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As usual, we had a great turnout at the Zippo Vintage Grand Prix – Paul Flowers, Hamish Somerville, Rick Carlino, Pete Schultz, Bernard Bradpiece, Ed Mettelman, Gordon Medenica, Phil Meany and Divina Galica were all back at the Glen once again for SVRA's premiere event. In fact, we heard there were in excess of 450 entries this year. Adding to the excitement for our team, we had managed to get our F1 boys revved up to bring their more recent acquisitions out to play, along with some of our other F1 friends – including Rick Knoop, who came all the way from California to join us with his Tyrrell. Lee Brahin showed up with his Tyrrell as well, which is the sister car to Knoop's. Greg Galdi from Mark Wehrmann's shop on Long Island, joined the group with his McLaren M23. Mike Fitzgerald even sent his Williams FW08C up from Pennsylvania for one day only (due to business commitments).
Also this weekend, there was another CanAm reunion at the Glen, albeit a
little "slim" in comparison with the BRIC's wonderful turnout. Still,
Hamish
and the others who chose to participate had a great time. |
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Phil Meany brought his Aldon out for its second airing of the year, hopeful after very positive results at a recent Lime Rock test day.
- Photo by
Gordon Jolley |
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Gordon Medenica took his F2 March 782 out of mothballs for his first bash of the year (in hindsight, he may have thought better of this as the weekend wore on).
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Bernard Bradpiece appeared to be on form in his Merlyn F/F as soon as he arrived, sure of continuing his momentum leading the Monoposto F/Ford championship.
- Photo by
Gordon Jolley
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Pete Schultz, with his impeccable Lotus Elan, finally joined us for the first time this year, promising to do more events before the season's end – heavy business schedule permitting.
- Photo by
Gordon Jolley
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Paul Flowers, who had brought his Benetton Tyrrell 011 for the F1 race, also elected to bring his B31 Chevron, as it usually goes extremely well at this track. |
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Fresh from three events in Europe and just back from his excellent adventure in Monterey with Lee and Mrs. Lee Webmaster (photo journal in the works!), Rick Carlino came fully loaded, bringing his Surtees TS9B for the F1 frolic, his trusty Gropa, and his Lola 240 F/A for young friend Derek Jones to drive. |
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Joel Finn had again very kindly loaned his famous JPS/Lotus T79 to Divina Galica to drive. Hopefully the engine in the car would be in better tune than it had been in Mexico. |
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So, with quite a turnout (13 cars in total, four of which were our pride-of-the-fleet F1 cars), our support team was here in force, including our usual dedicated crew of Ed Barker, Chuck Golder, Dean Jones and Mike Farka, as well as two new hands, Evan Wiehl and truck driver Dick Card. Rounding out the crew for this event were four reinforcements from Hudson Historics, including John Black and Bruce Lewis – volunteered by their boss Gordon Eggleston to come and help us out. This they did and to great effect – we had assembled a super team at the Glen! |
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Last, but certainly not least, Gary Gurchik joined us as onsite chef, with his brother Glenn assisting. They kept crew and clients alike well nourished all weekend long, in addition to providing a wonderful cookout on Friday night for almost 30 people. Thanks again Gary – wish you could make it to more events!
(click photos to enlarge) |
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Bernard ran really well all weekend – the new tires obtained in Canada paying dividends here. In Group 2's F/Ford class, he was the man to beat – lapping every session quicker than the one before. Kyle Kaulback really kept him on his toes, as these two at the front of the F/F field swapped places continually, lap after lap. During the final race on Sunday, Bernard led for most of it, only for Kyle to draught by him on the last lap! |
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Even still, this couldn't dampen Bernard's spirits, delighted as he was with his performance. He had achieved a lap time two seconds quicker than he'd gone all weekend. Very well done, Bernard!
Not to mention a great job by Cindy,
Bernard's official timekeeper, team manager, etc. Heck, she can do it with
her eyes closed now!
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Ed Mettelman ran hard all weekend in his Lotus 47 – again, quicker than he had ever gone before at the Glen, his new engine performing extremely well.
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The Enduro, always Ed's
main focus of the weekend, started off really well with his usual tactic
of pacing himself and then setting about moving up through the field,
picking off cars one, two, three or even four on each lap.
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Ed had worked his way up to 4th place overall when a broken rear upright forced him to retire quite late in the race. Whilst first place may have been a little out of reach, he probably had a really good shot at making the podium. Bad luck, Ed!
Luckily, the Jagermeister girls rushed
right over to cheer him up.
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Phil Meany put in a really strong run all weekend, featuring well in the upper/mid-field of Group 5. The little Aldon performed flawlessly. It was on race day, however, when we saw Phil at his best.
- Photos by
Gordon Jolley
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All of the crew went up to watch Phil at Turns 5 and 7 as he sliced through the field of 1600cc cars to move up and harry the two-liter Ginetta of Larry Neviaser and the V8 Genie of John Harden.
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John would be holding Larry and Phil up in the corners, but then he would blast away from them on the straights. |
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Phil just could not get by Larry in these corners!
The three of them were too tightly bunched, each driving defensively and
protecting their positions.
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We're sure if Phil could have squeezed by, he would have made short work of Harden and pulled away. Next time! |
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Hamish finished a very close second in the CanAm revival race – this from a 6th place starting position behind much more contemporary equipment with big block 900 BHP-plus engines, wings like 747s and tires and brakes bigger than those of Hamish's F1 Williams! |
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- Photos by Gordon Jolley
(click to enlarge) |
Hamish had made short work of moving from 6th to 2nd, but in an attempt to grab P1 on the last lap, the big block McLaren moved over and hit Hamish, almost forcing him off the track. |
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Another lap and the outcome would definitely have been different. Second was well-earned, considering the difference in equipment.
Jim Freeman & Hamish form a (click to enlarge)
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Wait, there's more!!
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