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THINGS THAT GO VROOM

VARA SPRING MOUNTAIN DUEL IN THE DESERT, ’18

March 5, 2018 by Troy Leave a Comment

I got the 710 back out last week to race with VARA at the terrific Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch facility in Pahrump, NV. Yeah, it’s a long haul from NorCal, but worth it. The trip home turned into a bit of a mess with 50 knot crosswinds across the Central Nevada desert, and chains required over the Sierras (even on the trailer), but at least we had a story to tell…

Our run Group had a good pack of BMWs, Datsuns, and Alfas racing, and Sam Smith had all of us covered this weekend in his burgundy 2002. He’s a fast driver and he runs a serious effort with more work and data collection going on in his pits per day than I do all year, but that’s what it takes to run up front, so kudos to him and his crew. And BTW, they throw one hell of a party in their pits on Saturday night as well! I had a great battle with my friend Steve Bristing in his orange and white 510 during Sunday’s flag race, him sawing my rear bumper pretty much flag-to-flag. He held off a couple of hard charging Beemers, and then it was just him and me the last lap to determine the podium positions. He came out of the last corner glued to my rear bumper, drafted me down the front straight, and timed the draft pass perfectly to pip me at the line by 0.06 seconds for Second place. No blocking or swerving, just a drag race to the line, and he got me this time. Maybe I’ll let him lead the last lap next time ;-)

photo by Chris Benson

And I gotta say you see the strangest things in the Nevada desert…

Filed Under: Datsun Racing, Race Weekends

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