Welcome to the home of BlurredVisionRacing.
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We've had a busy off-season so far, with both Gord and Gary doing frame off rebuilds of their cars. Gary is working on his '88 Swift SE-1, and Gord is working on his Lola hill climb car. He plans on competing at the Knox Mountain Hill Climb in May of 2011.
The Grand Plan (tm) of BlurredVisionRacing for 2011 is the Montreal GrandPrix FF support race. The Formula Tour 1600 group from Quebec had a great race last year. We haven't heard officially that they will be on the support race schedule yet, but it is time to start planning in any case. We hope to field Gary's Swift, Gord's Lotus, along with fellow TeamSask racer Noel, in his Van Diemen. Also, there are plans afoot for potential renters in the Reynard and Crossle. The rig will be full heading out there! The following weekend is the VARAC Vintage Festival, which BVR travelled to last year.
If there is any interest in becoming a partner of BVR for the F1 weekend, please contact
It is that time of year when Christmas celebrations gather people together from far and wide - as such, Gord and Gary of
BlurredVisionRacing would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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That was another lengthy delay between updates, wasn't it?
Our last weekend was the Classic Motor Works Vintage Weekend at Gimli at the end of August. BVR had Noel McAvena in his '81 VanDiemen FF along for the trip. Gord was running his '82 Crossle 50F, with Gary in his trusty Reynard. We were the entire FF
grid, on track with 8 Formula Vees from Manitoba.
Saturday dawned nicely, but just after the mandatory Driver's Meeting, the weather turned ominous. Gord then realized he had
forgotten his rain tires at home! All three went out for morning practice on slick tires, with the rain beginning to fall
just before qualifying. Noel changed to rains, Gary changed 3 out of 4, and Gord decided to sit out qualifying. The story
behind Gary only changing 3 tires comes down to the left rear wheel being completely stuck onto the drive hub! This made the
few right turns at Gimli quite interesting in the wet!
We began the first couple of races behind the FVs, in the hopes of keeping the two grids seperate throughout the race. Gary
took his time picking his way through the 8 vees over the course of four laps. Noel and Gord had small issues, resulting
from this being the first race out for their respective cars this year.
By the time Sunday came around, after conversation with the FV drivers, it was decided that we would start in front.
This lead to a much more relaxed first couple of laps, and better races for all involved. All of Sunday's races went off
quite well, with very few issues on any of the cars. What a nice way to end the season!
At the end of the day on Sunday, there was a small awards ceremony. In FF, Noel won the weekend, with his consistent
performances paying off. Gary was humbled to win the 'Sportsman of the Weekend' award, along with a bottle of wine from
Classic Motor Works owner, Dyrk Bolger.
Our next stop will be the WCMA AGM in mid October. We're looking forward to meeting the racers, crew, and workers again,
away from the hectic schedules fo the racetrack!
Gord has re-aquired his old Lotus 61, and Gary is beginning the re-build of his Swift SE-1. Plans for 2011 are already
underway, and we're looking forward to getting the cars together and ready for the track next summer!
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Well, we didn't do to well on the timely update, now did we? Sorry about that.
The weekend went fairly well, with Saturday morning being the usual rushed setup, due to not being able to get into
paddock until 7am. We made it to all the sessions, with Gord's Hawke, Gary's Reynard, and Logan in Gord's Van Diemen
again.
Gary had a Lola to play with in FF, but was having overheating issues all weekend. It transpired that a rad was leaking,
which prompted him to attempt a 'race track' fix (ie. duct tape), suprisingly, it didn't work. As such, he by-passed
the leaking rad, which allowed him to make approximately 80% of the race before the temperature got too high. Those laps
with the Lola were some of the funnest he's had this year!
Gord faired rather worse, going out in the Vintage grid, only to have a lower control arm joint break out on track!
The car was stranded on one of the rescue roads, and Gord came in slightly dejected. Gord and Gary went out after racing
was over for the day to retrieve the car, during the only rain storm of the weekend, of course!
Logan's weekend seemed to go quite well, he was near the top of the FC class, which is impressive for his first time
at RaceCity and first time running the VD in the dry! Unfortunately, his weekend was cut slightly short, as an ominous
rattle emanated from the gearbox coming in from the second last session.
All in all, a good weekend, the track was in decent shape, although the grass just feet off the track was 4 or 5 feet
tall! The formula cars would get lost if they went off, the rest of the field had no idea what the yellow flags were for!
Logan certainly won the 'baler' award, as a cut down tire sent him off at turn 6, to collect a massive pile of grass.
Thanks to Miles, Sean, Jorgen, Blair, Brian, Wade, and all of the Calgary Open Wheel group for all of the help, lodging,
food, and beer!
We're off to Gimli at the end of August for the Classic Motor Works Vintage Weekend. We're looking forward to getting
a nice, relaxed, fun weekend of racing in!
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Now we're on our way to Calgary. It's a long drive as well, although much less than the Mosport trip we just finished!
We'll be meeting Logan (and his father, Stuart) there as well, as he's going to run the VanDiemen again. It's been
a couple of years since BVR raced at RaceCity, and we're looking forward to hanging out with the Calgary crew again.
Gary's brother and family will be stopping by on Sunday to watch/crew, his nephews (Shanahan and Konur) quite like
the race car gig.
We'll try to update as the weekend goes on, but really, we're not very good at that, are we?
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Our 2nd adventure of the season takes us all the way out to Mosport, just North-East of Toronto. It's a long drive.
We had hoped to get a few hours in Monday evening to make the Tuesday/Wednesday runs easier. However, Mr. Murphy
(namesake of the infamous law) decided otherwise. Our F600 tow rig needed a front wheel seal on the Monday - with the
closest one in Edmonton! We finally got on the road at noon on Tuesday. Somewhere past Winnipeg, we figured out that
running all night without stopping, would put us back on schedule. So that's exactly what we did. We ran 31 hrs straight
from Regina to Lindsey, Ontario - pulling in around 10:30pm local time.
Thursday (Test Day) was set up day for us - we had a large load (Gary's Reynard, Gord's Hawke, Mike Adams MGB, Dan Tremblay's
Magnum Mk4, and the Lemanski Datsun B210) to unload and setup. The Datsun and Dan's Magnum were staying down east,
as Dan moved back to Montreal, and a deal had been struck to trade the Datsun. We finally were all set up that evening,
and were able to sit down for a well-deserved beer.
Friday was practice day, with 3 20 minute sessions for each of us, with an extra for Mike due to the 'MG Feature' group.
We all made it out and ran reasonably well, although Gary had oil pressure issues at the end of the straight, Gord had
overheating issues, and Mike had some carb problems. These would all crop up all weekend. We won't even get into Gord's
passing under yellow on the back straight!
Al Pease, the original owner/builder of Mike's MGB stopped by on Friday, after an 800 mile trip from Tennessee! It was
great to see him again, and he still looks fantastic. He was understandably tired, and so headed into Toronto to his
daugter's for the night, promising he would return on Sunday.
Saturday was qualifying and a single race, with the issues above haunting all 3 cars through both sessions. In an interesting
turn of fate - Gord and Gary's first race was directly after lunch. With the schedule based solely on session times, it
can be difficult to determine exactly when you should go up to pre-grid. As such, Gord wandered up over lunch to chat with
the grid folks. He was slightly suprised when they suggested 'about 10 minutes', he made his way quickly back to our pit.
Gord and Gary got suited up and set off for pre-grid, making it up with 4 minutes to spare, but they were the only cars
on pre-grid (9th and 11th). After the 3 minute warning - pre-grid is closed, and all cars late start from the back. BVR
locked out the front row of the 'Wings n Slicks' VARAC group!
It didn't last long. Gord allowed one of the much faster SuperVees past on the formation lap, as he didn't want to be in
the front for his first turn 1. Gary stayed on pole until the Andretti Straight, when an ignition wire broke off of the coil,
stranding him by the marshall station. Part way through the race, it began to rain, and with Gord being the only car not on
slicks (Dunlop treaded FF tires) there was a bit of a buzz that he may take the win. Unfortunately, the overheating gremlin
struck again, and he was forced to retire.
Saturday afternoon, Mike's other crew member, Gary Magwood arrived. Gary raced anything and everything around Mosport, and
all of Canada a few years ago. He once had a driving school located at Mosport, so knew the fast way around the track. Gary and Gord harrassed Mr. Magwood for advice. They tried explaining their current lines around corners, with Gary attempting to
help them out. Part way through the discussion, Gary T. suggested just watching his on-board video from that morning's qualifier. Gary M. was flabbergasted that they had such technology. Gary T. just smiled, and asked if he wanted to see
the on-board telemetry (speed, rpm, gear, lat/long G force). Gary M. suggested that he would have given some rather
precious body parts for this sort of gear back when he raced competitively!
The conversation while watching the video, went something like this:
The Saturday night banquet was fantastic - great food/drink/people, with Burt Levy as the guest speaker. He's written some
fantastic car/racing books, and is known as the 'ride mooch'. His presentation went over his life, with some great wit, and
an amazing collection of incredible cars driven over the years.
Sunday dawned with hopes of reliable cars. For Mike it proved true. Although the carb was still giving issues with
fueling, he was confident in the throttle linkage and put in quite a few laps.
Gord and Gary both had the re-occurring overheat/oil pressure respectively. After the first session, our other crew,
Daryll Evans, and Tim Hyland arrived. With the extra hands and new-found excitment at working on a car - Gary's oil
pump was swapped, and Gord's head gasket was swapped. A huge thanks to Ed Moody for allowing Gord to use his water
for flushing/refill. The scavenge rotor from Gary's oil pump came out in 3 pieces.
The feature race went fairly well for Gary, he was able to complete the race distance, although he had some small
oil pressure issues. Gord's was going well, until the engine pushed the front seal out, and he lost all oil pressure.
Mike's feature race went alright as well - although he pulled in with a single lap to go with fouled spark plugs.
The load up and drive home was another adventure all together! With the Datsun and Magnum gone, the load process
was different yet again. Gary Magwood stuck around to help us load, which was a huge help. He certainly learned the
reasoning behind the BVR theme song of 'Enter the Gladiators' (hint - big bear on a small tricycle at the circus).
Gary M. even got his hands dirty, something he figured he hadn't signed up for. He's more used to working on his sail
boat now, rather than greasy cars. As they wandered off to wash hands, Gary T. asked him if it didn't take him back a
little bit though, to which Gary M. replied that it certainly did. We all hope he had as much fun over the weekened
as we did.
Monday morning we made it to Tim Hyland's place, where we had arranged to pick up two more forumla fords, in exchange
for the Lemanski Datsun. We were loaded and on the road by noon, with a trailer packed completely full.
By about 3 that afternoon, a wheel bearing let loose on the rear axle of the trailer, near New Liskeard, Ontario. We
managed to pull into the Kenworth shop, and they helped us with the wheel/axle. The stub axle was in very bad shape,
so we headed into town to Pioneer trailer, where Fred searched and searched, but could not find a replacement. However,
he did have another complete axle assembly - which was similar, but not exactly the same. We took it back to Kenworth,
with the plan to swap it under the trailer the next morning. Unfortunately, it wouldn't fit, so we were back to square 1.
Mo sent us to Nor-Arc 30 minutes up the road, where Dan and Reg decided that they could replicate the stub axle we needed.
We arrived there around noon with a pile of junk, and were on our way back to Kenworth with brand new bits by 4pm.
incredible indeed! Mo and a couple of his guys helped us get the axle under the trailer, and we were on the road by 6pm.
From there it was a fairly uneventful, if long, drive home.
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As mentioned, our first race was Gimli in late May. The weather was atrocious, rain, lightning, and high winds. Logan
ran the VanDiemen, which hadn't raced at all in 2009. As such, there were a few small issues that cropped up, with
the clutch system, and oil pressure sensor. By Sunday afternoon, Logan was running very competitive lap times in good,
clean races. All of the local Formula Vee guys were suitably impressed for his first outing. We look forward to working
with Logan more this season.
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Wow! It's July already. Sorry for the tardiness in keeping everyone updated with BlurredVisionRacing news. Over
the winter, Gord re-aquired his 1982 Crossle 55F. It had been bent slightly a few years before. The frame was fixed,
and the rest of the car re-done, and it is nearly complete now.
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Click to see the news page from the 2009 BlurredVisionRacing season.
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Mike had similar luck, although it could be argued that he had great luck as well. To explain, his bad luck was that he was forced to retire from his race as well, due to a stuck throttle cable causing him to spin repeatedly out of turn 10 along
the wall. The good luck is that he didn't hit anything! Mike and Gary spent some time re-routing cables, fabricating linkage,
and adjusting the pedal. It was free and clear for Sunday.
Gary T: starts video, forwards to a full lap, at speed.
Gary M: Turn one - wrong, turn 2 - wrong, turn 3 - not bad, turn 4 - wrong, turn 5 - hey, you almost got that one right!, turn 8 - wrong, turn 9 - ahh, acceptable, turn 10 - wrong.
They managed to get some info on turns 1 and 2, and drank a lot of beer!
Gary's car was working well after the winter engine rebuild. There was a slight oil leak, but nothing serious. The weekend
was a 'break-in' session for the new engine, so no lap records were set!
Gord was feeling under the weather, and wanted to work with Logan, so didn't get any laps in with his Hawke.
The other cars (Gord's 1992 VanDiemen FC, 1974 Hawke DL-11 FF, and Gary's 1984 Reynard FF) were all prepared for this
season.
BlurredVisionRacing also had some interest from a young, local karter. Logan Downing of Saskatoon contacted Gord to
inquire about running a car with us this season. The initial idea was to run the Crossle, but the restoration ran long,
promoting Logan into the VanDiemen FC car for the first race of the season in Gimli. He was quite excited!
Click to see the news page from the 2008 BlurredVisionRacing season.
Click to see the news page from the 2007 BlurredVisionRacing season.