. Unfortunately it was a bitter sweet ending for that crew. After getting a podium and standing 3rd place during the heat, the feature wasn’t so good to em as he had a run in with the wall also.
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It’s a little different for those guys, just as much work yes, but it’s a tube chassis race car, so it’s a matter of cutting and replacing those parts. Dave has had a tough go this year already but I gotta tell ya, he keeps out there and gives it hell every weekend reppin’ Woods Racing and Canada Synthetics. I couldn’t ask for more in a dirt driver and I thank him and the team for their perseverance.
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So there we stand, a couple cars in the wall and rebuilding for the next race. We don’t give up and we do everything we can to get back out there and give you guys a show. These two drivers I have are truly awesome and full of talent…we ain’t gonna let a pesky wall get in our way…
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Cheers everyone, stay fast.

Jul 05th by Bannon

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