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Re: what's wrong with vintage racing

To: "Jack W. Drews" <vinttr4@geneseo.net>, <fot@autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: what's wrong with vintage racing
From: "Gerald M Van Vlack" <jerryvv@alltel.net>
Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 16:01:46 -0400
I'm not a racer but I sure do enjoy racing. Several of us from the WPTA have
chased the East Coast and Midwest guys around each season at the FOT focus
events. It's guys like Jack, Tony, Joe, Tom, Jeff, Harry, Mike, Russ, Irv,
Bill, Bob, Don and countless unwashed others who I don't intend to omit but
unfortunately will because their names escape me right now who make the
event for us. This plus the added enjoyment of seeing and meeting some very
famous drivers from years past. To us there is nothing wrong with Vintage
Racing but as I said I'm not a racer. I'm also very biased too since I'm
stuck on the LBC's and any of the old Production Class race cars from the
50's and 60's.
I hope I can enjoy this stuff for many years to come.
Jerry Van Vlack

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jack W. Drews" <vinttr4@geneseo.net>
To: <fot@autox.team.net>
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 2:58 PM
Subject: what's wrong with vintage racing


> I think the whole scene is pretty neat, for richer or for poorer, for
> better or for worse.
>
> I counted up the number of open trailers at the Road America event -- 250
> entrants or so, about ten open trailers. But that's okay by me. It was
also
> okay that one of the guys who had a Big Rig was from Atlanta. His people
> drove the hauler, and he arrived in a Lear Jet, which buzzed the track. Of
> course, he went home each night to Atlanta and returned the next morning
in
> the Lear.
>
> I remember the very first time in my life that I saw what I considered the
> epitome of racing luxury. It was at Wilmot Hills (now defunct) in 1963 and
> belonged to the guys in Waterloo, Iowa who bought Huffaker's
Jensen-Healey.
> They arrived with the race car on the back of a flatbed Ford one-ton
truck.
> The truck also had an oxy-acetylene cutting rig on it, and the ultimate
> touch in racing equipment -- a six inch jaw vise, bolted right there to
the
> floor of the truck.
>
> I think that the great equalizer between the guys at both ends of the
scale
> is that all of us share one thing that makes us equal -- four little tire
> patches on the pavement. Considering this as the method used to measure
> fun, nobody has more fun than me.
>
> By the way, that 1963 truck still exists, and so does the Jensen-Healey,
> parked where it was rolled off the truck after winning the national
> championship. Seeing it made the little hairs on the back of my head stand
> right straight up.
>
> uncle jack

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