Eurotrash Motorsports

After taking the Open Road Motorsports Targa School, I have been itching to do a rally to test what I had learned.  As peformance rallies are out of the question for now, on-road navigational rallies are the next best (and affordable) option.  These rallies are also referred to as Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) rallies. 

These events are held on public roads, and speed limits must be obeyed.  The challenge is to ensure proper communication between the driver and navigator, and to decifer the sometimes complicated instructions.  This particular event was held on August 18th with the start and finish at the Cheshire Cat Pub in Carp.  The directions took us through many country and gravel roads (don’t bother asking me where we went… I was just following where my navigator was telling me to go), and our total driving time was about 2 hours and 15 minutes.  As we were on public roads, only street-legal cars were permitted so i used my 2007 Subaru Impreza 2.5i daily driver.

Basically, after being given a set of directions only moments before we were to set out, we had to follow them through five sections.  Hidden in each section are checkpoints, where you are to arrive on time.  At these points, your penalties are reset.  This ensures control of the rally and makes sure no one is speeding.  In the directions for some sections, we were given distances and street names to follow, in others simply “tulip diagrams” which indicated changes of direction with distances, in others, we were told to go certain speeds during certan sections.  To make it more challenging, sometimes the distances were cummulative, and other times the distances were given between points only, so the navigator had to add them up ahead of time.

As my brother didn’t work out so well last time, I enlisted the services of one of my long-term friends, Sean.  He’s always been great at math and great at directions, and since we get along well, I figured he would be a good bet.  Turns out I was right!  We had a ton of fun, and only missed two turns (but we realized it right away so we didn’t lose too much time).  Out of the 18 teams, we finished 9th overall, and 6th out of the 14 novice teams registered.  It was an awesome experience, and one that we will repeat for sure.  The next event is on November 6th out of Perth and is a 4-hour event.  We definitely won’t miss that one!

Now if only we can come up with a TON of money to do Targa… any sponsors out there want to help?!?

Check out http://www.openroadmotorsports.com/W10ORRS.html for the series details.

Shawn

A few weeks ago at the Calabogie evening event, my hydraulic belt tensioner pulley bearing seized and blew up, almost leaving me stranded on the track.  I lost my alternator, power steering, and water pump.  Fortunately, I was able to get off the track before the car overheated too badly.  After a bit of shopping, I ordered two new idler pulleys, a new hydraulic tensioner, and a new belt to get ready for this [last] weekend’s Solo II race.

Taking the pulleys off would have been easy however my electric fan that was bolted to the radiator prevented the long bolt from coming out.  But after removing the rad, the rest was a piece of cake.  I had ordered new bolts and caps as well so all was fresh and ready to reinstall.  Nothing was seized, and I didn’t strip any bolts.  Because the tensioner is hydraulic, I don’t need to set the tension in the belt (it’s auto-adjustable)

A few hours later, all was back together and the car was running!  I was a bit worried about a blown head gasket or valve, but the engine sounded strong, and there were no issues.

I was ready to race!  Well, almost – I just had to wait for the scars from my appendectomy to finish healing…

Check out the gallery for more pics!

Shawn

UUC Motorwerks is a company that specializes in aftermarket BMW products.  As some of you may know, I purchased several products from UUC in the last while (shortshifter, engine & transmission bushings, clutch, flywheel).  I really appreciated the quality of workmanship of their parts and the customer service I received from them.  As it’s winter, I haven’t had the opportunity to really test them out, but I’ve only heard good things about their durability and performance.  Since there were several other products that interest me on their website, I decided to approach them regarding a potential sponsorship.  I’m pleased to annouce that they accepted my proposal and I’m now officially sponsored by UUC Motorwerks!  I’m extremely excited about the opportunity, and  I look forward to representing them!

Feel free to take a look at their website for more info: http://www.uucmotorwerks.com

Thanks to the team at UUC!

Shawn

Hey guys,

My name is Shawn Bernier, and I’ve been into motorsports my whole life.  I’m the only valley native on the team, but all of my extended family is in the eastern townships of Quebec, so my best memories are from the cottage life out there.  I started riding quads at 6, and got my first dirtbike at 10, and my second at 12.  As my uncle’s family business was a motorcycle store, I was very fortunate, and it’s been in our family’s blood for decades.

I’ve always been big into bikes and cars, and I’ve worked hard all my life to make sure I could afford nice ones.  At 16 I bought my first streetbike - a 1995 Honda CBR600F3.  It came with an aftermarket Vance & Hines exhaust, and just to make sure that it was ricey enough, I added a green underglow kit ;).

When I was searching for my first car, I was looking for something sleek, something fairly fast, and something that had that wow factor.  I knew that I did not want a front wheel drive, and that limited my options significantly. So, at 18 I found my first car  – a 1992 BMW 325i.  It was a green 4-door sedan, and looked amazing.

Two years later, at 20, I decided it was time to change my bike.  I came across with the help of my uncle’s shop, a 2003 Honda CBR600RR – my dream bike!
After 1 year of enjoying it stock, I started upgrading it:
-Competition Werkes fender eliminator kit
-Hotbodies LED front turn signals
-Sportech carbon fibre windscreen
-Yoshimura RS-5 carbon fibre undertail slip-on exhaust with midpipe

A year later, I was getting tired of dumping money into the old bimmer, and I wanted to get something newer.  I opted for a 2007 Subaru Impreza 2.5i SE sedan.  It came with a Subaru Performance Tuning Cat-back WRX exhaust system custom installed on the car :).  After some bodywork and paint, I sadly put the 325i up for sale.  After 9 months of trying to sell the bimmer with no luck, Jeff and I got together and the seeds of Eurotrash Motorsports were planted – screw selling it! Let’s track it!  Knowing Emil through school, and his extensive car experience, it wasn’t hard to convince him to help us out, especially since he had the same idea for his Jetta(edit: that didn’t work out, but now he’s got an Audi)!

Professional:

I graduated from Carleton University in June 2009 with a Bachelor of Engineering, Mechanical with High Distinction.  During my studies, I enrolled in the Co-operative education program.  Through my terms with with Environment Canada, I was bridged into a permanement position in the Transportation Division working with the Testing, Fleet Management, and Emissions Verification group.

Racing:

For the past 5 years, I’ve been racing Endurocross (a mix of tight, technical woods, open field, and motocross in a 90 minute endurance race) on my 2003 Yamaha YZ250F.  In the Amateur Open class that I am in, I finished 5th overall in the 2008 season, out of over 40 racers.  The 8 – 12 km tracks usually have around 150 bikes on it at once, with 8 start lines.  We see mud, dirt, sand, rocks, ruts, roots, rain, dust, and anything else you can think of.  In terms of cars, in my last year of university I joined the Formula SAE project where I was one of the members of the engine team with Emil.  The goal of the project is to built a lightweight open-wheel formula style race car and to compete against 120 other universities from all over the world at a competition in Michigan.  During this project, we were given several sessions of theoretical driver training as well as instruction from professional drivers at a winter performance control school.  Before this, I had no car racing experience whatsoever, but this project really opened my eyed to what I was missing!

In 2009, I participated in only 2 endurocross races as I was busy on the car scene.  My summer started with the MCO’s Performance Control school where we learned the limits of our cars on asphalt.  Following this was a season of autocross races, where I placed 7/20 in my class, and 6/20 in the rookie championship.  I also participated in three lapping events at Calabogie Motorsports Park, and a morning at Shannonville Motorsports Park.

So that’s me.  I’ve always wanted to get into car racing, and there’s nothing like a backyard budget solo II project to get started!

See you at the track!
Shawn