2011 Race Reports

Our Hurricane in Savannah

The real story of the weekend, however, is in the race Julie Allen has won. 

Vintage Drivers have long been familiar with Julie Allen’s smile, her warmth, and her engaging personality. Many of us got to know her when she first became involved with vintage racing in 1994, first as Membership/Marketing Director for the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) and then as Marketing Director for VIRginia International Raceway. She bought and restored her 1962 Austin-Healey Sprite and formed her DWD (Damn Woman Driver) Racing Team while still at VIR.

After a double mastectomy and months of intensive chemo and radiation treatments, Julie’s doctor gave her the go-ahead to race competitively again. She chose our event at Roebling Road Raceway for her return to the track, supported by a crowd of fans made up of family and friends from Charleston. She may have felt a little rusty behind the wheel when the weekend started, but she said, all smiles, that it felt great to be back on the track where she belongs.

At this event DWD Racing also introduced the original graphic that she has designed for the hood of her car. An adaptation of the ubiquitous pink ribbon symbol for breast cancer survivors, the "damn woman driver" grasps a steering wheel aggressively. Mike obligingly painted it on the car for her. More importantly, rather than her name followed by driver next to her door, he has stenciled
"Julie Allen, Survivor."

In Lieu of a Summer Racing Report,
we're publishing a brief article written by Bill Ward,
VDCA Member Emeritus

I was having lunch with a friend last week, and we were talking about the people we e-mail on a daily basis. At least half of mine were ‘ol racing friends.  She said she talks every day to a friend of hers that lives in the Bahamas. Her friend Pat is also the x wife of a famous racecar driver.  One thing led to another and she asked if I missed racing. Then before I could answer she said. “What is it about racing that makes you all love it so?”

Now this is a question I’ve been asked many times before in many different ways.  People are always wanting to know the secret.  Some times the questions come from friends who know I have been involved most of my life in owning and driving race cars, and want to know what the big deal is.  Just why I have devoted so much time, money, and passion to this thing. Then there were questions by people who are convinced the whole thing is absurd, child like, and also dangerous.  Their hostility requires short answers from me.  Some of my friends who like to argue live for those moments and those people to come along.  It’s well known that racing is loaded with egos the size of a Moby Dick or larger.  The real honest answer is far too complex to answer in a few sentences so I usually go for the quick simple answer of the day.  Like it’s fun, I like to drive fast, it helps to get girls, or I have a death wish. Whatever pops into my head at the moment. 

Have you ever noticed it’s impossible to have a serious conversation with more than 4 people.  You will be interrupted before you finish your first sentence. A guy I know who traveled in Miami’s smart circles once told me he read only the headlines and sometimes just the first paragraph of articles in the NY Times. He said that’s all you need for people to think you are smart.  He said someone will always interrupt you before you finish. One must have Henny Youngman type one liners ready to go. Was it Hemingway who said the only real sports are car racing and bull fighting?  That’s a good  example.  Short, assertive and dramatic.  It may not be true, but it sounds like it might be true.

My lunch friend is a lovely lady who deserves an honest answer.  She has other racing friends and has been at the track with them and in conversation with them about their motives, but it seems to be the un-answerable question.  The more you talk about it, the more questions come up.

There are so many kinds of racing these days I cant keep up, and I have been around it for most of my life.  To tell some one how you feel about it, you need the words of a poet.  I got into racing because a friend wanted to do it. While I was at the University of Florida I had a friend, Dick Richards, who owned a beautiful MGTF 1500.  He found an almost new MG TD he talked me into buying . It didn’t take much.  I bought it for $4,000.  A few years later I was living in Port Washington, NY.  Dick came up to visit the summer of 1957 and we went to our first race, the MG Nationals at Marlboro, Md. After a day of driver’s school we went racing.  I got a first and 2 seconds-in-class that weekend in my TD, and there was no looking back. The 3-day weekend consisted of my loosing a woodruff key, and doing almost all of my racing in the rain, good training for later.  The rain was so bad I had to open the door on the TD to let water out. I drove three laps with a fly in my goggles.  And spent lots of time off the road . After the Novice Race where I got a 2^nd, we were told to behave ourselves, and we rookies could be allowed to continue racing.  I was late getting to the grid--still working on the woodruff key problem--so I lined up in the back of the pack of about 25 cars.  At Marlboro in those days, you made a rolling start on an oval then onto a long straight down to the first hairpin turn. It was still raining.  My surplus flight suit is wet and I am cold and I have that fly in my goggles.  As I come off of the oval, I see everyone has lined up on the right side of the track for the first hairpin turn…being good little drivers.  I take off in 2^nd gear and pass about 20 cars when I get into the hairpin.  I’m now in about 5^th place overall, and every one is thinking “why didn’t I do that?”  After that spectacular pass, every lap I come round, the whole grandstand of wet spectators stood up and cheered.

And that’s why I became a race car driver.

There were many adventures after that. Seventeen race cars and over one hundred races later, I will never forget the thrill of that first time.    

P.s. I drove the TD back home to Port Washington after the race.

Bill Ward 

VDCA’s Ninth Annual Wild Hare Run

Our April event at VIR, the premier track in the South, enjoyed a record entry this year. VDCA’s partners, Tarheel Region BMWCCA and Pro-F2000 helped fill the paddock with race cars of all stripes and levels of racing. Saturday and Sunday spectators from throughout the greater Danville area enjoyed the mix of cars.

Friday evening after the Wild Hare Run, Dave and Robyn Handy of SASCO hosted our entrants at their new shop in the Raceplex. --A great way to start the weekend.

The race that gives this event its name takes place on Friday afternoon. The Wild Hare Run is an Australian pursuit race: cars are lined up in reverse order of qualifying time with the car with the slowest times from Friday’s practice sessions taking the pole. Cars are then staged single file in the hot pits and released at intervals dictated by their official times. Theoretically, all the cars should cross the finish line at the end of the race at the same time, but, of course, this never happens. Since the number of laps for the race is a closely guarded secret and sandbagging for qualifying is frowned upon, attempts to "game" the system are usually futile.

VDCA’s only trophies are for its infamous "fun" races such as the Wild Hare. Bob Clarke, annual fabricator of the second place award, The Bunny’s Butt Trophy, started on the pole in his Bobsey FV and fended off all the wild hares chasing him until the very last lap. Corner workers called his progress through the turns, but he was overtaken before the checkered flag was thrown. This year’s Wild Hare was Sam Blanton in his Datsun 510. Ben Prewitt took the Bunny’s Butt, second place, asking incredulously, "Are you sure? I won this in 2001." ("Like we're gonna remember that from 10 frickin' years ago!" exclaims hare wrangler Doug Meis.)

This year, Race Director, Mike Jackson, inaugurated a new award for the event: a skunk for the driver whose times were waaaaay off his official qualifying times, hence "breaking out" and disqualifying him from winning the Wild Hare pursuit race. He is therefore "skunked." This year the driver most off his previous fast times was Chris Bryant in his amazingly fast MGA.

For the second time this year, Victory Lane Magazine has selected VDCA’s event at VIR as one of the venues for the Formula Vee Festival series they sponsor. Nineteen Formula Vee drivers competed against one another as part of the Group 1 field. Split starts in both Saturday’s and Sunday’s Feature races ensured that they and the spectators could enjoy the spectacle of watching a full field of Formula Vees coming down through the hog pen on their way to take the green flag at Start.

Close racing between the four leaders in Saturday’s race provided heart stopping excitement. While Marcus Jones started on the pole on Saturday, mechanical problems put him out so that Duke Waldrop in his Lynx took the win followed closely by Mike Jackson in the Shadowfax and Mike Ennis in his Lynx. Sunday’s race was equally tight with the lead changing between Waldrop, Ennis and Jackson who had started on the pole. They finished in that order. Not far back, John Harkness driving the Ringwraith and Paul Meis in his Zink fought a tight battle on Sunday for fourth and fifth .

All the Vee entrants also received T-shirts provided by Victory Lane, and Duke and Fay Waldrop hosted a happy hour party at their paddock for all the Vee racers Saturday afternoon before dinner.   Meanwhile, Mike and Kathy Ennis profiled all weekend in their "vintage" scooter and sidecar.

Sunday morning, people were moving in slow motion after Saturday evening’s festivities in the Gallery, but that didn’t stop the intrepid from girding up for the 60-minute Enduro. Thirty-five entrants started the test of vintage endurance, but Tom Kane in his Tiga SC83 took first, completing 21 laps. Nate Scigliano in his March Apache took second, and Skip Bryan finished third in his 1972 BMW 2002.

Group 1 was dominated throughout the weekend by James Hamlin in his silver Lotus XI. Saturday Charles Guest in his MG Midget and John E. Jones in his A-H Sprite vied with each other for second and third. Phil Wicks’ Mini Cooper S and Larry Smith’s Midget ran within 1/10^th of a second of each other for fourth and fifth. Sunday, Larry Smith moved up to capture second while Mack McCormack finished third.

Saturday, Hobie Buppart led Group 2, 5 & 7 from start to finish in his Lola T70 Mk IIIb, turning some very quick laps along the way.  Behind the leader, Larry Wilson's Royale ran second but suffered a mechanical failure and dropped out clearing the way for an S2000 battle between Peter Krause and Bob Hooks with the crafty Krause finishing as the first S2000 across the line by a small margin.

First place in class 5FM was Graham Adelman in the ex-Charlie Gibson Lotus 23.  Behind Graham was Gordon King taking class honors for 5BSR.  You may know Gordon as the infamous "Gordo" of Gordo's Garage Vineyards.  Doug Meis highly recommends the Pinot Garagio. Sunday, Peter Krause took first place followed closely by Tom Kane’s Tiga SC83 and Tom Grudovich’s Brabham BT21 FB.

The 14 Formula Fords and Club Fords in Group 2 elected a split start on Saturday and Sunday taking the green separately from the sports racers. On Saturday Bob Bruce's immaculately prepared 1980 Crossle led them to the flag with Doug Meis alongside in his 1974 Lola T340 followed closely by Rollin Butler in his Crossle 35F. The official lap chart shows that Bob led flag to flag, but there were at least one or two lead changes around the track as they waged a war for top honors.

On Sunday Doug Meis started on the pole, but Rollin Butler was driving the wheels off of his Crossle and Meis was unable to keep him bottled up. Butler led laps 4, 6 and 7 to take the win. Bob Bruce waited patiently to make his moves on the last lap.  After drafting past Meis on the back straight, he set his sights on Rollin coming to the line, but came up short by only .018 seconds.  Meis finished third with all three of them covered by only .147 seconds.  Typical Formula Ford racing with the combined margin of victory from two races of just .106 seconds!  Behind the lead battle, David Allison repeated his class win and finished a mere .027 seconds ahead of Dave Fairchild's Zink. 

The large bore production cars were dominated by Dennis Moser in his Pontiac GTO who took first in both Saturday and Sunday’s feature races. Ray Morgan’s Merlyn MK 6 ran right behind Moser and just ahead of Les Gonda’s MGB GT V8, the three of them finishing in their grid order both days. Saturday Tom Grudovich drove his Ginetta G4 to fourth while Michael Moore in his Lotus Elan finished fifth followed by Hervey Parke’s Ginetta G4. On Sunday, on the other hand, Denny Wilson, who had suffered mechanical problems on Saturday, moved up to fourth while Stacey Schepens finished a close fifth in her Morgan 4/4.

The members of the Triumph "Ghetto" always make a hearty showing at this event, paddocking together, helping each other repair their Triumphs, and sharing a cook out Friday evening. Mark Craig in his Triumph Spitfire finished eighth in Group 1’s Saturday race and fifth on Sunday to make the best showing among the small bore Spitfires. In the larger displacement group, Mark Wheatley bested the field of TR4’s while Henry Frye and Tony Drews swapped finishing positions on Saturday and Sunday. This year Leo Oddi presented the Martha MacDougall award, a bronzed sneaker, to Tony Drews.

--Paul & Doug Meis both contributed to this report

The winning team, "Team Spittoon," was comprised of three Spitfire racers, Mark Craig, Tim Slater and Rob Stewart. The driver of the number one car was the one who counted off his out-lap, 2 flying laps, and his in-lap correctly. But the driver of the number two car (Slater) had fallen asleep in the hot pits waiting for the first driver and runner, and had to be awakened by the runner Brent Owens before he could get his car started and get on track for his four lap stint. The driver of the third car had an eventless session and brought the Team home in first place.