Our first trip to Canada to participate in the Canadian Motorsport Expo got off to a rough start. Who knew we were flying into the worst snow storm Toronto has seen in five years? With 12 inches of snow on the ground and no cabs in sight, trying to get to the show from our hotel was a challenge. But after a slipperty shuttle ride, a two block hike in the historic snow storm, and a bus ride later, we finally arrived.
The Canadian Motorsport Expo is really geared more towards race fans and enthusiasts, especially for NASCAR and dirt tracks. In fact Kyle Busch and Michael Waltrip both showed up to screaming fans. But there were a few road racers out there in the crowd. Our main objective was to introduce MotorsportReg.com to Canada and get to know some of our fellow exhibitors. We were successful on both ends. Between Brian’s presentation on “How to Rule the Web” and our prime booth location between the Canadian Automobile Sports Clubs- Ontario Region and the Vintage Automobile Racing Association of Canada, we met some great people and quickly learned that road racing is alive and well in Canada.
We also had the pleasure of meeting one of our Canadian customers face to face. Harald from MBCA- Toronto stopped by to say hi and talk about some exciting events his section is working on for this year. And we were happy to learn that a lot of the racers we met had previously used MSR to register for events just over the border in the US. So we’re very excited to finally bring the full MSR organizer functionalities (including Canadian dollar processing!) to Canada.
A big thanks to all of the great people we met especially Mike from Inside Track, Robert from Targa Newfoundland, Perry, Robert and Scott from CASC-OR, Del and Gord from VARAC, John and Wayne from Canadian Timing Association, and Dominique from Canadian Touring Car Championship.