Mission Race day, Sunday June 28

[bertvorgon]

Some times in life, we get to step back in time, within a modern context. Last Sunday I got to do that, going out to Mission Raceway to help Specialty Engineering and take some pictures for the charity ride. The tire company that Specialty uses, to change all our race tires, etc, bid on the ride, and won. And as a wonderful gesture, the owner of the company gave the ride to the very employee who does the tire changing, and his son. The ride was to be in Harry's Ferrari.
At the heyday of our racing, as I did Solo and Hillclimb, Tracey and Georges raced at Westwood, Collin did the NASPORT series in his 510, and then Trevor raced in the Datsun Radial Challenge series, in his 510, all built and prepped by Specialty. Along with us was a fellow who ran hi Mazda RX2 out of the shop also. with that came friends and family.
This past Sunday was almost a reunion of sorts of our core group, who at our best, ran the 7 Hour Enduro's at Westwood, a culmination of TEAM work, friendship and camaraderie that I miss to this day, yet know that time has gone by. This Sunday brought that back, the passion still burning under the surface for a lot of us, and of course Tracey is still racing with Harry in the Miata, so it is immediate for them. Been a long time since I had that much fun, in the heat of a race day.
Tracey is one hell of a driver and I wish you could have seen her hold off that Corvette, until unfortunately, the damn gear box stuck in gear. That Miata makes about 340 HP, so it is well up to the task. Andy had just arrived at the track to watch, so as the car came in, like the old Enduro days, the team is on the car. Andy jumps in and starts to take the top off the transmission tunnel, as he knows EXACTLY what is wrong. We start the cool down on the car, with fans and ice water, tires checked, cool suit water topped up. Harry is up for his race in 20 minutes.
Back in the Westwood days, we had the 510 come in with a clutch problem. We had that tranny out, clutch changed and the car back on the ground in 20 minutes.
Carol brought out her mint RX7, which she has owned since new and is due to go into the local rotary guru to get a new engine built. She used to help as crew at the Enduro's, ready for whatever got thrown at us. I was the "Crew Chief" keeping track of all the STUFF, especially when the time for fuel came about. I have a huge respect for pit crews, as I know what it is like to keep a car running, when you never know what might be trying to stop it. You have no idea what it is like to change brake pads on a car that has just come in from 3 hours of beyond hard racing, and has just hauled itself down from 135 MPH.
We had no drama like this on Sunday, but it did bring back those memories for me big time. Andy had the car fixed in 15 minutes and Harry was ok to go for his session.
The fellow and his son just had the biggest grins on their faces, totally into the race scene for the day, and, even bigger when the Ferrari ride came along. I blazed a few dozen pictures off, then wandered around the pits taking a few others, the vintage cars being really nice to photo. That Ford Escort was really fast, very Impressive.
The yellow 280 was built by a local fellow, and now campaigned by the new owner, and it is very, very fast and sounded like only that straight six can sound at full song.
Enjoy the pictures I hope, get a sense of the flavour of the day, with the extreme we had been getting at least backing off a tad for the afternoon.

[bertvorgon]

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[bertvorgon]

The Blue 510 is now a vintage racer, built by Specialty back in the 80's for the DRC races, won many races! I could write a book about this car and the battle of the race shops at the time......think Smokey Yunick

[bertvorgon]

More..
The old Brahbam BT40 has been rebuilt by Collin, who now vintage races it. This car he crewed for when he was younger. It won the Players Formula Atlantic series one year

[bertvorgon]

a few more

[funwithmonkeys]

Great pictures Keith. It looks like that would have been a fun day.I had a good look at the Miata, it's one hell of a fast car. I have to get out and see it race one of these days.

[gooned]

Was it Carol sitting talking with Steve in the stands during the last? I never caught her name but recognized the face. Lots of new bits on the Miata since a coule years back, I didn't realize that was Harry's Ferrari, wow.

Shame the diff burnt up (literally!) on the corvette as they were putting on a good show.

[bertvorgon]

No, that is Rickardo's lady friend.

Yes, Tracey said she thought it was misting rain on the windshield at first...then smoke..then boom.

We had a funny discussion about raising the boost on the Miata, Steve and I know how to do it now, look out Todd!

This is Carol Berg, Brian's sister. We all ended up mountain biking together after the racing years. I think the technical aspects from the cars just transferred to our bikes, to fill that need, then of course a bunch went mountain bike racing. That filled the competitive streak in all of us.

[Chickenman]

How the H**l did I miss this?? Dang!!

[bertvorgon]

So who is up for a drive this year?

Seems like our local crowd has vaporized this year, even the Realm is quiet. Last year, other than our Winthrop drive, it was inactive also. James and I did the last drive by ourselves.

I'd like to do the Chukanut drive, then hook down to Widbey Island through Oak Harbour for the day.

[Chickenman]

I'm always up for a drive Keith. Car should even start now.

[gooned]

A year in now on the M and only 9K on it, let's go!