NEWS FLASH!.!.!.!
DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA
The second running of the HSR sanctioned, vintage races at
Daytona International Speedway, is now in the history books.
What an event this has turned out to be! Lots of Porsches along
with a smattering of English, Italian, Swedish, and American iron
made up the entry of over 350 racing cars.
This Superspeedway is a 2.5 Tri-oval and is mainly known for its
NASCAR races. It is also famous for the 24 hour sports car
endurance race held every January. It is on this 3.56 mile long
road course that incorporates the tri-oval, superspeedway and non
banked infield section that this race was held.
Only three Triumph TRs were in attendance at this mostly
"Historic Car" event. Bill Warner had his ex-Tulius, Group 44,
TR6 racing in Group 3. Alan Taylor was racing his partner Barry
Rosenberg's TR4 in Group 2. And Jeff Snook had his TR3 in Group
1. The HSR groupings are always a little strange and Jeff
decided to run with the period competition of 356 Porsches, Alfa
Romeo's and a Morgan rather in Group 2 with the Porsche 911s and
914s.
Track orientation was scheduled for Thursday PM, but a wet track
prevented anyone from running, so the orientation was a couple
laps around the track in vans. Hurley Haywood (5 time Daytona
winner!) was one of the van drivers and he showed us some
interesting lines that proved helpful during the rest of the
weekend. Instead of a soggy lunch at the track, lots of
competitors found their way accross the street to one of the
first "Hooters" resturants in the country. Of course, most went
because of the "historic" features of this resturant!!!
The weather cooperated the rest of the weekend with partly cloudy
skies, and temperatures in the high 60s. This made for an
incredibly awesome weekend with lots of great cars and drivers at
one of the most spectacular venues in the country. What other
track do we get to race where the security guards greet you as
you enter the track by saying "Good Morning Sir!" Speaking of
famous drivers, Paul Newman was driving some historic IMSA car
something or other. He was found at one party sitting on a
couple of beer cases sipping his Budwiser and when asked what he
was doing at Daytona, he said "Where else would I be!" I
couldn't agree more.
Race day found Alan Taylor's TR4 loaded on the trailer with some
awful noise coming from the engine. They changed bearings at the
track on Saturday, but the engine was still not happy. This
bearing change entailed finding some Jaguar bearings and having
them drilled out for the oil passage holes. The things we TR
drivers will go through to keep racing!
Bill Warner's TR6 was seen coming into the paddock area on the
hook Saturday so it is not known if he made it for Sunday's
race. He did confirm he would be attending the "soon to be
famous" TR/MG Challenge at Mid Ohio next June. (Bill, if you are
out there, let us know if you made the race?)
Jeff's white TR3 made the whole weekend without a burp! This is
mainly due to the careful preparation of TR guru Glen Efinger.
His best lap was during the actual race when he turned a 2:29.3.
This equates to an average speed of about 85 MPH. Calculated top
speed based on a 3.7 rear end, 5.50X15 Hoosiers and 6400 RPM in
4th (no OD) was 128 MPH. This was right after passing the front
straight flag station, and right before the exciting "turn in"
for turn one. The neat thing was the TR never ran out of revs
and could have kept on pulling!
Driving this race track with the high banking (31 degrees) is an
experience not soon to be forgotten. One driver likened it to an
avid golfer being able to play at Augusta where they hold the
U.S. Open! Imagine this scenario: You are entering turn two at
over 100 MPH, you look over the nose of your car to see where the
track goes and all you can see is gray asphalt, then you look in
your rear view mirrors to see if anyone is coming up behind you
and all you can see is gray asphalt, next you look to your right
to see if anyone has gotten beside you and all you can see is
gray asphalt, and finally you look to your left and you think you
are going to fall off the track, into more gray asphalt!!!
Race results put Jeff's white TR3, 13th in a field of 37 cars
that finished the race. Most satisfying was the fact that there
were seven Porsche 356s behind him at the checkered flag. There
were also seven 356s in front of him. The top three finishers in
the group were all Porsche 356s with lap times 7 to 8 seconds
faster than the TR3! We all know Dr. Ferry Porsche built his
cars to race, and Standard Triumph built their cars to have fun
on the street.
A whole lot of people had fun this weekend including one TR3
driver who is still smiling!
Vroom, vroom,
Jeff Snook
your roving FOT reporter.
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