Gran Turismo, the movie, depicts the real life story of racing car driver Jann Mardenborough, a now 32 year-old British native whose entry to the world of motorsports was predicated on his passion and skills with the racing simulator, Gran Turismo.
In sharp contrast, 2023 GT3 Cup Pro-Am champion Zach Vanier enjoyed his indoctrination into the world of racing via the snowcross circuit.
Given that the 21 year-old graduate of Lasalle Secondary School hails from Sudbury, this seems all too appropriate.
In complete fairness, it’s not like there is a deeply engrained history of motorsports excellence in these parts. And to some extent, Vanier was destined to follow this pathway, his father (Greg) being a huge fan of Indy Car racing, NASCAR, Formula 1 and the like – with the added bonus that he actually had experience racing on the snowcross circuits in Ontario.
“He kind of passed the torch on to me,” said Vanier recently, back in Sudbury after wrapping up his latest title at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Enjoying a season of sheer dominance, the highly introspective young man would capture 12 of the 14 races contested while at the wheel of the No. 206 MDK Motorsports Porsche.
That’s a long way from his first race in snowcross as a three and a half year old in late winter of 2006. “I was by far the smallest kid,” Vanier laughed. “It’s a smaller sled with restrictors on them. They are relatively slow, like 12 KMH or so. You weren’t getting any air on the jumps; we were just kind of rolling over them.”
“It was really about just building up that desire to race.”
And that it did, to perfection.
By the time he was nine, having recorded a great deal of success and working his way quickly up the ranks, Vanier decided it was time for a change. “What led to a switch was the opportunity for a career,” he said – in as much as a pre-teen can garner a very clear vision of what he/she would like to do for the rest of their working lives.
“There’s just not as much sustainable income (in snowcross) as there is in motorsports.”
That said, there was little in the way of a linear progression that could be guaranteed as the youngster made his way to the go-kart circuit, welcomed over by friend and fellow racer Braxton Terry and his family, as well as Phil Taus and the folks at Sudbury Kartways.
“That was something that we considered when I made the jump that this might not go according to plan” said Vanier. “Fortunately, it has – but we went in with no expectations.”
Truth be told, for as much as there are foundational racing pieces that Vanier could draw from six years on the snowcross circuit, there are also habits to be broken. “Right off the bat, I carried over a lot of the characteristics of a snowmobile rider – and that can be good and bad,” he stated.
“In a go-kart, when you’re turning left, you want to lean your body over to the right. You want to lean out over the outside tire to maximize the grip. On a snowmobile, you lean into the corner, like with a motorcycle. It took me a little while to overcome that.”
But perhaps far beyond all that he learned as a driver, the biggest takeaway from the kart racing that would run though until age 15 for Vanier was meeting and befriending the Grossi family.
Home to an avid collection of racing aficionados – with Mario truthfully at the helm – these fellow racers would help provide the much-needed financial support through Anmar Mechanical and Technica Mining.
Such was the scope of their involvement that team Technica Racing took root, an undertaking that would eventually lead to Vanier capturing the Canadian National Karting Championship in 2016. The combination of that kind of success along with the fact that he was reaching the mandatory 15 year-old cut-line to make the jump to cars merged nicely with the interest of his team of supporters.
“After I won nationals, my partners asked: what’s next?” said Vanier. “We knew that the next step was Formula 1600. It’s similar to an F1 car: open wheel cockpit, no wings on the front or back – so no down force, and a four speed manual transmission.”
In what has turned out to be a whirlwind of a six to seven year adventure that would ensue, complete with the hurdle of a global pandemic mixed with some of the greatest memories of the young man’s life, the story of Zach Vanier arguably carries more excitement than a standard day at the race track.
Two years on the Formula 1600 series would see the Sudbury product not only win his first race at the level, but consistently threaten for a podium finish. Incredibly grounded given all that he has achieved, Vanier acknowledged that he will take only partial credit for that. “In the series I started in, we were all running different cars,” he said.
“As much as a lot of it is driver driven, the car meant a lot.”
And that’s what makes this past summer so special, a true testament to his driving skills.
“The series I raced this year, we all had the same car,” said Vanier. “All of the Porsche 922 GT3 race cars came off the same production line.”
His skill-set has not gone unnoticed.
A couple of years back, he caught the eye of Pfaff Motorsports, handed one of their rides in the Canadian Touring Car Championship in 2020 and earning the checkered flag in five of six races.
His evolution on the track would see Vanier embrace a strict physical training regimen, ironically a daily workout routine that he tackles typically with Paolo Grossi, a top-end football prospect in the city. “Our workout routine is actually pretty similar – but I do find it challenging at times to train because you are not trying to bulk,” said Vanier.
“Cardio and core are key to the endurance and stamina required in racing.”
With his sights now set on ascending to the WeatherTech Sports Car Championship, Vanier is taking every new door opening in stride – with a particularly intriguing November race offering likely to be confirmed soon.
In the meantime, he remains thankful for the snowcross foundation that started it all.
“The biggest thing I am grateful for having done that is that it taught me how not to be fearful,” he said. “It eliminated the fear to go faster, jump higher. You always know that it’s a very, very dangerous sport – but that’s something that you can’t think about, otherwise it will affect your performance."
“A lot of it is brain and muscle memory. It’s funny because I’ve always been what I would consider to be a cautious kid. I never really wanted to push limits – outside of racing.”
