I had drag raced since I had a license , but always wanted to race sports cars
, I had met a guy who raced Formula Vee's and they looked neat . I went to a
Secret Car Club of America , SCCA , race as a guest of the Vee racer . The
Vee's were abjectly boring , but there was this group of old British cars out
there looking like they were having a blast , there were even some Spits there
, this was what I wanted to do .
It took a couple of years until I could do anything except talk about it then
one day a drag racing buddy said he had seen an ad in a local paper for a
Triumph race car , I looked at the black and white picture of the back of a
Spit on an open trailer under an old carport . I called the guy and soon drove
the hour to go see it . I found a sad old all steel Spit growing to this old
trailer , it had been sitting there for 13 years since the new engine went
away at Daytona the first time out . I left the car there reluctantly and went
home , not able to sleep and totally broke I agonized over wanting this little
dude . Several calls back and forth to the cars owner and even a loan from my
then girlfriend and now wife I went and fetched my car and a huge truckload of
spare "junk" .
That was in Sep 92 , I had the car ready for my second driver's school in
March 93 where it went practically flawless , sheared flywheel bolts , Chris I
still think of your terrible Runoffs , glowing rotors , running out of fuel ,
and terrible oil leaks that were pronounced normal by the other British racers
, no way!!!!!
My first race was a hoot , I burnt a piston , Fixed it with a part that a nice
guy , Mr Rick Cline , brought up with some parts he was flying up for someone
else . I then burnt another piston . The following monday I was at Rick's shop
, about 6 miles from mine getting real Spit racing advice , I think he took me
on as a project because he felt sorry for me . I tell people that the only
thing he has done for me is make the car fast , reliable and teach me to drive
it , other than that I've done it all myself . Anyway my car is an 1147 MK1ish
G-production car , I've been quite lucky as of late , I won 7 of 8 races in
'98 in the southeast , setting a track record at every track and starting from
the pole at every race . I qualified 4th at the Runoffs , which was quite a
rush until I broke a pushrod tip on the first lap , bad prep on my part ,
another lesson learned , the painful way .
Sorry for the long winded mail .
Thanks listers
Kevin
Ps; Check out NPracing.com for my current ride , going to Daytona this weekend
to test , Yahoooooo!!!!
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