Now there is good stuff! Thanks for sharing it!
Dan O'Shea
----- Original Message -----
From Myles Winbigler <mwinbigler at worldnet.att.net>
To: <type79@ix.netcom.com>
Cc: <spridgets@autox.team.net>
Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2000 11:41 PM
Subject: Re: Lurkers / New List Members / Silent Majority
> Ok, I'll bite.
> I fell in love with LBCs and racing while in high school in the late 50's.
> Went to Laguna Seca and watched whole grids of MGAs, Porsches and Alfas.
> Conned my grandmother into buying me a TD with TF1500 running gear, which
I
> used through college and started autocrossing with whatever club would let
> under 21's compete.
>
> Bought a used 59 bugeye in graduate school and started racing in 1963 on
the
> cheap. After joining Boeing in Seattle and making more money than I knew
> what to do with after graduate school, I started to race more seriously up
> and down the West Coast. Discovered the benefits of Joe Huffaker's engine
> magic about 1968 and finished second at the runoffs in Riverside in 1968
and
> Daytona in 69. The 69 season cost over 50% of my gross income, and the
> runoffs moved permanently to the East Coast so I raced locally and cheaply
> until 1972 when we built a rhd bugeye specifically to win at Road Atlanta.
> We thought we did everything right with the new chassis, but it never was
as
> fast and the old floppy one, and then I finally had the BIG ONE at Pacific
> Raceways in 1972 -- a triple flip with a half twist. The judges gave me
> 10's for style points but the quack said hang it up for 6 months until
your
> head heals.
>
> In the course of the layoff, I met my wife to be, got married and did the
> family thing for the next 22 years, never going near a race track. In
July
> 1994, I made the mistake of going to something called the Pacific
Northwest
> Historics. The addiction hit again like I'd never been away -- sights,
> sounds, smells, all were just like they'd been before. Within 8 weeks I
had
> the original bugeye with new rubber parts and fluids and was back on the
> track -- the driver was quite a bit slower than 22 years before, but
having
> just as much fun.
>
> Being a BMC pervert, I've also acquired an early Lotus Seven America with
> BMC power. I raced it three times, broke the frame, and have been
restoring
> it for the last couple of years. I hope to finish it off and run it again
> this summer, but the bugeye is still such a kick to drive. I also
maintain
> a Beach Formula Vee for my wife to race -- I sent her to driver's school
in
> the Sprite in 1995 with the hope that she would then understand the
> expenditure of $, but wouldn't get really interested.. That was a big
error
> in judgement, I had to buy her a Vee to get my bugeye seat back.
>
> Anyhow, I do love these old, cantankerous things. They're a kick.
>
> Myles Winbigler
> Mad Mollusk Racing
> Bellevue, Washington
>
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