Spring Fling will set hearts racing

The papers and the television were all full of the annual baseball malarkey this week. You know, the bit where they talk about "renewal" and "hope" and "optimism" and all that other stuff that, when it comes down to it, pretty much went out the window when they started to play the game at night, under lights.

And the reason I say this is because if you're reading this column, you know what spring really means – and it ain't peanuts and Cracker Jack.

It's Drivers, Start Your Engines.

It's anticipation and aggression and gladiatorial excitement.

For participants, it's late nights and skinned knuckles and motor oil and the smell of fresh rubber and dirt under your fingernails.

For spectators, it's sunshine and speed and noise that shakes the ground.

You know, if thoughts of the sights and sounds of the first green-flag laps of the season don't send a shiver up and down your spine – well, you ain't livin'.

With all that in mind, Cindy Armstrong, race director of the Canadian Automobile Sport Clubs – Ontario Region, has invited everybody who's even thinking about racing this year to load up their cars in a couple of weeks and head out to Shannonville Motorsport Park just east of Belleville for Spring Fling.

Spring Fling?

That's a couple of days set aside before the road racing season officially starts (May 9-10 at Mosport) when race participants can take their cars out on the track for some shakedown runs and get some of the "business" of racing out of the way – like tech inspection.

"We haven't had a Spring Fling for three or four years," Armstrong said this week, "and we're reviving it this year because we think it's a great way to get a jump on the racing season.

"Racers are notorious for `being late' getting their cars ready. We often don't have a lot of cars out for the first events of the season so if we can get them out for this, it follows that they'll be ready for the first race."

Armstrong says she expects 25-30 cars per day for the two official test days April 24 and 25.

"I think privateers (people who own and race their own cars) will only be there for a day but race teams – Brian Graham and others – will likely be there for two. The teams frequently have multiple cars and it's a good opportunity for them to do a lot of on-track work."

Armstrong is no stranger to race officiating – she's been at it for 33 years in one capacity or another – and is also a racer on occasion.

"Six years ago, in the second year of the CASC Touring Car Series (now the Castrol Canadian Touring Car Championship), my daughter, Jennifer, and I won the Team Championship," she said.

"We were the first mother-daughter team to do it."

The Armstrong family is a racing family, let there be no doubt.

"But I'm not a fanatic like my husband," she said.

That would be Bob Armstrong, a racer who's vice-president of the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame, among many other automotive interests.

"However, it is true that we have `his' and `hers' race cars. I have a normally aspirated Nissan NX2000 while Bob has a turbo."

Cindy Armstrong is employed by the Ottawa Catholic School Board "and while I'd like to do more (in racing), I just don't have the time. We're trying to have my car ready for Spring Fling and will hopefully have it there."

Want more info? Email Armstrong at racedirector@casc.on.ca.

YOUNG GUN INKED

Speaking of Brian Graham (well, we were, kind of), the team of Brian Graham Racing/TLM Racing with Grote, which merged operations over the winter with the aim of taking young Canadian talent up the racing ladder to the pros, has signed a driver development contract with 14-year-old Mackenzie Clare.

"It never fails to amaze me the natural talent that these young karters possess," Graham said, adding that Clare passed a test in the team's F1200 and Formula Ford cars with flying colours.

HELPING SICKKIDS FOUNDATION

On March 31, John Baglieri, general manager of Crane Lake Resort joined Kerry Micks, driver of the 02 car in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series, and Court Armstrong of Beyond Digital Imaging in presenting the SickKids Foundation with a cheque for $1,500.

Last February, Crane Lake Resort (near Parry Sound) hosted the first annual "Dinner of Champions" in which a number of NASCAR Canada drivers went snowmobiling for the day and then mingled with the public at a gala dinner.

A silent auction raised the $1,500, all of which was donated to the foundation.

Organizers plan to make it an annual event.

RACE FOR LUPUS RESEARCH

The second Toronto Tirecraft Grand Prix for Lupus Research, a two-hour team endurance race on Mosport's 1.4-km kart track, will take place May 2.

All proceeds will go to the Lupus Flare Foundation and be donated to the Pediatric Lupus Clinic at the Hospital for Sick Children.

If you'd like to participate or require more information, contact Bill Bryan at 416-859-4426 or bryan_355challenge@hotmail.com.