We have a number of high speed Bucket List tracks within a day’s drive of the Toronto area, but you really do have to drive many hours to find one with decent runoffs that “might” be forgiving enough to survive cautiously playing at the lofty limits of something like a Viper for anyone not named Chris Harris.

There was a time when I didn’t even know anyone who hadn’t hit the wall at my home track, the infamous Mosport (now called Canadian Tire Motorsport Park-CTMP), but there’s a second smaller track there called the Driver Development Track (DDT) that was designed for more safely developing some car control and track skills. Safety is sort of a relative term though, with a student spinning a Viper at low speed in the dry perhaps maybe only going 2 wheels onto the grass runoffs, and an advanced driver going off big and taking the full agricultural tour. Now all that nice grass tends to take on the traction properties of ice when wet, and going off big could mean hitting one of the few solid walls, or a grid search of the surrounding woods to find where the car finally came to a halt had it not been for the continuous perimeter tire wall they installed.

The Ontario VOA club planned a fun day for members, joining a DriveTeq track school there on June 5th. Unfortunately it rained on and off all day. I looked at it as an opportunity to probe the car’s handling at, and beyond, the limits of grip at much lower speeds, and in a much safer way than is possible on the high speed tracks I tend to drive.

The in-car video shows a couple of laps from three sessions. It starts with the first morning session after a heavy downpour with standing water in many areas, and me aggressively probing grip and handling at the limit. Jay (JTNT) is riding along, perhaps thinking this could be it, and whether his will is up-to-date. The Corsa tires would lose grip very easily and frequently when purposely pushed, ABS kicked in noticeably, and stability control perhaps as well although I couldn`t feel any intervention if it did. The test was to see if I could maintain control at the limit when driving aggressively in the wet, and it actually felt very controllable there…good job SRT!

The second part of the video is from a session with very wet conditions but no standing water, and light drizzle. A surprising amount of grip is building and I`m focused on putting together smooth laps that don`t invoke ABS or much steering correction by monitoring tire feedback through the steering wheel and ears. Our club president, John, is riding along. We`re following a buddy of mine with his Civic Si. The FWD car was really quick in the rain on its soft stock suspension and excellent Continent Extreme street tires.

The last part of the video is from a later session with drying track as I start to turn up the wick. John`s son, Jonathan, is riding along. Tire temps and grip were rising, the satisfying soundtrack of softly squealing Corsa`s had just begun, and then it started raining again! This would be the final opportunity to put together a quicker lap.



I`m not sure that this experience will help shave dry lap times on the big track at Mosport or anywhere else, but it was very instructive about the car`s handling in wet conditions, and the ability of a focused driver to be able to control the car in low grip situations that I experience frequently when driving on public roads. There`s just no substitute for seat time driving on the limits of grip in a controlled setting. It just makes you a better prepared driver.

I tried this track two years, 18000 miles and a few sets of front tires ago, and shortly after buying the Viper. It was a beautiful dry day, and here`s a video showing how entertaining it can be with some decent dry grip….



I tend to forget how much fun some of the smaller, lower horsepower, and driver development type tracks can be. The latter let you play on the limits more which is always fun. NOLA was also a lot like that at NVE2. Other than that it's mostly high speed tracks I know, and Virginia International Raceway stands out as being a little safer than most.

What are some other tracks that offer safe run-offs that you guys have found fun to track?

Bruce