2016 Season Re-Cap- Part 3- Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival

brake issues we need to sort.
Luigi is still having some brake issues we need to sort.

Our next race was at the Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival put on by SVRA. Held each spring, it is a great event with lots of great cars, and big crowds of spectators. SVRA does a great job with this event. One of the highlights each year is the R&R party they put on on Saturday night.

At this event I raced the Willis Special and the Luigi CSL. Both cars ran well all weekend, and I was able to finish 7th with the Willis and 6th in the CSL with a best lap of 1:53.4.

John Murray and Ed Matuisha are two people we enjoy spending time with at the races.

I ran pretty much all alone in the Willis. The car slots in between the much faster F1 cars and the much slower cars in the group. One of the great things about this group is the sites and sounds and smells of all the old cars that run in this group.

My 1935 BMW 315/1, “The Willis Special,” in turn four.

The Willis is a very difficult car to drive. It is extremely loose in the rear end. This trait is particularly noticeable in the Carousel where the road drops constantly as you make the 180 degree turn.

In the CSL I had a great race long battle with Bill Lyon in his 914/6 Porsche. We have raced together many times and we always have fun, close racing. At some tracks he is quicker, and at some I am quicker.

Sonoma seems to favor my CSL because of the torque the car has. I am able to really pull Bill coming out of the slower corners.

Here’s the video from the weekend. Hope you enjoy it:

 

2016 Season Re-Cap Pt. 2- April in California


 Our opening races of the year were down in California- the David Love Memorial at Sonoma, and the HMSA Spring event at Laguna Seca.

These races would be my first chance to drive my newly acquired Chevron B16 so I was excited for the season to begin. I also raced my trusty Koepchen 2002.

My 2002 races in Group 8 which is a mixture of mid and large bore production cars and sedans. Sonoma is ideal suited to the 2002 so they do very well there against the larger engined cars.

I started about mid pack and had a great race with John Murray in his 2002, and Gary Cook in his 240Z. My best lap time for the weekend was 1:59.3. Here’s the link to the video of that race:

This was also my first opportunity to drive the Chevron B16 I purchased over the winter. We had to make some modifications to the car so I could even fit into it. We trimmed the bottom of the dash for my knees, took out the dead pedal, and put some spacers in the drivers side window to give me a little more head room.

My first experience driving the B16. What a Ride!

My objective for this first race was to just get comfortable in the car. It is significantly different than driving my other cars. It is a purpose built race car with a lot more speed than anything else I own.

This Chevron has a BMW m10 motor in it. It produces about 220 HP and is very tractable. It pulls hard from about 4,000 RPM up to its red line. The brakes are phenomenal, much more effective than any of my other cars. It has amazing amounts of grip, yet is quite neutral and predictable in the corners.

The weekend following Sonoma we went to Laguna Seca for the HMSA Spring Event.

I had another great race with John Murray in our 2002’s. I was able to beat him this weekend by out braking him going into the Cork Screw and holding him off for 6 laps. A lot of fun!

The Chevron and I continued to get to know each other. Unfortunately I broke a half-shaft in the car during the race and had to retire.

Here’s the video:

Re-Cap of Our 2016 Season, Part-1

Celebrating 100 years as the ultimate driving machine! Our big event was the Rolex Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, CA.

It’s been a while since I have put a post up on this blog and for that I apologize. We have had a very busy year and I have neglected reporting on it here.

In all we attended 10 races this past season. Following the Amelia Island Concours our race season began in early April. We raced the following events:

Apr 1-3

Sonoma

David Love Memorial

Chevron, K2002

Apr 9-10

Laguna Seca

Spring Club Event

Chevron, K2002

April 29-May 1

Pacific Raceway

Spring Sprints

700, K2002

June 4-5

Sonoma

Sonoma Historics

CSL, 315

July 1-3

Pacific Raceway

Northwest Historics

700, 1800TI

July 7-10

Portland

Portland Historics

CSL, 2002TA

Aug 13-14

Laguna Seca

Pre-Reunion

2002TA, Chevron, CSL

Aug 18-21

Laguna Seca

Rolex Reunion

315, 700, 1800Ti, CSL, Chevron

Sept 3-4

Portland

Columbia River Classic

K2002

Sept 30-Oct 2

Sonoma

Charity Challenge

K2002, Chevron

Oct 28-30

Thunderhill

Fall Finale

K2002

I will endeavor to post a report of each race with a link to the video over the next few weeks.