[This message came in while I was out of town, and being in HTML format was
not sent out. Sorry about the delay. mjb.]
FOT'ers,
My wife and I raced this weekend at Sebring with the SCCA vintage group.
This was our first trip to Sebring since last October and we were amazed at
the changes underway at this venerable old shrine of endurance racing. Now
under the direction of new leaseholder, Dr. Don Panoz, owner of Road
Atlanta and other North American racing venues, the transformation is
startling. They are in a round-the-clock battle to complete the new pits
and press/luxury boxes, as well as a new luxury hotel (Chateau Elan), for
the March 12-hour event. My guess is the odds are about even as to
completion in time. The pits are somewhat usable as there were at least
four teams testing there the whole weekend. They were limited to the
section of track other than the club circuit where we were racing.
The Sebring airport itself where the track is located is undergoing quite a
renaissance. The new terminal should be complete by mid-May. Terry, my
wife and I waundered over there in search of avgas for her Formula Vee and
stumbled onto the Group 44 hanger. And a very nice hanger it is! Bob
Tullius has assembled a veritable museum of warbirds and other interesting
aircraft as well as most all of the old Group 44 Jaguar racecars and a very
tasty Trans-Am TR8 Coupe. Among the planes I remember are: P-51, T-28,
T-6, PT-13, Fairchild PT-?, Waco biplane, Stearman biplane and several more
modern craft including a nice Beech Barron. The military planes are
immaculate in the appropriate colors of their branch and use. The more
modern ones were painted in Group 44 colors and all numbered
appropriately--N44TX, etc. All very impressive. And, frosting the cake
were the TR8 convertible and TR6 roadster, the last two to roll off the
assembly line. Each has less than 1,000 miles on it and have never spent a
total day outside.
Bob, himself was busily moving aircraft around with a vintage "tug" and
prepping the P51 for the morning flight. He has essentially opened the
hanger to the public and asks only a small donation to the local humane
society which we were more than glad to oblige. He thanked us on behalf of
the "kittys". We chatted a few moments but didn't keep him as he was
obviously keen to get up in the Mustang. Latter in the morning we saw it
overhead at the track.
All in all, a great weekend with a decent turnout for the vintage
class--about 20 cars including two Bobsey sports racers and two Chevron
coupes, one of which was a mechanical dns. The Chevron belonged to Charlie
Kolb who is about 76 years old and still goes like hell. He once won 35 of
42 FJ races one year in the early 60's racing for Cooper and BMC.
Personally, I ran my best times in the TR4 and Terry ran close to her best
in the FV. We got home about 9:00PM tired and happy. Ain't life great?
Hopefully, all the changes at Sebring don't result in a gain of class at
the expense of "atmosphere".
Best regards,
Roger Beasley
Cape Coral, Fl
#75 TR4
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