Sunday, September 27th wasn’t an ordinary day for Race Lab—they were celebrating the 11th anniversary of the advanced driving school. The whole experience felt more like a motorsports birthday party than a driving school.
There was a big BBQ, balloons, birthday cake, and even a colouring table for the kids. Students, instructors, friends and families wandered around the property while rally-prepared Subarus buzzed around in the background. It was exactly the kind of unusual afternoon you’d expect from a place called the Crazy Farm.
Race Lab founder, and 2-Time Canadian Rally Champion ‘Crazy Leo’ Urlichich, has been part of Demaras Racing’s story for years. The relationship started with advanced driving lessons at the Crazy Farm in 2021, but eventually became something more personal.
When Demaras Racing organized the Rally Against Hunger food drive for the Daily Bread Food Bank, Leo stepped up and donated the grand prize. Just another example of how the motorsports community is less like a collection of separate teams and businesses and more like one big family.
And that family was well represented on Sunday. Stewart Hoo, founder of Can Jam Motorsports, was there celebrating alongside Leo.
Can Jam has supported Leo through years of rally competition, travelling to CRC events across Canada, and keeping cars like ‘Disaster’ running through some extremely tough competitions. Seeing Stewart at Race Lab’s anniversary made perfect sense. These relationships stretch far beyond a logo on a race car or a name on a sponsor banner.
But Sunday’s main mission for Demaras Racing involved the youngest member of the family. High-school student Michelle Demaras is still more interested in piano and clarinet than four-wheel drifts—but her father and brother are working on that.
Still, learning how a vehicle reacts in changing conditions and on low-grip surfaces is an important part of becoming a safe and confident driver. With her driver’s licence on the horizon, Race Lab offered Michelle an opportunity to learn things that simply cannot be taught in a Canadian Tire parking lot.
Paired with experienced Race Lab instructor Alissa, Michelle began the afternoon cautiously, which is exactly how any new driver should approach an unfamiliar car on an unfamiliar surface.
The first exercises involved pylons and gates, gradually narrowing the spaces to help Michelle understand the dimensions of the vehicle. It sounds simple, but learning exactly where the corners of a car are is one of those skills experienced drivers usually take for granted!
From there, things became considerably more entertaining. Donuts in the grassy field and slalom exercises around orange cones introduced Michelle to vehicle dynamics in a way no classroom diagram ever could. Concepts such as weight transfer and the traction circle can sound painfully academic when explained on a whiteboard.
But feeling a car slide out, recover and change direction on a closed course, and suddenly those lessons begin teaching themselves.
With her confidence building, it was time for Michelle to tackle the Crazy Farm’s approximately 2 km circuit. Alissa drove the first lap so Michelle could see the layout, braking points and different surfaces before the pair quickly swapped seats.
With Michelle now behind the wheel of a red Blobeye Subaru Impreza, she began carving through chicanes, threading between pylons and discovering just how quickly everything happens when the road ahead starts twisting.
There was no pretending this was routine. Michelle’s heart rate was undoubtedly a little higher than normal as she dealt with an entirely new driving experience. But the techniques practised earlier in the afternoon started coming together.
Quick reflexes, hand-over-hand steering and threshold braking helped her manage the Subaru while keeping the car pointed where it needed to go. Each lap brought a little more confidence and a little less hesitation.
After Michelle’s session, her pops Chris got his turn behind the wheel of a Subaru and shook off some rust with a few laps of his own. Nobody was lighting up the timing screens, but that wasn’t really the point.
For the Demaras family, Race Lab has always been about developing real car-control skills, learning how to react when grip disappears and becoming more confident when conditions are less than ideal.
By the end of the afternoon, the propane tanks on the BBQ were empty, the anniversary cake had been gobbled up, and another chapter had been added to the long relationship between Race Lab and Demaras Racing. Eleven years after Leo started the school, the Crazy Farm continues to be a place where aspiring racers, new drivers and even families can learn something that will keep them safe behind the wheel while having great fun.
For Chris and Michelle, Sunday wasn’t about lap times or trophies. It was simply a father and daughter sharing an afternoon behind the wheel, and that’s the kind of experience neither is likely to forget.