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Lots of track time We were back at our home track at Brainerd the weekend of August 3-4-5 and ,man o man, did we have track time. Four really good sessions each day on Friday and Saturday, and 3 sessions on Sunday. That translated to 3 practices and 1 race on Friday, practice, qualifying, and 2 races on Saturday and warm up, qualifying, and one race on Sunday. I figure most of us averaged at least 12 laps per session, so multiply that out and we all did well over 100 laps for the weekend. That’s a lot of miles in a vintage race car. Bill Groschen and Bob Youngdahl did a great job organizing the sessions and maintaining the reigns on the racing spirit. Cool cars and a few new drivers The most amazing car to appear was the Peyote. The Peyote has not raced at BIR since the early 90’s, maybe longer ago, but it was faster than ever. Owner Bill Babcock has been traveling around the country this summer doing something like 14 vintage events with the car. Bill himself was very cool guy. His hauler/camper is a custom job he made from an Airstream camping trailer. The back folds down so he can drive the Peyote right up in the back of it inside of a little work shop space. The front half of the trailer is Bill’s living quarters, which he designed according to what he imagined Nero Wolf would have lived in. (Nero Wolf is a fictitious detective character, I forgot to look for the orchids) Bill also had some interesting motorcycle stories, he raced bikes for many years with the scars to prove it. He now owns one of Steve McQueen’s old Triumph dirt scramblers. But the coolest stories were of his encounters with Von Dutch. Also in attendance was, Bill Detinger and his TR2 form Wisconsin. I can’t remember seeing Bill at BIR since the 80’s. Still entertaining as ever, he provided us with some of the best happy hour cheeses I have ever tasted, including a Maytag Blu that left my taste buds doing flip flops. Bob Bodine was there doing “final sorting” with his Ferrari 250 SWB and a Devin SS preparing for Monterey. Bob seemed to be taking it easy, and I found myself behind the Ferrari for a lap or two while in my Ford. It was a very interesting to see how the Ferrari handled from that perspective. John Daniels had a Sunbeam Tiger that I don’t remember seeing before, and as you might expect it was loud and fast. There were also a couple of Chevrons in attendance, and a couple of S2000 sports racers. And let us not forget the historic backbone of our club, the Bugeye Sprites, Midgets, and “Inge” MGA. Open wheelers were a little thin, with myself in the Ford, John Hertsgaard in the Junior, and Jon Belanger in the Vee. All of the drivers were patient and presented no problems that I was aware of for us little guys. Socializing and bench racing: There was lots of it. Quite a few new folks to meet and greet, and new and returning cars to chat about. Lot’s of refreshments and snacks provided by the Hertsgaards and Autopia of Bloomington (thank you very much, John and Louise) At the end of the weekend, we were all exhausted. Let’s do it again! |
| 8/22/07 |