Article and photos by WES KIBBLE
More pictures at My Webshots page.

The first race of the season is always an interesting one. Will everyone have their racecars back together after the long winter break? What new cars will show up? Who changed what? On June 1st and 2nd, the Ontario Off Road Racing Association race at North Agusta Motorsports Park answered some of those questions. While the car count was not as good as the 2001 season finale at the same track, the car and driver quality was definitely as good, if not better.



There was a strong contingent of veteran drivers, such as Bob Joseph and Ray Jennings in their Class 1600 buggies while John McCrossan and brothers Neil and Steve Martel brought out their hi tech Fords to do battle in the Heavy Metal Class. There was also some rookies out this year, such as the 2001 Rookie of the Year Jeff Zoskey in his beautiful single seat buggy, first time racer Randy Guenther in his bright yellow two seat buggy, and Ed "Pacman" Sanderson, who bumped up from tough truck racing to Class 4 with a recently purchased bright yellow Hummer looking vehicle. Why is it that both fresh rookies painted their vehicles yellow? It is so that the veteran drivers would be able to see them throughout the race? Perhaps this is an OORA thing. Ed quickly became the crowd favourite as his bright yellow, smiley face deckled truck was dubbed the "Pacman Mobile" by announcer Mark. Upon hearing this, his brother put a Pacman logo made from black electrical tape on his roof during intermission. While Ed was not around of course! Poor Ed could not figure out why the kids were coming up and calling him "the driver of the Pacman Mobile".



The buggies had a good show with 7 buggies running some great races. I do not have who finished where in what heat, but I do have the final results. The only Class 1 Buggy was #965, driven by Paul Robertson. While he was extremely fast on Saturday, he did not race on Sunday because of transmission problems. There were two major battles in the buggy class all weekend long. Veteran buggy racers Bob Joseph (#33 White with neon green frame), Ray Jennings (#66 White Team Air) and last years rookie of the year Jeff Zoskey (#60 white with red) fought tooth and nail from the green to the checkered. It was a great display of driver skills with awesome passes throughout the weekend. The second battle was between Ross Mcmaster (#88 white), Jp Atkinson (silver) and first time driver Randy Guenther (612 yellow). Randy held his own, but his engine started blowing blue on Saturday and continued Sunday with more and more power loss. JP also had troubles all weekend long, starting with a broken CV on Saturday and it just continued from there. These three vehicles are very comparable in size, power and suspension and put on a great show. In the end, it was Bob Joseph that came out on the top with 77 points, Ray Jennings second with 66 points (coincidence that the number on the side of his buggy is 66?), Jeff Zoskey third with 61 points, followed by Ross Mcmaster (58 points), JP Atkinson (41) and Randy Guenther (40 points).



The Heavy Metal trucks definitely put on a good show. On Saturday, Jason Mackenzie in his wildly painted #488 Chev stole the show. He started back in the pack but worked his way to the front with some great driving. He went high, he went low, and he did whatever it took to get the lead! He won the heat race as well as the feature with some very aggressive driving. On Sunday, the truck died in the heat race due to an alternator-wiring problem. He came back to win the feature race. Not to be outdone, brothers Neil and Steve Martel in their #483 white F-150 and #747 black Ranger also showed great skills as their very high tech trucks traded paint all weekend long. Rookie Ed Sanderson had some new car blues on Saturday in his bright yellow truck. The truck was running rough right off the trailer. After changing plug wires, cap, rotor and plugs, it was running better but not perfect. You could definitely notice the loss of power for Saturday's races. After some carb adjustments on Sunday morning, he came out swinging. He was running with the front runners on Sunday, but overheating woes slowly moved him back. He definitely showed the veterans that "Pacman" was out to gobble them up! Veteran John McCrossan in his pro calibre #333 red and white F150 had some bad luck. In the Saturday heat race, he went a little high on corner 1-2 and ended up teetering on the top edge of the berm for the remainder of the race. During the feature, he broke the right outer tie rod end and was stuck sideways in the same corner! He came back and placed well on Sunday, but it was not enough to put him in the top standings for the weekend. Kevin Kern brought out his beautiful #403 Chevy, complete with a fresh paint job! Kevin ran competivlely, but did have some rear end and belt problems in addition to rolling over the berm on corner number 4! Luckily, that was the only rollover of the weekend. Dave Guidnard ran hard in his "Anger Management" #800 black Chevy all weekend long. The hi tech truck had a few problems though, such as a broken steering knuckle on Saturday. Rob Purcell missed the Saturday race, but showed up Sunday in his recently purchased light blue Chevy and put on a good show. Overall for the weekend, Jason Mckenzie placed first with 73 points, Neil Martel second with 69, Steve Martel third with 60, Ed Sanderson fourth with 57, John McCrasson was fifth, Kevin Kern was sixth with 40, Dave Guidnard was seventh with 39 and Rob Purcell finished eighth with 25 points.



All in all, it was a good weekend. The weather was incredible. The announcer, Mark Chartrand, did an awesome job keeping the spectators entertained during the breaks. The OORA members put on a great show. We are definitely looking forward to the upcoming race June 15-16 in Havlock. For more information on the Ontario Off Road Racing Association, check out Sanderson Off Road Racing .