My dad got his SCCA license signed off

It's been since 1984 that my dad stopped racing. This past weekend following the double regional at Summit Point Raceway, he got his novice permit signed off and is a licensed competitor again.

Following Sunday's race he had to pack up and go home for an early Monday morning flight out to California on business, but he didn't leave without our traditional toast among team members.

He was racing on the same motor that I swooned my wife with, so this winter he is upgrading to ACME power.

Other than a freeze plug issue left over from my last race, both cars ran flawlessly and I lowered my time around Summit Point by more than five seconds.

That wrapped up my season, so work on the 2011 car began today. :D

Congrats, fun ahead!

Sr. did a good job building his car, it looks good, I had forgotten how good looking of a race car a GT makes.

That was/is a great looking GT. That minicup car nonsense should "buff out". It looks more like the original product that alot of other vintage MGs I have seen. :) Sorry i did not make it back over on Sunday. I am glad to see that all went well for him, and I guess the temporary freeze plug setup worked well for you on Sunday.

Thanks Greg. I made it through more than half of Saturday's race so I got credit before dropping out to the freeze plug. We went to the Autozone you recommended and got a temp plug. Also, my brother-in-law nursed the other plug that started weeping.

By Sunday, we were on it full steam. It was good seeing you again.

Also, pretty cool to be racing with Randy Canfield who won HP on Saturday and Monday.

.....and of course congrats to Sr. blackmgb and your new PB at Summit!!!(tu)

Hi Fred ... that's a "cool" looking GT !

Any close up pics available for posting ?

Congrats on the 5 sec discount - more "mumbo" from the motor or driver development ?

Cheers B)

I did not race on Monday. About as soon as the motor cooled following Sunday's race, we started disassembling and then Monday morning pulled the motor and transmission. It went South for the winter. What will probably happen is that my dad will get 90% of my old motor and Hap will start another one from ground zero for my car.

As for lap times, I ran a different gear set (4.3 vs 3.9) and also reved the motor higher. That and a year's worth of experience had me moving along pretty good. On Sunday, I would have won both EP or HP beating the three other competitors in each class. As it played out there were three pretty fast F cars on track ahead of me. Turn one is still an obstacle for me - I left time there.

Gavin, I'll post more pictures of the GT when I get home from this business trip. Dad did a good job building the car. Originally he was going to build his old Sprite, but instead took this former street car and converted it. It was the cheaper faster way to get on track. He took the GT off the road in '99 to begin the restoration. But then 9-11 happened and he went on the road and hasn't really stopped traveling. Every U.S. combat soldier goes through his warfighting training before heading to either Afghanistan or Iraq, so he is a busy guy.

The car is very clean and he has done some cool things to it to make it race worthy. Next year though with a racing gearbox, new ACME motor and possibly bigger carbs, he'll be in unfamiliar territory. I'm not sure his old race car had the power band these MG motors have.

Congrats Fred and Pop! Envious in Redwood City

Here's the car sitting in the paddock. I have more tucked away.

Someday, a long long time from now, I'll get an ACME motor and a good gearbox. You guys have fun out there, that's what it's all about!

Here are some pictures I found on line from one of the photographers at the event.

Fred; - Some very nice pics - Thanks B-)

Thanks Gavin. I'm proud of the old man.

I posted a video of some highlights. Sunday was a better race day for me, but (and I won't blame the wife) the camera record button was never pushed :S

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs9t7vuw2FU

At the very end I included some ice racing I did :)

Thats some cool incar Fred, it definately shows you are hussling the car around the track, you've came along way buddy, nice video, thanks for sharing.

That "whoa" moment, must have been from Miner Wilcox's oil, he blew his Caterham engine up in the session.

Also sad to see the guy in the Fiat 124 smack the wall like that, that was a clean looking car.

That was from when Wilcox lost the bottom end. I'm not sure you can see his car off to driver's right. On lap one of Saturday's race ... that Fiat hit the wall hard, went up in the air and did a 180 degree. The driver was a former Navy Pilot and his driving suit was a flight suit - which is fire proof - pretty cool.

I hated to see his car trashed like it was. Hopefully he can get it repaired. They hadn't thrown the yellow yet, so it was a sweet opportunity to gain a few positions.

At approximately 1k rpms under your redline when you really get on the cam, your gearshift knob is moving to the right. A check of the engine/transmission mounts and perhaps a stayrod is in order? You might be saving on the shift, but on sunday it certainly sounded like you were dropping off the powerband coming out of 3 and 10. How were lap times doing that?

Gonna bookmark that video to encourage getting my butt in gear.

If you watch my Road Atlanta video you'll see the knob doing the same thing. I thought it was normal and I have not experienced any issues.

If you are referencing the video, I slowed down around three to give Frank Jones space so I could make a fast lap. Wilcox's motor ensured I didn't get another lap. On Sunday, through ten I stopped down shifting to third and stayed in fourth carrying more speed. It was faster, because by the time I got to one, I was out of revs. It also kept me ahead of the MX-5 for about six laps during the race - that car was fast in a straight line. My fastest time on Sunday was four tenths faster than Saturday. Fastest lap time was 1:30:4. As reference the class winner - Ken Nesbit's Miata fast time was 1:25:4. Third place Miata was around 1:28. Sunday was a much more consistent drive for me. I was able to run in a pack and then put some distance between me and the pack.

At 100 lbs overweight, lever shocks and vintage rubber I'm good with that run :)

My biggest developmental challenge is focus. I make mistakes that keep me back. On Saturday, for several laps I really was able to run nose to tail, but I made some simple mistakes and they slipped by. Then I lost the freeze plug, ran off course and parked it. Luckily I had completed more than half of the laps so I got credit for the race.

Greg, let me know when you plan to get out there again and I'll be down there to help.

It was cool watching you and the Playboy Mazda go down the straights, it appeared he had a advantage on the first part of the straight and your legs starting kicking in and you had a adavantge on the later part of the striaght, those are 2.0 litre DOHC engine with a few external tweaks like ram air filter, so you talking about 170 HP from the Miata and he didn't seem to be leaving you.

I agree with Greg, I wondered watching the video, if staying in 4th gear at 10 was not a better choice, but I have no experiecne at Summit Point, that turn kinda reminds me of Roebling Road's last sweeper leading onto the long front straight, anything you can do to keep momentium up will net you a better top speed. Tony Drum always told me a gear shift takes a second and a half, so make damn sure you really need to do it, this advice often play into corners like 10 at SP where we're really talking about 2 gear shifts, sometimes mantaining momentum is more important than mantaining rpm.