Road racing is diverse, but the cars are generally categorized as open-wheel and closed-wheel cars. The latter are more commonly called sportscars, or GT cars, and are best known for endurance racing. Sportscars are regular production cars that have been modified for racing. This includes adding safety equipment such as a roll cage and fuel cell, plus performance improvements like bigger brakes, grippier tires and stiffer suspension.
In Ontario, one of the series providing cost-effective competition for GT cars is Lucky Dog Racing Canada, or LDRC series. It’s purpose is to provide safe and fun wheel-to-wheel racing without complex rules. Daniel Demaras’ plan for 2022 is to race open-wheel cars, but the schedule is only 6 or 7 races over the season, which may leave space on the calendar to also try endurance racing in a GT car.
LDRC series official Chuck invited Chris and Daniel Demaras out to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park to observe the final race in the 2021 calendar; the Halloween Hoon. There was a huge variety of cars racing including Porsche 944s, Honda Civics and one very nice BMW.
One element of LDRC that keeps it appealing to competitors is the strict ‘no-contact’ rule. Wheel-to-wheel racing action doesn’t have to mean door banging, and series officials will quickly black flag a driver to answer for his or her ‘driving standards’ if contact occurs.
Sportscars racing in LDRC are grouped into categories based on their speed and overall lap time including GT1, GT2 and GT3. Multi-class racing means that lead drivers in GT1 can be as much as 20 seconds a lap faster than back of the pack racers in GT3, so there will always be racing incidents. Competitors can feel comfortable bringing their high-horsepower sports-car to the track, knowing it will be back on the trailer at the end of the day exactly as it came off the trailer…if they’re lucky.
At the end of the day, Chris & Daniel fueled up the team truck with 94 Octane race fuel (one of the perks of racing at Mosport) and headed back to Toronto with a new appreciation for the LDRC series. What they thought would be a weekend crash-fest turned out to be a well-run, well-officiated series that puts fun and safety at the top of the list.
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