August 30, 2002
Magnaflow Vintage 2.5 Challenge
Laguna Seca is less than a month off ! HMSA mailed the entry forms around the 21st of August so you should already have one if you were on the mailing list. If you didn’t receive the form you can download a copy (Adobe Acrobat Reader format) from the Schedule page on our web site (www.bsedan.com, VSRG link and then the Schedule link) or you can contact HMSA via email at registrar@hmsa.com. Note that entries are due back to HMSA by September 9th so don’t delay in sending yours in.
Since HMSA has removed last year’s limit of 25 VSRG entries we expect a larger turnout than last year. Anyone that was with us last year will tell you that it was the most exciting race of our series and with a larger turnout of cars this year should be even better.
Our annual dinner will be held the same weekend on Saturday night (9/28). We have made arrangements at Geno’s in Salinas for a “sit-down” dinner this year. This restaurant is a popular place for racers and it affords indoor seating as well as great food. The price is $30 per person and if you want to attend this year’s dinner, you will need to purchase tickets before arriving at the track so that we determine the size of the room required. There is no limit to the number of dinner tickets that you may purchase however we must receive your check prior to September 15th. Unless otherwise requested we will hold your tickets for pickup at the race (or at the dinner). To purchase your dinner tickets, please mail a check made payable to VSRG to the following address:
Jim McAdory
VSRG
1330 Barbara Drive
Vista, CA 92084Because this is not a buffet, we cannot reserve extra spots for any last minute guests that might show so you need to plan ahead for this one.
Drivers not attending drivers meetings has become an issue in the last few events and we felt it best to remind our members that our host organizations consider this to be one of the few “mandatory” functions they require of drivers on a race weekend. There have been recent occasions where a driver missed a meeting and later did something they were specifically instructed not to do in the drivers meeting. One of the clearest examples was at Fontana where a “no passing until after the first turn on the start” rule was imposed for the weekend. On the final race on Sunday no less than four cars in our group were documented as violating that rule. While the host organizers did not immediately talk to those involved, the incidents were noted and it is clear to us that these incidents have not been forgotten.
Confused over the schedule ? HSR-West shows a 2.5 race at Willow Springs in October but we do not. This is not a VSRG points race but we understand if there are enough 2.5 cars in attendance they will get their own group otherwise they will be mixed in the production group (where a lot of our cars run when have a second driver). Even though this is not a points race, we encourage anyone that wants a little extra seat time to enter. HSR-West has been a big supporter of the 2.5 Challenge and we want to support them as much as possible too.
The schedule shown on our web site lists only those events that are points races.
We have had a number of inquires about racing Rotary engine cars in the 2.5. Although these did not participate in the original 2.5, they are legal in the Magnaflow Vintage 2.5 with following restrictions:
Cars must run the dual distributor (early) motor.
Bridgeported motors are not allowed.A little piece of History for Sale . One of our members, Houghton Smith of Montgomery, AL is selling the L-18 motor that was used in the BRE #46 that John Morton drove at the Historics last year. The motor had been leased to Nissan for the Historics and had been rebuilt by Rebello prior to it’s use. If you are interested you can e-Mail Houghton at hs510@aol.com
The yellow 510 in the image used in the Bsedan.Com and Bsedan.Org logo belongs to Houghton and that car was raced by NASCAR legend Red Farmer in 1970. Red ran with the Allison brothers and was in the helicopter crash that took the life of Davey Allison. The second 510 (red and white car) in the image is that of Tom Crews of Montgomery, AL. This car was fielded by Knights Garage in the original 2.5 and driven by Charlie Rainwater.
Alfa racecars was the theme of the Concourse Italiano in Carmel on Historics weekend and we understand at least one of our members, Anthony Rimicci , had his 2.5 car on display. If anyone is planning on displaying their racecar at a public gathering, we have VSRG handouts that we can provide to you. Just let us know when you need them (try to give us a couple of weeks notice).
Points are current on website . The busy race schedule in June & July along with finishing a significant revamp of the software we use to maintain points had combined to put us behind. The good news is that with the new software we should be able to have points available just after the final race and then posted on the web site within a day or so (we normally do a full audit of the results prior to posting).
The 2.5 Challenge was on the Air on the Motorsports Weekly radio show in San Diego during August were we were afforded the time to promote our series. We also plan to do live race reports when time permits in the future on this popular program (KFMB 760).
The Nissan commercial featuring a few of our member’s cars is in production . As it turned out the 510 of Bill Johnston did not make the commercial but Jon Peterson did by holding a photo of his wrecked 510 along with race footage of the cars of Jim McAdory and Paul Davis. We will let you know when these begin airing.
Driver of the Quarter - Bill Johnston
Earlier this year we were contacted by new member with an interesting story regarding an original 2.5 car he had raced and still owned. Bill Johnston (at left in this photo ) told us that he wanted to put his car back in race condition and mix it up in the 2.5 Challenge. After meeting Bill at our season opener at Willow Springs and hearing the full story of this car, we knew that he would be our next Driver of the Quarter. His story is below but what is not mentioned is that they not only put this car back on the track after 10 years in storage but qualified it 9th in our group at Fontana!
My interest in racing began in 1969 while stationed at Vandenburg Air Force Base with a visit to Riverside for a sports car race. At that time I knew nothing about road racing as I was pretty much a drag racer. But after watching that first race, I was hooked, but on my military pay of about $175 a month my dream of road racing would have to be put on hold for a while. While at Vandenburg I met a man named Bob Finn, a friend that would play a role in the car I now own for at that time he was already working this car to convert it into a racecar to compete in the 2.5.
After the Air Force, I went off to college and was doing
just fine. At the same time my brother Jack worked at Vasek Polack’s BMW where he was the assistant service writer. While he was there an acquaintance, Bruce Ponder, acquired a factory BMW 2002 racecar. Bruce drove the car for a few years and then told my brother we could buy the car for about $2500, which included a trailer. The car had a direct drive 5 speed and real minilite wheels and best of all it was the right time and place for us and we were soon the proud owners of that car.
Now that I had a racecar I just needed to learn how to drive it so off I went to drivers school in about 1977. After getting a license we raced the car for a couple of years but we found the car was not very competitive and it was very difficult to make much advancement because of the dominance of the Datsun 510. So being genius as we were, we sold the car for $2,500. Now we had $2,500 burning a hole in our pockets, what can we do?
At the next SCCA race at Riverside I saw Henry Hughes. Henry was another friend from the Air Force and he told us that he had purchased the Datsun 510 Trans-Am racecar that had been built by Bob Finn! He had raced the car a few times but he really wanted to get a formula Ford so in short order my brother and I purchased the car.
Because I had known Bob Finn while he was building the car I knew a lot about it's construction. I was aware that Bob had spent about $13,000 on the car in 1970 (a number verified by his ex-wife). At that time you could have bought a nice house in Santa Maria for that! The car had been built with the help of Mac Tilton at BRE and Bob had purchased one (one of the few documented kits known to have been sold) BRE racecar kits with all the necessary hardware to include a set of plans to build the chassis. Bob had built the car with completely adjustable suspension and exactly the same components as the BRE cars. In fact if you park them next to each other they are identical with the exception that our rear end has been modified to simplify rear end removal without dropping the complete suspension. Bob had had some success in the 2.5 car, I was very pleased to see our car listed in the Trans-Am book that VSRG was selling and that Bob Finn had won $75.00 in a 2.5 race!
Not long after we picked up the 510, another of my Air Force buddies named Bob McCoy introduced me to his cousin Steve Dragus. Steve at that time was involved with his dad on a Trans-Am Mustang with Dick Richards driving. Steve was later crew chief for Don “The Snake” Prudhome’s funny car. We invited Steve to help us in exchange for some diving and of course he stepped up to the plate. Finally, we could make some real effort at going fast. I thought road racers knew how to make power, boy was I wrong. Steve looked at everything and between he and my brother Jack the car would run all season without lifting the hood.
We ran the car for about 10 years, between 1978 and 1988. At the end of the '88 season I decided to retire from racing but not before I won the last SCCA National at Riverside. It was my biggest win. For over 10 years the car sat until a chance meeting with John Morton last year. John began to tell us about an exciting new vintage series for the 2.5 cars and that we should put the car in running condition and start having fun again.
We were hooked again. A quick call to Steve and we set the wheels in motion to return to racing.
Amazingly it took very little to put the car back on the track and it was so very enjoyable to race the car again at the Southern California Historics. I can safely say we will race with VSRG again. After putting about 10 hours of racing on the car over the 4 days, we used it up! I can see we must go through the car and rebuild a few items, after all when Steve finished, he had no brakes, second gear was gone, and the tack read 9000 rpm. Oh, did I mention the small dent we put in it?