In a message dated 07/22/2003 10:19:18 PM Central Daylight Time,
jrhill@chorus.net writes:
> At last weekend's Brian Redman races at Road America (the BRIC), the
> "Thunderbolt," a Triumph special raced alternately by Bill Dentinger and his
> partner Bob Wismer, took the first place trophy in the Race Car class at the
> Friday evening Concours d'Elegance.
>
> If you've ever been to the BRIC, you'll appreciate the quality of the
> competition in this event.
>
> I'd have expected Bill to mention this his own self, but he must be having a
> temporary bout with modesty . . .
>
> A well-deserved trophy for a well-presented car.
>
A. Nonymous:
The Beady Eye VINTAGE TRIUMPH Racing Team has entered the BRIAN REDMAN
INTERNATIONAL CHALLENGE (and the CHICAGO HISTORIC RACES before that) every year
since the mid-1980s. We always enter a car in the Race Car Concours, not
expecting to WIN, but just to participate. The trip from the track to downtown
Elkhart Lake (you should excuse the expression) is a hoot. One of these days
they're going to kill someone, but until that time...it's great fun to
participate.
We were in Siebkins, eating dinner, and never heard the announcement that the
THUNDER BOLT had won. They delivered the trophy to our paddock the next day.
We did not realize it, but we were supposed to bring the THUNDER BOLT up for
a public display on Sunday, and to complete for several other awards (BEST IN
SHOW, PEOPLE'S CHOICE, etc.), but we didn't get the word, and missed out on
that. We are embarrassed about that, because we should have been there.
Down through the years we've taken trophies three or four times in these
CONCOURS d'ELEGANCE contests, including once when OLD BLUE took BEST RACE CAR
the
year FERRARI was the featured marque. That's a long story for another time,
but there were millions and millions of dollars worth of FERRARIs on display,
and I think the judges couldn't pick one (probably fearing for their lives),
and opt'd to pick the lowly TR3 as a cop out. We were in the right place at
the
right time.
Another time, the first year CAN-AM cars were featured, OLD BLUE got spotted
on display, right in the middle of all of the CAN-AM cars. A nice article and
a picture appeared in AUTOWEEK. The author had a field day describing the
lowly little TR3 in amongst all the barbaric CAN-AM cars.
Truth be told....we just like BEING THERE.
Bill Dentinger
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