2017 ASN Canada FIA Canadian AutoSlalom Championship Event Report - Pictures Now Available

16 Jan 2017 ASN Canada FIA Canadian AutoSlalom Championship Event Report - Pictures Now Available

2017 ASN Canada FIA
Canadian AutoSlalom Championship

Presented by Toyo Tires Canada
June 23 – 25, 2017

The ASN Canada FIA Canadian AutoSlalom Championship event, presented by Toyo Tires was held in Pitt Meadows, BC and organized by Vancouver Chinese Motorsport Club (VCMC).

Entries surpassed 100 again this year, with 110 drivers contesting for the National Championship. Four courses were run over two days this year with a record 1,300 runs to determine the Overall and Class Championships.

1^st Overall was Cam Withell from Chestermere Lake, Alberta winning his Second National Championship, this time in an A Street, 2004 Corvette Z06, repeating his 2015 Championship with a Mazda Miata.

2nd Overall went to Dan Bullis from Vancouver, Washington in his B Street, 1999 Corvette.

3rd Overall was Ryan Clark of Calgary, Alberta in a B Street Porsche Cayman.

Organizer Dave Cross (L) with Cam Withell 2017 Champion

Competition was extremely close, as is customary at our National Championship, After four combined timed events, Cam’Withell’s margin of victory, with a time of 175.258 seconds, was only 0.346 seconds over Dan Bullis’s time of 175.604. Ryan Clark was only another 0.409 seconds behind in third at 176.013.

The weather was hot and sunny in Pitt Meadows making the competitors tires sticky and having maximum grip. A Test & Tune event was held on Friday afternoon with competitors swapping between marshalling, and driving the course, to fine tune the pressures in their tires to find the best balance. A Pizza Party was held on Friday night with beer, sponsored by Steam Works Breweries, to quench everyone’s thirst.

Saturday saw a technical morning course followed by a reverse course in the afternoon. After Day One, Cam Withell held a slight lead, but with a lead margin of only a fraction of a second, it was up to how competitors drove the two Sunday courses to decide the National Champion. Sunday’s course was more wide open with longer straights, forcing lower powered cars to alter their corner lines to carry more speed, while challenging the high powered cars to try to minimize the distance travelled in the search for faster times. In the end, there was only 3.1 seconds covering the top ten overall places, but having 6 different vehicle classes represented.

As is customary at the Nationals, a Saturday BBQ was held at the site under a large festival tent. The tent was used more for shade than inclement weather, as the weekend was sunny and hot. As well as the catered dinner, free beer was supplied again by event sponsor Steam Works Brewery. The awards’ ceremony was held next to the tent promptly after the end of competition on Sunday, allowing competitors to hit the road early on Sunday evening.

The largest class was Street Touring S with 11 entries of Honda Civics and Miatas with Shane Jensen’s time of 179.173 taking the class ahead of his co-driver Brent Glad at 182.563.

D Street had eight cars with John Yeung coming out on top in his Scion FR-S with 179.301 over Ben Neale at 180.657, also in a FR-S.

C Street, with 6 entries, was the Mazda Miata class with Murray Peterson at 180.390 in his new 2017 model overcoming William Cruz at 181.323 in his 2016 previous generation car.

H Street had 5 entries with Nicolas Flick in his 2015 Ford Fiesta ST winning with a time of 182.245 over Matthew Lam in his Mazda 3 at 184.973.

Street Touring R had 5 entries of mostly Honda S2000s, with Dean Chen winning at 178.522 over Lawrence Liang at 179.569.

Street Touring X had a mixture of 7 cars with Mark Uhlmann in his 2011 BMW 128i winning with 181.692 over his co-driver Andre Marziali at 182.263.

Street Modified had 5 entries with Tom Kerns in his 2009 Nissan GTR coming in at 177.018 over Greg Petroski in his Subaru Impreza at 192.074.

Street Modified F also had 5 entries with Ryan Prime in His Honda CRX winning at 188.973 over Robert Green in his Mazda 323 at 192.433.

C Street Prepared was another Mazda Miata class with 7 Miatas. Bob Bundy of Anacortes Washington took the closely contested class with a 178.321 over his co-driver Matt Zyskowski only 0.038 seconds behind.

A large contingent of 6 Open Wheel Formula cars contested the C Modified Class, with Phil Leavens in his 1998 Van Diemen at 181.644 winning over John Krotez in his 1984 Swift DB1.

Other Class Winners:

Click here to view the Flickr Photo Page for pictures from the event

Click here for a PDF of 2017 ASN Canada FIA Canadian AutoSlalom Championship Event Report

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