I packed my family in the Jeep,  making sure they were carrying as little baggage as possible so I could fit my TT stuff J. I still had a borrowed aluminum trailer that had been loaned to me since my event at Calabogie in May, and that was a blessing. Towing the lightweight trailer with a 6-cylinder Jeep made it easy. The trip to Mont Tremblant was pleasant—the kids were great sports in staying cooped up for six and a half hours, and Wendy was great with directions. We dropped the car at the track, got it all prepped for the next day, and headed to check-in and to soak in the pools (about five to choose from, between whirlpools and swimming pools) at the hotel.

Mont Tremblant is one of my favourite tracks, near where I lived for about 18 years (Montreal)—great place, nice people, and majestic race track.

Day 1

I had a student who is accustomed to autocross, so I spent the day “undoing” his autocross habits of turning too early, binding the car, and scrubbing off all kinds of good speed. As for my own sessions, I was simply perfecting some turns, especially Turns 1 and 7. Turn 1 is late-apex and off-camber. It’s also blind, and your reference for making sure that your car will line up for entering Turn 2 is a single birch tree. First, you need to make sure it’s still there. Then, you need to build the courage (I cannot say some other words that come to mind) to go through Turn 1 full-out. I mean, foot on the floor in 5th gear and hold on for the ride, because it’s going to be one! One slight hesitation and you lose time making sure that your car stays on the track. I had no doubt that this turn was going to be the main difference in improving my times, so I needed to perfect it.

Turn 7 was tricky: some cars were braking, and I was not. Again, getting out of that turn was a little hairy because the end came quickly, and you wound up in the curb zone and grass (and guard-rail) quite fast. By the end of the day, I think I got it (I was using my practice Toyo tires).

Day 2

Morning sessions using the Nitto NT-01s proved to be much better, especially in Turns 1 and 7, where I managed to “stick it” better. My times were close to the SSB track record and in some cases better. The records were 2:10.952 for SSB and 2:11 and change for SSC.

At the end of the morning sessions, I noticed that my front left tire was showing signs of being corded. I conferred with another COM colleague, and we both agreed that I should just “go for it”. I did some meditation to block this off in my mind, but three laps should be OK.

At the TT event, I got off the mark flying and already nailed my first lap as if it were the only one (just in case something happened to the tire), and it turned out to be my fastest one. Not only was it the fastest, but it was good enough for the win PLUS a new track record with a time even better than the SSB track record. Wow! Me happy! Vinci per noi! Alfa is now clearly in the lead!

Dedication