Yahoo Autos Radical Cup Canada West wraps with record grid
A record-setting 23 cars participated in the 2024 Radical Cup Canada West series finale at Area 27 Motorsports Park this weekend, September 20-21. After clinching the outright championship in the penultimate round, Paul Buchmann again displayed his dominance, as did Dan Viskari in the Masters class.
With Buchmann and Chris Beith confirmed as the top two in the overall driver’s championship heading into the weekend, all eyes were on Warren Brown, Andrew Dobbie, Dave Saruk and Danny Chase and their four-way fight for third.
The large grid led to a congested qualifying session, which saw Buchmann (2m00.820s) claim yet another pole, however he was only two tenths clear of Chris Beith (2m01.049s), whose late lap caught out Stephan Rzadzinski (2m01.612s). Fourth quickest, Max Lytvyn (2m01.712s) was another stand out for the session, as was the fastest Masters driver Dan Viskari (2m01.742s). And crucially for Brown (2m02.188s) he’d outqualified his rivals with sixth on the grid.
Saturday’s race saw a champion’s performance from Buchmann, who cruised to his eighth win of the season, while Beith was equally comfortable in solidifying second.
Disaster struck Lytvyn as he approached turn 3 for the first time, finding the marbles, which elevated Rzadzinski to third and Viskari to fourth. That pair then engaged in a battle which Viskari won on lap seven with a lunge into the center hairpin, and once clear Viskari checked out to take third outright and the Masters class win.
Warren fended off Chase to take fifth, gaining the crucial points he needed to secure third in the championship, while Sonny Andrews held off a racy Will Lin to secure seventh, with Andrew Vilcsak in ninth.
Further back Jay Esterer showed a solid defense before a run by Brian Archer into Turn 1 caught Esterer by surprise, and eventually teammate Peter followed suit. Lytvyn’s day went from bad to worse with a spin, while Brian Archer reeled in Saruk and made a last lap pass for tenth.
With the championship wrapped up, Radical Canada West’s John Hughes rewarded Paul Buchmann with a drive in a 430bhp SR10 XXR for the final race of the season, and as a courtesy to his fellow competitors, Buchmann started from pitlane.
This left Chris Beith to lead the field to the green, with a three way fight quickly developing between Beith, Dan Viskari and Danny Chase. Viskari fell victim to Chase, who then closed in on Beith, while a charging Stefan Rzadzinski closed in on the top three. Meanwhile Will Lin engaged Jay Esterer in a strong battle, and Andrew Dobbie commenced his charge forward, passing Sonny Andrews.
The fight behind Beith then changed once again with Danny Chase falling back to fourth, and Viskari looking threatening while Rzadzinski also closed in. But Chase got the better of Rzadzinski, and not even a big lunge through turn 13 was enough for Rzadzinski to claim a top three. Those honors were left to Chase in third and Viskari in second behind an unshakable Chris Beith who, having lead every lap, took his third win of the year in significant style. Behind them, Buchmann had clawed his way up to fifth, showing the might of the SR10.
Jay Esterer initially ran as high has sixth, but that started to unravel when Will Lin made a definitive pass into the turn 12 hairpin, with Sonny Andrews soon attempting his own dive into the highspeed kink of 13 which wasn’t to be. Warren Brown had also been in the mix, and found himself in sixth with two tours remaining before Andrew Dobbie claimed six after relegating Brown to seventh and Will Lin to eighth. Jay Esterer and Sonny Andrews rounded out the top ten.
Viskari’s outright second place finish gave him his ninth Masters win of the season– the perfect end to his title winning campaign. John Hughes was second in the Masters points, with Reinhold Krahn third.
As for the outright class, Warren Brown claimed third place honors, Chris Beith finished runner up, and Paul Buchmann lifted the Radical Area 27 Club Champion’s trophy for the third time in four years.
“The racing in the Radical Cup Canada West was spectacular this weekend,” commented Radical Motorsport’s Tom Drewer who was onsite to witness the action. “The ever-growing field, camaraderie, competition and the clean racing is a testament to the stewardship of Radical Canada West’s John Hughes along with Area 27 President Bill Drossos and Race Director Kees Nierop. We can’t wait for even more record grids in 2025.”
