(Long, assuming the email trolls are well fed today...)
The Classic Sports Racing Group just completed its 30th season of vintage
racing with an event at Thunderhill Motorsports Park in Willows, CA. The
event featured a fund-raiser BBQ in town, a Pursuit Race, and an awards
banquet Saturday night. In addition, there were commemorative dash plaques
and Polo shirts with a CSRG 30 year logo.
I arrived Friday about 1:30 and set up my pit next to Peter Giddings. He
had brought out a 1935 Alfa Romeo Tipo C. The space next to him was open,
and was fully paved. I'm not too crazy about dragging my gear around in
gravel, which most of the other folks had to do. It's still an improvement
over the dirt paddock when the track first opened. Peter made me feel
quite at home. He said he was glad to see my car still coming out. I have
the Bourgeault Formula Junior, which is about as rare as his Tipo C, but
worth several orders of magnitude less. ;=) They did kind of make a good
pair, a very late pre-war car and a very early Formula Junior. Peter even
borrowed my large metal drain pan when he decided to switch the Alfa from
Methanol/Petrol to straight race gas.
The highlight on Friday was the BBQ in town. The organizers swore up and
down that it would be ok to drive a car with no headlights into town for
the BBQ. We had a CHP escort and everything. I went for it. Another open
wheeler showed up and parked alongside. There was a great assortment of
cars represented. The locals came out to ooh and aah over the cars. The
BBQ was quite good. Then night fell. It was pitch black outside of town.
My friend Tom Sahines rigged up a big Makita flashlight on my roll bar
with a bungee. It worked great. I could follow the car in front without
it, but no way could I see the road or my instruments. At some point I'll
have to upload a photo captioned "The Bourgeault fitted for night racing."
Dan Marvin asked me if I was ready for Le Mans. ;=)
Saturday we started racing. The event was run on the full 3.0 mile course
just completed by the SCCA. The new section had been coated with a sealer
that was very slippery for some cars, and there were plenty of spinouts.
The new turn 9 is totally blind as you crest a hill right after the apex.
They added a line of tall cones on the exit side whch made it a lot easier.
The turn 10 area is downhill with heavy braking, which led to lots of spins.
Turn 11 is a tight left leading to a right/left combo that's fun. The last
turn is also at the end of a high speed run, leading to more spins. The old
part of the track is mostly the same, but there was some sealer to deal with.
The car ran well the whole weekend, just some sopping up between sessions
as the Fiat 1100 motor had it's own way of telling me it still had oil in it.
The Pursuit Race on Saturday was a hoot. They started a 3-wheeled Morgan off
and let everybody sit while he ticked off 2 laps. ;=( They started the cars
off in order of lap times aiming to get all the cars together at the finish.
It didn't quite work that way, but there were some odd groups of cars right
together. The only bad part was the chaos on pre-grid. CSRG needs to take
some lessons from the SCCA corner workers on how to do pre-grid. It's getting
tough to get the SCCA corner workers up to TH, so they had another group
working the corners, and CSRG people doing pre-grid. I must say, though, that
Dianne Cox did a great job arranging the NASCAR grid. It was a small group.
Peter Giddings was man-handling the big Alfa through the pre-war group. He
got the car sideways coming onto the front straight which delighted all
onlookers. They had to give the other pre-war drivers some lessons in how
to be passed by Peter Giddings. The oldest cars in the group went back to
1910-1915! I've been passed by Peter when he ran a Maserati 250F in the
Formula Junior group. What a rush.
Sunday had the feature races to offer. There was a NASCAR group trying very
hard to become accepted as a regular feature at CSRG events. They need to
work on their members a little more, as the whole group got black-flagged on
Saturday for a good talking to. ;=( On Sunday, they announced the race using
the names of the cars' original NASCAR drivers. "And Richard Petty has moved
up 3 places since starting in 10th position. Dick Trickle and Dale Earnhardt
are duelling for 4th..." Wotta riot.
All in all, I think most folks had a great time. I only saw one car with
extensive damage, a sedan, I think (driver ok). A number of people got called
to the Driver Observer (black flag) station for an attitude check, but most
people managed to keep things under control and have fun. Now that racing
season is just about over here, lying season can start in earnest! ;=)
Simon Favre
'58 Bourgeault Formula Junior
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