Vintage on the Prairies attracts classic race cars to the Rocky Mountain Motorsports Race Circuit July 13-14
“I find racing cars intoxicating, and I know exactly when that happened for me,” Barnes explains. “I was 14 in 1976, and I was watching Wide World of Sports. They were showing the Italian Formula Grand Prix, and Niki Lauda was there just six weeks after crashing and burning (his Ferrari) at the Nurburgring. There he was all bandaged up and getting back in his car. I wanted to understand the kind of passion that drives a person that hard.”
From that moment forward, Barnes wanted to race, but says for many years she lacked the means and the mechanical skills to make it happen. It wasn’t until 1995 when she met Regis Sylvestre that the wheels began to turn for Barnes and her enthusiasm for racing. “At one point, I’d said to my hubby Regis I’d like to race,” she says. “And that’s when we found the 1974 Triumph TR6.”
Sylvestre was a journeyman mechanic. He’d worked in the auto service industry for a decade before returning to school to become a geologist. He was, Barnes explains, “Fully capable of building a race car.” With the road-legal but race-prepped TR6, Barnes began attending autocross and gymkhana events. While thrilled to be behind the wheel and competing, she says it wasn’t enough.
“I got my FIA racing licence close to 20 years ago and began racing Sparky (the TR6) on road courses,” Barnes says. Since then, Barnes has raced on tracks across Canada and in the U.S.
While the TR6 was quick on the straights, the car wouldn’t turn, and wouldn’t brake. Both are rather critical. After a couple of harrowing events, Sylvestre told Barnes he was going to find her a safer car to race. He turned up the ’72 Volvo 142E, a factory-built race car that’s never been titled or driven on public roads. After speaking with then-owner Paul Curran, Sylvestre and Barnes chose to acquire the Volvo. It came out of Massachusetts, and Barnes drove to Shelby, Montana to bring the car across the border. Exporting the Volvo without a title was an adventure at U.S. Customs, but perseverance paid dividends and Barnes was finally allowed to cross.
Barnes is the third owner of the car. Her first race in the Volvo she eventually dubbed Scrappy, was at Portland International Raceway. “The engine smoked badly, basically because it was tired,” she says. After the 2.0-litre 4-cylinder Volvo engine was sent to Bel Engine Service in Edmonton for a rebuild and reinstalled, the car started to become competitive. It’s not the fastest on the track, but Barnes says, “It corners like it’s on rails, and brakes like you’ve thrown a ship’s anchor out the back.”
Barnes has not yet raced at Rocky Mountain Motorsport. The facility opened in 2022, and although she did briefly have the Volvo on the track, it blew a head gasket and prevented her from doing any hot lapping.
Greg Williams is a member of the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC). Have a column tip? Contact him at 403-287-1067 or [email protected]
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