Good folks,
We went, we saw, we almost conquered....
Just in late Monday night after a week spent at the 50th Sebring Races.
Frank and Ken Graham, Jim Brown, NAMGAR Regalia and me, Dave Houser,
took Frank's freshly restored 1961 Factory raced MGA coupe #43 down
there for the occasion.
I'm sure Frank will tell the whole tale later with photos, but suffice
to say we had a ball. We met up with the other factory raced team and
their MGA coupe from the 62 race, # 52. We also met and spoke with Steve
Knight, the man behind one of the 2 MG Lola's that were there. We had
photo sessions with our car together with the # 52 car, Knighthawk's
tent, etc. Steve is a really nice guy who spent a lot of time talking to
Frank and our crew. Unfortunately, his MG Lola finished behind the other
MG Lola due to trans probs, but it was a great victory for MG in class.
Both our cars suffered some teething problems. Car #52 spun a bearing,
we had clutch problems and timing issues that took up all our time
before the Saturday "parade" that we were shooting for. We only started
the engine for the first time once we got down there!
We were all over the car, under the car, above the car with our four man
crew. I must say we did an admirable job. The factory would have been
proud even if we did drop the spindle for the distributor drive into the
pan :-(( . That necessitated dropping the pan , leaving the front bolts
loose and getting my hand into the rear of the sump to extract former
spindle from the oil bath. Back into the block and correctly timed
before we buttoned up. Then push off the trailer for Frank to drive
around. Oops, no clutch. Can't engage, definite mechanical problem
necessitating pulling the trans!! Well, seats not in yet, so why not. We
pull in record time and find defective pressure plate and clutch disk.
Go figure. Anyway here's the situation. Car number 52 needs bearings, we
need new clutch assembly and here's where I give a BIG hat's off to
Cecelia at Scarborough Faire. Bless here heart, we put in our order 4 pm
Thurs., she overnite's our package for 8:30 delivery(gets to us close to
10:30), grab the package from the startled UPS guy, back to track and
divvy up the order. Both crews go to work and by afternoon we're both
celebrating with, what else, Old Speckled Hen after both cars drive
under their own power. Hugh and Bruce decide their objective with the 52
car is to take one lap around the course for the Sat. "parade" session
and not risk further damage to the engine. Their maintaining 40
some-odds # pressure. However, for us some things are not to be. Frank
comes back from the drivers meeting Sat. morning and tells Ken, Jim and
me that the "parade" lap is actually a 20 minute go-for-broke race
session!!! A helmet, fire-proof race suit, racing harness and a race
license are all that's required to make this happen. After all our
effort, we decide it's probably better not to be in this with these
other racers, after all, we haven't fully sorted out the car, there are
almost zero miles on engine, never been on this track before and the "no
passing" rule was a joke. So while upset with this news we felt we made
the right decision, even though at the last moment Bob Vitrikas offered
his suit and helmet.
We settled down to watch the race which started at 10:30 and cheered on
the MG Lolas.
This was my first trip to this place and it was a ball. It's a pretty
loose party with little security or policing. Golf carts are the
transportation of choice over the pit roads and walkways. They zip
around at speeds close to out of control. Several people hurt. At night,
without headlamps you risk death by golf cart! they drive like their in
a gymkhana. Woe be the pedestrians! the other entertainment is driving
the access roads in pick-up trucks that have seating platforms attached.
It is on these platforms that girls sit and are thrown beads to show
their breasts, not too unlike Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Of course, we
became very adept at the sport of throwing beads only because it was the
custom and when in Rome...just kidding.
They also had a B-17 flying very low making passes overhead. Very
thrilling.
At the end of the Audi dominated 12 hours, a huge fireworks display
heralded the end of the race. Awards to the various finishers, teams
were made and we hitched up and crept back to the motel (Reed's motel,
in Sebring, where the original team stayed back when, run by the same
woman!!) They even have an octagonal clock above the entry!
Wait 'til next year!
cheers,
Dave Houser
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