I'm just getting back into the swing of things after the Wine Country
Classic. I had a great time, the best in years. I had taken Wed-Fri
off to take care of some domestic items and get ready to go early on
Friday. This was a good move. ;=) When I got to Sears Point, there was
a delay getting escorted into the paddock due to some random cars
being parked in the wrong places. I ended up right across from one row
of the new NASCAR garages. This row was unfinshed and closed off, but
the other row of garages was in use. The featured class was F1 cars
from 1967-1983. They were in the NASCAR garages. At least I was on the
main row of pit spaces. A lot of people stopped by to tell me how nice
my car looked. My motto is, "If you can't afford to buy the fastest
car in the field, you better look damned good coming in last." ;=) My
car is the Bourgeault Formula Junior, a one-of-a-kind machine:
ftp://ftp.team.net/vintage/Images/bfj-svc.jpg
The weather was hot, hot, and hot in that order. Actually, Saturday
wasn't so bad, but Friday and Sunday, the days I had to move all my
gear around, were pretty hot. A gallon of Gatorade a day... In past
years at this event, I was suffering major allergy attacks. It made me
miserable the whole weekend. This year, a special diet designed to
reduce my sensitivity and one Claritin a day did the trick. Only when
the wind kicked up a lot of dust did I have some symptoms. There was a
lot of dust due to construction ( see http://www.searspoint.com/ ).
On Friday, there were two practice sessions available at no charge. I
went out both sessions, but one of them was cut short due to a crash.
The driver was OK, but all 4 corners of the car were pretty bad. He
spun in some oil laid down by another car. Supposedly flags were out,
but he was just very unlucky, I guess.
On Saturday, checking the program, and the grid for practice, it began
to look like I wouldn't have anybody to race with this weekend. I was
right. All the older cars seem to be in hiding. No Stanguellinis or
Elvas. Jim Smith was there in his BMC, but I just can't keep up with
him anymore. My car has such a primitive suspension design, and with a
Fiat engine, I'm also down on power. Oh well, it was fun anyway. All
the other cars in the field were newer and faster than mine. There was
one older car, but it was an Indy roadster with a big Offy engine. I
was as fast in some corners, but he was shot like a cannonball on the
straights. In the qualifying heat on Saturday, there was an incident in
Turn 2 that stopped the race. We only got 2 laps under the green. The
silver lining was it's probably the only race I ever finshed on the
lead lap...
I had 2 mechanical problems on Saturday that kept me wrenching thru
lunch. My new clutch cable started to let go mid session Saturday AM,
so I put the old one back in. I had an oil fitting spring a leak, but
there was a shop open with all the AN tube fittings in stock. It ran
just fine the rest of the weekend, but I do need to re-do that clutch
cable.
On the social side, this was a very nice event. Friday night, there was
a reception with hot food, cold drinks, and live chamber music. The
Drivers Lounge was open with cold drinks and air conditioning all
weekend. There was a catered lunch both days on the weekend. The big
party was Saturday night. The Sonoma Vintage Race Car Festival returned
to the town square in Sonoma for the first time since the first Wine
Country event. The setting was lovely, there were great cars on display
and the food was excellent. They even gave away Krispy Kremes. ;=)
In the feature races on Sunday, there was a minimum of delays, and there
was some really close, really entertaining racing. At least two heats
ended in photo finishes. Hats off to everybody who kept their machines
together and their hormones in check.
The Wine Country event really draws some unusual machinery. That's one
reason I like it so much. We had the Aardvaark, the Cannon Special,
Peter Giddings' Whitney Straight Maserati, a Porsche-Abarth, the Ken
Myles' Flying Shingle, and the Triumph TR 250K, a very striking car. To
top it all off, we had a even more unusual car on display. One of the
original 4 Barris Batmobiles was present. There was an auction to get
one lap around the course in the Batmobile. This car was apparently
used in Southern California at drag races! The back of the car sported
2 parachute packs flanking the fake turbine...
After a weekend like that, it's just too hard to get back to work
without spending some time talking about it. This was my 8th Wine
Country Classic, and I'm sure to sign up for next year.
Simon Favre
'58 Bourgeault Formula Junior
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