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Victoria Day SpeedFest at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park marks season-opening weekend for Toyo Tires F1600 Championship and Formula 1600 Super Series. (Photo-Brian Graham)

  

By: Toyo Tires F1600 Series
May 12 2015
 
 

Toronto, Ontario – It’s time to start a new racing season with a new crop of young Canadian hopefuls ready to battle for the 2015 Toyo Tires F1600 Championship.

The year’s first pair of races will take place this weekend at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park as part of Victoria Day SpeedFest. Those same two races will also comprise the opening rounds of the 2015 Formula 1600 Super Series, which brings the best F1600 racers in Canada together at this country’s most prestigious motorsport events to battle for top honours in an exclusive combined championship.

Goikhberg rides wave of sports car success into Toyo Tires F1600 Championship competition. After scoring a podium finish at the 24 Hours of Daytona this past January and claiming the IMSA Prototype Lites championship in 2014, North Vancouver’s Mikhail Goikhberg is adding the Toyo Tires F1600 Championship to his 2015 racing activities by competing in A Class in Brian Graham Racing’s new No. 4 Piper DL7. Goikhberg will also contest the Formula 1600 Super Series.

“I have always loved F1600 as I think it’s a very pure form of racing,” Goikhberg said. “I have been carefully following the development of the Ontario and Quebec F1600 scene over the past years and it’s amazing where they have got it to. The Super Series is a very welcome addition.”

Goikhberg will race alongside rookie teammate Ben Hurst of Oakville, Ont., who will compete in A Class with BGR’s second new Piper DL7 carrying the No. 3.

Former B Class champion Adams returns to vie for A Class title. Two years on the sidelines has been long enough for 2012 series champion Michael Adams of Courtice, Ont. He’s returning to Toyo Tires F1600 Championship competition in 2015, where he’ll return to A Class competition in his family-owned 1992 Van Diemen.

Adams, the son of Ontario regional racer Stephen Adams, is planning to run the season on a race-by-race basis between gaps in his mechanical engineering studies, which are currently his top priority.

“I am very excited to be back competing in the Toyo Tires F1600 Championship,” Adams said. “The series has grown in popularity and has attracted some new teams and equipment since I raced full-time in 2012. I am really looking forward to getting back behind the wheel.”

2014 B Class champion Connor Wagland returns to defend his title. The B Class title fight was hotly contested from start to finish in 2014, and this season is shaping up to be no different.

Last year’s B Class champion, Connor Wagland of Dundas, Ont., returns to defend his title and will face many of the same adversaries in his quest to repeat.

Amy Castell of Waterloo, Ont., scored her first career win and multiple podium finishes in 2014 and appears poised for the next level of success. Perennial podium visitor Mike Lee also returns for the coming year, bring the constant threat of his remarkable consistency along with him.

Top racers from 2014 graduate for F2000 Canada Championship. Several of last season’s most promising stars have graduated from the Toyo Tires F1600 Championship directly into the F2000 Canada Championship, Canada’s newest and most natural next level of competition for aspiring professional racers.

The F2000 Canada Championship began its season two weeks ago at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park where several Toyo Tires F1600 Championship graduates competed, including 2014 Can-Am Cup winner and 2013 Rookie of the Year Zacharie Robichon of Ottawa, Ont., 2014 Formula 1600 Super Series winner Chase Pelletier of Brampton, Ont., and two-time Toyo Tires Formula Tour 1600 champion Nathan Blok.