GTA Road Atlanta: #teamcanada is coming
Canadians are known for their love of hockey. We are known for having a Tim Horton’s Coffee shop on every other corner of some cities. We are known for putting the letter ‘u’ in words like neighbour and colour and doughnuts. We are known for being the small country above the United States of America – your northern neighbour with a much larger land mass yet a drastically smaller population. We are known around the world for being a country of polite and respectful people – accepted around the world in more places than American Express. Canadians are known for great Time Attack builds and drivers – whoa, you say! Things were going okay until that bit about Time Attack! Well, over the years there have been a few forays by Canadians into the various Time Attack events held in the States. Statistically, the results Canadians have obtained are undeniably strong. Now, since I barely passed my statistics course – ages ago – you can relax as I am not going to bore you with pages of stats. I will simply say that Global Time Attack has been attracting us northerners for a few years now and, when compared with our country's respective populations, our results are impressive. 2015 should be no different – except, are you ready for this, more of us are coming! Well, one more!
Ontario is home to Toronto Motorsports Park, Grand Bend Motorplex, Shannonville Motorsports Park, Calabogie Motorsports Park, and Canadian Tire Motorsports Park (Grand Prix track start/finish line pictured above). No wonder Canada produces some great drivers – and that doesn't even touch on the tracks in Quebec and other parts of the country.Vince Strati is a newcomer to Global Time Attack but he crosses the border with a lot of experience. He has been involved in Drag Racing and Go Karting prior to his foray into Time Attack. Initially he ran a FWD Honda Civic but for the past few years his platform of choice has been an S14 Nissan 240SX. Recognizing that the stock drivetrain simply did not meet his expectations, this racer dropped a VQ35 engine into the engine bay. This V6 350Z powerplant brought the 240SX a new lease on life and he placed first in the Street Class RWD class at CSCS (Canadian Sport Compact Series), setting a record in Street RWD at Grand Bend Motorplex in 2013 that still stands.
With almost all of the work done in the residential garage beside his house, Vince knows every inch of the mechanical side of his car. The KA24 didn't stay in the engine bay for long. The Nissan VQ35 was a resident in the engine bay for a year. The LS2 has a long term lease!That desire for speed and further track success led Vince further down the modification path that many of us are also on. The car’s interior was stripped, it went on a weight reduction plan, got a roll cage to enhance driver safety, plus it got a new paint scheme to match it’s new persona. Oh yes, the VQ35 was replaced with a more potent power plant.
Vince and Amanda have let me know that the 240SX's livery will be updated for 2015 in time for Road Atlanta, but not in time for this article. So you'll be looking for a car with this stance and silouette but a different livery.The LS2 is a known workhorse that absolutely jumped Vince up the horsepower charts. Staying ahead of the competition, while not easy, was taking place regularly as Vince now raced in CSCS’s SuperStreet class where he set the 2014 class record at the Driver Development Track at CTMP (this record was broken later in the season). His time also bested the CSCS Unlimited RWD time.
After three years of running his car in various classes with CSCS here in Ontario, Vince is ready to experience the challenge of Global Time Attack at Road Atlanta. He will put on quite a show in his Mild 2 Wild Nissan 240SX.
