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Re: Feeling Nostalgic

To: "William G Rosenbach" <wgrosenbach@juno.com>, <wdayton@attglobal.net>
Subject: Re: Feeling Nostalgic
From: "R. Kastner" <kaskas@earthlink.net>
Date: Tue, 22 May 2001 22:53:30 -0700
Interesting that they are running races in Steamboat.  I ran a race through
the streets there with six blocks of  Main Street being the front straight
in 1955 with my first M.G. Special. My pit area assigned was the dime store
on main street, "Hesteds." ( I've still got a neat photo of that pit area.)
It was half pavement and half dirt streets with a single lane bridge
involved too. I was brought up to the race committee later that day for
passing on that bridge.  "My boy, you just can't do that sort of thing". It
was also my first Triumph race.  I ran the distributers TR-2  that did not
have a driver qualified for the main event.  Lots of Jags and a couple
Tr-2's, MG.s and Dan Collins in his little Ferrari ( very cool car) another
car was a Jagalac ( Jag with a Cadillac engine) coupe with Bob Carns up.
Later he did the Bo-Car.   I. W. Stevenson brought his OSCA cars from good
old California.  I had so much money I only had to share my motel with three
other guys.

----- Original Message -----
From: "William G Rosenbach" <wgrosenbach@juno.com>
To: <wdayton@attglobal.net>
Cc: <fot@autox.team.net>
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2001 6:41 PM
Subject: Re: Feeling Nostalgic


> G'day Wes,
>
> Here in Colorado, Rocky Mountain Vintage Racing (RMVR) got started in
> 1981 and had its first race in 1982. RMVR got an offer from the City of
> Steamboat Springs to conduct a Vintage Race through the streets of
> Steamboat Village, the ski resort just outside of town for the 1984
> season. There was already a motorcycle race being held there. The
> motorcycle event was an actual points paying race for our local
> motorcycle sanctioning body, the MRA. They also included a vintage group
> in this event that attracted some really nice machines.
>
> The races were never combined so the bikes and cars never ran together.
> The course was essentially the same but was set up with different
> barriers and the bikes got a lot more straw bails to catch the riders
> instead of concrete to stop the mass of an automobile. Paddock space,
> pushed to the limit for the cars and scheduling also were deterrents to
> attempting to combine these events. The typical RMVR Steamboat weekend
> had 8 race groups and getting them all out on track at least 3 times a
> day really eats up the clock. Adding a full set of motorcycles would have
> made for an impossible weekend.
>
> The Vintage Race and Concours de Elegance at Steamboat, Labor Day weekend
> was the premier event for RMVR for 15 years. Try as they might, they have
> yet to find a replacement street race event to match Steamboat.
>
> The SCCA has vintage race possibilities but has never attempted to run
> vintage events or add the groups to their regular offerings, considering
> the competition. We have two active vintage racing groups operating in
> this region, RMVR and Nostalgia Racing.
>
> One of the other venues RMVR and others run at is the Pueblo Motor Sports
> Park west of Pueblo, Colorado (we are blessed with 5 tracks within a 4
> hour tow of the metro area, 4 of which are still available for our use).
> This facility has a drag strip that is the main straight of the road
> course. The road racers who arrive on Friday afternoon for a weekend
> event end up sharing the place with High School drag racers for their
> Friday night series. Every once in a while, some Formula Fords will run
> the drag strip just for fun and surprise the locals with the performance
> of the 1600 cc engined cars. I always thought there was a possibility of
> conducting an event that combined vintage drag racing with vintage road
> racing, road racing during the day and drags at night. I doubt that will
> ever happen.
>
> The most famous vintage event in the U.S. is the Monterey Historics run
> at Laguna Seca in California and I think it started in 1973. That was
> probably the beginning here. Bob Sutherland enjoyed the Monterey
> Historics so much that he motivated the folks around here to get RMVR off
> the ground.
>
> Twenty five years of racing at one facility is reason enough to
> celebrate. Make the best of it.
>
> Have a great Winter,
> Bill
>
>
> On Tue, 22 May 2001 21:25:02 +1000 Wes Dayton <wdayton@attglobal.net>
> writes:
> > While all of you are in the midst of "Spring Cleaning" and looking
> > forward to the coming warm season of racing, spare a thought for the
> > (small but vocal) minority of FOT members who are up to our armpits
> > in
> > Autumn heading straight towards Winter. However, we are slow
> > learners
> > here "Down Under", so while it is almost June (think December in
> > your
> > terms), we have a race meeting this coming weekend at Winton - a
> > long 10
> > hour tow South from Sydney (which you would feel to be north - or in
> > simple terms, the wrong direction at this time of year).  But I
> > don't
> > write simply to solicit your sympathy. I'm just curious on a couple
> > of
> > fronts.
> >
> > 1) For the first time in my racing life, I have added to the list of
> > things to pack - one tuxedo. This is simply due to the fact that we
> > are
> > going to celebrate 25 years of historic racing at this particular
> > race
> > track.  I wasn't around for the first historic race in Australia,
> > but
> > it's clear that things historic racing started happening here around
> > 1976.  It's just made me a bit curious about when the historic race
> > movement started up elsewhere.
> >
> > So question one is - when did the historic movement get started in
> > the
> > USA, UK etc.? I suspect there might be more than one opinion, but
> > I'm
> > just interested to know if 1976 was late in the game or ???
> >
> > 2) This particular meeting is unique in one respect - we share the
> > day
> > with our two-wheeled historic bretheren.  I for one have enjoyed
> > each
> > year at Winton trying to come to grips with the historic motorcycle
> > fraternity (especially those sidecar car guys, but I don't think
> > I'll
> > ever understand them).I've learned a little bit about Vincents,
> > Velcettes, JAP, Montesa etc. I'm really looking forward to seeing
> > them
> > dressed in their Tuxedos!!!
> >
> > So question number two - anyone have any race meetings that they
> > share
> > with the bikes?
>
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