VRRA Vintage Festival

August 5-7, 2022

Canadian Tire Motorsport Park

Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada

Canada’s VRRA (Vintage Road Racing Association) lucked out with a dry (if a bit hot) weekend for its three-day Vintage Festival at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, east of Toronto.  Better known as Mosport, the fast 2.5-mile, 10-turn track has an international racing history going back to 1961 and is a “bucket list” ride for many racers.  The August event is VRRA’s premier happening of the club’s schedule and has grown to justify the “Festival” moniker and keep spectators entertained who choose to stay for three days camping in the hilly infield area of the park.  With endurance and sprint racing, a band Saturday night, the Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group Concours d’Elegance and swap meet; it was a northern version of AHRMA’s Barber event – with mosquitos instead of alligators.

A highlight this year was the return of Team Obsolete, who were last at Mosport in 2017 for the 50^th anniversary of the 1967 Canadian Grand Prix.  Pandemic travel restrictions off, T.O. owner Rob Iannucci himself was on-site all weekend, chatting patiently with the crowd of visitors that lined up several deep around the team’s pit area most of the weekend.  Iannucci brought three exotic classics: The ex-Dick Mann AJS 7R Special; a 1974 MV Agusta 500 Four; and one of two surviving 1947 AJS E90 Porcupine 500cc Grand Prix bikes.  Per Iannucci’s philosophy, all were runners, including the jaw-droppingly expensive Porcupine.  The Porcupine and MV had the track to themselves during the lunch break Saturday to be seen and heard in action.  Both of these bikes are, frankly, painfully loud to be near but their open-megaphone exhausts sounded quite musical echoing off the hills.  Unfortunately, the MV performed solo when the Porcupine had to retire with an oil leak but the entire progress of a lap could be heard from any one point on the circuit!  In a surprise move, T.O. also entered the MV in competition; Dave Roper finished second in Period Two Heavyweight on the MV as well as taking home first place in Period 2 Lightweight and first place in Period 1 350 riding the 350cc 7R.

Friday afternoon’s two-hour endurance race was held in 90-degree plus heat and unfortunately was interrupted by a red flag.  The overall win went to Team Ludicrous Speed consisting of Darrell Cooney and Kirby Crosby, who ran with one rider change.

4-lap Sprint qualifiers took up Saturday, along with the Masters races for riders over 50 years old with 5-plus years of competition experience, and the Mosport-only Warwick Cup that commemorates a club founder and is open to British machines up to 500cc from 1967 or earlier.  Sunday final races ran 6 laps, again in hot conditions but with a welcome breeze.

VRRA’s season-ending event will be held at Shannonville Motorsports Park near Belleville, Ontario from the 2^nd to the 4^th of September.

SPRINT RESULTS

Period 3 Middleweight

1. Todd Ruston
2. Jeff Peters
3. Kyle Atkins

Middleweight Production

1. Christopher Spargo
2. Mark Morrow
3. Glenn Holbrook

Pre-65 500

1. David King
2. Ian McQueen
3. Holly Varey

Period 1 200

1. Colin Fearn

Pre-50

1. Chris Ness
2. Ingo Reters
3. Stanley Reters

Pre-65 350

1. Michael Harrington

Period 4 F3

1. Daniel Rinfret
2. Johnathan Vaillancourt
3. Jody Pearce

Grand Prix Middle

1. Robert Massicotte
2. Darrell Cooney

Grand Prix Light

1. Angela Hiba
2. Geoff Willie Robb

Vintage GP Light

1. Lorraine Crussell

Modern Lightweight

1. Andrew Cooney
2. Chris Fehr
3. Grant Nesbitt

Vintage GP Heavy

1. David Crussell

Vintage GP Middleweight

1. Neal Howes

Period 3 Lightweight

1. Christopher Spargo
2. Paul Brubaker
3. Bill Quail

Period 2 Heavyweight

1. Jeff Peters
2. Dave Roper
3. Darcy Tindale

SRA Sidecars

1. Steve Fletcher
2. Wayne Walsh

Sidecars Period 3

1. Andrew Roberts

Sidecars Period 2

1. Tim Joyce
2. Michael Vinten
3. Matthew Gill

Period 1 500

1. Paul Brubaker
2. Ian McQueen
3. Michael Clipsham

Period 2 Lightweight

1. Dave Roper
2. Tim Voyer
3. Stan Nicholson

Period 5 F2

1. Robert Massicotte
2. Rick Edwards
3. Nicolas Audet

Period 4 F2

1. Jody Pearce
2. Yannick Laflamme
3. Justin Mcloughlin

Period 3 Heavyweight

1. Todd Ruston
2. David Crussell
3. Paul Massingberd

Period 1 Open

1. Doug Forbes
2. Ian McQueen
3. Tim Voyer

Vintage Open Senior

1. Robert Massicotte
2. Jamie Boddon
3. Darrell Cooney

Period 5 F1

1. Rick Edwards
2. William Kowalczyk
3. Nicholas Audet

Period 4 F1

1. Colin Duncan
2. Jamie Bosson
3. Steven Smart

Period 1 350

1. Dave Roper
2. Tim Voyer
3. Bill Van Leeuwen

Period 1 250

1. Holly Varey
2. Stan Nicholson
3. Tyler Emer

Vintage Open Junior

1. Kevin Renshaw
2. Andrew Cooney
3. Yannick Laflamme

ENDURANCE RESULTS

Lightweight

1. Tim Whyte Racing
2. Mountain High Racing
3. RPM and Associates
4. Muttley Crue
5. Red Moon Rising
6. Gobshite

Middleweight

1. Ludicrous Speed
2. On the Verge
3. WCR Racing
4. 171 Racing
5. El Fuego
6. Bad to the Bone 2

Heavyweight

1. BAKEA
2. Moto Mph
3. Buddha Racing
4. BoneHeads
5. Bad to the Bone
6. Real McCoy

Modern Lightweight

1. Statoni Racing
2. Team Shouldercheck
3. De Boer
4. Big Swing Racing
5. Iffy Shifters