Chumpcar: Calabogie Motorsports Park

Metric Homes Racing's BMW is very clean. Saturday night they had to do a transmission swap as they finished the day stuck in fourth gear. They made up for it with their podium finish on Sunday.

Mopar4Life claimed 1st at Saturday's race on the Full Track at CMP. From the left we have Steve Hermetz, Dan Martin, Eric Martin, Brian Sibbitt, and Dave St. Louis.

Metric Homes Racing ran very well and brought home the 1st place podium finish at Sunday's East Track seven hour endurance race. From Left: James Pady, Wendy Edwards, Jamie Leveille, Shawn Bernier, Chris Bernier, Pierre Bernier, and Sal Sanfillipo.

The award ceremony for both days of racing takes place shortly after the last race of the weekend has been completed. In addition to recognizing the top five teams from both events, this was also a time to thank sponsors, the organizing ChumpCar team, the volunteers, marshals and fire/rescue workers, and the officials at Calabogie Motorsports Park for opening their venue to us. There is a 12 hour race back here on September 20th – there is room for you.

These trophies are awesome sculptures that any gear head would love to have on display! Some day soon I'm going to earn one of these!

The prize at the end of the day? Incredibly artistic metal sculptures, obviously hand crafted out of used auto parts and mounted on brake rotors. They are simply amazing. Plus you also get bragging rights that you podiumed at the end of an endurance race, that you and your team demonstrated your driving skills, and think of the office water cooler discussions about your mechanical prowess that kept a car going through 14 hours of endurance racing.

Here are the top five finishers for both Optima Battery ChumpCar World Series events held at Calabogie Motorsports Park.

Saturday Full Track
Mopar4Life
MR2 Biohazard
Redgreen Racing
Metric Homes Racing
Big Deal Racing

Sunday East Track
Metric Homes Racing
Mopar4Life
Higgy MotorSchwartz Gruppe
Big Deal Racing
VanWinden Racing

My children know that a date night for my wife and myself usually means a good meal at a restaurant that is usually followed by a trip to Canadian Tire. Unfortunately for everyone south of the border, you'll have to make the trek to Canada to find this amazing 'auto parts, sports, hardware, houseware, and many other things in between' store. Canadian Tire – if you're reading this I'm looking for sponsorship!

What's next for 'No Budget Racing' and 'No Budget Racing Too'? There is a possibility that we will be back at Calabogie in September. Plans are in the works for Watkins Glen in November. The Honda is still in pieces but the problem, a fuel issue rather than electrical, has been located. Maybe there will be time to refit the Miata so that we do not face penalty laps. The schedule has some great events on it – especially the Glen and CMP. Neither may be in my plans because I have other life commitments that will take priority. So it may be 2015 before I am a Chump again – but it will happen. Especially if CTMP is included in the mix with CMP and the Glen. It is simply too much fun to miss!

Here's a final look at Pit Row as 43 cars prepare for the 9 a.m. start here at CTMP. September 20th's Twelve Hour event has a 7 a.m. Green Flag.

There was more than enough room in the paddock if you brought your RV with you. Plus the track has Suites that you can rent and spend the night in track side luxury.

Spend the next 40 minutes in car with Shawn Bernier and his 1992 BMW driving CMP's East Track.