Victoria Day Speedfest Weekend at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park May 18 – 20, 2012.

This year Gateway Racing is pleased to present “The Canadian Team” that will be fighting for podium finishes with the Trans Am series.  We look forward to this opportunity and to your continued  support.

For more details visit Trans Am at http://www.gotransam.com/

Our driver line up :

  Allan Lewis

  2012 C6 Corvette

  Racing Biography:

2003 -2012 CACS Regional Racing

2004-2012  BMWCCA  Club Racing

Andrew Romocki       

2012 Ford Mustang

Racing Biography:

2006- 2012:  CASC Regional Racing

  Ian Paterson

  2011 C6 Corvette

  Racing Biography:

2011:   GT1 Class Champion in CASC-OR GT Sprints

2011:   Mosport with theTrans-Am series

Blaise Csida                            

2008 C6 Corvette

Racing Biography:

1990-2008:  Numerous wins and podiums in Solo 1, CASC Regional Racing, Canada GT Challenge Cup GT2 &  GT1,  SCCA Nationals, SCCA Regionals, Canadian Vintage Festival, American GT Road Racing,   ATTO Vintage GT Challenge

2000:  Canada GT Challenge Cup (GT2) championship with nine wins

2004-2011: Trans-Am Series, podium finishes, best of 2nd at Mosport in 2011

Gateway Racing Inc. is pleased to deliver the second Trans-Am car built this winter and number eight in the series. The ground up, all in-house produced race car took almost 8 months from start to completion and is a derivative of a successful design that has many wins, track records and podium finishes to boast.

Owner Judith and Allan Lewis were on hand for the unveiling of this wild looking C6 bodied race car, built specifically to Allan’s specification. Many hours go into customizing the basic design, and not just cosmetically; seating position, pedals, steering wheel angles, types of driveline components, brakes, air jacks, etc. were all individually optioned.

Unlike previous customers, Allan has had a few race cars built for him in the past, which made Gateway’s job that much easier: he knew exactly what he wanted and how he wanted it done! We thank Allan for the privilege of this construction and wish him the same pleasure of ownership as we have had manufacturing this unique and stunning racing machine. 

Testing will begin immediately as the racing season is upon us. Watch Allan as he competes in the Ontario GT Challenge series and selected SCCA Pro Trans-Am races throughout the season. Car and driver will debut in Trans-Am at our home track in May.

Building with the Ford driveline presented some challenges for the fabricators, but they welcomed the deviation from working on GM derived products.  “We were ecstatic that Andrew picked a Mustang body, it has a stunning pony car appearance and a menacing stance” stated Gateway Racing‘s Blaise Csida. “We are anxiously awaiting the development work, the aerodynamics appear quite different from the Corvettes.”  

The car’s maiden voyage will take place at Roebling Raceway, Georgia, later in March, with more testing at our home track Mosport in April and May. Andrew will enter a select number of local GT Challenge races and a few SCCA Pro Trans-Am events thru-out the season. More updates and news to follow……..

Terry Fletcher also achieved some incredible laps times, turning a best of 1:28.00 in a production C-5 Corvette, still using the original shocks and leaf spring suspension. Terry plans to finish the season in this car, awaiting the arrival of his new C-6 Corvette.

A new track record for a CASC car was established on Sunday, when Blaise Csida turned a 1:17.6 in the Gateway C-6 Trans-Am Corvette on lap 5 of the second sprint race. The crew was ecstatic as this also represented a faster race lap than the Trans-Am record, set by Kenny Wilden in 2010 at a 1:17.9. Work continues to make Blaise and his car even more competitive in 2012.

Andrew Romocki, piloting his #291 Panos drove a brilliant, well-planned race to win the 3-hour endurance race overall and first in class. He went into fuel conservation mode from lap one, and was able to make the 3 hours on just one pit-stop. He also drove the entire race, no small feat considering the heat and speed of his GT Panos. Congratulations Andrew!

The SCCA Pro Trans-Am weekend started off very well for the four cars fielded by Gateway Racing. Elmer Shannon, Ian Patterson, Gregg Clifton, and Blaise Csida all dug deep, producing their best lap times in qualifying Sunday morning, Blaise with a 1:18.077 for second place. Special mention must also be given to Ian Patterson, who put in an incredible lap of 1:19.8 and is now a proud member of the very exclusive sub-20 second sedan club. And this was in legal Trans-Am configuration and with a pump-gas engine that is down at least 60-80 HP compared to his competitors!

Weather unfortunately ruined the race for Ian and Elmer, both of whom were involved in a first lap crash, the result of rain and slick tires. Blaise Csida, however, survived the mayhem, and drove a clean, uneventful, and fast race, finishing second behind Tony Ave and only 14 seconds down after 100 miles. It was Blaise’s career best Pro racing finish.

Gregg Clifton suffered a broken oil pump belt while running in 7th place and was not able to complete the race. Watch for the Gateway serviced cars at the next Ontario GT event.

While the car is entirely legal for SCCA GT1 or Trans-Am Pro racing, it was custom built for Ian. The chassis needed widening and the cockpit extended. In addition, custom features, such as a unique dash designed by Ian himself were incorporated. A high-tech Nascar based engine was used, running on pump gas, yet still producing incredible power (which we cannot precisely disclose here…).

The car’s maiden voyage occurred Friday, April 29th, under less than ideal conditions. But cold weather and sporadic rain didn’t stop Ian from venturing onto the track. Within a few laps he learnt how to shift a dog box (a transmission that does not require the use of the clutch while shifting) and handle this 700 plus HP purpose built race car. By the end of the day, he posted some incredible lap times, considering the traffic and point-to-pass rules of the day.

“I am so impressed with this Trans-Am car (aka MP-5), that Gateway built me, I’m finding it hard to put it into words. A giant “Woohoo!” comes to mind, of course, but that is hardly definitive unless you’ve had the experience yourself. In my first day with MP-5, despite my apprehension towards taking it onto the track without prior experience in such a machine of this caliber, I could not believe how well set up and functionally perfect everything was. The attention to detail for the build is unmatched, not to mention the personal consideration for making sure that what was being built was what I wanted, on time, and on budget. In the end, with only slight adjustments to the clutch and brake pedal distances and mirror position, and I was back on the track in what I can only describe as home (only way, *way* faster!) from what a pleasure it was to be behind the wheel. No details were missed; the fit, the handling, the gearing and shift points, all utterly perfect. And a damn nice wax job to boot.”

“I can honestly say that Gateway surpassed my expectations by leaps and bounds with this car, my heart is still beating double-time!”

The entire Gateway crew wishes Ian a successful racing season with his new car and are anxiously awaiting for the exciting development work that is yet to come! Watch Ian compete in the Ontario Regional Series as well as possibly trying a Pro Trans-Am race on the May 24 weekend.

Weather was gorgeous, sunny 80 °F every day, but the week was far from smooth! Winter car glitches that are usually worked out in the first practice session of the year, haunted the crew and resulted in almost no practice time, which meant being a day behind in set-up and driver training. “Robbie-the wrench” and his valiant crew never gave up and worked tirelessly to get the car ready for the race. It ran flawlessly thru the entire race, many thanks to Penny, John, Robbie, Martin,  Brian, and Rod.

The race itself was most eventful. Starting seventh,  the Gateway car was able to keep pace until a missed shift in turn 5 resulted in a spin and backwards contact with the tire wall, dropping us to 14th position. The car wasn’t too badly damaged, and Blaise was able to continue although the flat spotting of the tires resulted in some severe vibration and a loose condition for the balance of the race. Luckily for us, a full course yellow bunched the field up and we were able to pick up a few position after the re-start.  We actually made it to 4th, but a fuel pick-up problem in the last few laps lost us that position.

5th was an awesome finish for the team, proving that low-budget operations can successfully compete with the “big boys” with some luck and perseverance. Many thanks for all the support, and we look forward to our next Trans-Am race at Mosport on the May 24 weekend.

Drivers Ed Brown and Scott Sharp used Gateway’s Nissan Sentra at first, then jumped in the World Challenge Corvette rental car, with engineer Leigh Pettipas collecting data thru onboard telemetry. While they loved the cars and were very fast, they are looking forward to competing in their more sophisticated Ferrari GT cars on Aug. 28/29 at MIR.

It was a pleasure working with Ed, Scott and Leigh, their professionalism was only topped by their humble, friendly demeanor. The entire Gateway crew wishes them success.