The following is a brief summary from Mr. William Watkins....who was
invited to drive the TR250 at the Seattle races recently.......
> Hi Mordy:
> You asked about Seattle. The TR250K was an interesting car. Apparently the
styling was the inspiration for the TR7. I saw a TR7 at Portland and could
see some similarities. I understand that Brock received no compensation for
this.
> The history of the car is that it was built using TR250 components for the
'68 Sebring race, driven by Bob Tullius and Jim Dittmore. It retired after
an hour or two due to a wheel failure. The wheel had been modified for some
reason ( lightness, cooling, whatever) by cutting a triangular hole in each
spoke. Following that ( I'm a little hazy on this) I believe it was raced
somewhere else before the project was abandoned by Standard Triumph. It was
in the Collier Museum for some time , then sold to someone in Studio City or
Encino who drove it on the street. Pat Hart bought it from him and did a
beautiful restoration.
> When I first sat in the car, the top of the swept back windshield was
about 3" from my forehead, so I removed the seat cushions and sat on the
floor. That corrected that problem but made it a little difficult to see
the front corners. I was a little intimidated by the thought that I might
damage the beautiful aluminum body even tho Tony Garmey, Pat's
driver/mechanic, said to go for it ("Pat doesn't like slow drivers"). On
the first couple of laps I found the steering to be much quicker than
anything in my experiance except , maybe, a kart, but I adjusted to that. My
qualifying was not too swift and I was placed 23rd on the grid. On the start
of the first race, I passed a lot of cars but upon braking at the end of the
straight, which is pretty rough, the car became very unstable , ( scared the
shit out of me as a matter of fact ) , so I lost most of what I had gained.
After I settled down and braked more prudently, I passed a few cars and
moved
> up to 17th. at the end of the race.
> We changed the brake bias to lessen the rear brakes and discussed the
possibility of raising the rear spoiler which is cockpit adjustable.
> In Sunday's practice I didn't notice a lot of improvment but managed to
avoid instability by using the brakes judicially. So in the race, I had a
good battle with a couple of Porsche 911's, got past both of them , and
pulled out with a pretty good lead when I noticed water entering the
cockpit. I pulled in and we found that the fan belt had come off due to a
misalignment with the alternater. So that was pretty much it for me as a
Triumph driver. Pat seemed pleased with my dice with the Porsches but since
his other drivers, Ron Butler in the Miles R2 MG and Barry Lietch ( who came
over from NZ ) in a McLaren Formula B, both won their races, I doubt that he
considers me as his star driver.
> On Monday it was raining so I didn't go out for practice and decided not
to risk it in the race either,so Tony Garmey took it out for the race. He
was turning 7 seconds quicker than I was so that kind of establishes my
performance level. He had raised the spoiler a notch and avoided the rough
spots but he also talks of pointing the car in and just standing on it,
putting the car in a drift. I'd like to try it again sometime, but my
concern for damaging the car would probably limit my performance. I feel a
lot better driving my own cars.
> So, that will teach you to ask. I,ll sent you a picture when Mr Dunsmore
gets them to me.
> Regards, Bill
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