Vintage Perspective
by Jeff Ingebritson
President VSCRThis Father’s Day weekend , VSCR is packing up and heading to Blackhawk Farms to race with the Chicago-based club of VSCDA. I will be piloting my ’69 Caldwell Formula Ford. I am anticipating a large group of open wheel cars to run with, as the Fall Festival at Road America typically has 40 to 50 cars on the grid. A field that size should keep me busy, as I tend to run mid-pack. We will have a couple of "new" open wheel cars from VSCR as well, notably Tim Lynch in his Lola T250 Super Vee. Tim ran the car earlier this spring at the SVRA Road America event, and he feels he now has the bugs worked out of the recent motor rebuild. Also, Roger Karnopp has been putting some demon tweeks into his Titan FF suspension setup, and expects to have another good run toward the front.
The VSCR Test and Tune Days at the St. Cloud Highway Safety Center have been going well. I attended the first one and was very impressed with the track layout and organization. I had just put short track gears into my Hewland for the first time and this was the perfect track to test them. VSCR will be hosting four more test days at this track, July 14, August 4,
September 15, and October 6. You can call Bill Groschen at 612-331-1235 to get signed up. It’s just $40 for the opportunity to run your wheels off. July 4th week is the national gathering of all the MG car clubs at the Minnesota State Fair Grounds. I am going to get my red MGA race car out of moth balls, and fire that sucker up. It hasn’t seen any action since the ’97 street race downtown. So come on over to the fair grounds and kick some tires, it’s open to the public. We expect about 1000 MG’s, and 30 some MG race cars have pledged to show up.
Next month I’ll have the Blackhawk race report, so until then, Keep Smilin’ and Keep the Faith, Jeff Ingebrigtson
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had me covering the Jack Pine for SportsCar, as the final National of the year, but with their limited club racing coverage I didn’t even call about this year’s event, and avoided having to divide my attention watching other races.
In Race Group 1 there was a lap-record- breaking duel between Milwaukee SSBs Harry Manning (Mazda) and Jim Clark Ebben (Honda), with Ebben getting the new lap record but Manning winning by the narrowest of margins. LOL driver Greg Smith won SSC and was 4th overall as only seven cars started.
In Group 2, LOL Canadian Wally Butler dominated overall in his CSR after long time competitor Jeff Miller got it sideways in turn 10 and fell off the pace. Younger Jason Miller was third overall in the only DSR at the event. In SRF Chicago’s Michael Dirienco nipped fellow Elite driverBeau Martin, by a quarter second, with local Scott Goolsbey’s Lindell entry third. They were followed by a long list of LOL drivers finishing 4th (Gary Jensen) through 12th and all lapped by leader Butler.
My notes become a bit sketchy here due to numerous schedule changes to facilitate drivers crossing over to the Enduro and other reasons, but Group 5 was next up with 11 starters dominated once again by Andy McDermid’s AS over Bob Allison. EP was an uncontested win for Gerald Lamb as Norm Nelson was a non-starter and Ken Patterson was docked a lap by the Chief Steward. LOL's Dean Johnson was FP winner and 7th overall. Other familiar local non-starters included Charles Mack (GT2), Jon and Mark Brakke in EP and Steve Beck in GT1.
Skies were getting darker after earlier brief showers as our group took the track around 2:00 p.m. The dice for FF and overall lead was a dogfight which I was too far back in the pack to appreciate, as my old rear tires were slow to come up to temperature and I fought an early oversteer. Ray Lecuyer had cured his Swift’s qualifying misfire, and he and two-straight Jack Pine winner Hopple swapped the early lead, joined by young Kyle Krisiloff and Chuck Brewer at mid-race. Then on the 11th lap first Brewer lost his transmission and then Jeff Lewis came into contact with Hopple after a pass in turn one. Lewis was out on the spot, while Hopple limped to the pits to retire with a bent front corner, and Krisiloff spun to the outside and stalled. After reported screaming at corner workers, Krisiloff rejoined a lap down, as Lecuyer took control. Meanwhile light rain was picking up at various spots on the track, and that
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Tonneau On-Line July 2001
Page 7
Copyright 2001, Land O'Lakes Region Last revised: March 13, 2003
