In 1976, the Illinois Sports Owners Association, in conjunction with the
Detroit Triumph Sportscar Club, hosted an event known as the North
American Triumph Challenge. There were 4 main events: autocross, rally,
fuel economy run/tour (1976, remember), and car show. The idea of the
"Challenge" was to have a driver that also looked good. Everyone entered
all of the events, the cars were driven hard, then we cleaned the bugs
off of them and had a car show. No one trailered a car to the first
several events.
There's one observation I'll throw into this discussion. Mind you, now that
Killer has picked up a second place trophy in the car show, I may have to
redirect the focus of my Triumph restoration efforts. Yes, you can all say
"Fat Chance" after reading that sentence! But in 1976, there were still
Triumph dealers. You could go down the street and buy a new one.
That was some time ago. Given that Triumphs are now a non-renewable
resource, there is, in my opinion, a sound basis in shifting some emphasis
away from thrashing the cars around on the street and towards preservation.
I myself will still be emphasizing the driving aspects, but I respect those
who choose a different path.
And of course, I have considerable admiration for folks like Don Carter, who I
think may have been the one who hatched the "Modified Prepared" show class
idea. Those of you at the autocross in Fort Worth may not have paid too much
attention to yet another TR6 on course, white, with black 44's on the side,
and oddly enough, a Team Fat sticker on the rear bumper. He and his wife
Louise were certainly not pussyfooting around the course. Hmmm, I better not
say much about the drive that Dusty, their son, took in Killer around the
hotel parking lot before the banquet. Anyway, Don certainly scoots that car
around the autocross. He also got best of show in Seattle with it.
mjb.
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