[Fot] 1992 at Mid Ohio

[Mark J Bradakis]

That event left me with one of my fondest memories ever.  There were 
many from that weekend, like rattle can paint repairs and the already 
mentioned fragrant incident.  I wonder if I still have the well worn and 
tattered T shirt stashed somewhere in the house?  I know I've told this 
tale before, but....

Anyway, the feature race was getting close, the drivers headed out to 
the pregrid.  All the others made their way to the bleachers there at 
the final turn before the start/finish line. There was just SO MUCH 
energy in the crowd, such an incredible event already.  Everybody was 
yakking away in spirited animation. That is until the amazing field of 
gathered Triumphs came into view on the pace lap.  It got REAL quiet all 
of a sudden in the stands.  Well, not counting the roar of the engines 
rolling by on the track.  I don't think there was a dry eye out there, 
it was just such an incredible, emotional sight to see what started as a 
dream become a reality, to see that impressive collection of Triumphs 
roaring by en masse on their way to the green flag.

It was a great beginning.

Writing that just now brought up another memory.  As some of you may 
recall there was a vintage-race at autox list for a while.  It was one of 
the ones that got pruned due to lack of interest, as so many other 
on-line options opened up as the network grew.  But a bit over a year 
after that Mid Ohio event I wrote a message to that list, which included 
portions of this email from well before 2002.

http://autox.team.net/html/fot/1998-09/msg00000.html

"Those old men and women along the road remember. They weren't waving to 
us. They were waving to the ghosts of those who once drove our cars 
absolutely as fast as they knew how to go."

mjb.

ps:  It's nice that most of us are still flesh and blood, not yet 
ghosts.  See you all at Mid Ohio.