Speed Academy Begins Prepping the Targa FR-S for the Ontario-1500

Peter and Dave from Speed Academy are back in action, preparing the Scion FR-S they ran so successfully at Targa Newfoundland last year for a new event this year called the Ontario-1500.

We’re talking seven straight days of Time Attack, Autocross, and Drag racing at seven different tracks across Ontario in what they describe as the Canadian version of One Lap of America.

Rather than punishing themselves by cutting out a roll cage like they started things off with last year, Peter and Dave decided to ease their way into the project this year by installing front and rear Raceseng shock top mounts along with Raceseng’s A/C Delete Kit.

The Raceseng front top mounts were chosen for the extra camber adjustability they’ll allow when setting up the alignment for maximum grip at the race track, and these mounts are also caster adjustable. Plus, as you can see, the quality of the billet aluminum machine work is truly top notch, as is the quality of the bearings and hardware used, so Peter and Dave are confident they’ll stand up well to seven straight days of racing in the Ontario-1500 come mid-September.

The rear top mounts use a clever offset design that allows the rear dampers to have an extra 2-inches of travel compared to the standard mounts. On a lowered car with single adjustable ride height dampers like the KW Clubsports on this FR-S, the extra rear shock travel will really help Peter and Dave put the power down coming out of any bumpy corners.

The Raceseng A/C Delete Kit means the Speed Academy FR-S is now completely free of the factory air conditioning system, allowing them to save 31 lbs on a car that’s already very lightweight. With Ontario-1500 being in mid-September, Peter and Dave are confident they won’t miss the A/C, but they’re going to pack extra deodorant just in case.

And as you’ll see in the first of their video series covering the Ontario-1500 build, we also get a sneak peek at the new wheels and tires the car will be running this year, a stunning set of Racing Titanium Blue finished Advan Racing GT wheels wrapped in super sticky Toyo Proxes R1R tires.

As you can see, Peter’s a bit of a fan of these tires!

Up next the Speed Academy crew has a very special aerodynamic upgrade for the FR-S, but in the meantime be sure to check out Episode 1 in the series.

Lots more videos and blog updates coming at you from Speed Academy over the next few months, so jump on YouTube and subscribe to their channel to keep up-to-date on everything these two go-fast junkies are up to.

Great Scott! Q&A with the man behind PlayOn!

It’s not common to meet someone who turned their favourite childhood activity into a career. Scott Hill is one of those people.

Inspired by his life long love of hockey, Scott’s on a mission to bring back play one rink at a time. We caught up with him between games at Vancouver’s PlayOn! at the Coquitlam Centre to talk about what motivates him and whether the Stanley Cup will ever return to Canada.

So where did you get the idea for PlayOn!?

Well there are two angles to the story. The first story is when I finished my MBA and really wanted to work in professional sports and couldn’t find a job. I was 25 years old, applied to 30 NHL teams and at the time none of them were hiring. I was committed to doing something in the sport of hockey, because it’s always been my passion. The second part is that I’ve always loved playing road hockey. I used to play with my brothers in Kingsville, Ontario – our little hometown of 5000 people. In my university days, I was always known as the hockey guy. I was the president of the hockey club and used to organize ice hockey tournaments.

After I graduated I just saw an opportunity to start a road hockey tournament. I recognized that there are actually more road hockey players than there were ice hockey players in Canada. So I put a business plan together and pitched the NHL on it. It was a bit of a process but eventually I got their support and mobilized this concept for a national grassroots sports festival built on street hockey. It’s been 12 years and every day has been a grind. But long and short, I was just a super passionate hockey guy who wanted to make a difference in the hockey world. I saw an opportunity, was naïve enough to think I could do it, and that’s about it.

The event describes the importance of “taking back the street” – what is it about PlayOn! that keeps the list of participants and number of events growing year over year?

The slogan “taking back the streets” is really a push to encourage people to play again. When we started this in 2002, there was a lot of negative publicity and press, particularly in Toronto, about a bylaw that didn’t let kids play on the streets. The same thing happened in Halifax. So we built off some of that momentum and the slogan became our way to push back on the policy-makers of the nation to say that kids should be allowed to use streets to play their favourite sports, just as they do all over the world. In South America, they’re playing soccer. In the U.S., they’re playing basketball. I lived in Taiwan for a bit and it was baseball there. In Canada, we play hockey. We’re just reminding the kids that it’s okay to play and we’re providing an opportunity to do just that in an organized way.

Why are so many professional players hanging around your events?

Well I think it’s because they just really love to play. For example, last week in Kelowna, we had Curtis Lazar participate. He’s a Memorial Cup Champion, captain of the Memorial Cup winning team, current Ottawa senator, and Captain of Team Canada of the World Junior Champions. He just put together his own team and was super down to earth. We don’t want to aggrandize anyone’s celebrity here; everyone is just a road hockey player. And most NHL players got their start the same way as everyone else – they just started playing on the street.

Tell us about the Redwood Cup. Where did the name come from?

The Redwood Cup was our attempt to create a championship trophy that was really something that any Canadian could win. We designed it so that it would be the same size as the Stanley Cup so when a team wins they can actually physically hold it over their heads with their hands up. It’s named after the street I grew up on – Redwood Road. It’s a tribute to my parents and my brothers and it’s really built a following. People don’t play because they want to win money or prizes, they play because they want to win that cup.

Do you think that PlayOn is inherently Canadian? Any plans for expansion?

I do think there is something unique about road hockey and Canada. While it could work in some US centers, the hockey night in Canada brand is something specific to Canada, so that wouldn’t work. But we don't lack opportunity to expand within the country. We have 18 more cities in Canada that have requested the rights to host this event. I think more so, we’re looking at expanding it to other sports – street soccer, street basketball.

What sort of advice can you give someone looking at starting their own business to fulfilling their dreams?

Well you certainly need some business acumen if you want to try to start a business. You need to understand your market and put a plan together. Once you get passed that, really, it’s all about believing in yourself and never giving up. You hear these clichés all the time, about how many naysayers there’ll be and they really are all over the place. But if you really believe you can achieve something, and are not willing to listen to those who say that you can’t do it, then eventually you’ll succeed. I love being an entrepreneur. But what I love most about PlayOn! is that it matters to so many Canadians on such an intimate level. And that’s worth protecting. Even now in our 12th year, we still face challenges. We have partnerships that come and go, and we have to learn to work through that.

So how do you find the right partner?

Well, a great partnership provides an opportunity for us to use corporate resources to lift the program. When you look at a great product like Scion, it’s a bit of a niche market, caters to a young audience, cars are fun to drive, reasonably affordable, and they’re still building awareness in a lot of the country. So what we deliver to our partners, in addition to a young male demographic that spans all of Canada, is loyalty and love. If Scion can come out, bring a few of their hottest cars and set up next to our feature rink, and provide our demographic an opportunity to test drive them all weekend long? That’s a great fit, it makes the PlayOn! an awesome experience.

I guess it helps that we can fit two large hockey bags in the trunk of a tC! So what does the future look like for PlayOn! and Scott Hill?

Well, that’s a question that I struggle with every day. Once you’ve achieved what you’ve dreamed of achieving. We have to decide how long I want to continue with this. I may exit it at some point, because I feel like I’ve done as much as I could do. But for now, it’s business as usual. This is our final event of the year and the next step is the Redwood Cup in Lethbridge and we’re going to put on a good show. After that, we’ll meet with our partners and start talking about 2016 and beyond.

So, since we’re talking hockey, do you think we’ll ever see a Canadian team win a Stanley Cup again?

Well it may be a while for us Leaf fans to celebrate, but Calgary and Edmonton sure had some good drafts and made some good trades the other day. But the future’s bright, especially in Edmonton with the new arena. So there’s no doubt in my mind that we’re going to win a cup again soon. But I’m speaking about Canadian teams generally. Ha!

Cyrious Report: Return to the Podium

It’s been over 2 years since I've stood on the top of the podium and feels great to be back!

We returned victorious from the first round of Formula Drift Canada at Autodrome St. Eustache, and I'm very proud of our team and my FR-S on a long awaited win.

The two weeks leading up to this event were hectic to say the least. I spent most of the break fixing the car from our crash in Florida. It came down to the wire, with parts showing up only days before the event, and then finding other parts that were damaged the day we were about to leave. Luckily, I was able to get it all sorted out with just enough time to make the six-hour trip to Montreal.

The event was held over the weekend. Saturday was just a practice day, which was great because I figured there would be some bugs to work out of the FR-S. However, everything felt right the moment we got on the track. I was feeling comfortable with the car very quickly and after 10 laps of consistently hitting the same line, we decided to shut it down and save the car/tires for the main event!

Sunday morning we had two-hours of practice before moving straight into qualifying due to the stormy weather approaching. I did about six laps in practice, all relativity the same – very smooth, smoky and consistent. We threw on a fresh set of AD08's and went into qualifying. My first lap out I did the same line I had been doing all weekend, which put us in second place. On my next lap, I pushed a bit harder and got a slightly better score but got edged out by two other drivers so we ended qualifying third.

The battles that followed were pretty tough. The competition pushed the FR-S and I to do some of the best driving we’ve ever done together. We had an edge on everyone! The FR-S just seemed to have more grip than the rest of the field. On all my lead laps I would gap the competition by at least one or two car lengths, and then on my follow laps I was able to stick on everyone. We fought our way through with no "one more time" battles, and the judges’ decisions were all definitive. Nobody was able to touch us that day, from the Top 16 to the win!

We will carry this momentum into Round 2 of Formula Drift Canada in July. I truly love drifting the FR-S. After two years and a lot of hard work, it’s the car that I’ve always dreamed it could be!

I hope you had a chance to check out the live stream on Periscope. You can now watch the team and I get ready on race day by following @ScionCanada on the app. I enjoyed answering your questions and I'm stoked you get to see the action live from the side of the track!

I'm very excited for the rest of the season and looking forward to the next battle. Thanks for the support!

Interview with Ben Woo, Vice-President of Formula D Canada

It’s hard to have a conversation about Canadian car culture without mentioning the name Ben Woo.

His current title – Vice President of Sales and Partnerships of Formula Drift Canada, doesn’t come close to explaining the impact and influence this man has had on the car scene. It would be hard to start; Ben was the man behind one of the biggest car shows in Canada - Sport Compact Performance (SCP), but he is also partly responsible for launching Drift Mania Canadian Championship (DMCC), managing the Performance Zone at the Montreal Auto Show, and then there’s his involvement with the fishing industry but we’ll save that story for another day. We tracked down the perpetually busy Ben to ask a few questions about his passion-filled career and upcoming events with Formula Drift.

Let’s rewind a little, some of us know that you’re no stranger to the car scene. But for those that don’t know, tell us a little bit about your background?

I started a show called Sport Compact Performance in 1999, which would become one of Canada’s most anticipated car shows. After years of staying at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, we set out on a cross-country tour with SCP Nights from Halifax to Vancouver. After producing over 150 custom car shows, I helped launch DMCC – the original Canadian drifting series with Alex Crepault. Building on my passion for motorsports, I moved on to the Grand Prix as the director of sponsorships. Eventually, I branched out on my own and started an agency – called WooDoo Events and consulted on programs for major automotive manufacturers. I am also still in charge of the Performance Zone at the Montreal Auto show which I have been managing since the days of SCP.

How did you get involved with Formula D and the world of drifting?

My protégé during SCP, David Da Soma was heavily involved in the grassroots drift scene of Montreal. He saw an opportunity to elevate its presence in Canada. So we held an event called SLIDE in 2012 to gauge the level of interest of drift fans locally and quickly learned that our fans were not only wanting more, they deserved something special. The only thing we needed was to find the right partner. FD was the natural choice; it's a brand that was not only thriving in the U.S. but also expanding rapidly around the world. We approached them, put together a great team to make it happen and we couldn’t be more excited.

So what can we expect for Round 1 of FD Canada?

Well we’ve committed to a competition that’s really big. It’s a full series that leads up to a grand finale in September. We have launched a 3-round qualifier series to find Canada’s top 16 drivers. Round One will be in Montreal, Round Two is going to be in Montmagny and Round 3 is in Trois Rivieres. Different from last year’s competition where we only had a few top drivers, this year’s event will be critical for the global series of FD. Canadian drivers will have the opportunity to go head to head with some of the world’s best drivers as they battle for a coveted spot in the inaugural World Championship in China.

We really didn't realize how popular this would be. We were expecting about 30 teams to register this year, but we’ve got 41 teams enrolled from 3 provinces. I guess they heard we’ve got 4 Pro-2 licenses up for grabs so they can compete in the US series.

We’ve also launched a new online ticketing system where you can purchase tickets with reserved seating with the option of an ultimate fan package with exclusive features like line bypass and early access. Early ticket sales are going well and the event looks promising.

Will you be judging the competition? What do judges look for? Any advice for competitors?

Unfortunately I will not be a judge. In order to standardize the competition, we will be using official FD judges. Our three judges are Haig Kanadjian, Kevin Grenier and Brian Eggert.

The judges base their scores on very simple criteria – they’re looking for: driving line – how close can the car stick to the driving line – the fastest way between two corners? Next is angle – how much angle can they generate while traversing the course and always staying sideways? Then there’s speed – how fast are they drifting? When we first started cars barely made 200 hp, nowadays we have people driving cars with over 800 hp! Finally, judges look at style – we call it the x factor. It’s the flair, the driver’s ability to evoke a response from the crowd, how wide you are when you lead, how close you stay to your completion?

My advice for competitors is to remember that this is FD – you can’t hold anything back. There are a lot of new challengers this year and you will be up against powerful cars with drivers who are not scared of giving everything they’ve got. So come prepared.

We’ll let Pat know! So tell us, will we ever see an FD Canada event in other cities outside Quebec?

You bet your bottom dollar! We wouldn’t call it FD Canada if we only wanted to stay here. Our main focus this year will be expanding to Ontario in 2016. We’ll continue making our way across the country so know that we are definitely heading your way.

Great news! So what’s the best part about being in motorsports?

The best part is the smell of high-octane race fuel and burnt rubber in the morning but what I love most is the look on my kids’ faces when they try to figure out what I do for a living.

Just wait until they turn 16! What’s next for Ben Woo?

SCP. That’s what’s next. After a long hiatus, I’ve decided to bring back SCP for 2016. I'm so excited and the feedback that we’ve been getting is tremendous. We’re planning to feature different genres of automotive culture, but expect the best of the best. Friends and fellow car enthusiasts from back in the day have been reaching out since we announced our return and while many of us have grown up, our shared passion still remains. I’m even planning to have a daycare on the premises. Ha!

Well we can’t wait to hear more. Thanks so much for your time Ben, is there anything else you’d like to add?

Thanks to Scion for the support and stay tuned for news about SCP and our national domination of drifting. We want to bring it everywhere and we hope to see you at one of our events this summer!

Check out the first episode of FD Canada's Inside Angle featuring Scion Racing Driver Pat Cyr and former Tuner Challenge contestant Dany "Babu" Bernier.

Cyrious Report: Recovery

Last month was round 1 of FormulaD Pro 2 in Orlando. While things did not go quite as we expected, our trip provided us with an experience that we can definitely learn from.

The team and I made the 20-hour trip down to Florida and got in on Tuesday night. We were at the track first thing Wednesday morning for tech inspection and the FR-S passed with flying colours, so we were good to race!

Our practice and qualifying was all on the Thursday. We had one 2.5-hour practice session in the morning, another 1-hour practice later in the afternoon then it was straight into qualifying. With so little time to practice, and about 35 drivers competing, I knew we were not going to get very many practice laps in so every lap needed to count. The course was very short, it was a stock car style oval: one large bank, a transition on the infield, and then an inner bank to shut down. With such short courses you have to make a big impact right from the start and be on line everywhere, as errors would be easy to spot.

My first lap out? Nailed it. I've always enjoyed running banked tracks and have always done very well at them. This track was no different, and we were looking great! The next 2 laps out were the same. I was running high on the back, placing the car in all the right spots and making tons of smoke with the Yokohama tires. I was feeling great and we were easily looking like one of the top 3 drivers out there!

However, just before my fourth lap I was waiting in line on the grid, and one of the FD staff noticed I wasn't wearing my HANS device, and informed me that I had to put it on. The HANS (head and neck support) device is a piece of safety equipment that reduces the likelihood of head injuries in the event of a hard front-end crash. Formula D is the only drifting series I compete in that makes it mandatory to wear one. With the HANS device on, I approached the start line, launched and initiated into the bank. Mid to three-quarters of the way through the bank I lightly tapped the wall with the rear of the car and kept drifting. At the time I didn't think much of it but it was kind of a weird spot in the bank to wall tap as in that section you are slowing down and increasing steering angle to zone in on the first inner clipping point. Either way, we were feeling good about our performance in the first practice session and looked forward to the next one in a few hours!

Practice session 2. I strapped into the FR-S and lined up for my lap. I launched down the straight, initiated drift, running a nice high line but clipped the wall again with the rear of the car in the same spot on the bank! This time it was a little bit harder though, and it pulled the front end of the car into the wall. The car came to a halt and I knew the damage was going to be pretty bad. We unfortunately had no spare suspension parts with us so that meant our weekend was done.

I’ve spent the last couple of days sitting in my truck driving home replaying the crash in my mind, and there was one odd thing I kept thinking about. Both times I tapped the wall I didn't see it coming and didn't expect it to happen. I've been drifting for 10 years now and anytime I make a mistake or I'm going to go off track or go too deep into a corner, I know it’s going to happen. I can feel it. This time I didn't feel it. I couldn't figure out why it happened but realized that the only difference was not being used to wearing the HANS device.

Going forward, I will be looking into different versions of the HANS device to find one that is more suited for my driving style. When you’re drifting 8-inches off the wall at 60-70mph, there really is no room for error and corrections need to be made quickly. We will also be getting more spare parts for the car so that if a crash like this ever happens again, we have the parts to fix it to stay in the game!

Our next race will be the first round of FD Canada in Montreal and I'm really looking forward to getting back behind the wheel of my FR-S again and seeing you in the stands.

Thanks so much for all the support!

Photography: OMGDrift.com

Cyrious Report: Strong Start to the Season.

Hi everyone! Round one of DMCC has just passed and I'm very happy to say we finished in 3rd place!

This was our first official competition in our freshly built Scion FR-S, and the car proved to be very competitive! All those long hours in the shop and improvements we made on the new car over the off-season were well worth the effort!

The event took place at Sanair raceway. It’s a track that I have had some rough times at so I was hoping to redeem myself with a strong finish. We went into this round with 2 test days under our belt and I was feeling very comfortable and confident with the car. The power of the 2JZ engine was like nothing I had ever felt in a drift car and our steering/suspension setup was better than any car I had ever drifted.

In our first lap out in practice, the FR-S developed a weird noise coming from the back end of the car. We tracked it down to the differential, so my crew replaced it with the spare diff that we brought, but by the time we were done that, the first practice session was over. Going into practice session 2 we knew there wasn't much time to mess about, so we settled on a setup I liked and focused on nailing down the line.

Qualifying time. I went into my first lap of qualifying with the mindset that I would take a safe run and go really hard on the second lap. So I did my run, hit all the clips and overall pulled out a really good lap! I knew my next lap out I could get a little better, but my spotter informed me that DMCC locks in the top 8, and that we had qualified 3rd! So there was no need to do a second lap.

For my first battle of the top 16 I was to go against newcomer to DMCC, Bass Gauthier. I was to lead first, laid down a good lap placing the car in all the right spots with lots of speed, angle and smoke. Gauthier ran a shallow line and was straight a few times so we had the advantage. During my follow lap Gauthier caught me a little off guard. We entered the first corner and Gauthier basically avoided all of the outer zones and picked the fastest way through the track. By the end he had gaped me by about 5 car lengths. The judges saw all of that and awarded me the win!

In the top 8 we were to go against Jonathan Guitard. He has a powerful car and is a decent driver so we knew it was going to be a fight. I led first and laid down a good lap placing the car just where it needed to be. Guitard stuck with me for most of the run, so I knew I was going to have to push on my follow lap to get the win, and push I did! I stuck with Guitard all the way around the course and was awarded the win.

In the Top 8 we matched up against Jeff Laflamme. Jeff and I have had some strong, tough battles over the years and this one was going to be no different. Jeff led first, I made a small mistake on entry behind him but otherwise stuck with him all the way around the track. On my lead, Jeff stuck close with me, and the judges couldn't decide a winner so they called a "One More Time". We went at it again and pretty much ran the same 2 laps as before. So again the judges called for a "One More Time". This was the final time we would go and the judges would have to decide a winner. I ran two very clean laps pushing the FR-S as hard as I could, but in the end, the Judges awarded Jeff the win. After the event I spoke with the judges, they had said the battles were very close, and that it came down to some very small factors to give Jeff the win. On a positive note though it was a very good stress test on the FR-S to do 6 laps like that, we had no overheating issues and the car pulled through just fine! All of the fans there said that our runs were the best battles of the day!

After all that we still had to battle for a podium position against Francis Tassé. I was to lead first, I ran a great lap and Tassé was nowhere to be seen. Turns out his car broke and he had to forfeit his second run, so we were given the win and awarded with 3rd place!

Overall it was a great event! We still have some fine-tuning of the suspension to do, and I'm still learning what the car is fully capable off, but overall it was a great start to the season! I'm really feeling at one with this new car and am looking forward to the rest of the season! The fans also seemed to really like the new car too! If you search #DMCC in Instagram, about half the post on there from fans involve my Scion FR-S!

Up next for us is Formula Drift Pro2 in Florida. Really looking forward to seeing how we stack up again some of the best in the world!

Thanks so much for the support!

Cyrious Report: Eat, Sleep, Test, Repeat.

Hey it’s Pat Cyr here, just giving you a little update before the drifting season begins!

This off-season has been the busiest one we’ve had to date! At the end of last season, we realized some major changes were needed if we wanted to keep up with the way drifting is going worldwide! So we decided it would be best to start from scratch. A fresh FR-S chassis was taken down to bare metal and built from the ground up at my shop, Cyrious Garageworks!

The two most significant changes to this car was a completely new steering/suspension setup from Wisefab and a swap to the all mighty 2JZ engine! With those major parts in place, we focused on making the chassis as light as possible, and moved some weight around by installing a Mishimoto radiator in the trunk.

Many hours of hard work and planning came together a few weeks ago with the help of Sasha from OnPoint Dyno, where he tuned the Motec M150 ECU controlling our 2JZ to make 630whp! This is by far the most powerful drift car I have ever had! Once that was done, we finished off a few loose ends to get the car ready for testing!

In the past few seasons, our off-season build would leave us with little time to test. However, this year we made sure to put in some crazy hours at the shop to ensure that the car would be done as early as possible. So we were able to test it at the track and make any changes necessary before the season starts. I’m hoping to get in as much seat time as possible in the new car, so you can bet that we’ll be coming out of the gate swinging!

Our first test session was nothing short of amazing. The new car is an absolute monster! The 2JZ engine has a very wide powerband, is very controllable, and even has power to spare! Along with the steering set up from Wisefab, the steering angle and return feel has never felt better.

Overall I'm extremely excited for the 2015 season to begin and I have a feeling this is going to be our best season ever! Be sure to follow our journey this summer and I look forward to meeting you at the tracks!