Bowmanville, Ontario – It’s been two years since Michael Adams was last in a Toyo Tires F1600 Championship car, but today his racing career restarted right where it left off.

The 2012 series champion claimed a dominant victory in today’s Race 1 at Victoria Day SpeedFest at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, which was the first race of the year for both the Toyo Tires F1600 Championship and the F1600 Super Series.

Adams got a great jump on the field at the start in his No. 59 Flagship Racing Services Van Diemen and was already leading by a car length as he entered turn 1 for the first time, extending his lead by up to 2.5 seconds at times before ultimately being first across the line to take the win.

By the time the race was over, Adams was already thinking ahead to repeating his performance in tomorrow’s second outing of the weekend.

“We had a nice, strong start,” Adams said. “I wanted to get out in front and break the draft from everybody else on the back straight. We did that. After that, I just wanted to stay consistent and pull out a good lead and save the tires for tomorrow and save fuel.”

Second-place finisher Reid Arnold conceded that he could have done more to mount a challenge for Adams on the start in his first race in the No. 11 DPGI Print Solutions Piper with championship-winning team Brian Graham Racing.

“I clearly made a mistake,” Arnold said. “I didn’t keep with Michael enough. But mistakes happen. I managed to make a pretty good recovery and made it back to where I started, so all in all it’s a good day. The team did a great job on the car. I’m really happy.”

Joining Adams and Arnold on the podium was Quebec-based racer Michel Bonnet, who joins the Toyo Tires F1600 Championship field this weekend in the No. 22 Vector Team entry to earn points toward the F1600 Super Series jointly contested by the Ontario and Quebec Formula 1600 championships.

Connor Wagland was able to convert his pole to a win in his No. 23 Burloak Cycle/Jones Tool B Class entry over 2nd place finisher Amy Castell and 3rd place finisher Mike Lee.

“I had an awesome start,” Wagland enthused. “I got by a couple of guys at the start of the race and just tried to push as long as I could. I ended up pulling a gap out on Amy (Castell) and tried to maintain it until we unfortunately had a red flag. Hopefully Ben (Hurst) is okay.”

Hurst was uninjured in a dramatic crash that brought out a red flag and cut today’s running short by six laps. He ran wide on the exit of turn 10, ending up on the grass with his No. 3 Brian Graham Racing Piper on its side. He was able to climb out of the car without assistance.

“I missed the shift, and when I went to go through the corner I didn’t have any weight on the back end and couldn’t get it around,” Hurst said of his first crash in formula car racing competition. He and his team expect to be ready to contest tomorrow’s second qualifying session and race of the weekend.

The second round of qualifying for the Toyo Tires F1600 Championship and F1600 Super Series at Victoria Day SpeedFest gets under way tomorrow morning at 9:10 AM with Race 2 going green at 6:05 PM. Follow all of the action live on Twitter at @ToyoTiresF1600.

The Toyo Tires F1600 Championship Series is the premiere open wheel series in Ontario, sanctioned by CASC Ontario Region and proudly supported by Toyo Tires, Honda HPD, Heather’s Heros, Cove Dentistry, Stäubli, Lincoln Electric and MK Technologies. The series is comprised of a six event, double-header format and competes at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, Shannonville Motorsport Park and Calabogie Motorsports Park.

The Formula 1600 Super Series is the combined premiere events of the Toyo Tires F1600 Championship Series from Ontario and the Toyo Tires Formula Tour 1600 Series from Quebec. The series is comprised of a four event, double-header format and competes at CTMP’s Victoria Day SpeedFest, Formula One Grand Prix of Montreal, the Canadian Historic Grand Prix at CTMP (featuring Formula Fords in 2015) and the Grand Prix of Trois Rivières.