|
 Pete Gulick in his Chevron B42 (Photo by Gordon Jolley - click to enlarge)
Road America BRIC |
|
After our fabulous 4th of July weekend at Mont Tremblant, we went to Road America for the BRIC. We'd not been there for some years — the last occasion being with Pete Gulick and Tom Yeager for their first time out in their B23s under dismal rainy and cold conditions of early May. However, this time out, the weather was great — airy and hot, without the stifling heat/humidity that is the norm here in July. The crew had decided to fly instead of drive to this event. By leaving Newburgh,
NY, at
8 on Wednesday morning to get into Milwaukee around 1:30 and onto the track for about 2:30, we would have plenty of time to register, unload, and set up the awning, the cars and the rest of the pit accoutrements. Seemed like a
perfect plan. Of course, at about 4:45 Wednesday morning, it started to unravel. The airline called to say that our perfect flight was canceled — but, no worries, they had put us on the 11:30. When we got to the airport later that
morning, it was only to hear that dreaded word:
w e a t h e r — as in "there is weather between you and your destination." Of course, the
11:30 was delayed and then canceled. Sometime later, they decided to shuttle us down to White Plains to try our luck there. On and on this went, until finally we were on a flight that got us into Milwaukee at 10:30 p.m. local time (11:30
p.m. our time). |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
We had a small but quality team this weekend — Pete Gulick with both a race and a test/spare car; the same for Hamish Somerville. Lowell Blossom, this time without the company of grandson Ian Baas, had two cars (initially) to drive. Pete (left), Hamish (center) and Lowell (right) Photos by Wayne LeBlanc |
|
Test day on Thursday got off to a bad start. Lowell's Chevron B19 lasted only a handful of laps before it ran its bearings — unfortunate, as this was a relatively fresh engine. We had worked incredibly hard on the chassis to bring it in line with our other sportscars and we know that with Lowell's talents it would have been a force to reckon with.
At right, Hamish and Lowell talk it over |
 |
 |
Not deterred, Lowell jumped straight into his Brabham to tear off some strong laps, finding the recent chassis-tuning to his liking.
Lowell in his Brabham BT29 |
|
|
|
|
Pete tried out his March 75S first of all, but didn't care much for the curious braking the car decided to spring on him. As both F2 and sportscars were in the same group, he chose to pursue a front-running race in his F/2 Chevron B42 — continuing the rest of test day with it, and indeed the rest of the weekend. Hamish elected to drive his F/2 March, and he and Pete proved to be their usual inseparable selves on the track, one of them always glued to the tail of the other. |
|
|
|
|
|
Above, Hamish checks his rear-view mirror and finds
Pete in a compromised position. |
|
|
Both Pete and Hamish were consistently in the top five every session — on an occasion or two, in the top three. Not too shabby, when you consider it was a field of some 65 cars at the start of the weekend. The cars and drivers were performing flawlessly. |
|
|
|
|
|
We still think it's a dangerous mix — sportscars and open-wheel Formula cars — particularly when some of the sportscars are closed cockpit coupes that have a rear-view problem anyway. The grid was large enough to support two separate groups and, indeed, there was time enough, as at Sunday's end we were almost an hour ahead of schedule. However, it was a great spectacle with some great racing from some really wonderful cars that we don't get to see all the time, particularly the Lola of Bud Bennett, the tiny little Lola of Bobby Rahal and so on. |
|
 |
Pete and Hamish were gridded 4th and 6th for the race on Sunday. Unfortunately, Hamish had to get an early flight to the UK on Sunday, so he missed the final race.
|
|
On his own now, Pete held down third place, even in a car with steadily deteriorating handling. Only half a lap from the end of the race, now in fourth place, the ignition pack detached from the chassis, leaving the car with no spark. What a shame, after such hard work all weekend! Our friend Bobby Brown, whilst leading the race, was overtaken under a yellow on the last lap — so he too was robbed of a fine win. At right,
Pete in his B42 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lowell ran hard and strong all four days
— the car handling beautifully, just lacking the straight-line power of the F2 cars and the principle F/Bs. Over and over again, Lowell would draft two cars coming up the front straight, slipstream right on their transmissions
and then pull out and out-brake them into turn one; but he was unable to make good his effort in the corners for lack of power on the straights. Nevertheless, he put on a magnificent show and eventually beat Geoff Hailland to the finish line,
the third member of their fight having spun off on the last lap. With more power to match the other F/Bs, Lowell will be right up front again. We'll see if this can be done for Watkins Glen. Still, it was a pretty good
result in a field of some 50-plus cars with three F2 cars having at least a 40 HP advantage. |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
On Thursday night, the
Blossoms treated us all to a wonderful evening out at Cucina, an Italian restaurant in Kohler where we also got to sit out on the lakeside patio
and enjoy the sunset.
|
From all at LCR, thanks again
|
|
|
|
|
Alas, no trophies this weekend, but a lot of fun was had at Road America.
|
|
|
|
|
I
