April 22, 2025
Around the turn of the millennium, a few Audi owners living north of the 49th Parallel (Nancy Broomfield, Rick Arbour, Peter Draycroft, Brent Hendry, Don Skelton, Dieter Doniet, Alan Bellavance, Richard Marais, David James, Trevor Lewis) got together to discuss their interest in Audis. They later met at Mosport in August 2002 to watch Audi Sport Team Joest dominate at the ALMS event, finishing first and third. That was the start, but it isn't the end of the story.
The next time we met was on the Grand Prix Circuit at Mosport in November 2002. The organizer was one of our members, Richard Marais of The Motoring Foundation. Richard was originally from South Africa and called on a favour from another South African, Desiré Wilson, the first woman to win a Formula One Championship race, to attend. (If Desiré were in your car, she wanted to be behind the wheel.) She had interesting comments as we ran: “head for that hydro pole” and “I went off there once,” pointing at turn two.
Saturday was on the cold side, but acceptable. But Sunday was different; the track was covered in 10 cm of snow. We did avoidance exercises in the paddock area. This is where Desiré learned something new: snow tires do make a difference. She had the chance to drive four different A4s with summer, all-season and snow tires. Before the end of the day, she called her husband in Colorado and told him to get snow tires for her BMW X5. We had a blast driving the Grand Prix Circuit, albeit at winter driving speeds. Doing a four-wheel drift through turn two at 35 kph. It was quite the experience.
One participant at this event was Kirk Kiloh, a board member from ACNA HQ and the founder of the Kansas City Chapter. He flew into Toronto and picked up his rental car, a Buick. The next day, he was on the track with what we called the "sacrificial Buick." He liked what he saw: a group of Audi owners having fun with their Audis.
In early December, we received a letter from Kirk and Karen Chadwick, the ACNA Executive Director, inviting us to join ACNA. In the letter, Kirk said, "The track was incredible, but what left the greatest impression on me was the people I met. I felt completely welcomed by a group of friendly and enthusiastic Audi owners, all with questions and comments about the Audi Club." With that letter of invitation, we became the ACNA Chapter, the most significant chapter (geographically) of ACNA.
Trevor