Several months ago Demaras Racing held a charity go-kart race to raise funds for Melanoma Canada. The top racers at K1 Speed Canada were invited to compete in the comically named ‘So, You Wanna Be A Racecar Driver?‘ event. The winner would get to drive the No. 12 Vallis Motor Sport F1200 car that Daniel Demaras uses to compete in the Canadian Formula 1200 Championship. The event was a huge success, bringing in $2,978 in charitable donations.
On the day of the event, competition was fierce. Kart racers who’d always dreamed of open-wheel racing, challenged for the chance to climb into the cockpit for real. But nobody was going to top Nathan Wilkie that day! He took pole position, lead every lap, and crossed the finish line P1 to become K1 Speed’s first ever ‘karts to cars’ champ.
While Wilkie was excited to drive the race car, it had to be delayed until the end of the 2023 Formula 1200 season as Vallis Motor Sport had to keep the equipment in top-flight shape. Six race weekends, two pole positions, and four race wins later, Demaras would now be handing over a championship winning car to Wilkie! Both Nathan and Daniel are university students, so scheduling the drive around midterms was always going to be difficult; Friday the 13th was chosen for the F1200 track day.
The mid-October weather was brisk, but the forecast was dry for Wilkie’s run. Arriving at the track an hour early were Nathan and his mom Rae, VMS team owner Bill Vallis, Daniel and Chris from Demaras Racing, plus 2020 K1 Speed champ and part-time photographer Dawson Campbell.
There wasn’t enough time to pour a custom ‘bead-seat’ for Wilkie, but Bill Vallis got his new driver comfortable by adding cushioning foam inside the cockpit to keep Nathan from sliding around. The belts were tightened and pedals were adjusted to better fit the driver.
On the issue of pedals, all Formula 1200 cars have a four-speed manual transmission in a standard H-pattern. All three pedals in the footwell are rediculously close together, and the shift lever in the cramped cockpit has such tight spacing, its easy to select the wrong gear. Shifting gears is always what new drivers struggle with, and Wilkie was nervous about this process. Veteran Vallis has been through all this so many times before, he knew just what to do.
The No. 12 car was rolled into the parking lot next to the road course, where Wilkie could make practice starts until he was proficient with the pedals. It’s easy for a young driver like Nathan to get frustrated with a challenging task like this, but he handled the pressure like a champ.
What pressure? Try driving a race car for the first time with your mom watching, in front of the car owner, while three cameras snap pics. The No. 12 is a totally unique looking vehicle with its hi-viz yellow stripes on British racing green paint. Everyone at the track stopped to check out the only open-wheel race car at Toronto Motorsports Park, so there was quite a large audience.
Vallis gave Wilkie some last minute advice about keeping aware of his surroundings on track, and building up speed as the laps progressed. With that in mind, Nathan tightened up his helmet straps and headed out on track for the first time.
Driving a race car is not easy! Many of the skills learned in karts, such as spatial awareness, are transferable. But race cars have suspension, transmissions and enough power to induce throttle-on oversteer. The F1200 is so light and nimble that controlling weight transfer is critical. Wilkie was challenged during his first session, coming to grips with the track conditions, adding speed every lap and pushing as hard as he could. Sure, there were drifts and spins as any rookie road racer would expect.
Wouldn’t it be terribly disappointing if he just cruised around the track? Nathan sent it!