Another weekend of good clean fun was had by all at the Wine Country
Classic. The weather was beastly hot. (How hot was it?) It was so hot,
my deodorant Speed Stick melted in my luggage. ;=( It was around 94
to 96, depending on where you got your weather report. I started the
weekend in just about the worst possible pit you could imagine. I got
stuck behind a bunch of trailers where nobody would ever see my car.
I went out for Friday afternoon practice, and somebody parked an SUV
in my pit. I found a spot next to another Formula Junior, but there
was yet another &^%$&^% SUV in it. The owner finally appeared and
after getting a jump start, left with sincere apologies. Having then
moved my pit setup to the new location, I got one of the paddock
marshals to "approve my parking job". The new location was right
across from the hot pit/track entrance, which was good and bad. I had
a great view of the cars staging for the races, but I also had tons of
people stumbling around in my pit. It was a great spot tho. I was also
right across from the Edelbrock contingent. They're a great bunch of
folks, they put on a great show, but they do make noisy neighbors. ;=)
The racing was mostly clean and safe. Some sessions were pretty short.
For a big spectator event with 9 run groups, I'd say things ran pretty
smoothly. I didn't hear of any car to car contact in the race sessions.
There were quite a few breakdowns, but thankfully no health problems.
There was one Corvette that blew an engine on the front straight, spun
in his own fluids and glanced off the wall. The course workers had to
go out and basically mop the entire dragstrip. When they announced
that the feature races on Sunday would be cut from 10 laps to 8, I
grumbled. Around lap 7 of my race, the car was doing fine, but the
driver was going away! 8 laps didn't sound so bad then. I got out of
the car and told my wife Amy that I was "medium well" and "overcooked
by her standards".
My car, the Bourgeault Formula Junior, ran flawlessly all weekend. I
almost felt guilty not having anything to work on. My new fuel pump
and battery kept all their respective juices flowing. Engine temps
stayed under control. I checked my plugs, I topped up the transaxle, I
sopped up a few drops that escaped the motor, but otherwise I had
little to do. My wife spent most of the weekend in the nicely air
conditioned drivers lounge. There were even refreshments provided
within. As usual, I seemed to have a lock on last place in the open
wheel group. None of the older Stanguellini or Elva cars showed up. My
pit neighbor, Jim Smith was running his BMC Junior, which I could
almost keep up with, but not close enough for a dice. Have all the
early cars been scared into hiding? My lap times really haven't
changed much in the last few years. Has everybody else has gotten
faster? I'm afraid the answer may be yes on both counts.
The party on Saturday night was great. It was at the Sebastiani winery
in Sonoma, as usual. In spite of my sinuses being in full riot due to
hay fever, my wife and I went out and had a good time. We have just
discovered a nice little B&B within 2 blocks of the Sonoma town square
and 1 block from the winery, so there was no excuse! The food was
catered by a collection of local restaurants. Cars were brought out
from the track for a mini-concours. Some local show cars were also
brought out. There were people's choice awards for the race cars and
the local cars. I think the D-type Jag took the award for the racers.
The local winner was a '52 Muntz Jet, complete with Muntz stereo. It
apparently had won last year's event also. Diane and Malcolm Cox's
MGA was one of the cars invited out from the track. Good show!
The guest of honor was Dan Gurney. Thanks to all who answered my quest
for info on his Cobra experience. I did get his autograph on the same
pic I had Shelby autograph a few years back. The only real sour note
of the weekend was on Sunday. They sent Gurney out in the Ferrari 375
for some hot laps. This is the 4.9 liter Arciero car he scored his
first major wins in. They had a pair of Dodge Prowlers trying to pace
him. Gurney apparently didn't want to be paced, and took off before the
Prowlers were ready. They chased him down, and one of them tried to go
around him on the outside in turn 11, the hairpin by the pit wall.
Gurney locked up the brakes trying to avoid contact, but he managed to
crease the side of the Ferrari against one of the Prowlers. Groan. I
was out by the pit wall taking pictures, but I didn't want pics of the
damaged area. The damage didn't look that bad, but the cost of the
repairs will probably exceed the cost of my car! I hope he didn't
damage the motor. It sounded like his foot was caught in the throttle
as the car sat there tangled up with the Prowler. It sounded OK as he
motored back to the pits, tho. I'd almost say it wasn't his fault. The
Prowlers shouldn't have been crowding him.
That's about it. I brought my car home in one piece. I saw some great
cars. I heard some great stories. I told some great stories. Maybe I'll
make up a few new ones for next year. ;=)
Simon Favre
'58 Bourgeault Formula Junior
|