CAR CLASSES

THE VARAC VINTAGE GRAND PRIX FEATURES PRE-WAR TO 1990S RACERS

By Dave Wood / VARAC

The 2023 VARAC Vintage Grand Prix Presented by eBay Motors is a worldclass celebration of vintage car racing that traces its history to VARAC’s first event, in 1979, at Shannonville Motorsport Park. Forty-four years later, the VARAC Vintage Grand Prix has grown to the largest event of its kind in Canada. With the support of our event partner, Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, VARAC has successfully operated the Vintage Grand Prix on the facility’s historic Mosport Grand Prix Circuit. For Canadian racers ad fans, this is truly hallowed ground. Founded in 1976, VARAC was created to provide a friendly, competitive environment to people who love racing vintage cars. The club currently boasts well over 200 members and is one of the founding clubs of the Vintage Motor Council, a collection of vintage racing organizations from across North America. To present period-correct grids, VARAC’s racing vehicles are divided into the following classes.

PRE-WAR CARS

This class includes classic pre-war, single-seat, sports cars, and post-war T-series MG race cars.

Vintage Production

This is the most popular vintage class and is widely considered the most affordable to get on track. This class consists of cars like the Austin Healey Sprite and 3000, Lotus Seven, Triumph TR3/4, MGA, Porsche 356, and other mass-produced street cars. Cut cut-off date for this car is Dec. 31, 1961.

Historic Production

Later than Vintage Production and featuring Sprite/Midget, MGB, Lotus Elan, Shelby GT350, as well as various sports cars and Trans-Am cars. Mini Cooper S race cars are plentiful and fast in this class. Volvos, Cortinas and Escorts are popular, too. The class cut-off date is December 31, 1972.

CLASSIC & MODERN CLASSIC

The Classic grid, previously known as Group 70+ and Group 90, includes production-based and purpose-built race cars that were designed to race in IMSA, Trans-Am, SCCA and CASC GT. An exciting mix of style and speed, these grids feature Corvettes, Mustangs, Camaros, Ferraris, BMWs, Porsches and similar. Classic vehicles are from the years 1973 through 1997. This grid now includes Modern Classic, an extension of the Classic division for cars from 2000 - nominally 2005.

Formula Classic

Formula Classic is VARAC’s open-wheel or Formula Car grid and can include a wide range and mix of special-built, open-wheel cars, including Formula Juniors, Formula Fords, Formula Vee’s and 1200s, and Indy cars. As well, the class features F5000 cars and other examples of Formula cars from the iconic series’ that ran from the ‘60s through the ‘90s. This grid showcases great examples of the evolution of race car technology over the last 60 years.