Turkey Bowl 2009 Vintage race report Summit Point - vid and pics

[fasthonda]

hi guys!

whew!  finally got home after racing this weekend at the Turkey Bowl at Summit Point.  i was driving the #71 red Super Seven Super Sprint (powered by a Ford crossflow Kent 1600 with the usual 'hop up' parts).  some of you might even remember seeing this car years and years ago at a bunch of RTR DEs;  its been broken down and mothballed since 2002;  i just finished putting it back together last tuesday!  here's a pic with my friend Ian in the driver's seat:



the organizers plopped me in Group 3, with the 'Formula and Open Wheel racers' for saturday's races; i was the only road going thing in this heat, lol! i'm up against a pack of Formula Fords, Mallocks, and S2000 racers.... the competition is fierce up front (i knew this heat would be super fast compared to smallbore, so i took off my street tires (ancient yokohama A509s), and put on my rain tires, which are toyo 888s); i ended up 2nd overall behind one of the Mallocks in the first race (couldn't get around him to save my life, and couldn't stay in his draft on the front straight!!!) (the camera failed to operate in the first race, so no footage). in the second race, i got a poor start (was 6th after the first lap, behind the S2000, two Formula Fords, and two Mallocks), but i immediately found my groove and started moving up -- picking off a car every lap, til i was second right behind the S2000. i was probing him in several places, when he lost it in the brake zone and hooked off the track, exiting stage right (it was later determined that his right rear upright had failed, shearing off), and he crashed very hard into the inside tirewall (no serious injuries, just real stiff the next day).  i ended up winning that race, cause they had to black flag us all and clean it up (not the way i like to win a race).  here's the video from that race (sorry about the smears on the camera - one of the cars up front was leaking some kind of fluids out):    http://www.vimeo.com/7886352

here's a pic of the Mallocks (they were super fast):



sorry, i didn't get any pics of the Formula Fords or the S2000 sports racer.....

here are some pics of various cars that i found interesting:

Turner:


Triumph GT6:


a bunch of Porsche 914-6s (the white plain jane one was the fastest!):





Porsche 911s:



a pack of Mini Cooper Ss:




a Peerless:


Lotus Esprit Turbo:


Datsun 510:


Lotus 11:


Daimler:



old Vette:


Ford GT40:


there were tons and tons of MGs all over the place, too!

Sunday's race was a 45 minute 'enduro';  apparently 45 mins is a long time for these old cars to race!!! :lol:   i asked to be moved into the Big Bore Vintage heat (Group 2) for sunday's race;  i wanted to see how i'd stack up against the big dogs (plus, there were only about 4 or 5 open wheelers that were going to do the enduro).   they lined me up in the back of the grid -- i got a pretty good start, and began to move up fast!  (the stupid camera failed again, and i got no footage of this race   ).  by the beginning of the 4th lap, i was in 2nd place, behind a big bad very very fast #70 Shelby GT350.  this monster sounded like a NASCAR racer!!!   he would crush me in the straights;  he'd pull about 30 carlengths from T10 to T1 (and i would be glued to his bumper coming thru T10).  we continued in this fashion throughout the entire race, never more than a few seconds apart;  it was very very tight racing!  i tried many times to get around him in the carousel (i owned him there) but he was very smart and very defensive and i had the door shut on me many times.  we came thru T10 the last time, with me a foot off his rear bumper, and he shot off to the finish line, pulling away.....   it was an excellent race, and i had a great time!

amazingly, the Seven needed almost no service during the weekend!   an alternator heat shield came loose (fixed with zip ties and aluminum tape).  the clutch cable needed adjusting.  and that was it!   no oil burned at all;  just added gas and race!  very un-Lotus like! 

i must say, i've missed racing that little car!   its a real racecar, not a fwd grocery getter that i've forced into racing service!  definitely the most fun car i've ever driven on the racing surface!

enjoy the pics and vid!

[Trevor McNeill]

Todd,
First of all, congratulations on the win - that was a great race! Despite the apparent equipment failure on the leader, you were clearly unnerving him as you dogged a more powerful car.
Second - too bad there's no video of the other races. Would love to have seen it
Third - When the heck did Summit become a two lane raceway? What's up with the dotted line?
Trevor McNeill

[fasthonda]

Trevor McNeill wrote:

Todd,
First of all, congratulations on the win - that was a great race! Despite the apparent equipment failure on the leader, you were clearly unnerving him as you dogged a more powerful car.
Second - too bad there's no video of the other races. Would love to have seen it
Third - When the heck did Summit become a two lane raceway? What's up with the dotted line?
Trevor McNeill

hi trevor!

thanks for the compliments; and yes, i am pretty sure i would have gotten the orange S2000 on that lap or the next one (probably coming down the chute into T5). i think that during all the repave(s) recently at summit, that they put have some marks on the pavement.... they are due to repave again this spring, as the potholes were pretty bad in T1/T2 and T6 (i could have gone alot faster thru there if it weren't for all the bouncing!).

oh, and i am so bummed that the camera didn't work for the big bore enduro; it would have been awesome footage!

[StoogeMoe203]

Hey Todd, nice job!  Looks like you were having a blast out there.  You were crushing them coming out of T10.  Don't know why they were all early apexing.  Maybe to defend the line going into the turn, but it was killing their exit speed.  That orange S2000 was doing it every corner.

Those Lotuses were great.  I worked with a guy that used to time trial his.  He said it was so fragile that it used to develop cracks in the monocoque all the time.  The fact that you had no mechanical problems is truly amazing from the stories he used to tell me.  It's good to see those old cars still competing.  I thought you had to go to Elkart Lake to witness them, but apparently not!

[Bill Lehman]

At around 4:55 when you were chasing what looked like a red FF, an open wheeled car rapidly pases you on the right and then swings left.  It looks like the start of a trip through the tulies.  What happened? Did he take out the car you were chasing?  Also, is there any way to find the whereabouts of an old vintage car.  My MGB's last race with me driving was at Summit Point about 1976.  I sold the car and never saw it again but I believe it was "restored" and raced.  I did hear some rumors about 12 different colors of "Bondo" found on the car after they sanded it down.

[fasthonda]

hi bill!

yep;  i was watching that formula ford in my rear view mirror;  he was trying a 'super late braking dive bomb manuever' in the T1 braking zone.  i knew he was going to over-cook it, so i just let him shoot by;   he killed his exit speed totally and slid to the outer rim of the corner, nicely blocking up the other formula ford, who had to really check up!  i did a classic 'crossover' repass, from the outside to the inside, and passed both of them easily and had the line for T3.  after that, i just walked away from them, and set my sights on the next cars in line (the mallock was next).

i bet you can find the wherabouts of your old MGB if you contact the registrars of VRG, and VSCCA, and HSR.   if the car is still in the area, and is still being raced, they'd know who to ask!   good luck.