This July 4th was my second crewing a vintage race weekend up to Shannville,
Ontario, Canada. We had Steve Morrison's pretty Jabro MKI, Russ Moore's
'63 Spitfire, and Gary Hatch's McLaren M5E Can-Am car, which he's
been running for the past dozen years. I even got to take a few "fun laps"
of the track in the Nissan Pathfinder tow vehicle. ;-) After getting off
to a wet start on Friday, Saturday and Sunday brought sun and a steady
breeze to dry out the rain from each night. The Jabro held up fairly well,
considering we were sorting out a fresh 850+ (SAAB) engine with new MG TC
gearbox, with Steve wringing out laps a couple seconds faster than the
Spit. (2:20, 2:22), only to have a bum starter go out minutes before the
feature race. The exciting viewing was Gary's "Big Orange" #5. His son
(another Steve), who is a (the?) top US off road enduro bike driver, was
out for a second shot at it, after having the gearbox expire early in
practice last year.
Smooth? I've rarely seen such smooth driving, and this from a rookie
as far as race *cars* go! Saturday morning pratice was his first outing,
getting a general feel for the beast, and the track. Starting near the rear
of the field in the afternoon, each lap built on the one before it, gradually
putting every car behind, save for a Porsche RSR which had an early jump
on the field, and was tearing up the track. This included a pretty Lola MkI,
Brian McEchern's Lotus 11, AKA the Silver Bullet, and the orange Nuclear
powered Baker Lotus 7. The RSR was only a few feet ahead when the checker
flew after 10 laps. By the end Sunday's feature, Steve had handily topped
his dad's old mark of 1:57, with an effortless looking 1:55, and put the rest
of the field about a half lap down!
Canadian Vintage Racing is often interesting, with a bit more real action
than we see in the states. I was almost sure the Lotus 11 got a tyre
mark from Bakers 7 during one unsuccessful pass attempt. Then there's the
small bore group, including about 10 each Mini's and Bugeyes, a very
fast 950 Turner MkI, along with many others, which make for quite a show,
with several solid, ongoing battles. The open wheel group even had an extra,
in the form af a '32 Morgan 3 wheeler. This years event also included
something new- a Vintage Motorcycle race group as well. Now, there's some
crazy drivers.
________
/___ _ \ Roger Garnett (Roger_Garnett@cornell.edu)
/| || \ \ Agricultural Economics | "The South Lansing Centre
| |___|| _ | 3 Warren Hall | For Wayward Sports Cars"
| | \ | | | Cornell University | (Lansing, NY)
\| \ |__/ / Ithaca, N.Y. 14853-7801 | (607) 533-7735
\________/ (607) 255-2522 | Safety Fast!
|