Track time was plentiful, 10 sessions plus more if you ran test day.
Friday was an easy day, a morning practice session, then an afternoon
qualifying session. Unfortunately for Mike Deweerd, his TR8 was out for
the weekend on Friday. This made it a little clearer what to expect up
front the rest of the event, with only one TR8 running it was Tim Cook's
time to shine up front. Spoiler alert, he did not disappoint!
Our first special race was the Frank Mount Memorial MG/TR Challenge. To
give you some history, Triumphs have dominated this race for a while
now. The Canadians might just be a little bit sore about that fact, and
the rules for the race are always weighted heavily on participation
rather than finishing order! This year, they really didn't try to hide
their bias, they arranged the starting order as first come, first served
with the MG's taking the first 15 grid spots! Just to be sure we had it
as tough as possible, they put Tim Cook with his TR8 in the race group
immediately preceding the MG/TR Challenge race, so his participation
would be questionable. Then an added deterrent, the scheduled the MG/TR
Challenge just before the lunch break, and the Kastner Cup just after
lunch, so with minimal turnaround time many of our guys chose to sit out
the Challenge race. I am not sure what else they could have done to us,
other than leaving one plug wire off per car!
Waiting for the grid to open, we strategized to put me in the TR250
first, Phil Gott and Bob Lang lined up behind me. Also in line were Greg
Thompson, Walt Hollowell, Stewart Wigg and Dave Riddle. I had talked to
Tim Cook, his plan was to run the Challenge race if things went well in
his group race immediately prior. On the MG side, the car to beat was an
MG Midget piloted by the very talented and always fast Nick Pratt. Nick
and I have had some epic David and Goliath battles, Goliath has had the
slight edge in the past and has been victorious.
The race starts with me taking a couple laps to clear the lion's share
of the MG's. It seems to me they are doing a great job blocking me in
wherever possible, but nobody is so obvious I can cry foul. When I
finally get clear track Nick has been doing fast laps by himself, and I
have over 7 seconds to make up. I settle in to the job at hand, and the
gap closes. Then, as I am motoring up the back straight, I see in my
mirror a white dot getting bigger! Tim made the race, and he in on the
hunt as well! The TR8 blows by me in a flash, and I'm thinking the good
guys have this one in the bag, if time runs out for me at least Tim will
be first. Then two laps later on lap 8, I turn my best lap of the race,
a 1:40.1 and I pass Nick on the back straight. Triumph 1 - 2, and I keep
Tim in my sights as he stays about 3 seconds in front of me for the last
4 laps.
So it's Tim on the top step of the podium, I come in second and Nick
Pratt third. Bob Lang ran 4th overall. So I am not sure how the math
worked out for which team won, but I am pretty sure we didn't stand a
chance with the schedule effectively benching most of our team. But of
course, it doesn't matter, we all had fun and the streak of Triumphs
dominating the top spot is unbroken!
Next up, the Kastner Cup race!
Not much to say here other than I started second and finished second. I
was driving the wheels off the car trying to keep up with Tim's TR8, I
kept the gap between 1.5 to 3 seconds most of the race. Unfortunately,
when Pat Darrow had his little shunt in 1, that caused a waiving yellow
for the rest of the session, and I caught traffic on lap 11 and 12 in
the yellow flag zone, so the gap opened up to 5.5 seconds at the end.
Tim's comment to me after the race was thanks for keeping him honest, my
comment to him was I thought I had to work way harder than he did, in
which he agreed with me! My best lap was a 1:41.19 vs Tim with a
1:40.95, so that made me feel pretty good about the race.
Then on Sunday, the Jack Drews Memorial Race, formerly known as the
Reunion Race!
Tim had to get home on Sunday, so was packed up and gone by the time
racing started on Sunday. I was on pole, and Jesse Darrow did all he
could to keep me honest! I put about a 2.5 second gap on Jesse when Oily
Bob did his thing for the last time, putting a layer of oil up most of
the back straight. We reported to the pits and waited a solid half hour
for the track to get cleaned. I was sure we were done, but VARAC
announced they were going to let us go green for another 10 minutes!
This time it was Jesse driving like a man on a mission, keeping me
honest until suddenly, he was gone. In fact, I saw nobody in my mirrors
for the last two laps, upon finishing I see I gapped Chuck Gee in second
place by 14.2 seconds in 6 laps! Thanks for the motivation, Jesse! At
the podium, Jesse tried to sneak into Chuck's second place pedestal, too
funny. Apparently, Jesse ran out of fuel! Bob Lang took third.
Finally, my group race!
My bracket, VH3, means don't go faster than a 1:40. For whatever reason,
I happen to run at the bottom of that bracket, a 1:40 is a good time for
me. As such, I do well with the bracket. This year was no different, I
finished first in VH3 in the 3 races leading up to the feature race
Sunday afternoon. This year we had a bunch of Mustangs that had never
run with VARAC before, and for whatever reason they put them with us in
Vintage Historic. Not a great fit, and the one that was always gridded
with me had a problem with his fuel cell, he kept dumping gas on corners
at the beginning of the race. It was a slippery situation, to say the
least! And it took him several laps to put down a couple of faster laps
than me to be out of my hair. So in the feature, I am coming around turn
10 finishing up lap 2, and I am too close to the fuel spilling Mustang.
The second place VH3 car, a 911, gets a better run than I do and passes
me going into 1. I fall back behind him and find out he has a bit more
straight line speed, but is absolutely hopeless in 1 and 2. For 3 laps I
follow watching closely, figuring out where I am going to get him,
hoping I have a shot somewhere other than turn 2, as he is all over the
place and completely unpredictable. It's apparent I am going to have to
man up and do the deed in turn 2, so I give it a go with no joy. The
next time around I get next to him at the first apex of turn 2 on the
outside and we slide our way down the hill side by side. As we approach
3, now I have the inside line and he gives it to me. I proceed to drive
it like I stole it, I need to gap him so he doesn't take me on the back
straight. I proceed to put down a great lap, and can barely see the 911
in my rear view mirror. I take the checkered flag knowing I should be
golden for another class win, hoping I didn't break out. I hold my
breath and at the podium I am given the first place trophy. All good, I
think...
I pull out Speedhive to see I ran a 1:39.2, my best lap ever at Mosport.
I broke out, but Colleen didn't realize at the time! We will see if I
get penalized that lap at some point, but I have the hardware!
So that's it, my time as Kastner Cup chair has come to an end. I hope
everyone who came enjoyed the experience as much as I do, and I look
forward to next year to see how many Triumph racers will now say their
June event is Mosport!
Cheers
Henry
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