Here's a rundown on this weekend's racing at NHIS.
NHIS holds an annual vintage event for both cars and bikes. This year,
they doubled the size of the car show associated with the event, and
even included Saturday as "truck" day. Ever see 150 spit 'n polished
semis in a field all decorated up in macabre paintjobs, like our
favorite, the "Widow Maker" complete with airbrush graveyard on the
side? It's a trip...
But vintage racing was big time Alfas. All the Alfas were put in one
group, and represented 40% of a 25 car grid! I had the only 1600 in the
group, and somebody with a weird sense of humor made me the last Alfa
in the grid for the qualifying race. Needless to say, I passed a few
cars in that race, doing well enough to be moved up to 6th for the next
day's sprint races.
At the start, I discovered the downside of GTA gearboxes. The second
gear is so high compared to a regular box that a hot 1300 can
out-accellerate me in second! So after the first turn I had a few cars
to chase, but ended up stuck behind Tony Wang's georgeous Maserati 300s
The Maserati, with twice as much engine and 3/4 as much cornering
ability was impossible to get past without risking more than I care to
risk when racing with a million dollar car! Such is the dilemma of
vintage racing.
Sunday was an exact repeat, except that I did manage to catch and pass
Tony's Maserati in the uphill part of the dogleg road course, then went
after a Swallow Doretti (a fiberglass English special) running in
third place, but ran out of time, taking the checker just a car length
behind him.
Racing was remarkably clean. I only saw three spins, strangely enuff
all Italian cars. Sherm Wolf spun his Ferrari 212 Barchetta quite
spectacularly, however, then kept on going. Sherm has put over 20,000
km on this car, doing the Mille Miglia and CA Mille numerous times.
In fact, it was marvelous to see so many valuable cars being used. With
only 125 cars total, we had Sherm's Barchetta, a SWB Berlinetta, a
340, and a Dino Coupe (real enduro racecar type, not a road version),
three Maseratis, two '30s GP cars and Tony's 300S and a D Jag. In the
pits, we saw a California Spider, a Dino GTS and a 330 GTC. Oh, year,
track owner Bob Bayre brought over his M-B 540K. Not bad for a little
event in the middle of NH!
Jim Hayes jeh@fotec.com tel:1-800-537-8254 fax:1-617-241-8616
Vintage racing '59 & '62 Alfa Spiders.
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