Six months ago, Demaras Racing teamed up with Race Lab and Can Jam Motorsports for the RALLY AGAINST HUNGER food drive and charity go-kart race. Dozens of racers competed, and collectively donated 1,200 lbs of food for the Daily Bread Food Bank.
This weekend the winners and podium finishers from the charity event finally got to claim their prize; a rally car adventure with Crazy Leo’s advanced driving school Race Lab.
The rallycross-type event took place at the Millhaven Quarry, just outside of Kingston, Ontario. On hand for the event was podium finisher Chad Webster and uncle Trevor Reeve, VIP race winner Jayden Harry and father Kam, plus event organizer Daniel Demaras and pops Chris.
Each one of the drivers got the opportunity to turn laps on the 2.5 km gravel and tarmac ‘stage’ in a fully-prepped Subaru Impreza GD. The ’06 – ’07 Subaru may not be the quickest cars, but they are incredibly well balanced, and the all-wheel-drive system is second to none, even decades after production.
As each racer turned their laps, the rest of the group watched from a cliff overlooking the quarry (not as dangerous as that sounds, though). Chad was first up, and was stoked to have Crazy Leo himself as his instructor; it’s not every day a young racer gets driver coaching from a 2-time Canadian Rally Champion.
Crazy Leo takes these events seriously, and safety is of the utmost importance. To get to the ‘overlook’ the group had to be transported by one of the Race Lab track marshals, Alissa. She used Chris’ GMC monster truck since it was the only 6-passenger vehicle, and the guys got a kick out of seeing the truck tip-toeing through the course.
Next up was Daniel, the only one of the young drivers who’d previously ‘rallied’ the Millhaven course before. This was actually Demaras’ fifth time at Race Lab, having previously driven the snow-covered Crazy Farm in his own personal Can Jam Motorsports prepared Subaru WRX.
As a special thank you for helping organize the Rally Against Hunger charity event, Crazy Leo took Daniel out in Disaster. This is the same highly-modified 2007 Subaru WRX STi that Leo used to win the Production Four-Wheel Drive title in the Canadian Rally Championship.
Jayden had to wait the longest to get behind the wheel of the car, but that gave him the most time to see what the others had done wrong. While he is a competitive kart racer with JMF Karting, this ‘rally’ discipline is way outside of Jayden’s wheelhouse, and provided an opportunity to begin an entirely new skillset.
All the guys had a great time at Race Lab, and bringing a canopy and lawn chairs really made the day feel like being back at the go-kart track. Just a bunch of friends, new and old, with a need for speed.
A big thank you to Leo at Race Lab. His generosity in providing such incredible prizes for the RALLY AGAIST HUNGER was the catalyst to get racers involved in that event. That’s why it was a success.
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