For those of you who werent able to make the 50th Anniversary Triumph
Reunion at Mid-Ohio, heres a quick synopsis of what you missed. Ok, in
re-reading this, maybe its not so quick Anyway:
There were over 50 competition Triumphs entered in the event although only
32 made the All-Triumph race. Friday was the day of carnage and
perseverance. Two TR-4s ended up upside down (George Wright and H. Tide
Ebding), one of which got the car back together for the race
(Ebding). Several cars hit the tire wall or an unprotected wall, all
getting back in action. Snook hit the tire that Wright shed in his
incident. Dents were popped back out, head gaskets changed, transmissions
changed, waterpump changed (Greg), etc. No whining was heard from
anyone! The TR-5 from England had its front end removed by the concrete
wall. They took it to a frame shop and worked all night to get it back
together. With a donor TR-250 front valance and grille, and a can of red
Krylon, it was back in the race, and WON the all-triumph race, besting
several TR-7 V-8s, one of which was said to have hit 165 mph in
testing. The British cars were certainly well prepared! A TR-6 had
electronic fuel injection, and most had monster brakes and much
fiberglass. All of the racing was gentlemanly but still fierce.
Saturday started out rainy (its Mid-Ohio after all), but ended up
beautiful. There were a couple hundred street TRs in attendance. I
suspect there would have been more with better weather. The carnage
stopped, thankfully.
On Sunday, the weather generally cooperated (one or two small
showers). The Grassroots MG / Triumph challenge seemed to dissolve the
Quattlebaum MGA didnt make it through the weekend, and George took his
newly beveled roll bar home. MGBs dominated in the Group 3 race (Munoz
and Gonda) since the fastest remaining TRs (Jackson, Snook) were moved to
Group 1 due to an oversize Group 3. With Mordy dropping out and the black
flag being mistakenly given to uncle jack, any hope of catching those pesky
MGs disappeared. I hope Tim got the article he was hoping for anyway. I
chased the British TR-3 during the All Triumph race. I could catch him in
the twisty stuff but couldnt manage to get by. After the race, he said it
was the best race hed had in a while. He said he was hitting 130 on his
calibrated speedometer at the end of the back straight with the uncle jack
and tony TR-4 right on his tail. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed
that race.
Thats by far the most Triumphs Ive seen at any race event, all were great
people. It was great to be able to put the faces with the names from the
FOT list. Meeting Kas was an honor. At the party Thursday night I
marveled at how Joes simple idea of having a FOT list separate from the
big triumph list led up to a party with 150 members present. Many thanks
to Mark B and all who helped develop the FOT and who helped put the event
together.
There were FOT temporary tattoos, reproductions of the Jabekke run TR logo,
posters signed by all participants (including Kas), patches, dash plaques,
T-shirts, Golf Shirts from England, flags and a Panoramic Picture. The
event shirt and poster featured Triumph. All in all great company and
great swag which should make it even harder to forget this unforgettable event.
- Tony Drews
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