Hi Mark...
I too am not a particularly big fan of INDY car racing, although I like it when
they run tracks I've raced at like Mid-Ohio, Road America, and Watkins Glen.
In car camera shots start me rockin in my seat going through the corners. My
mind recalls what happens there.
When I think of that huge early TRIUMPH vintage event at Mid-Ohio, three things
stand out in my mind.
1. That was clearly the start of what we know and love today as the FOT. It
all started there, and thank God for that.
2. Mid-Ohio's reaction and its ability to respond to what had to be a huge
attendance surprise. No surprise SVRA was there in force. No surprise there
was an extra-ordinary number of TRIUMPH vintage racers who showed up. But, as
Peter Egan opened in his Road and Track article on the event with something
like, "I guess I knew there were that many TRIUMPHs, but who thought they'd all
show up?" The did show up. And somehow Mid-Ohio came up with enough hot dogs
and pork and beans to feed them all. They did. It was like the 'loaves and
the fishes' parable in the bible. The line waiting to eat could not be
contained in the hospitality tent. It overflowed outside and way up the hill
towards the grassy paddock area. It was not, and Mid-Ohio passed out free cold
beer to those in line. And who was at the back of the line? Bob Tullius and
some Group 44 guys. I'd already eaten, and I walked back to talk to him. I
said something like, "Bob...what are you doing way back here. Surely all would
be happy for you to skip to the head of the line." He answered with something
like, "Are you kidding? I don't want to miss a minute of this."
3. And finally, I remember when they allowed the TRIUMPH street cars to take a
parade lap around the course. What a picture. They weren't single file. They
were hardly moving. They seemed to be butt to belly-button, all the way around
the track. How could there possibly be that many?
And it is hard to discuss that event without talking about the weekend long
dicing between Mike Jackson's TR3 and Charlie Kates' TR4. But those three
items listed above sure stick in my mind. It was the kind of event that gets
better and better the more times the story is told.
We should go on telling it.
Bill Dentinger
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