At the 1974 SCCA National Convention in Milwaukee, they put on an autocross
in a restaurant parking lot. It was supposed to be an ice khana on the
nearby lake, but it was too warm in Milwaukee in February! Anyway, the
course was half on the asphalt parking lot, half on a snow-covered field
next door. Everyone drove MGBs supplied by the local BMC dealer.
The course was such that, when I drove it, I had to shift to 2nd briefly at
the end of the longest straight before downshifting again for the turn. So,
apparently did a lot of other people. Then Gordon Smiley (who later was
killed at Indy) got in the 'B and ran the whole straight in first. Just
wrapped the s*** out of that li'l car!
"Jeez, Gordon," I said to him when he came in, "how come you didn't shift on
the straightaway?" He gave me that mischievous V-shaped grin of his and
replied, "It's not MY car."
Don't recall if he won it, but he was definitely top-5.
--Rocky
>sometime around 1969-1970, my father went to a SCCA national conference (or
>somthing similar) in atlanta. one of the events there involved all
>participants driving a MGB around a 30 sec "speed trial". The details are
>sketchy as mostly all of this is only as it has been told to me, but the
>results are certain as we have the results on paper from the event. Dad
did
>pretty well coming in 12th out of many drivers. In second place that day
in
>that MGB... Mark Donahue. Maybe some older members could fill in the
blanks.
>
>Rick Newman
>
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