[Fot] RMVR at HPR

[Joe Guinan]

Friends,

I just got back from the Rocky Mountain Vintage Racing event at High Plains
Raceway in Colorado.  Went out with a local guy who wheels a Bugeye Sprite.
I'll post a link to his race videos when he finishes the production.  You'll
want to "ride along" on a few circuits of that track, as it is a real jewel
- see below.  I'll also work on getting my photos put up, and will post a
link to those as soon as I finish.  There were about a hundred different
cars at the event - from a McLaren CanAm car to a nearly stock MGA running
Historic Class.

I had a great time over the weekend.  They needed course workers to help man
some stations on the track because several regular workers were at The
Circuit Of The Americas in Austin, TX for a V8 Supercars event.  Others were
called off to safety training at Pikes Peak to get ready for the annual hill
climb there.  They were almost forced to shorten the course, which would
have been a real shame as two really cool track sections would have been
lost. Another friend from our travelling party and I ended up volunteering
and they managed to find enough other workers to keep the entire track open
for racing.

My buddy in the Sprite has been telling me how much he liked the track at
HPR and I now understand why.  It's an outstanding facility for the kind of
racing I want to do.   Unlike the two pretty flat tracks closer to me (MAM
near Council Bluffs, Iowa and MPH in Hastings, Nebraska), it has elevation
changes of up to 70 feet in some sections. There seemed to be passing
opportunities almost everywhere I looked, blind apexes in a couple spots, a
couple decreasing radius corners, some fast sweepers, a corkscrew, some nice
"esses", and a couple nice long straight sections.  The track seemed like it
would be a challenge, punishing mistakes but rewarding when attacked
properly.  I only got to ride along on three laps during one lunch break,
but I felt there were sections of the track that flowed very nicely. I
particularly liked the view downhill on what they call "To Hell On A
Bobsled" (corners 9a, 9b and 10).

I REALLY enjoyed my time at Turn 4 - the end of the longest straight
section.  I got to see the cars at speed up close and saw quite a bit of
racing action.  The racing was aggressive, but efforts were made to keep
everything "in the vintage spirit".  I saw more than one incident that in
SCCA (Sports Car Crashing Association"?) would have resulted in contact.
These resulted in a couple "off track excursions" when the overtaking driver
avoided contact by bailing out.  I'm not completely sure, but I don't think
there was any "metal to metal" all weekend.  Working allowed me a great
opportunity to see what it takes behind the scenes to put on a good event,
and gave me an appreciation for the work done by the many volunteers.  I was
impressed by the nearly "professional" level of organization at the event
and how everyone still managed to be friendly and outgoing and generous with
information.

My only regret was that I didn't manage to spend much time with the FOT
guys.  With trying to fix an ignition problem on the Bugeye Saturday night,
and working Turn 4 all day Sunday, I just didn't have the time to do
everything.  I wanted to spend some time hunting down Spitfire
owners/drivers/wrenches so I could pick their brains and managed to figure
some things out that should help me with my Spitfires.  I did get to meet
Kevin Lynch, "Too Damn Funky" Jim Grace, Mark Eden and son Christian, and we
paddocked next to Dan Forgey and "The Black Pearl" - his beautiful black
TR4. I missed getting into Race Control to meet Bill Rosenbach.  I also
didn't get race results yet, so hope to see a report from one of those guys
about how the FOT upheld it's honor over the weekend.

We started finalizing plans we for finishing my old SCCA Spitfire on the way
home, and it sounds like we might even get another car or two started for
some other guys.

Joe Guinan
Fremont, NE