with our certification of vintage race cars in the AACA the owner must
present documentation to prove the thar is exactly the same car as it is
being restored to be. no cars being restored to look like a photograph then
being passed off as "the" exact car from what ever period or what ever
famous driver.
this process puts owners through some very anxious searching and hunting
through various sources.
if you have a color of the car, car number, or owner or driver from a
specific aerea try locating race photographers from that geographic region.
most have kept very good collections that were well sorted either by years
or events. if you can locate a photograph from any period that is always
neat to have. there are also people who collect race programs. there is a
large collector in i believe butler pa. . he advertises from time to time
to purchase programs in hemmings. he will charge a fee to search for a
specific driver/car in a given year of events but if you are searching for
specific information about who-what-where, that might be a posibility?
of course there is always a chance that the driver or owner has passed away.
but if you can locate other drivers from that class in that region they
might not remember evrything you want to know, but they do remember who they
beat them or who they beat at certain events! check with their region
historian(if they have one). my father has great stories from vineland ,
marlboro, reading road races, pocono aerea ice races and pennsylvania
hillclimb association hill climbs from the mid fifties to very late 60's..
retired race drivers have an incredible amount of "behind the scenes"
stories and information.
grab a big stick and start beating the bush! it took me a few months and a
couple hundred dollars in long distance calls to locate david roethel from
the d.c. region scca , to verify i owned his old H production bugeye he ran
from 1961-1962. my biggest thrill was to meet his exwife susan this last
weekend at the race at the base and to drive my sprite(restored to it's 1962
colors and markings) past susan during a parade lap on course. to see her
smile as i waved at her and the memories that seeing the car that she and
david raced must have rekindled was priceless!
chuck
white 1959 bugeye #1 H/p
blue and white Begra bodied 1967 #25 h-mod sports racer
black 1960 saab 93f #8 touring 2 sean (unfinished)
----- Original Message -----
From: Susan and John Roper <vscjohn@huntnet.net>
To: MalcolmCox <malcox@napanet.net>
Cc: <vintage-race@autox.team.net>
Sent: Friday, May 05, 2000 6:15 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Trying to race date 1959 MGA
> Malcolm, that number will only date back to when the SCCA started to
> require log books, I think 1972, so it won't really tell you what you want
> to know. San Francisco Region Comp Chair may have records of the member
> who originally registered it. From the number I would guess it to be some
> time post 1972. John
>
> MalcolmCox wrote:
>
> > I have an old ex SCCA race MGA, bought as a basket a couple of years
> > ago and now anxious to be reborn to former glory.
> >
> > Information about its history is non existant, including the SCCA log
> > book.
> > However, the one clue I have is the number 33-955 stamped on the roll
> > bar.
> > This is apparently the SCCA inspection number, which is the same as
> > the log book number.
> >
> > According to the very helpful local SCCA archivist, they are slowly
> > inputting a garage full of data into a database, but at this time,
> > they cannot trace this
> > number.
> >
> > I understand that the number indicates San Francisco SCCA region.
> > Presumably, the 33 indicates region and 955 is a chronologically
> > assigned serial number.
> >
> > So does anyone have a log book number any where near this number from
> > which, perhaps I could interpolate approximately what year it was
> > assigned
> > and perhaps threfore, when it started racing?
> >
> > Malcolm, Napa
> > with one very red MGA and another very decrepit one, looking more like
> > a donor car every day.
>
>
>
>
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