To the racetrack!
Well, sorta......
My buddy drove his P'up and I took Buzz for about 150 mile shakedown run this morning to Lake Garnett, Kansas. The ambient temps started in the low 50's and on the way home it was mid-60's. Going south with the wind behind us it never got above 165° - coming back - uphill so to speak and against the wind - it ran between 180-190°. It would slowly climb up to 190, then it's like the thermostat opened and it would drop back, then slowly climb again. If that's where it runs I'll be a happy camper, but I won't know for sure till it starts being 80-90° out - that will be the test.
We took back roads down to Lake Garnett, where they used to run SCCA races in the 60's.....I attended many there, and in fact that's where I first saw what later became MY Dino Ferrari. The track was simply the road that ran around the lake, and at one end after a long straight section there's an almost 90° turn, leading onto the dam, which has lovely rock columns all along it, and then at the other end a sharp 90° right turn again leads into the curvy part of the track with a sharp 270° turn back onto the straight, which is a bit of a misnomer since it wanders a bit and is rather lumpy along the way.
(http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/data/500/lg01.jpg)
(http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/data/500/lg02.jpg)
Yep, ol Carol brought the factory Cobra team there a few years too....
(http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/data/500/medium/lg06.jpg)
(http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/data/500/lg03.jpg)
(http://www.chuckbrandt.com/kcslg4.jpg)
Back in the day you'd have Cobras and Corvettes duking it out around this course which is barely 2 lanes wide, and they'd be hitting up to 120 mph down the straight before having to fight for the right line onto the dam, with it's lovely rock walls!
Today they hold a revival meet there every Oct and take laps round the track in controlled groups, the fastest of which were hitting 90 or more down the straight.
Here is the web page for the new event with some vid of the cars going around the track. Note the complete lack of guard rails, hay bales or anything else to protect the cars if you make a mistake!
http://www.lggpr.org/2014Event.htm (http://www.lggpr.org/2014Event.htm)
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-Garnett-Grand-Prix-Revival/272930049546062?ref=hl (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-Garnett-Grand-Prix-Revival/272930049546062?ref=hl)
(http://www.chuckbrandt.com/kcslg3.jpg)
(http://www.chuckbrandt.com/kcslg7.jpg)
And here's what it would have looked like from the cockpit of my 948cc Sprite MkII, mind you we didn't have a chicane to slow us down before the dam!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEI-s53HYR4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEI-s53HYR4)
Don and I did about 5 laps of the course, we didn't go too fast - even tho there was no one there - we didn't want to get into trouble if someone saw us burning laps around the course. It brought back a lot of memories to me, not only of spectating, but working as support for two different racecars over the years, and running my own H-Production MkII Sprite. As I said, that's also where I saw my Dino the first time, four or five years before I bought it, and I was also there for the last race - one of the drivers in C-Sports racing lost control of his Zink Daytona while trying to pass a slower car and hit a tree head on....that was the end of it. To my mind, I was surprised more people didn't die given all the trees and natural hazards around the track......
But what a great day for a drive in a classic Mini!
Extremely cool, thank you for sharing, Dave! What a beautiful but unforgiving track. So much history! Loved the video of the blue car going around.
Awesome!! thank you so much for sharing this.
I love things like this!!
Great history!
I found a couple of pics I took at the 72 race.....the first is a C Sports Racer powered by a fuel injected Mini Cooper engine.....
(https://scontent-a-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/10846335_10204163889761423_5176890005100870823_n.jpg?oh=55f417ea7b5f8d2aa77d2eb8e056a437&oe=5560EA23)
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10436224_10204163890401439_7011254850378074184_n.jpg?oh=6c55f2a34e8165d160dfb2725eecb08e&oe=5548FB4A&__gda__=1435820063_e522bbe8790355355cbeed72a9ff820e)
Next is a pic of my 1970 Dino....only it wasn't mine then as this was 3 almost 4 years before I bought it. I took the pics at the race as I thought it was the most beautiful car I'd ever seen! I didn't know it was the same car till well after I'd bought it years later, when I saw certain things in the pics that were unique to my car. My car has white turn signal lenses - all US Dino had yellow lenses but this car was imported direct from Europe by a TWA pilot - you could do that back then. Also the knock off hubs (illegal as OEM in the US after 1967) and the somewhat droopy left rear bumper and the paint that didn't quite match on the left quarter all told me it was the same car.
(https://scontent-b-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/1510709_10204163869080906_3396264609411046342_n.jpg?oh=9a420e3bef8d9fa74f8f8420aab9e274&oe=554E9474)
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10968510_10204163869480916_4933633665847349652_n.jpg?oh=4744a6fdf50348208a78f402e127f28a&oe=5593012D&__gda__=1432166459_72cd791313627597f654b1934a7ce933)
This smiling fellow is driving a Zink Daytona C Sports Racer, and unfortunately he's the reason the race was no longer held at Lake Garnet and 2 other tracks with similar layouts in public parks - Ponca City, OK and Lake Afton in Wichita. As the second pic shows the wreck, and he succumbed to his injuries at the track. That was it for those public road type events, after that all SCCA races were held at proper racetracks.
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/10603780_10204163894481541_3125745219930476818_n.jpg?oh=25db5a3cd3d6cee42c1542b5e41f131f&oe=555BEE95&__gda__=1431989232_4692e9e28b3e9d27702e209e4d768369)
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/1798079_10204163895001554_3821475306949112130_n.jpg?oh=1143c481361ee31af65561ea10677319&oe=554845F1&__gda__=1431337377_f8207fe2d273ed95e6eafc5867e3fcc7)