Hi,
I haven't been involved as long as Mike C., but I'll echo the sentiment
of checking out the Runoffs(tm). The paddock is crammed with cars for
this event. My only trip to this eevnt was frankly a little
overwhelming, and we're talking about a lot less Triumphs etc. that
there would have been 20 or 30 years ago. But impressive nonetheless.
Anyway, I have seen a lot of older "Sports Car" (SCCA official
publication) issues from the early 60's and while they might feature a
Maserati on the cover shot, the inside pages are full of Triumph references.
The folks that sell the coffee table books would like you to think that
the only folks racing were Caroll Shelby and Dan Gurney and Phil Hill and
the like - rest assured that there were a _lot more_ guys like the FOT's
that didn't have big corporate money to help them race. But there was a
lot more involvement then and the small guys were probably every bit as
intense as the big guys.
There was a film on Speedvision the other day from the 70's about Mark
Donohue and an amatuer racer (AH Sprite in HP) and thier efforts at
making speed. The film was produced by Sears, ostensibly to sell Die Hard
batteries - but it was interesting hearing these folks talk about thier
experiences. I especially liked the shot of the HP cars getting into a
major tangle going into "Big Bend" at Lime Rock - not because I like to
see shunts, but because there were lots of cars that I can relate to
driving by...
A strange irony of the film was that the Sprite guy indicated that his
income stream came from being a securities trader... funny how some
things don't change.
Anyway - yes, a lot of our lovely Triumphs were raced by regular folks
way back when... The "new order" is that they all race Neons and try to kill
each other! Hi Irv.
I miss the "old days". And I'm not even "old". Yet.
rml
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