Vintage Healey Racing in TX
For those who read Victory Lane, if you check the grids of the various
vintage events around the country, and if you're very, very interested in
big Healeys, you'll notice that there aren't a large number of them being
raced. In fact, it's somewhat unusual to see two on the track at the same
time. This past weekend we had THREE big Healeys competing at the same
time at Texas World Speedway. It's entirely possible that there could be
four big Healeys out on the track for the vintage event at the "Sunburn
Grand Prix" coming up in June at Abiline, TX. Among the deciding factors
will be 1) my work schedule, and 2) If I can get my car ready after running
the dog stuff out of it this past weekend at TWS.
Those who were at TWS would probably say "you call that running a car
hard?" to which I would reply "Hey, I'm new at this!" I did learn a few
things, to be sure. I now know why the Lotus Super Sevens ran in C
production while my 100/6 ran in E production. I thought I had turn 8 down
pretty well. Turn 7 is a 180 sweeper to the right that leads into a fast
left hander and onto a short straight. I came out of 7 in third gear, and
went through 8 as fast I ever have. There was a Super Seven right behind
me. As I hit the straight I shifted to fourth and kept on the gas. Turn 9
is a wide left hand turn which by taking an early turn in I can go through
at nearly full throttle in fourth.
Down the back straight, the Super Seven no more than one length behind me,
and I figure I'm going to stay in front of him at least through turn 12, at
which point we get to the 1/4 mile front straight and he'll out drag me back
down to turn one. HA! He didn't even think about hanging around. That
little
formula car in sheep's clothing cut left and passed me like I was in a bread
van. What the heck, it's a whole different challenge to run the Lead Sled
around the track with drum brakes on all four wheels and a 500-600 pound lump
of cast iron in the engine compartment. It's particularly interesting
because
I haven't sprung for racing tires yet so I'm running on street tires with
stock
4" rims. Wider wheels and better tires are definitely on my shopping list.
Speaking of bread vans, there was quite an interesting collection of cars
including an Austin A40 that went like stink! I hate it when I get passed by
sedans, although you'd think I would be used to it by now. Besides the A40,
the British Car event featured a couple of Elvas, a Spitfire, a Sprite, two
E-Types (one of which was highly modified and had won several race events in
England in the late '80's), two Minis and three Lotus/Caterham Super Sevens
plus the three big Healeys and some others I've forgotten.
By the way, Jim Johnson from Fort Worth maintained the honor of the big
Healeys in his '57 100/6 by winning Saturday's Brit Car race, beating the
Mod Sports Jag by a little over one second.
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