I had a weekend I will never forget.
I have no idea why they accepted me, my 1960 MGA was clearly the cheapest
car within a 15 mile radius (carefully excluding the resort city of Salinas)
My drivers medallion ( dog tag of the rich and shortly to be famous) was
numbered 487 out of 500. Hmm, I like close shaves.
We arrived wednesday evening, did race registration at a nearby hotel and
collected armfulls of fascinating stuff. Including a beautiful black box
inscribed with rings of AutoUnion. Truly a box of substance.
Unfortunately, it contained a little league trophy, or at least thats what
it looked like anyway. Hey, dont knock it, I have no little league
trophies! Back at the motor home in the paddock, it was dark, cold and we
were alone. Felt like we had bummed a ride into town on a freight train.
Thursday, we had Skip Barber chalk talk and lead/follow the Vipers for the
first timers. Actually I knew more or less the way around, having done
numerous SCCA and HMSA vintage races at Laguna Seca before, but as far as
Historics were concerned, I was a first timer. Got some useful pointers,
also blasted past Stirling Moss in the DBR1, He courteously moved aside to
allow all of us little ducklings to waddle by. Ogled and lusted at million
dollar machines for the rest of the day.
Friday was practice for our group 3B. Had a sizzling good time learning to
dirt track the Dunlops. Better not try that on the Yoko 008's. Finished
mid pack, broke my previous best on Dunlops at 2:04, some 4 secs slower than
the best on Yokes.
Saturday, spent watching the racing. Never saw ole Sterling even make it
round the first corner. Now here is a tale, I remember the first time I ran
Laguna, actually the first practice session, the first lap no less.
Actually the first corner of the first lap, turn 2, that's where I did my
FIRST ever 360. I expected better of ole Sterling. Rumor has it, his bill
for driving your irreplaceable car is $20,000, plus first class fares/rooms
for himself plus another. The Aston was quietly loaded on to a flatbed at
10pm Saturday night, to be spirited away to the luminum bashers in the sky.
Wasnt too badly bonked, flattened that gorgeous lip, though. Probably didnt
bend the frame from what I could see. At least this time he didnt offer to
autograph anyones dent!
Back at Humphry, our long suffering balsa wood and staples motor home, here
comes Andy with a Speedvision T shirt and assorted co-axial cables dangling
from his overalls. As formally as he could, he announces, "your car has
been selected to carry the in car video cameras for group 3B race on Sunday,
would you object". WOULD I OBJECT!, heres a hacksaw Andy, 25 feet of duct
tape, oh and a welder if you need it, take me, I'm yours. Thought it was a
hoax at first, unbelievable.
During the broadcast, they did these interesting little vignettes on
selected cars. They must have filmed the one they did on my car on Friday,
I knew nothing about it and was completely surprised to see it on the
broadcast. They must have got the info from my race entry sheet because,
that was where 6 months ago, I listed the Minilites. While talking about my
Minilites, they held a long shot of my...brand new Panasports!
I was nervous enough, now the added burden of holding up the pride of
Abingdon, and staying on the black stuff with all the world watching (thats
what it felt like anyway!) Believe me you do think about that bloody camera
looking over your shoulder. I am sure I would have polished off the AC
Bristol 3 laps sooner without anyone looking over my shoulder. Jerry Lynch
in his beautiful 1960 Ferrari 250 GT and I had a great battle lap over lap.
He'd scream past on the long bits, and I was all over him on the round bits.
He must have been feeling the heat from the dreadnought thrust of all those
twiddly little pushrods of mine. Couldn't resist a couple of tail wags for
the fans you know. And now I would like to thank all the little people who
made this possible, including my 4'10" mum. If you look carefully, you can
see "Hi Mum" on my helmet. Speedvision kindly gave me a tape of the full
uplink ( getting the lingo down now) from my car. Buddy Terry at work got
the full broadcast on tape. Almost choked on his popcorn when my name came
over the air!
Soo there it is, a weekend I will never forget, gorgeous weather,
spectacular cars, professional racing, an excellent show all round. No its
not really racing, its a festival, sort of a 4 wheel Woodstock, without the
pot and pimples.
For a moment, pretend you are Steve Earle. Look at the people you have to
keep happy:
A) His pals of 25 years (but Steve, I've done the previous 24 years, how can
you drop me now),
B) His sponsors ( Well Steve, we'd like for you to pull in the 14th
percentile demographic, our people are going to be watching the results very
closely)
C) The paying public ( whadya mean the toilets are full, I paid $25 for
this? )
D) The Testosteroni. (The beryllium plated valve guides really make a
difference)
I cant even keep myself happy most of the time.
Anyone want a tape, drop me a line, I have both Saturday and Sunday
broadcasts and of course, my 20 seconds of fame and glory.
Thanks for a great weekend to Steve Earle and Chris Vandagriff.
Best Regards
Malcolm Cox, very red 1960 MGA, #80
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