1990 Serengeti Vintage Race Weekend at Watkins Glen
Things got started Thursday, as I found a message on the machine
from Dave Smith and Joe Tierno asking if I knew of a source for
an MGA 1500 or 1600 short block. Not a good omen. All I could come
up with was a 1600 bare block of unknown condition.
Friday started out with intermittent rain, as I loaded up
Tilly's 74 MGB-GT, which I've just endowed with the '66 engine from
my roadster. Alas, Marietta has seen her last of the highway, the
demon rust has gotten an irreversible grasp on her. So it was
off to the Glen in Elmo, the Teal Blue GT, leaving the topless Sprite
in the barn, hoping for better weather. I got to the track, registered
for the show, and found a nice spot next to a Testorossa, propped my
car ID card and a TEAM.NET sticker up in the window, and headed
off to the garages.
The local's garage was a bit fuller this year- Gary Hatch in
his McLaren M5E #5, Don Funke in his MGA Twin Cam, Mike Shay in
a Green w/Yellow #89 Spitfire, and Russ Moore's first outing in his
Red #49, former SCCA Spitfire. Russ's engine wasn't quite finished, so
he was running the engine out of his wife's street spit! After catching
up on the schedule and state of the cars, I wandered out to the infield
to see who else I could find. [large amount of drooling, etc. deleted]
I found Joe Tierno's BRG '57 MGA #29, sans engine & personal. They were
off to Syracuse to pick up a usable block. The removed engine was a
sad sight- the crank lost it, and managed to bust out both (!) sides of
the block. Joe's car was recently featured in British Car (June-July?).
It won the Collier Cup back in 58, and again a couple of years ago.
This wasn't the historic engine- that self destructed a few years ago.
Just 2 cars down was the Gray MGA 1622 #06 of Mark Brandow, of Quality
Coaches, who had come out from MN. The left wing had fresh primer,
evidence of an altercation with an ALFA last week at Lime Rock. Oh-
and one more semi-local, Don Narde, form Horseheads, was tucked back
in a corner with his Yellow/Red Diamler SP250 and A-H Sprite. Don also
has a couple of Gulwing Mercedes.(!) I really wouldn't mind an SP250...
Other than more Can-Am cars than you can shake a tire iron at,
some of the less common cars (for the Glen), included 5 Ginettas,
one of which was the only G-10 that still has a Ford 289 in it out of
9 produced that way, and another, the G-15 of Steve Morrison which will
soon be moving to the area. Allards included a J2X, JR coupe, and a
Palm Beach. One of the few prewar cars present was a 1932 Auburn
Straight 8 county fair sprint car, in primer gray, barely out of
years of barn storage. About 300 cars, all told.
The rain finally cleared some, allowing a fairly uneventful
afternoon of practice. Saturday was another story. The weather was great.
I drove the GT again, as Kim and Tilly weren't feeling well, and
wouldn't make it out, and the GT was already registered. Things began
to break early- The McLaren was first. On the first practice lap, right
after the bridge, before the S/F line, a left rear suspension component
broke, sending Gary into quite a spin, from which he recovered with no
damage other than where the body fell down on the tire. On Russ's second
lap, going through the boot, he began to feel the Spit doing a bump-steer,
like a TR3. Oh-oh, something's wrong. Seems that a bolt holding the left
rear in place had vanished... hmmm. Mark Brandow came in complaining of
loss of high revs. The rocker shaft had managed to break right where the
set screw goes through... A large puff of smoke emitted from the SP250 at
the end of the S/F straight might have signaled the destruction of Don's
new engine, but he was only down 2 sec's when he came around 11 again.
Seems the radiator catch bottle still had some oil in it, and had blown
out all over the inner fender and exhaust manifold. Whew. And so it went.
It was reassuring to see Joe Tireno's 'A out on the track- they got the
new engine fired up late Friday night. Saturday ended on a high note for
the weekend- The Diamler managed to take 1st place in their class in the
2 hour enduro, driven by Don Narde and Gary Hatch.
Sunday was mostly miserable. The rain started around 9:00. It
got colder and wetter. All groups ran, regardless, but the fields were
pretty small. Don's Twin-Cam managed a 2nd in class in the Collier Cup, and
Russ finally got some solid track time in the Spit, a victory in itself,
despite rain, fogged face mask, and all. The field for the Can-Am feature
was predictably disappointing, with only about 10-12 out of 33 cars making
the grid, and 4 of those pulling off after a lap or so, due either to
lack of rain tires or desire to flirt with the Armco. I guess that's racing-
sometimes you have a good day, sometimes, you don't. I can't wait till
next year!
________________________________________________________
Roger Garnett (garnett@BATCOMPUTER.TN.CORNELL.EDU)
The South Lansing Centre For Wayward Sports Cars
"All donations of stray, orphaned, odd, neglected, etc.
sports cars and bits in need of a good home accepted."
PS- Mike- No, I didn't get the Sprite there, seeing as Tilly didn't
drive up, but the GT was there all three days, from early till late.
And I did drive around and look for your truck...
|