This weekend, the Classic Sports Racing Group held it's
first event of the season at Sears Point International
Raceway. Thanks to the help and guidance of many CSRG
members, I was able to participate with my '67 BGT (Silver
and Dark Maroon #111) in the group's annual driver's school
which was taught by the Jim Russell Racing staff.
In the school there was a great mix of vintage cars,
including a Jag XK120, a '38 Morgan, three '50s Porsches and
a 3-wheel Morgan in my group. There was one other MGB
attending the school, who unfortunately got loose and
touched the wall on the drag strip between turns 11 and 1
when the skies opened up late Friday afternoon. The damage
was minor and the driver was OK.
The Russell staff was outstanding in their instruction and I
was able to grasp their process easily. It was exciting
during the open track time to watch three Porsches drive
around one another just ahead of me. Surprisingly, the '38
Morgan went by all of us like we were chained to a boulder.
I even got into I nice little back-and-forth with a Lotus
Cortina on the final open track lap.
The whole experience was fantastic. I'm also thankful for
all of the help given to me by the CSRG folks, who are far
more interested in helping others race their vintage cars
safely and skillfully than having any kind of ego-battle on
or off the track. This was evident in the attitudes of
everyone from the drivers of the most basic cars (like mine)
to those with multi-hundred-thousand-dollar irreplaceable
pieces of hardware. Everyone was friendly, nobody copped
any attitude.
I owe special thanks to Dan Radowicz for the use of his
racing suit, Cortina Driver Myles Kitchen for putting up
with my endless stupid questions, Alfa drivers Simon Favre
and Sid Gage, and Master Spridget Pilot Chuck Canepa (who
I'm told has turned legit sub-2:00 times at Sears - ay
carramba) for the same, and especially to the Legendary
Butch Gilbert for advising me on how to set up my B for the
event.
The Sunday fun run was outstanding thand the marque was very
well represented. I enjoyed meeting list member Skip Kelsey
and seeing his beautiful black TD. There was a nice
assortment of As, Bs, Midgets and even one very sharp TC. A
Miata and a BMW 2002 were also allowed to participate. The
Miata driver is an MGB owner, but his car is in the UK.
The event went off without a hitch and I think everyone had
a ball. The only imperfection was the nice '80 LE that
stalled between turns 6 and 7. Many thanks go to Rod
Schweiger who organized the event and mentored me during the
weekend on racing in the CSRG. Thanks also to Doug Jackson
at British Automotive, who I hope is putting all of my
paychecks to good use.
Cheers to all!
Andy
--
Andy Ramm
A silver face in a tweed world.
Remove obvious spam filter from email address when replying.
"What we play is the blues, straight from the delta, and I
believe we'll make it on that," B.B. King
By US Code Title 47, Sec.227(a)(2)(B), Sec.227(b)(1)(C) and
Sec.227(b)(3)(C), it is unlawful to send any unsolicited
advertisement to this equipment. A violation of the
aforementioned Section is punishable by action to recover
actual monetary loss, or $500, whichever is greater, for
each violation.
|