Shaun de Jager Returns to Motorsports

February 28, 2019 General, Road Racing

After over a decade away from competitive motorsports, Shaun de Jager is making a come back.

Currently he is doing a lot more coaching and driver development (training kids in gokarts as well as more seasoned drivers) on track and in simulators.

He’s also taken up RC racing as a hobby (8th scale electric and gas powered 5th scale). This allows him to keep his mind and reflexes sharp for when he personally takes to the track again in a full sized race car.

For 2022, Shaun hopes to return to the drivers seat. He will have to start off at the Regional level and work his way back up through the ranks over time. The racing scene has changed since he’s been away, so he will have to figure it out just a Rookie would, although he’ll have the advantage of experience...

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Sabré Cook is Back!

September 28, 2022 General, Road Racing

I first meet Sabré back in 2018 while she was in Canada for some training. She was here a few times and I helped out with her track training and her work in the simulator. We were preparing her for the qualifications for the up and coming W-Series, a female only series racing in Europe. There were hundreds of young ladies applying for one of the 20 spots, so getting one of those seats was no easy task. We were thrilled when she was selected.

Her results were mixed but she was selected again for 2nd season. The W-Series grew rapidly in popularity and while the Pandemic shut down motorsports globally, the W-Series went online and continued racing in the virtual world. In 2021 though, motorsports returned and the W-Series returned also and even secured spots as a support race for F1...

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Latifi Leaves Williams

September 27, 2022 General, Road Racing

As a Canadian, I really hoped that Nicholas Latifi would become the F1 driver that we could be proud of. Sure we also have Lance Stroll but he’s not exactly respected in the motorsports community. The other reason I hoped that Nicky would do well is because I helped with his coaching when he transitioned from F2 to F1. His driving coach is a good friend of mine so I was asked to help out on a few of his training days in Canada.

If his F1 performance was as great as his personality, he would be a contender for a top ride but alas, that isn’t the case. He really is a great guy. He’s easy to get along with and he’s well respected in the paddock. He’s also a darn good driver...

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Ron Fellows Karting Championship

September 26, 2022 General, Karting

Well known and respected Canadian racecar driver Ron Fellows has for years been hosting a kart racing championship at his home track, which he partly owns, at the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (Mosport Karting Centre). The Ron Fellows Karting Championship is one of the most well known karting series in Canada (largely because he’s the title sponsor) and the top series where kids, teens, and young adults cut their teeth in motorsports.

Most karting tracks have their own club race series but this is a step up from that with proper sponsors, and professional level teams in attendance. This is also sometimes a stepping stone to move up into real cars like the highly competitive Formula 1600 series.

My purpose for being there was to provide some further coaching to 12 year old Ryde...

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New Driver: Ryder Brown

September 22, 2022 Karting

I recently had the pleasure of meeting 12 year old Ryder Brown and his father Jeff at the Mosport Karting Centre located at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Ontario, Canada. I instantly liked them both and agreed to take a look at his driving over the weekend. As a coach who has worked with some amazing drivers over the years, I’m not easily impressed by skill alone, but this young man showed remarkable smoothness behind the wheel.

Ryder has been racing karts since he was seven and at the time of meeting him, he was leading the championship in Briggs Junior Lite. Considering he hasn’t had any proper coaching, he’s doing quite well and it is clear that he has some natural talent. He’s shown excellent consistency with his lap times and he really shines in wet condition...

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New Hope for 5th Scale RC Racing in Ontario

June 5, 2019 5th Scale

After the Canadian RC Nationals of 2018, the 5th Scale community fell into a slump. The Canadian RC Nationals are held at Walton Raceway, which is first and foremost a MotoCross track and only used by the 5th Scale RC racers that one weekend a year. So it’s not a venue we can just go and race at or practice on whenever we want. The only track we could use was RCAcres. The owner of that track had pumped up our hopes about doing an Eastern Championship but then…nothing. Without any announcement or other communication, he walked away quietly to follow other interests. He wouldn’t even entertain the idea of allowing the community to organize events at his track. Not even at a cost. And so, over night, the 5th Scale RC communitty of racers had nowhere to go...

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Canadian Nationals 2018 – 1/5th Scale Offroad RC Racing

August 19, 2018 5th Scale

How can a weekend of camping and racing be so disappointing and wonderful at the same time? Here’s how…

I’m a total newbie when it comes to RC cars. I’ve owned a couple toy ones as a kid but earlier this year, I saw some friends driving their 1/5th scale, gas powered RC cars, and took a liking to it big time. Before I knew it, I found myself owning a used and hugely beat up HPI Baja 5B SS 2WD buggy with a bunch of spare parts.

The outdoor, off road, racing community is pretty well established but needs some serious organization. There aren’t a lot of venues to race at and running an event takes a huge amount of work and lots of volunteers. Even just practice days takes a lot of effort by the land owner to make sure the track is in race ready condition.

A couple months ago...

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