This post will be more newsletter than blog. Inside you'll find my plans for the next two weeks, and some information on how to get involved. I really hope to see you guys coming out to these events and getting yourself in to the atmosphere! It's the easiest way to get started!

I am happily writing this post from my balcony, in my shorts. It seems like after a very confusing March and early April, we finally have some nice driveway mechanic weather. I immediately took this opportunity, and decided to change my partner's winter tires out for her all-seasons. This job, however, went from a 20 minute tire swap to a 2 hour brake job when I realized that her pads were near metal on metal. But hey, at least we had the weather for it.

If you remember a few weeks ago, I published my first post. In that post I said that the intention of this blog was to document my experiences and allow all of you to live vicariously through my ramblings. Since then, I haven't had any experiences to write about, and have been doing reflective content instead. This was largely to do with the weather, and my inability to actually do anything with the car aside from drive it to the grocery store and back. However, we are now mid April, and the Ontario Time Attack season starts in a few short weeks.

I wanted to offer a short list of what events are coming up for me. This is not an exhaustive list, but what I'll be gearing up for.

Ontario Time Attack

May 3rd, Time Attack School

The OTA season starts in just two weeks. On May 3rd, their first Time Attack School is taking place at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park on the Driver Development Track. As someone who's very first time on a race track was this event, I can't recommend it enough to people who are interested in Time Attack, or even just lapping. The school covers advanced car control classroom sessions, and a personal coach who will ride with you for the entire day. In the past, the day has been split between track time, auto cross, and skid pad time, so you get to experience all the motor sports disciplines in one day. It's also a great opportunity to get to know your car better, and understand how it will behave during performance driving.

You might think that the track is only for sports cars, or cars that have been modified for the track (See How To Mod Your Daily Driver.) But for this event, that's not necessary. Grab the keys to your mom's Corolla (ask first) and get yourself signed up. There are also rental options for these events, so if you're interested in beating on a car you can give back at the end of the day, reach out to me and we'll get you set up.

This is what morning tech inspection looks like. Volunteer technicians inspect the cars to make sure they adhere to safety guidelines.

May 4th, Event #1 Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, Driver Development Track (CTMP DDT)

Directly following the Time Attack School is the first competition event of the season. If you have an interest, I highly recommend you come out to spectate, and get involved and volunteer. OTA is a not-for-profit, volunteer organization, and survives on passionate motor sports enthusiast volunteering their time to make it happen. If you're interested in that, contact me, or the OTA registrar to express your interest.

Yup, that's a Honda fit. The Nicholas Cage of cars.

If you are participating in the school on the Saturday before, I highly recommend participating, or at least spectating the competition event, to get a feel for how the day will go. There are rental cars available for competition as well so if you want your car to be prepped out of the box, we can help with that. For a competition day, it's more important to have a car that's had some basic modifications made to make it more comfortable on the track. I'll get in to these modifications in a future post. (Soon TM.)

If camping is your thing, many of the drivers and volunteers will set up tents in the paddock and sleep there. Mostly because hotels are awfully pricey these days, but also because that's one of the best ways to get to know your fellow enthusiasts. This, of course, is weather dependant. The first events usually get pretty cold at night, so pack accordingly.

This picture is on an actual campsite. Three days after buying the BRZ I drove it nearly 8 hours to Cayuga Ontario for the first event of the 2024 season. Instead of camping at the track I booked a camp ground 30 minutes away. If you've been to Toronto Motorsports Park, you understand.

May 10th and 11th Calabogie High Performance Driver Education (HPDE)

The weekend after Ontario Time Attack's season opener is the first Calabogie HPDE weekend of 2025. The HPDE days are a fantastic option to get on one of the best tracks in Ontario in a safe, controlled environment. You can sign up for a half, or full day in your car or one of their rentals. Should the demand require, I'll be there as a coach. If you do end up coming by, make sure to track me down and say hi!

One of my first Calabogie HPDE events (repping OTA of course.) I was helping one of the technicians move cars around in the paddock when we were ambushed by a photographer.

I hope this kind of update is helpful, if not please let me know. If you prefer reflective content, let me know that too, I'm still figuring out this whole blogging thing! This post is a fair bit shorter than my last two, but for updates like these I want the information above to be delivered in a digestible way, since this is stuff I get asked all too often!

That being said, if you're interested in the state of my car, and my plans for it this summer, stay tuned for next week's post. I'll be putting the car on stands and trying to get my laundry list of maintenance items done before OTA's first double header weekend.

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