Last weekend I went racing with SFR SCCA at Laguna Seca raceway. My vintage B/Sedan-prepped Datsun 710 doesn’t really fit into any modern SCCA class so I raced in the catch-all ITE class, along with Corvettes, Mustangs, and Porsche Cup cars. I was definitely running in the back of the pack, but had a few cars to dice with and got to practice getting passed ;-) And while I’m no longer racing a Formula Ford, my former competitors still let me share their pits with them.
Every race weekend there is ‘that guy’. That guy who messes up the track session for everyone else, who gets stuck in the sand traps every time out, who runs out of gas on the back straight, or who oils down the track. Well this weekend I embarrassingly got to be ‘that guy’. I left an oil fitting loose, and as it came off I oiled down Turns 6 through 11 with three quarts of oil on the first lap of Friday morning’s practice. The 30 minute session was cut short to 10 minutes as the track workers got busy with the oil-soak and sweepers. Luckily I shut down the motor with three quarts left in it, saving myself another motor build. Apologies to my fellow competitors…
The summer weather was terrific, but there was a scary fire burning in Big Sur just down the highway from the racetrack. It got a bit smokey on Sunday, but nothing compared to what the hard-working firefighters were (and still are) dealing with.
Photos by my racing buds: Art, Mike, Shad, and Don (as I was busy wrenchin’ all weekend)
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