Zupan's Historic Car Races, 2000

Jeffrey Butts

I just got back from the Historic Car Races. As usual it was a terrific Saturday. The attendance at the morning tour was a little light, but it didn't dampen the spirits nor take anything away from the group that was there.

Steve Mines was up from California to see the race. Saturday morning Steve and I took the 914 up to Skyline Burgers. Don Harrison was there with his 911 Targa and so were Kelly Sweeney and his youngest son Brian in their Mustang fastback. A short time later Bob McFadden joined us in his '72 Lotus Europa twin-cam.

In the tour down to the track, Kelly led the way (as usual). We took up the trail position and watched the flames come out of the Lotus exhaust pipe under decompression. Bob's little blue bomb corners as flat as a shingle and rides so low that one dip in the road threw sparks up from his shift linkage. The trip down Skyline was fun but the ride from there down to the St. John's bridge via Germantown Road was even better. I was surprised at the performance of the Mustang. The Sweeney's boys have lowered it a bit but I recall the brakes requiring strong faith. We had a great ride from there through the St. John's area and although it was not as warm and sunny as last year, it was certainly acceptable weather. Now that I know the route I can take my turn at the front next year and let Kelly have a glimpse of the pack from the back.

At the track we said hello to Dave and Susan Isselhard. They were there with their Caldwell D-10's. These cars are sometimes refered to as Autodynamics Formula Vee's. Dave's car is number 8 of 10 made and he has had it for 29 years! The car was the personal race car of builder Ray Caldwell. The Audodynamics shop built cars from 1964 to 1973. Caldwell built over 1000 cars total, including a small number of Formula Ford racers. These Super-V's are fine looking cars and they were in beautiful shape this day. Russell Newhouse (Another member of Dave's "Mark 1 Racing Team" was running the other D-10 there. On Friday, Dave was only able to pull 6800 RPM on the straights while Russell was getting 7500. Some rejecting and rotor adjustment made Dave's car the faster of the two in the Saturday session.

Another driver there with multiple cars was Brad Krause of Santa Barbara, California. A former Formula Atlantic and American Cities Racing League driver, Brad quit after 10 years of racing a few years ago when he was injured right here at PIR. He started racing again, this time with vintage cars. Today he had a Lotus 26R (the racing version of the Elan) which had blown the day before. He also had his 1600cc Formula Libre/Formula B Brabham BT-14. It is similar to that of Kelly's cousin Dave Sweeney except for the fact that it has much beefier suspension and fatter tires. It went like a bat out of Hell and finished in second place in Saturday's qualifier race. Brad was also a player in the third race, driving a Lola T-294. This little car from the late 1970's was painted in the livery of the Primagaz team from France. A 2.2L 300HP Cosworth Ford powers it. Absolutely beautiful, it was one of three Lola's that I counted in that heat. Brad estimates that the engine is worth about 20 hours of running before it needs a tear down. In response to my raised eyebrows, he stated that this is good compared to the other cars in his class. They apparently get about half that. Tear down costs about $5000-$7000. The car also goes through a set of tires at approximately two race weekend intervals. Chump change by comparison I suppose.

The feature of the weekend was the Historic NASCAR racers. Imagine yourself with an extra $40-60,000 and you can just have a great old time. Last year there were about 10 of these cars here. This year the number was easily twice that. You shoulda' seen the motor homes and transport vehicles these guys came with. They were pitted in a group over on the inside of the track where they run the CART pit area.

They put on quite a show. A couple of spins at the Festival corners in the early part of the race provided some excitement. A huge ground loop by the Kodiak Pontiac sent the photographer standing next to me scurrying for cover but I foolishly stood my ground and snapped the accompanying photo just before he stopped with the back end of his car facing me about fifteen feet away. A little later a former Bill Elliot Thunderbird, driven by Steven Thomas of Del Mar, California went wide on the entrance to the festival. He bounced wildly through the grass and over the dragon's teeth, cutting across Turn 2 in front of several other cars, causing more spins. Although there was no damage from contact on any of the corners, they closed the chicane to clean up the carnage. As the cars were routed through the escape road, the leader (driving a Rusty Wallace car) slowed and was passed by the second and third place cars. You snooze, you lose.

All in all another great race. This was the thirteenth year for us. Steve and I had a blast. Hope to see you all next year.