We've been awaiting this fantastic new track for years now. I'd almost given up hope on it - until this fall, when rumours rapidly spread about - finally - paving! Sure enough, Luc's 2-year track reservation was honoured, and we had a date of October 5 for a lapping session at Calabogie Motorsports Park!
There's more to this story, though. Last Thursday, at work, I received an e-mail from Luc: CMP was providing two VIP passes for an all-day track intro event the following Wednesday, and was I interested in one of the passes? um, like duh!
And so, this image gallery is from that most interesting event, on a beautiful warm fall day in Eastern Ontario. We all got to meet this wonderful track!
I left extra-early in the morning so as to arrive with lots of time for required registrations and inspections. I tried a possibly more scenic and twisty way to approach the track from Ottawa, via Clayton and Tatlock, but ran into a 5km section of dirt road - so, nix that option (why is it that they pave a route for 90% of its length, and then leave the final 5km that adjoins to another major highway unpaved? aggh!
I arrived at the track at about 7:30am, and already there was a bit of a lineup. After a short wait, I was registered and processed into Class A, and told to report for tech inspection.
The main paddock was huge and nicely paved - no dusty dirty paddock here! I reported for tech inspection - mostly a bit of wheel shaking and sound testing, and I was off to wait in the line of cars for Class A - behind a very nice Porsche 911 GT3. One of many, many Porsches scattered around.
Interactive Map with Photo points - Track Location - Click map to Expand
As time passed, and more and more attendees filed in, it became apparent that this was going to be a showdown of wealthy car owners. There was some pretty nice hardware making appearences : apart from the slightly more common but still fantastic high-end 911s, there was a Lamborghini Gallardo and a Porsche Carrera GT. The GT is worth a cool half-million in Canadian dollars - for just one lil' car!
Fruit, cookies, and fine delectables from the local Timmy's were provided on a set of tables all arrayed with fall colors. More and more cars started arriving, most of them very expensive and quite rare. Ferraris, Lotuses, Porsches, BMWs, Corvettes - these made up the bulk of the vehicles. A pretty highbrow event.
An advance warning: I took an excessive number of closeup pictures of some of these cars. I couldn't help it - they really are moving works of art!
German and Italian Supercars
