With nearly a one month gap since the Calabogie round of the Canadian F1200 Championship, Daniel has been oval racing in a stock-car. It’s action-packed, but the driving standards aren’t the same as road course racing. That’s why Daniel was so happy to be back at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in his open-wheel car.
The BEMC club organized the race for the Indian Summer Trophy Race totem pole trophy. The F1200s were supposed to have their own race, but at the last minute, got lumped in with all the other open-wheelers. Very disappointing. Some racers even left and went home rather than sharing the track with the Formula Libre cars.
Morning practice was a bit of an eye-opener. The F1200s haven’t turned a lap at CTMP since late July, and the cooler September temps resulted in lower grip. By afternoon, with the sun directly above, the track was at its best just in time for qualifying. Racing for the first time in 2023, multi-time F1200 champion Phil Wang put his No. 173 Caracal on pole, with Daniel Demaras in the No. 12 BRD qualifying P2.
During the lunch time meeting, the F1200 Driver’s Association brought out something unique; the Vallis Cup. Not seen in several years, the historic trophy would be awarded to the overall ‘points’ winner from the weekend;s three races. Names on the illustrious trophy include Daniel Demaras’ old kart racing coach, Andrew Waring!
The drivers strapped into their cars just after 1:00 pm for the first race of the weekend. This wasn’t the usual grid that raced throughout the season. A rookie racer had joined the Canadian Formula 1200 Championship, plus a couple of ‘ringers’ including Cartini (8 years experience), Kingsborough (6 years experience) and Murray (12 years experience) driving their own race cars.
For some of these men, it was the first time on track in 2023, but their vast experience made the race result impossible to predict. The starting order of the Top-10 racers was:
- P1 – No. 176 Phil Wang
- P2 – No. 12 Daniel Demaras
- P3 – No. 43 Barrett Kingsborough
- P4 – No. 38 Bob Patterson
- P5 – No. 198 Robert Murray
- P6 – No. 113 Kenny Bui
- P7 – No. 24 Eugene Cartini
- P8 – No. 19 Jason Abrahms
- P9 – No. 31 Robert Sombach
- P10 – No. 112 Bryan Rashleigh (R)
The race start was clean, as pole sitter Wang was on the throttle early, and brought Kingsborough with him through Turn 1. After some jockeying for position, Demaras and Murray joined the two front-runners, and the group broke away from the pack.
Clean passes for the lead, and effective use of the draft made for an exiting race. The expertise of these racers really showed, as they raced wheel to wheel, nose to tail for 14 laps without contact. But on the last lap, it was all to play for, and Demaras wanted the win. Drafting the leader Kingsborough, Daniel made an aggressive maneuver on the inside of Turn 9. As the leader turned in to hit the corner apex, his rear left tire made contact with Demaras’ front right. The crowd gasped, but luckily the contact was sideway to sidewall, and not tread to tread, so other than a ‘wiggle’ both cars remained planted on the track.
Looking back at this same event last year, Daniel realized how much he’s improved in the past 12 months. In 2022, he was not with the leaders; he was in the pack, fighting over the lower finishing positions. But with training, practice and experience, he was now able to hang with the ‘fast ones’ all race long, and was even in a position to win. He’d settle for P2, knowing there would be two more chances to race for glory on Sunday.