Hi all,
Last weekend the Calgary Vintage Racing Club
(http://www.calgaryvintageracing.com) hosted their annual Vintage on the
Prairies weekend at Race City Speedway (http://httpwww.racecity.com). I went
out on Saturday to catch a bit of the action (had to spend Sunday digging
post holes :( ).
A new feature they added this year was some track time on the 1/2 mile oval,
which I'm sure had NEVER seen british cars before. Things went well - no one
left any parts on the track, although Dick Auchinleck's Tiger lost the rear
brakes (not a big deal on the oval) due to the amount of suspension travel
used up on the right rear while negotiating the banked corners.
Tigers were well represented, and I spent a bunch of time lamenting the fact
that mine isn't ready for competition duty (I did take it to the track, but
just parked it). After hearing about his car off and on for the last six
months I finally met Dick Auchinleck and saw his Tiger, a race-prepared
early Mk1A he got from the Vancouver area. Roger Flescher towed out from
Bellingham, and Edmonton's Ad Dionisio skipped out on the oval sessions to
show up in time for the road course events on Saturday night and Sunday.
List lurker Erv Schieman came out to watch, while Jim Robinson left his
Tiger at home (it's not quite done yet) and brought his GT-40 instead.
That would have been a Cool Thing all on its own, but even better was the
fact that a second GT-40 was brought out by John .... Doh! I'll get his name
for the pictures..., and they proceeded to tear up the track like no vintage
car (and few contemporary race cars) have done yet at Race City. John's car
(according to the newspaper this morning, and I hope it's not a typo) ran a
1:14 on the two mile roadcourse, which is pretty much even with some of the
current GT-1 field. When the Formula Atlantic circus last came to town
(1989-1990) they ran 1:09's.
I'll have a few pictures out later today.
Theo
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