In my preteen years, I would sit in bed with Road and Track magazine reading about my Formula 1 heroes. Then I would grab my protractor for a steering wheel, a pencil for a gear shift lever, and imagine myself racing. A bit more than six decades later those daydreams that became a reality are part of my past history. I still love the toys in my garage and at the Barn.
In my dozen years of racing motorcycles, and another dozen years racing on four wheels, mostly SCCA formula classes, FF, FC, and FM, I managed to retain a single in-car video. This is from my one and only weekend racing a Spec Racer Ford, rented from friend Tom Dalrymple, who owned a small fleet of them. Back then, the cars were pretty slow – felt halfway between street cars and formula cars – and perhaps 10 seconds a lap slower than an FF car on this 1.8 mile circuit – but the racing was close and loads of fun. A major difference between formula car (open wheel, single seater) racing and SRF racing is that the latter is definitely a contact sport, as I found out on this weekend. Didn’t quite make it to the finish line…
Below is a gallery of my race cars and bikes. The Lotus 23 and Mini Cooper photos are not my cars but mine looked the same as these two, including the colors. In fact, the Lotus might well be the one I owned and raced, and then sold on after I switched from CVAR vintage “racing” to proper racing with the SCCA.
Click on the “i” button for the full captions.
Yamaha TD1B 250 at Westwood in Coquitlam B.C., Canada with buddy Mitch Murray. I learned that hard, dried out Pirelli tires do not work well in the rain. I just touched the brake lever on the main straight after cresting the hill and immediately went down. I actually passed the bike sliding down to the hairpin. The bike was impressive, with good power but in a very narrow rpm range. Mitch was riding the TR2 350 in the foreground.Honda CR250 Practicing somewhere, possibly Saddleback ParkMy daughter Angela trying out the Honda Hawk 650 Twin, much success with this rocket at Willow Springs, where my friend Chuck Burnett and I raced monthly. At 74 years young he is still racing his Hawk. We last saw him race at Willow a couple years ago, he had a win and a second on that day. Respect! And love… he’s like my brother, we spent our school years and working years together, along with the racing.Honda 125 Shifter Kart, one race, one win… mostly just for fun with my buddies. This kart had a rare steering wheel mounted “butterfly” shifter. It was an advantage, but it would pump my forearms up hard as a rock until I acclimated to it. A couple of five lap sessions would get the job done.Lotus 23B Cosworth TwinCam 16001275 Mini CooperThe Hancock Swift DB1 Formula Ford limping home after going airborne, 1997 Runoffs. The nose is bent upwards from the landing. And, it was my team mate Andrew whom I flew over. His in-car video was spectacular. I have a copy of it somewhere but I haven’t seen it in many years. Formula Mazda… the only photo I could find of this terrific car. Smooth, sweet sounding rotary engine, five speed gearbox, an alternator and battery. And rugged. Loved the original FM cars. Tim Magrath owned the Texas FM franchise, and he lured me to some parking lot to try one out. I was hooked. It may have pissed off some FC drivers that these tanks were just as fast. In truth the minimum weights weren’t too far apart. The rotary power made up for the extra weight and less sophisticated road-holding technology.Jamun FF, it won the 1996 Formula Ford Festival in the UK prior to my ownership. I slid it into a wall across wet grass at Topeka. I knew it was going to hurt, and it did. You actually seem to pick up speed on wet grass, and I’m guessing a 90 mph impact was the result. Drove my trusty F250 and trailer back to Austin after a maximum dose of ibuprofen.Jamun – after the Topeka crash – and Shifter Kart. We had a shelf system in the shop that took full 4×8 sheets of 3/4 plywood. The Jamun chassis sat on one shelf until I sold all my racing gear to my friend Steve Henry, with whom I shared the south Austiin shop. My 2nd Swift DB1 FF, first of my Valvoline Cup winners, 10 wins in 13 National starts, 2002Swift ready to be hoisted by everybody’s favorite hoist. I could assemble it at the track or shop in five minutes.Linda keeping the seat warm. Look at how streamlined the Swift DB1 is! No sidepods for the radiators, just the two large NACA ducts feeding the single radiator situated between driver and engine, along with the fuel tank.Driving Neil Porter’s Runoffs winning Swift DB6 at Laguna Seca, won by a nose on this day. I think I ran Neil’s cars on three occasions… I always had a great time racing with him and his crew.Tatuus FC at Phoenix… my 2nd Valvoline Cup winner, 11 National wins in 14 starts, 2003. This photo was from my first weekend racing the Tatuus… pole both days, taking home a win and second in the opening two Nationals of the year.The Tatuus at Hallett, one of my favorite tracks for racing and spectating.The Italian Jobs, two Tatuus FC cars in the shop, mine and Mike Renna’s ex-Foyt car
There are so many great memories from those racing years, about the racing and the racing people.
2 thoughts on “The Racing Machines”
So cool, Nick !
Glad you are getting it all together for us in the slow lane !
So cool, Nick !
Glad you are getting it all together for us in the slow lane !
I’m out of the fast lane, right now. I need to build a go-kart.