MG Motorsports Forum

SO far there are 36 cars entered in H production for the runoffs, of which there are 9 spridgets and one sole Spit. Could be the last time for spridgets on the podium, Ron Bartell very strong although he had bad luck at the majors race at MO this year. Not to mention west coast entries. Plus, Tom Feller's Spit very competitive.

Also chances for Spridget podiums in F prod, with Tom Tuttle, Joe Huffaker and Brian Linn entered in Midgets.

I'm about ready to go, new short block together and set to run in this weekend, 4.2 rear set up on my Quaife (Plus will run the 3.9 for comparison), everything on the chassis gone through. Have to finish my MED gearset dogbox as backup unit. With the pound low I felt I could justify taking a chance on this - the parts look well made, they have thought things through with simple fixes such as sleeves to fit over the shift rods to set shift throw on the dogs. Nicely made alloy forks, a laygear with quad roller bearings, and beefed up roller bearing for the 1st-3rd motion shaft surface.

Qualified in F with Max Herrera's "new blue" Midget,.... not going...not fast or rich enough...need clutch sorted after last Majors......instead:

Planning on doing Cruisin the Coast in 11 clone, first full week of Oct.. That's a really neat show. Over 8K registered cars last year, about 3X more just there...27 miles of MS. Gulf Coast to cruise...very cool. Need cooling (car and you) in that traffic!

Have a good time, win! (if Ron doesn't...)

Bob L.

It is going to be a costly exercise - even doubling up in our motel it'll be about $800 for the week for that, $900 for fresh rubber plus taking Hoosiers won on contingency, about $800 in parts, oil, filter, etc. for the engine freshen (and it's going to get a workout, figure with the 4.2 will be pulling about 7300 from about the starter's stand on the back straight to China beach braking zone), plus entry fee, paddock space rental, food for the crew, consumables for the car for the week, and so on. And my $$ for the prod party. Plus new tires for the tow rig, tolls, gas, coffee.
At least I will have better coffee than what you can get at a gas station - will be taking a few jugs of Trader Joe's cold brew along, heat that up in the motel microwave 50-50 with milk and you've got a decent cup of coffee.
We might take along our own grill and cook dinner in the motel lot in the evening at least a few nights - those restaurant bills add up quickly. Better a steak cooked over charcoal ignited with Sunoco 110 -

Ah, yes.......hasn't gotten any cheaper, has it?

I recall my first runoffs in 77, no hotels close to track, stayed down inside 285 loop, in a Days Inn, ...we also cooked in the hotel lot... (rolled Bugeye on first lap of qualifying, Tues. at/after bridge...check our Jolly's crash and burn VSH, about 17 minutes in...short first runoffs for me...).....

Some parts of the experience haven't change......eh?

Well, you did get tow money, entry fee refunded at registration, free spark plugs from Champion, and didn't have to pay to park "rig"....+ Leyland gave you jackets/hats/shirts and donuts w/ coffee.... guess, some parts have changed....

No microwaves, "back in the day"....warmed left over pizza on that habachi grill.....

Okie



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2016-08-31 11:00 AM by Elva Bob.

yes, while raising the RO entry fees the club dropped the tow money payout, cloaked in their usual incomprehensible garble. So the big $$ Majors entry fees go for flying gormless SCCA staff to the various Majors, not back to the drivers who go to the RO.
I remember when I first crewed for a buddy back in the early 70's, we even got hotel rooms paid at RO.
Not to mention that MO, for a pro track, has some of the weakest facilities, just in terms of basic crap like flush toilets, electric in the paddock, paved paddock roads (there were a lot of crunched spoilers at the Majors race there this year) and other basic amenities. Plus it is in the middle of nowhere, and even when you drive for a while you're still...in central Ohio.

Good luck Mike. I've enjoyed watching the journey. Sounds like the car is prepped well.

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Director, Fuels Marketing & Motorsports
www.sunoco.com
2012 SCCA FP MARRS Champion

Mike, I am going tog give you the MO runoffs hotel tip of the century, do with it what you want. The Curtis Inn on the Square in Mount Vernon, OH it about 20 minute ride to the track, and gorgeous ride at that. Get a room in the garden area, nice room, and they will give you weekly rates. I stayed there three times, cool little place, has a restaurant/bar too, nice little place that is a steal. No need to give your money away to stay in boring Mansfield, that's not much closer to the track than Mount Vernon. Back in the TV days, all the Speed TV folks used to stay in Mount Vernon, it is a cool little town.

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Hap Waldrop
Acme Speed Shop
864-370-3000
Website: www.acmespeedshop.com
hapwaldrop@acmespeedshop.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-09-01 12:45 PM by Speedracer.

Hap, we have the Mid-Ohio Inn, over by the interstate and only about 4 miles from the track. It's $89/night during the week, goes up to $139 on the weekend. It is a little run down but at least it's bug-free (never ask my wife about the bedbugs I've brought home from races). Divided first two, then three ways it won't break the bank. It's also close to an Amish restaurant that does a good breakfast (though I have been trying to convince the crew it'd be great to go back to the old days breakfast of Libby's hash and eggs cooked on a Coleman stove at the track).

Boy, things sure have changed. In '72 at Atlanta I got 5 nights free at the Atlanta Stouffers inn. Cocktail party invitations from Champion, Coca Cola, Valvoline and others were in your entry packet. Got free entry, free gas, a free case of some oil called Sunray DX, free parts from BLMC, enough Schick razors for 6 months and $15.00 travel money from SCCA. And that's just the stuff I can remember.
I also had some really rockin times at Under Ground Atlanta so I'm told. 26 or 27 Spridgets & 1 Morgan started the H/P race.
Guess I'm seeing an end of an era. Still, anyone who makes it to the runoffs has my admiration.
I remember what it took to get there.

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The older I get, the faster I was.

Mike, for curiosity's sake, I looked up the Curtis Inn and looks like they tore it down a few years back and built a new, really nice high end hotel in it's place. I got this SCCA race buddy, you know him he always thinks he knows every damn thing, other than that, he is a damn good guy, LOL Anyway he paid $1400 one runoffs year to stay at the crappy Motel 6 in Lexington because it was close to the track, I stayed at the Curtis Inn another 15 minutes up the road, and paid $300 for 10 days, and had fine dining restaurant, and bar, that would even deliver drinks and food to my room We got home after the runoffs and he was *****ing because he wanted a set of Carrillo rods for his race engine but was too broke after the runoffs, I told him the guy that owned the Motel 6 could afford a set of Carrillo rods.

Funny story about that crappy Motel 6 in Lexington, one runoffs year I had to stay there the first night, and then got my room at the Curtis Inn. Now the Motel 6 was flea bag to say the least, and I needed a good night's sleep, because I was doing the test day the next day and you know how freaking expensive that is. Anyway this stupid young couple was in the room beside us, and they fussed, and argued until about 2am, then they made up, and did the dirty deed, for all of about 2 minutes, I **** you not The next morning at about 5:30 am when we needed to get up, the wife and me were still pissed off at these stupid kids, who were good, and asleep now of course. So I started bumping the bed's headrest against the wall and, the wife joined in on the fun, and started yelling "oh my god" and few other suggestive things, we kept this up for good 20 minutes just to piss off those kids. Then as we left a few minutes later, I knocked on the kid's door, he came to the door, and I told him, "son, now that's how you do it"

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Hap Waldrop
Acme Speed Shop
864-370-3000
Website: www.acmespeedshop.com
hapwaldrop@acmespeedshop.com



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2016-09-01 03:39 PM by Speedracer.

I may be getting older, but when we bang the headboard it's not a simulation! That said there's no way I was going to get my wife out to MO for a week - assuming it stays dry we'll be swapping diffs every day (start with 4.2 on quaife, switch back to 3.9 w/ Tran-X, then maybe 4.2 welded, to see what works best. Don't see her sitting there in a saggy lawn chair in a noisy paddock all day long waiting for our single qually of the day to roll around at 4:00pm -

The way my 3 crew members & myself would manage motel bills was this. Leave the car at the track (trusted anybody back then) Go find a cheap room with one bed. Pull the mattress off on the floor. Draw straws to see who sleeps on the mattress & who sleeps on the box springs. We were young back then.

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The older I get, the faster I was.

Ah yes, the memories....hotels...motels....dives...and roadside parks...

For me: I recall a R/N at Hutchinson, Ks. Got a room at the Ramada, back when they were considered top drawer... only 25.95/night...such a deal! About 0230 the 2 mile long freight train rolled thru, on the backside of our room.....at about 5 mph/or less.... Next few years stayed at the Astro motel on other side of downtown... great ice machine...was about 30/night. Now cow pens close.

Another grand stay was the 7 Acres at Mid-America, in Wentzville, Mo.... Chuck Berry was reputed owner of A&W in town...or maybe it was where he first worked?

As to MO, have stayed in Bucyrus a few times at old mom/pop place...was slowly dying, but neat little town (big Bajha Boat factory...off shore cigarette boats, in middle of Ohio?); a Days Inn down road towards Columbus (Galahad, exit?), no ice/ac wouldn't cool/wanted money first.. but back road to track had some Amish folks that make great rolls, pies, giant donuts, and coffee..(woke them up to get stuff one race weekend); even stayed down in Columbus... ride wasn't much worse than other tracks (45-55 minutes)...guess traffic is now worse...

Never got any of those "free" runoffs rooms, tho... guess started my famed runoffs career started too late, first runoffs to watch was Atl., 71 (camper trailer, Nov, ice/sleet/COLD....), to race was 77-81 (mostly down off Chamblee-Tucker Rd), last to race was 09 at Elkhart (Tower Grove Motel in Sheboygan). Since just not bucks up enough to show up...or possibly: just embarrassed to appear, look sorry by lacking performance....

Still have plenty of "benches" to race in that old memory bag...if one could remember where it is...

have fun....after all, that's always possible....and doesn't cost extra...

Okie

Good thing all that stuff was free 'cause I sure couldn't have afforded it. I was barely able to prep the car and get there.
Anybody who gets there multiple times is really my hero. Halfway through the 73 season life caught up with me & I didn't
get to finish the year but had enough points to go but was too broke.
Chances are I won't ever get to go again. May run a Majors or 2 next year but that's about it. It'll still be fun running some of
the tracks I use to run in the SE.
'72 was COLD also. Thanksgiving weekend. 8:30 AM practices would have frozen red water at some apexes that would get you off your line.
Never had a problem starting the car with 50W oil in Florida. Burnt up a starter one freezing cold morning. Luckily the BMC semi was there
with free parts. Never owned a brand new starter till then. That's all the ARRC memories I got but MAN! I'm glad I got 'um.

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The older I get, the faster I was.

Let me save you a lot of time and trouble, use the 4.2, and I could not tell any difference in the locked, or Tran-ex, drove both set ups there. The 3.9 will be a total waste of time there. I guess what I ahd there in 2005 it was working good as for straight line speed, I was able to stroke Tom Feller on the front straight, of course he stroked me right back when we got to the Keyhole, actually Tom and I are friends, and I just wanted to get the hell out of his way, and not mess up his qualifying lap up. I think we were back in the paddock for about 5 minutes before Tom showed up and wanted to know why the engine was so damn fast. The deal is Tom and his entire family, are some of the nicest folks you will ever meet, he and fellow LP Spit driver Chris Chrisenberry were actually trying to help the LP 1275 Midget become more competitive, but the deal was no one had fully develop one yet, and didn't that year either, needless to say by the time the runoffs moved to HPT, and Craig Chima built a LP 1275 Midget, and they then realized they were wrong about the LP1275 Spridget being uncompetitive in HP

Of course all this was long before HP became GP, and all we did was in vane. I think the little engine cars can win HP at MO with a lot of luck, lord knows Bartell, and Feller both know how to win there, but to do that you're going to have to win the battle to the first turn, MO is not a easy place to pass, and that will be really tough for the little cars. We saw the same deal there in GP with the Spits vs the 510s, FP, now that's another deal. The LP 1275 is simply out gunned, it's day in the sun has come and gone, however give that engine a point of compression and it will be woken back up. I think the guy to watch is Tom Feller, he will be one to tell if the little LBCs have any future in HP, as for being able to win the runoffs. Tom is an incredible driver and his talent behind the wheel is what won him those championships, it wasn't the car I can assure of that. Tom car is very nice and well prepped, but loaded with trickery, if fact Tom always like to make fun of us Spridget guys, telling us we were making our cars too trick and it wasn't needed, and maybe there is something to be said for that.

The best runoffs advice I can give you is run what got you there, and drive your ass off. If you throw a bunch of new stuff at the car for that race, you'll be chasing your tail all week long, I've got that T shirt, so have many others. As for the one time on track per day deal, actually less than that now, it will seem like you have too much time on your hands, trust me when I tell you that time will fly by like a streak of lightening, manage your time well, it goes by much faster than you think.

In my mind I think if one wants to drive a LP HP LBC car, the MGB, looks a lot better on paper than the the Spridget, trust me it crossed my mind when I got the Biscuit from Fred. There was alot of soul searching with that idea, in the end the tire deal steered me away, you guys are slaves to the tire gods in SCCA, tire cost have tripled since I last did this. There again, even though a few have done nice HP MGBs no one has explored the full limits. I wonder what happen to Chuck Leighton's car, that would be a good foundation for a HP car

On a side note, I ordered some parts from Ed at Huffaker yesterday, he said they were moving 100+ mph in their shop right now to get everything done and ready to go. Joe is bringing his Midget, Mini and then Tuttle with his Midget running tow classes, and Tuttle is driving one of the ex Suarino cars.

My plate is really full right now in the shop, which it is always is, but right now even to a more elevated level. However with that said, I am telling Freddy T, let's just get in the car and go up there, lots of history for both of us there, and many of our friends will be there, and it would be good to take it all in, and see old friends. In closing once the runoffs gets in your blood, it is there forever.

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Hap Waldrop
Acme Speed Shop
864-370-3000
Website: www.acmespeedshop.com
hapwaldrop@acmespeedshop.com



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 2016-09-02 06:13 AM by Speedracer.