Brief race report from BRIC from the Triumph perspective:
1. It was HOT! Did I mention that heat was an issue?
2. The cars on display (as usual) were amazing. I ran into one (of
four) Lotus 79's driven by Mario Andretti in the 1978 season during his
F1 championship drive. I have a huge picture of one of these gorgeous
black and gold "John Player specials" (with one wheel off the ground) on
my office wall at work, so that made it special for me. Plus, the crew
dude I met was genuinely happy to be there - "it's great that the boss
pays me to spend weekends at events like these". To me, this is the
biggest reason to go to this event. Everyone who has neat vintage iron
brings it here even if they don't actually drive it.
3. There was a decent field of Can Am cars. If anyone has a can am car
and would like to let me drive it, I'll sign up in less than a second.
God, I love those cars! The fastest one was turning about 2:12 at Road
America (4 miles). Not quite the field as last year (the Can-Am
reunion), but still way cool. The Canadian national anthem followed by
the USA anthem over the PA really set the tone.
4. The group 6 field (Corvettes, Camaros, Mustangs, AMC Javelins and
AMX's, as well at Porches) had by FAR the biggest problems with driver
restraint. In two half hour sessions on Saturday, they maybe got 8
laps. Friday morning, a Porche 911 had a really scary accident after
turn 3 where he spun off the inside, hit the concrete wall, and his
engine / gearbox assembly ended up on the far side of the track.
Reports have him getting squirrely in the corner, almost gathering it
up, and then getting bumped sending him into the final spin. From a
spectator standpoint, it was really scary because his car was returned
to the paddock on 3 tow trucks. One had the engine, the second had what
was left of the chassis, and the third had miscellaneous body parts.
Looking at the car, you'd think that is was a survivable accident, but
we all figured that leg damage was pretty likely. The word from the
hospital was that he only sustained a minor concussion. He was (of
course) really sore, though. The safety equipment that we use is really
valuable!!!!
5. The group 2 race (which included the majority of the Triumph cars)
was really well behaved. The race was won by a Jag XKE (2:35 best
lap!). Spots 2 and 4 were XKE's as well. Pos. 3 was a Ferrari 250
SWB. Best Triumph was pos. 7 - a spitfire (Kent Bain) running 2:46's!
I wonder if he knows Jahimiak (owner of the bionic bugeye)? Of course,
there were some really fast 356's. The fastest MG was Scott Fohrman's
MGB running 2:49's. Jeff Snook in his TR-3 ran 2:55's and ended up 20th
(out of 60 starters). We ended up running a lap or two in the 2:59
territory in the uncle jack special (TR-4) and finished 29th. Other
TR's.... John Hornbostel, TR-3, 3:06, 38th; Bill Dentinger, TR-3, 3:12,
40th; Gary Wiezorek, TR-4, 3:10, 41st; John Houlton, TR-4, 3:09, 43th;
Daniel Buxner, TR-4, 3:07, 45th; Neil Howard (perpetual hard luck
award), TR-3, 3:12, 48th; Bob Wismer, TR-4, 3:14, 59th.
6. The Steve Benford, Amici Triumphi canopy / party in the turn 5 grassy
area was a good time. I had no idea that Steve had been doing this for
so many years. Another example of the Friends of Triumph reaching
"critical mass"...
Respectfully submitted,
Tony Drews
(I drive the uncle jack Triumph rally car reproduction TR-4, am
restoring another TR-4 to compete with him, and have the Japanese
version - a Miata on the street.)
PS - an uninsured driver smashed the back of my street '85 RX-7. For
sale cheap!
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