Review by James Bergeron, photos by James Bergeron and courtesy of Hot Lap Motorsports and RAH Shots

Race car drivers are always in pursuit of the ultimate lap time. It doesn’t matter if that lap time is a track record or just a personal best, but that pursuit is the ultimate adrenaline rush, aside from the pure speed and forces that exhilarate the senses when driving a race car.

It seems that pursuit can be a sickness for some – and I may be one of those afflicted with this passion. At the end of 2013 I traded in my inexpensive sedan race car for a Radical SR3, a car capable of 2.5g of cornering force, 2.0g braking and a 0-100km/h time of 3.1 seconds.

The Radical was reliable over the course of the year, I had a few hiccups with a brake sensor, a short in the electrical system due to a poorly run wire that rubbed on a tire and in the final race I failed to finish as the left rear hub failed coming out of corner 20 and put me out from third place only four laps into the race.

All of these failures were easy to fix, I had started nine races and completed eight of them without mechanical issues and was generally very pleased with both the car and my own performance over the year. I managed to get my lap times down to two minutes and nine seconds around Calabogie Motorsports Park and I was pleased as this seemed to be the average time for Radical SR3s around the track. Some seasoned drivers were two seconds or so faster while others were slower.

After spending the full season racing the Radical in our local race series at Calabogie Motorsports Park and winning the championship in the LIbre 1 category, I had a decision to make – what’s next? I made what some thought to be a rash decision at the end of the season to sell the Radical.

I was asked by a lot of people why I made the decision and for me it was a practical one. If I kept and ran the car longer, its value would be greatly reduced as it currently had only few races on it and proved to be reliable at this point. I could go faster and push myself further but the gains to be had were minimal. Lapping days were not really that appealing anymore as I was the fastest car out there anyways. So the car went up for sale, if I didn’t sell it I would run it, if I sold it for my asking price so be it – life moves on and there is always another car out there. It sold quickly – so now what?

Weekend Racer? Northern Exposure: Bridgestone Racing Academy

Enter the new car, a local deal popped up that I could not pass up. When a car falls into your lap that is capable of setting lap records all around North America on various tracks, including holding the current official track record at Calabogie Motorsports Park, how could one not buy it?

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