As requested Paul,
My first race of 1999 required an early wake-up call on January 1
to catch a 6:30AM flight from Detroit Metro Airport to West Palm
Beach Airport. Needless to say, I didn't party very hard on New
Year's Eve!
Once I arrived at West Palm, it was only a short drive to Moroso
Motorsports Park for the 4th Annual SCCA "Longest Night" 24 Hour
Race. The Florida Region SCCA has a very active Vintage Group
and staged a support race before the 24 hour event.
I missed the morning practice, but by 1:30 PM the Devin TR3 was
all gassed up and ready to go. 18 vintage cars took to the grid
including fellow FOTer Mike Jackson in his screaming red TR3B, TR
Guru Glen Efinger in his very original TR6, and Mike Perry in his
red GT6. It was a beautiful sunny Florida day, track conditions
were perfect and the fastest qualifying time was posted by
Charlie Kolb (one of the senior statesman of racing) in a Bobsy
SR3.
It had been two years since my last race at Moroso so it took
awhile to get familiar again with this track. The carosel-like
turn 2, the decreasing radius, double apex turns 3/4, the flat
out turn at the end of the back straight, and the "you lift, you
crash" turns 8 and 8A made for an interesting start to my 1999
vintage race adventures. Besides those corners there is the
"daunting" turn 6, where in 1995, I went off the track, caught a
wheel getting back on the track, (lost the wheel in the process,)
and proceeded to flip end over end, rolling the TR3 into quite a
mess.
Qualifying was for 18 laps, so the rhythm of the track was
finally coming back, when all of a sudden I looked at the oil
pressure gage and it was flickering between 10 and 30. We had
planned to install an accusump because the engine was losing
pressure in hard left hand turns, but this was happening going in
a straight line!!! I babied the car back into the paddock area
where a puddle of oil soon formed underneath the car. Closer
inspection revealed a small trickle of oil from the bottom of the
oil pan.
Not knowing if any damage had been done to the bearings during
the low pressure situation required a bottom end tear down and
inspection, so we loaded up the Devin and took it back to Glen
Efinger's shop in Stuart, FL. Fortunately, everything was OK so
we changed bearings (it was time anyway), got another oil pan
from one of the spare engines, buttoned everything back up, and
were all ready for the race Saturday morning.
Only problem was Mother Nature thought more moisture was needed
in Southeast Florida and it poured rain all night. A little
clearing Saturday morning gave some hope to go racing, but those
"scattered showers" that had been predicted, "scattered" rain all
over the race track causing everyone to run for their umbrellas,
slickers and boots.
Not being a guy who loves to drive in the wet with an
over-steering car, I chose to set this one out. A few brave
souls (nine to be exact) took the grid for the start of the
race. It stopped raining for the whole race, but the rooster
tails were flying and it looked like a hydroplane race down the
back straight. FOTer, Mike Jackson in his TR3B, led most of the
race holding off our Minnesota friend Bob Youngdahl in his Elva
Courier. But Bob had put on some supper sticky Hoosier Dirt
Track (rain) tires and was able to get by Mike a few laps before
the end of the race. Mike kept trying to take back the lead but
just couldn't get it done. He was however, less than a car
length behind at the checkered flag, and was as he put it "the
first loser!"
Well, anyway, the first race of 1999 was a great race to watch!
Let's hope the rest of the year Mother Nature smiles on us
Vintage Racers and we all don't have to go out and buy rain
tires. Anyway, while the Blizzard of '99 roared through the
Midwest, I was warm in the swamps of Southeast Florida and only
had to worry about keeping my feet dry.
Your roving FOT reporter,
Jeff Snook
Paul Richardson wrote:
>
> Dear Jeff
>
> All the very best for your race in the Devin in Florida
>
> Drop me a line about the race and I'll publish it in the next eddition of
> Triumph Over Triumph as "The first race in 1999'.
>
> Take care
>
> All happyness for 99
>
> Paul
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