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SVRA Season Finale
Motorsports Park presented by
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It seemed only a matter of days and we were back on the road again. We had managed to rebuild Hamish's Williams FW07 after its off-course excursion at VIR. We repaired the tranny and fitted a fresh engine to the Lola 240 following the Glen. The Lola T70 had a gearbox rebuild and a top-end freshen of the engine. The Surtees had had major surgery on its gearbox, and all the cars had their usual extensive, intensive, post/pre-race preps for what amounted to the last race of the season for most of the cars and for most of the drivers. |
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Our star lineup this weekend would be Pete Gulick, Hamish Somerville and Rick Carlino, plus young up-and-coming superstar, Derek Jones, who was to share Rick's Gropa in the Endurance race and show the F/A pilots how it's done in only his second appearance in an open-wheel car – Rick's lovely little Lola 240. As an aside, Derek had a couple of IRL Indy car tests offered to him on the strength of his Watkins Glen performance. |
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The F1 cars didn't rule the roost exactly this weekend. Connor was here with his Benetton Tyrrell, and there was a pretty quick Champ car as well. However, as usual, Pete and Hamish were at it from the drop of the flag on the first day, easily 3rd and 4th quickest. Pete was much more comfortable in the car this weekend as we had made substantial changes within the cockpit to accommodate him, giving him much more leg/foot room and enabling him to extend his arms further. As usual he and Hamish were only separated by a split second. To see these cars coming under the bridge and down the hill onto the front straight was spectacular; never missing a beat, the shrill short tail-piped DFVs screaming. We'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story for now.... |
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The
Surtees of
Rick Carlino was, as usual,
fastest of the next generation of pre-ground-effect cars. This
weekend, we were bugged by an oil tank that kept springing leaks. Fix one, another would start. Mike did his best keeping up with
this, but it was an uphill battle. |
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 - Photo by Gordon Jolley |
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"In the Group 9 Mike Stott*UBS Sprint, Hamish Somerville, '79 Williams FW07 was first away, John Burke's '97 Reynard Champ car was next with the '78 Williams FW08 of event sponsor Peter Gulick third. The following lap Burke was out front and pulling away, leaving the two Williams to battle for second. The fight continued right to the checker, but despite posting the fastest lap on the last lap, Gulick was not able to get by." - Bob Harrington for SVRA |
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"The next Mike Stott*UBS Sprint combined Group 5 and the quicker cars from Group 4. Up front Hamish Somerville quickly took control in his '67 Lola T70 Mk III Spyder with Richard Carlino's 71 Chevron GROPA second followed by John Romano's '69 Porsche 908/3. Carlino and Romano had a race long battle with Romano having a quicker fastest lap than Carlino, but as is so often the case, catching is one thing, getting by, an entirely different matter." Bob Harrington for SVRA |
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"In the Group 7 Mike Stott*UBS Sprint Theo Bean made up for his disappointment in the Group 10 Mike Stott*UBS Sprint taking charge with his '76 Lola T286 from the get-go and never relinquishing the lead. Rick Bell's '79 Lola T333 Prophet was a strong second from flag to flag, while event sponsor, Peter Gulick held off challenges from James Freeman's '67 Matich SR3 and Rasim Tugberk's '74 Chevron B26 to take third." Bob Harrington |
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 - Photo by September 8th |
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 - Photo by Gordon Jolley |
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 - Photo by Gordon Jolley |
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WHAT A YEAR WE
HAD! Stay tuned!
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