Craig Willis of Willis racing was thrilled to be involved in the Toyo Tires F1600 Championship at the Honda Indy Toronto. As was the case with the majority of the series drivers this was a brand new track for us with a huge learning curve and big concrete walls. The threat of making a mistake came at a potentially huge cost hence it was better to air on the side of caution! But that's not what racing is about...it's about going for it!

Championing the Carbonio/Master Mechanic/ PFC Brakes sponsored 1990 Canadian built Aero2 in the A Class series Craig qualified 13th on a very tight grid. Although not the position he was looking for he was within one second of the top five which was impressive. The race would be his battleground. The start of the race was as chaotic as predicted with too many cars vying for the first corner. Craig was in the middle of the mayhem but made it to corner two relatively unscathed. The next few corners would prove equally as challenging with drivers checking up and bumping into each other in front of him.

Although the nose of the car took the brunt of the battle the rest of the car remained intact. The first lap brought out the first full course caution of the race but racing quickly resumed. Craig dazzled fans with his car control as he got wide in turn 7 narrowly missing the wall, picking up lots of rubber and making the two corners equally as spectacular. After getting the car back under control and getting his rhythm back, another yellow came out due to an accident at corner three bunching up the group again. The final restart of the race allowed Craig to gain three positions taking him up to sixth place where he was able to fend off his competition for the remaining two laps to the checkered flag.

Race 2 of the weekend saw Craig starting in 8th place based on his best race time. The Carbonio/Master Mechanic Aero2 Ford power plant would sport a slightly nostalgic pink nose from the Aero2 'Barbie' era of 2002 when it had been qualified on pole by Ashley Taws. After a great start that launched him into 6th place there was an intense battle of the entire group all vying for the 3rd place position. After a caution period for a last corner incident the restart would see the group rearrange positions but Craig managed to hang onto his 8th place without incident.

"It has been an awesome experience driving at the Honda Indy in Toronto. Having all of our drivers at a new venue levels the playing field and it was great to have some new competition from Quebec and the US. Huge thank-you's to Carbonio Advanced Composites and Master Mechanic for their sponsorship for the weekend...you have made some of my dreams come true!"