Baxter's Historic Car Races, 2005

Jeffrey Butts For the second year in a row, GTS had a corral at the Historic Car races. Thanks to Sandy Bauer, who handles publicity for Campbell Productions, we got a choice spot this year (not that the one last year was anything to complain about). Chris Crabb, who does media relations, also helped us out. For the ticket price we had admission for all three days, wonderful handouts, the corral, parade and autocross privileges, and a prize for the best car in the corral.
Some of the members had gone out on Friday to watch the initial practice laps but it rained and very few of the racecars went out on the track. Saturday morning started out a little on the overcast side. That certainly wasn't a problem for me. Cooler is better. I had been unable to contact Steve Sanz the day before and so when he didn't show up at the usual time, I headed on over to Bob McFadden's place. From the stories I was getting from our other members I was thinking I would be the only one with a sports car today. Kelly Sweeney had called to say that the recent rains and the possibility of more persuaded him to leave the Mini in the garage and he came in his Golf. Scott Stewart had planned on having his Sprite ready for the tour but a frustrating chain of events meant that he'd be coming in his truck. Scott and I first started going to the races together back in 1987. In fact, it was riding double up on his motorcycle that I went to buy the 914 that year. After his marriage, the purchase of a home and the arrival of a family, his restoration efforts on the little Bugeye got put on the back burner. He and Tina are the newest members of the club and Scott was elected President (surprise!) at the morning gathering. Bob McFadden has been working on the Lotus. He was moving his car around in the driveway when a tree jumped in front of him and cracked the fiberglass. As you might expect, he is doing the work himself and, as with Scott, these things take time. He was threatening to bring the Subaru instead of the Jag but he caved in at the last minute and brought the big, beautiful E-type along. Russ Lindborg has sold his hopped up Subaru. He bought my Triumph Bonneville and entertained (albeit briefly) bringing that along. Instead, as Bob and I headed up to the hill we stopped by and Russ rode with me. His daughter Allison would be at the races later and he figured to ride home with her. So, as the Jag and the Teener drove up to the top of the hill, we were nearly the last to arrive. Steve Sanz took those honors. A couple of lies and a few photos later we followed Kelly down through St. John's to the track.
As I mentioned, we had a fabulous spot. We were right at the edge of the car park with a good view of the autocross track. Changes in last year's access points meant that the long waits to cross the track were eliminated. We bench raced some more and passed out the dash plaques and then the group split up for the usual morning pit crawl. Scott and I hooked up and the first place we stopped was to see racer and GTS member Dave Isselhard. We told him that he had been elected President in abstentia (surprise!). This was not a good weekend for Dave. He blew the engine on his Caldwell Super Vee and they were just buttoning up the rebuild. Unfortunately for Dave, that one let go too. Bummer.
As I walked the pits it occurred to me that each year I see some fabulous cars that never grace the track. I suspect that some of them go out on Sunday but I doubt that very many do. For example, there were three early Carrera Panamerica cars. I don't know about the Mercury, but the Benz and the Ferrari combined had to be worth several million. Also, the Carrera 6 that used to belong to Don Wester, a friend of Dave Allen's, was there. Don owned the Porsche dealership in Monterey and raced Porsches ranging from S90's through RS-61, 904, and the Carrera 6 before switching to a Genie Ford for the USRRC. Oddly enough, with all the provenance of the "6," including the fact that it was the west coast under 2-Liter champion, it did not have the original paint scheme. Here's what the Porsche looks like now, with Scott Stewart providing the GTS backdrop.
As is the usual practice, most of us spent time in the pits or the Turn 12 grandstands before lunch. I did make a run at the vendors and managed to blow a wad of change on a 1:18 Chapparal 2C by AutoMart. This is the same car that I saw race on several occasions, including at the ill-fated Candlestick Park race in 1965.
After lunch we a group of us hooked up at the outside of the Festival turns (1,2, and 3) to watch the fun. I should mention here that there was a significant shortfall at the races this year. We (at least some of us) were looking forward to seeing the V-Moto Group put on an encore performance from their vintage bike race of last year. Chris Crabb told me that, at pretty near the last minute, they opted out in favor of a different race meeting in California. Bastids.
Anyhow, the first up for the afternoon heat races was the vintage stock cars. Last year I nearly wet my pants at all the lead changes and close dices, especially the passes coming into the chicane. Then my brother went and ruined it for me by telling me that the drivers, friends all, deliberately shuffle positions during the first part of the race and then pull off the gloves for the last few laps. Well, crap. That pretty much took the excitement out of the deal for me. The fastest car was the ex-Gordon Lumina. A local boy (out of Eugene) was running the oldest car, an ex-Harry Gant 1988 Cutlass.
Race Group 4, the big bore production cars was next. A huge field, as usual, put on a pretty good show. Eric Dolson, piloting a 69 Corvette, topped the field. He was turning 1:21's. The top four finishers were all 'Vette's, making this a Bowtie event. Interestingly, about this time we had a guy sit in front of us in the stands. He brought is Algebra book along and was studying between heats. It's great to be out of school, eh? Next up was the FIA sports racing cars, at least those that had the gumption to take the track. A number of cars that had been in the pits didn't make this event (at least on Saturday). Tom Armstrong, who used to campaign that ex-Penske Corvette Grand Sport was on scene with a GT40. I stopped to look at it in the pits. Awesome. He's a good amateur pilot but he must be learning with this car because he was not in contention.
Group 1, the early production cars, ran next up. Included in this heat was Myles Winbigler, a former Los Altos resident whom I used to visit in my early Sprite days. Myles was driving a 1960 Lotus 7A, quite a switch from the Bugeye he has campaigned for nearly 40 years. The race was won by Thor Johnson (love the name) in a Lotus XI. Stephen Clark came in second with a spirited drive in an Elva Courier, followed by Scott Brown driving one of two absolutely beautiful MGAs that were in the race. By far the most entertaining show was put on by Matt Flinn out of Canada, driving a Fiat 750. He was lifting the rear inside wheel nearly every lap in the first and second corners and went up on two wheels while trying to hold off a 356 on one lap. He earned a standing ovation from the grandstands on the cool off lap. Out-freakin'-standing!
Sports Racing cars to 1969 made up the next oddball group. A fine looking Lister Corvette took the honors followed by Ernie Spada (from Portland) in a beautiful little Chevron B8 coupe after the second place running Pooper dropped out, or should I say pooped out. The Formula cars were next, with club member Dave Isselhard running briefly before losing his second engine of the weekend. Also driving was Kelly's cousin Dave in his 1965 Brabham BT-14. There was some very good racing in this heat with another Brabham, this a '66 BT-18 finally taking the top finish ahead of and Elden Mk12.
Next to last was the 1960-69 European sports cars heat. The normally hard driven Mallock U2 won again, coming from third to take the win over the TR6 of Tom Kreger. Third was Jeff Hecox in a BMW 2002tii. Although we didn't see Monte Shelton make one of his patented carnage passes, Healey driver Richard Mayor took over the honors and managed to punt a little Lotus 7 out of the race. It was a banzai pass that never had a chance of success. Only Steve Sanz and I stayed for the last race, the small bore production cars. This race was a runaway for a George Follmer replica Porsche RSR. Second place was a nice little Ginetta. Monte, driving his 1969 911 had a good, clean dice with Bob Franklin's XKE.
As we got back to the cars, Steve's wonderful MB Sedan had won the award for best car in the corral. A fine choice for a wonderful car that was restored by Steve himself. The trophy, a ceramic bottle, was festooned with the GTS name and the award year. Great job by Sandy and the folks at Campbell Productions and another great year for our club.

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