Calabogie, Ontario — OSCC Member James Bergeron and friend Russ Bond from Motoring TV‘s 2-minute test drive took on the 12-hour Calabogie Chump Race this past weekend at Calabogie Motorsports Park
The weather did not help as the rain that started in April has yet to stop falling on the region. Russ started the day early at 7am and was quickly setting the best lap times of the race. A collision early resulted in some lost time but Russ pushed on. James took over for an injured Jesse Lazare at 11am and found out that the track was indeed ultra slick as he hit the tire barrier in corner 12 just two laps in.
With his head down he continued to pump in the laps, but with near zero visibility he was forced to pit to have the windshield wiped down. Unfortunately the visibility issues continued until the team added an air duct into the cabin to clear up the fog — at that point the team had lost considerable amount of time to the leaders.
Pressing on James, now able to see, was 5 seconds per lap faster than anyone else on the track and was slowing reeling in the leaders. With a track that was just starting to dry out and 4 laps deficit to the leading Bond took over and was the class of the field, lapping nearly 10 seconds a lap faster than anyone else and setting purple laps consistently.
In the end there just wasn’t enough time left in the race to make up the time lost due to visibility concerns — but Team Junction did complete the race with the fastest lap of the race a 2:25.535
Thanks to the strong team to get the car to the finish and a great drive by both James and Russ to finish second overall in a grueling race!
