The official unofficial start to the Canadian racing season kicked off Friday at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park with the annual Castrol Victoria Day Speefest, headlined by the new look NASCAR Canada Series. 

 

Throughout the week, the weather for Friday was looking iffy, to say the least, with rain forecast to start at 9:00am and continue throughout the day. As Friday drew closer, the forecast start of the rain kept getting pushed back, and while the day dawned gloomy, the rain held off and wasn’t seen until we got a steady, light rain starting around 4:30pm. 

 

All classes were scheduled to get three sessions over the course of the day, with a morning session and two sessions in the afternoon.

 

With the rain starting to fall during the third Nissan Sentra Cup session, the Emzone Radical Canada Cup was the only class that got three full sessions of representative times. 

 

With the NASCAR Canada Series not hitting the track until Saturday, Friday was left to testing and practice for the FEL Sports Car Championship, the Emzone Radical Cup Canada, Nissan Sentra Cup, Toyo Tires F1600 and the Super Production Challenge. 

 

As is usually the case, the Super Production Challenge (SPC) fielded the being grid XXXX fielding 26 cars across three classes, Super Production (SP), Production (P)  and Compact (C). 

 

The early session saw Gabriel Lacombe quickest in the SP class in his Honda Civic Si, while Nathan Blok went 2 seconds quicker in the early afternoon session, recording a fastest lap of 1:30.605, which would stand as the best time of the day with the track very wet by the time the final sessions of the day rolled around, with SPC’s final session scheduled to start at 6:30pm. 

Nathan Blok was quickest in the SPC afternoon session in the Nissan 370Z

 

In Production class, Yannick Lupien led the morning session in his Mini Cooper S, but as was the case in SPC, the afternoon session saw Vincent Desautels trim Lupien’s time by about 2 seconds, turning a 1:37.545 in his Honda Civic Si.

 

In Compact, Trevor Hill was quickest in the morning in this Nissan Micra, with the afternoon session again proving faster with Zack Lalonde, who didn’t appear in the morning session getting the better of Hill in the afternoon with 1:44.648, also in a Nissan Micra. 

 

In the Nissan Sentra Cup, the morning session saw Matt Miron quickest followed by Nicolas Miron, while the afternoon session saw Daniel Fortin quickest, followed by Alexandre Fortin. While Daniel’s time did stand up as quickest of the session, and of the day, he was involved in an incident that brought out the red flag and saw him only complete 4 laps. 

 

In Toyo Tires F1600 action, the battle at the front was again between Britain West and Brian Graham Racing, with Britain West’s Conor Clubine setting the fastest time in the morning session, just over four tenths clear of BGR’s Antonio Costantino. 

 

Brian Graham Racing's Antonio Costantino was quickest in the afternoon sesion.

In the afternoon session, BGR’s Costantino turned the tables on Britain West, setting the quickest time by just over a tenth from the morning pace setter Clubine. Clubine held the fastest lap of the day with a 1:29.689 from the morning session. With the wet track and constant light rain, only a handful of cars turned out for the third session of the day, with nobody turning competitive times. No cars from Britain West or BGR turned a wheel. 

 

In the first of the FEL series on track, the Sports Car Championship Canada (SCCC) saw Jack Polito turn the quickest lap of the day as the only GT4 car on track, edging the TCR leader Dean Baker by just over a tenth of a second, Polito on a 1:22.454 and Baker on 1:22.566. No times were available for the first session of the day, and like the other series, only a small handful of cars took part in the final practice of the day, with nobody turning a competitive time. 

 

The final series, the FEL Radical Canada Cup, was the only series to get three full, dry session, but like the SCCC, no morning times were available. 

 

In the early afternoon, former Canadian Superbike star Kenny Riedmann was quickest with a 1:20.145. Riedmann sat out the late afternoon session, leaving Owen Clarke, who was second quickest in the early session, quickest, turning a 1:21.109. 

 

Things will get serious tomorrow, with the first session of the day at 8:00am being qualifying for the Super Production Challenge. All 5 series will make their qualifying runs before lunch tomorrow, with Super Production Challenge having their first of three races closing out the morning sessions tomorrow. 

 

The NASCAR Canada Series will see their first action of the day tomorrow, with the first session up after lunch, with practice from 12:25 to 1:15pm. The first races of the weekend for the Nissan Sentra Cup, Toyo Tires F1600, Radical Cup and Sports Cars follow NASCAR practice, followed by NASCAR Canada qualifying at 5:00pm.

 

With FEL and Nissan Sentra Cup being streamed live on YouTue this weekend, be sure to check out our new Twitter feed, @RaceCanadaTuneIn to get notifications of all upcoming races you’ll see on TV and streaming.