Elkhart Lake Vintage Festival - last weekend at beautiful and fast
Road America.
The featured marques were Bugatti and Elva - there were more Bugattis
per square mile than I had seen in my life. Plus, those guys actually
raced them. Wonderful! There were Elvas galore, too, some blindingly fast.
Abbreviated report, since I was awfully busy:
Joe Alexander - TR4 - ran a great race, exciting duel with a Volvo
P1800. The car ran well after a late night fix, replacing a broken
rear motor mount with a piece of two by four. Joe will soon have a
part number on that piece - watch for it on his website.
Jerry Barr - GT6 - had a number of problems. Sorry, Jerry, I was too
busy and I lost track of them.
Don Brick - TR4 - ran okay but decided to not run the feature race
out of respect for his engine which was telling him that it wanted a
new set of bearings. Don has decided to sell his car, a white TR4
that he has raced for a number of years, and will be retiring from
racing. We'll miss him very much.
Bill Dentinger with the always beautiful Thunderbolt -- broke a
steering rack mounting, welded it up, then discovered that the rack
itself was damaged. My only regret in that whole deal is that I
didn't get to watch when the car went up on two wheels -- Bill
attributes its finalfour point landing to having his weight on the
proper side of the body.
Bob Wismer usually runs a TR4 but this weekend drove the Talisman,
the latest restored rare car from Wismer and Dentinger - very pretty,
and I'll bet not many people on the list have ever seen one, including me.
Dennis Delap was there in his pretty TR3, promising to drive even
faster next year.
Tony Drews - had run out of good tires, tried to use up an old set of
Dunlops and was turning not-so-bad times, but the transmission
finally hollered "uncle" so Tony missed the feature.
Irv Korey, TR4, had fun for the last time in his red TR4. Irv has
decided for personal reasons to retire while at the peak of his
career and will be selling his car and equipment. We'll miss him sorely.
uncle jack (me) developed a mysterious SU malady, had the carbs apart
and together five times, never finding a problem, so in desperation I
gooed up all the gaskets with Hylomar and ran it. Wow. I battled a
P1800 for the first several laps, passing and re-passing. I ended up
second in class, beaten by the blindingly fast Elva Courier of
Youngdahl (cross-flow head, Webers, etc. Who cares - neat car, good
driver). I am still ecstatic about my lap times - 2:53, a lifetime
best except for the year they re-paved the track.
Washatko - TR6 - when I saw him last he was at the very front of a
very fast pack, but sorry, I started packing up to leave.
I'f I've overlooked anything or anybody, please fill in.
This is a really super event and I recommend it to anyone who has
"always wanted to run Road America". It doesn't get much better than
Wisconsin in the Fall.
uncle jack
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