Your report reminds me very much of my "new" home track, Texas World
Speedway, another NASCAR track turned into a road race course. It's new
because the owner finally opened up the long promised back section,
providing a 2.9 mile course instead of 1.9 miles. It really opens up the
course, allowing cars like mine to maintain position in the longer sweepers
instead of getting caught in traffic in the shorter track's tight turns. We
use the front straight, exiting over 100 mph in the TR3 into a sweeping left
still on the gas while dropping through the apron. It's a good place to pass
for the faster cars but the TR3 can usually go in deeper than most.
We race again Feb 13 & 14th. Anyone want info. See the webpage at:
http://www.texasworldspeedway.com/
and our racegroup CVAR
http://web2.airmail.net/cvar1/
Bob Kramer, Austin
Hill Country Triumph Club
TR6's, TR250's, TR3A vintage race
rgk@flash.net
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Snook <jsnook@wcnet.org>
To: Friends of Triumph <fot@autox.team.net>
Date: Wednesday, November 11, 1998 9:20 AM
Subject: Brumos Daytona Continental Historics
>NEWS FLASH!.!.!.!
>DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA
>
>The second running of the HSR sanctioned, vintage races at
>Daytona International Speedway, is now in the history books.
>What an event this has turned out to be! Lots of Porsches along
>with a smattering of English, Italian, Swedish, and American iron
>made up the entry of over 350 racing cars.
>
>This Superspeedway is a 2.5 Tri-oval and is mainly known for its
>NASCAR races. It is also famous for the 24 hour sports car
>endurance race held every January. It is on this 3.56 mile long
>road course that incorporates the tri-oval, superspeedway and non
>banked infield section that this race was held.
>
>Only three Triumph TRs were in attendance at this mostly
>"Historic Car" event. Bill Warner had his ex-Tulius, Group 44,
>TR6 racing in Group 3. Alan Taylor was racing his partner Barry
>Rosenberg's TR4 in Group 2. And Jeff Snook had his TR3 in Group
>1. The HSR groupings are always a little strange and Jeff
>decided to run with the period competition of 356 Porsches, Alfa
>Romeo's and a Morgan rather in Group 2 with the Porsche 911s and
>914s.
>
>Track orientation was scheduled for Thursday PM, but a wet track
>prevented anyone from running, so the orientation was a couple
>laps around the track in vans. Hurley Haywood (5 time Daytona
>winner!) was one of the van drivers and he showed us some
>interesting lines that proved helpful during the rest of the
>weekend. Instead of a soggy lunch at the track, lots of
>competitors found their way accross the street to one of the
>first "Hooters" resturants in the country. Of course, most went
>because of the "historic" features of this resturant!!!
>
>The weather cooperated the rest of the weekend with partly cloudy
>skies, and temperatures in the high 60s. This made for an
>incredibly awesome weekend with lots of great cars and drivers at
>one of the most spectacular venues in the country. What other
>track do we get to race where the security guards greet you as
>you enter the track by saying "Good Morning Sir!" Speaking of
>famous drivers, Paul Newman was driving some historic IMSA car
>something or other. He was found at one party sitting on a
>couple of beer cases sipping his Budwiser and when asked what he
>was doing at Daytona, he said "Where else would I be!" I
>couldn't agree more.
>
>Race day found Alan Taylor's TR4 loaded on the trailer with some
>awful noise coming from the engine. They changed bearings at the
>track on Saturday, but the engine was still not happy. This
>bearing change entailed finding some Jaguar bearings and having
>them drilled out for the oil passage holes. The things we TR
>drivers will go through to keep racing!
>
>Bill Warner's TR6 was seen coming into the paddock area on the
>hook Saturday so it is not known if he made it for Sunday's
>race. He did confirm he would be attending the "soon to be
>famous" TR/MG Challenge at Mid Ohio next June. (Bill, if you are
>out there, let us know if you made the race?)
>
>Jeff's white TR3 made the whole weekend without a burp! This is
>mainly due to the careful preparation of TR guru Glen Efinger.
>His best lap was during the actual race when he turned a 2:29.3.
>This equates to an average speed of about 85 MPH. Calculated top
>speed based on a 3.7 rear end, 5.50X15 Hoosiers and 6400 RPM in
>4th (no OD) was 128 MPH. This was right after passing the front
>straight flag station, and right before the exciting "turn in"
>for turn one. The neat thing was the TR never ran out of revs
>and could have kept on pulling!
>
>Driving this race track with the high banking (31 degrees) is an
>experience not soon to be forgotten. One driver likened it to an
>avid golfer being able to play at Augusta where they hold the
>U.S. Open! Imagine this scenario: You are entering turn two at
>over 100 MPH, you look over the nose of your car to see where the
>track goes and all you can see is gray asphalt, then you look in
>your rear view mirrors to see if anyone is coming up behind you
>and all you can see is gray asphalt, next you look to your right
>to see if anyone has gotten beside you and all you can see is
>gray asphalt, and finally you look to your left and you think you
>are going to fall off the track, into more gray asphalt!!!
>
>Race results put Jeff's white TR3, 13th in a field of 37 cars
>that finished the race. Most satisfying was the fact that there
>were seven Porsche 356s behind him at the checkered flag. There
>were also seven 356s in front of him. The top three finishers in
>the group were all Porsche 356s with lap times 7 to 8 seconds
>faster than the TR3! We all know Dr. Ferry Porsche built his
>cars to race, and Standard Triumph built their cars to have fun
>on the street.
>
>A whole lot of people had fun this weekend including one TR3
>driver who is still smiling!
>
>Vroom, vroom,
>
>Jeff Snook
>your roving FOT reporter.
>
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