Long Time No Say - eh?

I know, I know... I haven't posted anything in months. (Not that anyone's noticed!!) Well, that's true and now I will address the situation and bring all my dedicated readers up to date! (There are dedicated readers. no?) Anyway, this may be a bit of a saga, but here goes!

On the racing front: Back to the final event of '08 for me - The "Celebration of Motorsport" put on by the CASC, once again at our ol' stompin' grounds at Mosport. The "usual suspects" turned up at this event but it was a bit of a departure for me. My regular right hand man, Mr. Mike P, couldn't make the weekend due to a "family reunion"-thing. (Imagine wasting a racing weekend to see long lost relatives - geeez!) Anyway, my good pal, fellow VARAC member and local-town neighbour Herr Neil, (the local pharmacist) sez: Geez, Doug, you shouldn't have to miss a race weekend - I'll get one of our vehicles and you get your normal rental-trailer and I'll see to it you have a tow to the track! What a pal! I sez O.K. and get the car, spares and tool-kit and all ready and with Mike's help just before he leaves for relativity-hell, he brings the rental trailer to the house and I get things loaded up. Now I just gotta wait for my tow to pitch up - Cool!

Mr. N, his dedicated crewman and his son pitch up with their racer, a spare pharmacy tow-van and curiously, a white sporty-car. Not just any sporty-car mind, but an amazing white '07 Porsche GT3, no less - obviously one of Neil's new toys. After we get all the kit & cars & everything loaded up, Neil's son and crewman leave with their racer in tow, leaving my "rig" and the GT3. Neil turns to me and sez: You've probably not driven a van with a trailer and I don't trust you with my company vehicle so here... and sho'nuff he tosses me the keys to the GT3.
Right! sez I and toss them right back. No, no, he says I'm serious - YOU drive the Porsche. I'm driving the trailer-kit. At this moment, my neighbour is out front saying: Neil, are you crazy? That's SWITZER for heaven's sake! Neil says, "yep", and "I can't risk having the pharmacy van damaged so he'll have to drive the Porsche". Unbelievable.
So away we go. I'm trying to get used to this phenomenal machine and trying to settle in behind the generous, wealthy chap driving the tow vehicle with my race car to the track and I'm thinking, this is a weird (and very wonderful) thing. After a bit, we're on the highway and the Porsche is burbling merrily along, I have the sunroof open and I'm listening to the Beatles on the Sat-stereo and I'm thinkin' this is good. Then my cell-phone rings and it's Neil - "open the thing up fer' Chrissakes" he sez - PASS ME!! (or sumpin' like that) "It's no good unless you get it above 3500 RPM," he says. - O.K. - This bloke is driving my tow vehicle and race car to the track & I'm tooling along in his supercar and he says to open her up. I pinch myself repeatedly to make sure I am indeed awake and even alive in this world and yes, it is so. What's a poor lad to do? I check the mirrors, sashay out into the passing lane and nail the throttle and Whooollly Holy- who-ha! A leisurely whirrr becomes weird sounds from the 415-odd horses in the ass end of this thing as I vault into hyper space! This... "thing" is howling like Darth Vader's Tie-fighter and blows by the tow rig and other terrestrial vehicles in nanoseconds, not erratically, mind you, it's very straightforward and controllable actually, but it comes on with a bang above 3700 RPM - long before I can gather enough thought to back off! YIKES!! I wasn't expecting that. Not quite the ol' MG is it!?? As we go on, I give it another couple of "squirts" on the throttle in varying gears and seem to think I'm getting a bit of a feel for this extraordinary beast. But clearly it can only be properly explored on a race track - WWWoowwoo - MEGA Kool! (And an intriguing idea comes to mind... on a racetrack, eh? hmmmm!??)
Well, all to soon we've arrived at Mosport International Raceway. Folks that know me or have seen me before have much new respect for the punter in the white GT3. (They point and with furrowed brows mouth "you? - in that?? - what the F***??") I wave like Royalty at the great unwashed as I burble through the paddocks. I AM Steve McQueen. This is again, very good. Coming up: More on the actual race weekend.

We park and start setting our camp up. Tough, it's kind of late and most folks have obviously adjourned elsewhere, we pick a space at the end of the asphalt near our normal haunts at Turn 1 and begin setting up.

Soggy BARC weekend

We're back!
I've not had a chance to write in the last couple of weeks, but suffice to say, it's almost taken this long to dry out from a thunderstormy, soggy BARC weekend. It rained so much I didn't bother unpacking the camera as I didn't want to get it wet so unfortunately we didn't get any pictures. Hopefully others did. Anyway, I ran our practice and qualifying sessions on the Saturday along with one of the 3 or 4 races I was supposed to run. This first race was my first absolute "chucking-it-down" wet race and boy, can I tell ya! running in an open wheeler in the wet is quite an experience! I found out that running up the straights wasn't such a problem as the "rooster-tails" off the front tires tend to go straight back past yer' ears, either side of your head. The real interesting part comes when you go to turn into a corner and those tires aim at you! It's like someone throwing a bucket of water in your face! Also, being passed, following or coming up behind someone was very soggy! Curiously, the "spec" Dunlop FV race tires were actually quite grippy and very predictable in the wet. I found they instilled sufficient confidence to allow me to make my first actual pass in these conditions. I overtook one of my comrades in his Alfa GTV whilst exiting turn one and held him off until Moss's. I was too busy patting myself on the back for being the exquisite "Rainmeister" - and as I exited 5C, I noticed another fellow competitor in the wall and this rattled me to the point I got on/off the throttle too abruptly and went part way 'round, corrected too much and snapped back-so I elected to do the "both feet in"-thing and slide to a backwards halt before I hit something (or someone) seriously. The GTV re-passed me and I felt I could hear him snickering! Anywho ... no harm, no foul and there was a big traffic break so I grabbed a cog and turned about and got on with it up the straight. On my very next lap there were more yellows as our camp-mate in his lovely bugeyed Sprite hit the wall very concisely exiting turn one - terminally damaging his car and ending his weekend. There were actually quite a few other "smacks" towed in over the two days, but thankfully (as far as I know) no-one was hurt. Saturday's rainy weather, shunts and clean-ups stretched things out to the point that the organizers elected to postpone the last few races on Saturday's schedule and put them over 'till Sunday morn. A massively, stormy Saturday night led to a sort of drying, but still soppy Sunday morn and I ventured up for my delayed race around 10:00 a.m. Off we went on the warm-up lap and the car was feeling good. Green flag and away we go, I'm kind of taking it easy still - until I get to Moss's (once again!) and as I exit 5C and just as I'm going past the marshall's stand, I boot it and shift to 4th and ... nothing. The gas pedal goes to the floor and the engine dies to an idle. I coast off to the side of the straight in the boonies, right in the middle of the 2 marshall's stations and become a spectator. Broken throttle cable. Hmmmm... blame myself for restoring everything but that piece of kit. The TSR has a kind of peculiar set-up. It's not a "bicycle cable-type" throttle cable. Not that it couldn't be, it just isn't. It has a steel tube similar to a long length of brake line welded to the chassis tubes and snaked up at either end to meet the carb and at the opposite, the loud pedal. Through this is threaded a length of aircraft cable with a simple loop-swaged thimble-thing at the pedal-end and a weird, complicated, turn-buckled, threaded and lock-wired adjustment-Rube Goldberg device at the carb-end. Again, not that it has to be. I'm re-thinking all of this. Maybe we'll try something different?! Anyway, I had no spare bits to repair the thing and time was getting on. We elected to end our weekend early and packed up for home. Kind of an expensive outing for one race. Next time, we will have spare cable-set-ups and we will have everything sorted and we will solve all these problems. HEY! Isn't that "KAIZEN"??? Oh well, given the carnage of the weekend, I guess a broken cable isn't too bad. At least I got it all home with all the other bits still shiny, pointing in the same direction and functioning properly. So, now I just have to do my 'tween race servicing and cable repair and we'll be all set for next month which will be our final event of the season.
See ya'll at the Celebration?? Sept 27/28th - Mosport Park! Come by & say "HI!!"
Cheers!
Doug Switzer!!!

Off to the BARC event!

Well now
...I've missed a few VARAC events (Shannonville, Calabogie and Mirabel and there's also the wonderful Waterford thing) - but now I think I may be sorted enough (both mentally and financially) to get the kit together for this weekend's (Aug. 9th & 10th) BARC event at Mosport! I've secured a new "mini-sump"-kit and modified me' oil pick-up and screening devices to rectify my "ZERO" oil pressure through the corners problem - at least that's what I'm told will happen by those in the know. Whether it actually works, we'll see this weekend, eh? The car is rarin' to go (as is the "pilote"!) so we'll see if we can't shave another few seconds off our times -whot?

Now! Just as an aside - I must offer my sincere condolences and support for TEAM Viccary. Young Shane apparently exceeded the speed of his angels at Waterford and met with the wall at some point, I talked briefly with Pa Peter and he said Shane had injured his leg (fractured? sumpin') and had some bruises and sore ribs, etc. but was otherwise appearing to be O.K. The car, however, was not O.K. It had suffered extensive damage and is now in the hands of V-guru Bill Vallis and although it is to be rebuilt - it appears Team Viccary are out for the rest of the season. A sad situation all 'round, indeed. Again, my very best wishes to Pete & Shane and I hope we can get together soon!

I'll post some more pics and what-not on my next post! (probably be best after the BARC weekend, eh?!) -and HEY! what about some of you readers posting some comments, eh? The whole idea of a "blog" is to be interactive and have some feedback, eh? (where's Palermo when I need him?!)

Cheers to all!
Doug S.

BEMC Spring Trophy Races

Hey all!
Here are some pics from the May 10th BEMC Spring Trophy races at Mosport. The Vee ran pretty good for a first time out!


Above: Crossing the start line - my first race!



Above: Bootin' through turn 1 at Mosport!



...dicing? no being passed in turn 8!



Above: ...heading through Turn 9



Above: The Vee at Turn 10

Festival racing Weekend 2

The "VeeMen": Mike Jackson, Doug Switzer, Shane & Pete Viccary, Dick Ryan





Below: A brace of Vintage Vees: TSR, ShadowFax, Kelly and Ringwraith



Below: Our smiling pals at Loose Tools Racing!



Below: Dave and Mike discuss strategies!



Below, My brother Dave Switzer with the TSR







Back to my race report from last weekend: (in probably 'way too much detail!)

When I did get to race and before the weekend went sour, we were on our way to one of the best and best-attended VARAC events of all time. I made several goofy mistakes that fortunately weren't dangerous, but only resulted in me looking silly. Hey, live & learn, eh? My first mistake of the weekend was packing in a rush (again) and ended up with me showing up at the Race Registration without my bloody logbook! No log, no racing! Fortunately, I have a lovely, understanding and helpful wife that found the logbook, jumped in her car and drove to meet me halfway to hand it over. I met a lot of really great people over the almost-4 days at the track, including many folk who were originally associated with my TSR and its development back in the 70's. There was even a chap that said he test-drove the thing 38 years ago!! We again had lots of positive comments and compliments on the car! The TSR once again ran well and was very reliable although we do have some oiling problems I'll have to address. The pressure drops off alarmingly in the corners! (I'm thinking the engine has been put together without a proper windage tray, maybe?) To counter this we simply overfilled the thing with oil and let the excess blow out into the catch tank during the race while keeping a watchful eye on the oil pressure. While this works, it isn't a very good solution to the problem. Also, during my qualifying session, while watching the pressure gauge I committed my first sin and ran over the pit-exit blend line. This resulted in my first black flag and a stop and go penalty. Duhhh. Mistake number 2. Oh well, now rattled a bit, I went back out on the track, joining right in front of the very fast FV veteran's, including the 2 cars visiting from the U.S. I was determined to stay in front of these guys for as long as I could, then follow them around and see if I could learn anything. It was not to be. I got all my thumbs and big toes in it on the way into the "hairpin" at turn 5a and had my first "spin" right in front of everyone between 5a and 5b. I could almost hear the snickering as they went by and I sat facing the wrong way! Oh well, no contact with anything or anybody and I was still "on the track" so when a suitable break in the traffic came, I grabbed another gear, pulled a "u-ey" and took off again back up the straightaway. I'd now achieved Mistake Number 3.
The VARAC veterans had told me there is a time "threshold" at Mosport. Any lap times over 2:00 minutes are merely "highway" speeds, but once you go under 2:00 minutes, you are now actually getting into racing speeds. After qualifying, I checked my times and found out I'd finally "graduated"! I'd officially gone under 2 minutes at Mosport! My qualifying time was a 1:59.6 - good for 24th grid position out of a field of 40! Respectably mid-pack - for a beginner. Then, during my first race we had further oiling problems and a spot of rain toward the end and yes, my driving wasn't aggressive enough, and I dropped 3 positions to 27th. However, my best time had improved to a 1:59.1 - at least I was getting faster, even if I wasn't yet "mixing it up". Oh well, it'll come.
We prepped the car and made everything race-ready Saturday night as we were to be the first race out Sunday morning and none of us felt we wanted to fiddle around at the last minute (or get up early to do it!) We went for dinner and then to bed and huddled through a smashing great thunderstorm Saturday night.
Sunday morning was damp and a bit misty and we wiped the water down off the car and had some breakfast courtesy of crew-chief and masterchef Mike! I suited up and got in the car and fired her up to head for the mock-grid for our race, the first of the morning. On the way up, the car popped and ran a bit rough. I figured it was probably wet and cold from the night before and should dry out once it warmed up. When I got in position on the mock grid, as usual I shut it off to save the battery. When they ordered us to fire up and move onto the track - the damn thing wouldn't start!! I stuck my hand in the air and kept hitting the starter button - backfires, popping and no luck! The grid crew pulled all the other cars around me and I would be forced to start from the back of the pack - bloody 'ell! I finally got the car to run, but only on 1 or 2 cylinders and it was really rough, it would barely move without stalling. Knowing I'd never make a lap around the track I had no choice but to request they wave me back to the garage/paddock area to see if we could find out what the hell was wrong. As I banged and popped and chugged into my paddock-spot, my man Mike ran up and asked what the problem was. PIssed off, I said the F***'n thing is running like S**T! At that point, he looked into the back engine cover and deftly pulled the RAG out of the CARB!! The car ran quite well now. DUHHH! Chalk up Mistake No. 4. I scooted back up to the grid area and was waved into the pits, but by now I was a lap and a half down when I finally got to re-join the race-in-progress. Double-bloody-'ell! Anyway, I put my head down and got on with it and ended up finishing 4th last (at least I wasn't last!) - AND I got my time down to a 1:58.6 - another 1/2 second off! - and still we're contending with the oiling problems. I vowed to myself we'd get it all right in our final race that afternoon - but then the sad disaster happened and unfortunately it was just not to be.

Festival Racing weekend 1

Dino Crescentini in his 1977 Wolf-Dallara - ex-Gilles Villeneuve centre-seat CanAm car.


Hey All, once again, I've been away and very busy so I've not posted in quite a while!
Well, where do I begin? May 10th saw me get out and actually go racing for the first time and things went rather well. Then again more recently, in spite of the costs, last weekend's activities also yielded extraordinary results. As some of you may be aware, I was racing my wee formula car at the 29th VARAC Vintage Racing Festival (June 20th to 23rd) and I must say, as a race team-group, we've probably made about as many mistakes and forward-strides as is possible in one weekend and fortunately, the mistakes only resulted in me looking foolish. - more on that later!

But right up front, I must address the great tragedy that cut this year's 2008 29th Vintage Festival short. This is the info as I have it at present. Please understand this information may not be correct or conclusive, as this is all hear-say (though from reliable and witnessing sources). If I find out different details, I'll post them.
I was amongst the first morning races out in the group 2 race, first off and then, in the third event of the day, during Sunday morning's racing a catastrophe occurred. At highest speed, apparently at the "hump" around the end of the back straight, on the fastest part of the track during the race with the very fast "wings & slicks" cars, disaster. A great sportsman and good friend of VARAC suffered an accident that took his life. Dino Crescentini of Rochester Hills, Michigan crashed fatally in his 1977 Wolf Dallara center-seat CanAm car. Dino was reportedly revived and removed from the accident scene and evacuated to local hospital, but an "addendum driver's meeting" was held at the track at 1:00 pm where race management officials announced the sad news of Dino's death and added that the weekend's further events were to be cancelled in respect to the family of the deceased. As this was a fatal accident, in agreement with Ontario law, the Police were called in and were conducting a detailed investigation. Their investigative results would take longer than the schedule would allow, and as a result, all racing activities for the day were ended. This was agreed to by all the participants and we of the racing fraternity shook hands, shed our tears and packed up for home. Recent reports said the car shed some bodywork and became sideways allowing air underneath and resulting in a "blow-over" that caused the car to flip several times end over end and strike the wall at very high speed, however, exactly why this happened remains unknown at this time. Many theories have been put forth, but we'll just have to await the results of the police investigation and the examinations of the racing technical people.



I'll post my adventures later (I did sort-of? O.K.? ---In spite of it all and before the sad end, we still had great fun though!)

Doug Switzer

Holy Willickers! I've been away!

OK so I have to start this where I left off, Right? Here's my most recent musings on the state of F1...
THERE GOES THE SEASON!!! Li'l ol' Hammy makes the first big dufus mistake of his career and that sets up a finale that gives us a close-competition, "nail-biter" to the end?? I already hear some folk claiming it's a real set-up and he threw the race. One must wonder sometimes, is all this rigged and scripted like a bad "Survivor" episode, or what?? Is it a case of "ad-fraud"? (We must keep the crowds titillated, eh?) In many ways, F1 is looking more and more like the WWF to me. Its like they think they must bring sophisticated left AND right turn motorsports to the attention of the commom man. Is this the theory? If so, I say: "Why?" The common man has NASCAR, the WWF, hockey and knuckles to walk on, why confuse him with multiple dimensions? - or even a glimpse of sophistication? The common man is fine with his agricultural-message "bubba" baseball hat, beer-in-a-bottle, his .30-ought-six and lil' ol' peacemaker, and pliable as he is, why try to mess with that whole demographic? Life's fine and "mobile" in the trailer park just the way it is, leave them be, I say.
Ferrari is SO in the pocket of, no, scratch that, The FIA and MOSLEY are SO in the pocket of Ferrari, (read that as the old Italy/FIAT/National "brotherhood") back in Modena, well, what can I say? eh? So, the Ferrari whiners say something to the effect of: 'Zee documents were recognized and the alarm sounded by an "alert" clerk at an instant print agent in West London when he identified folk exchanging the papers after their printing', or something similar to this BS. I've worked in the print and ad business for more than 35 years and I've yet to meet an instant print "clerk" who's either alert, or even on this planet, (don't get me wrong, most "instant print" people ARE in fact, humanoid) nevermind having the engineering background and technical savvy to identify "at a glance" a set of F-1 specs or drawings, let alone modern print-out "crunch-numbers"... and how on earth could the clerk know the people who were "exchanging" the papers were not supposed to be doing so? Nonetheless, in this scenario, I highly doubt there's any "clerk" that'd know what they're handling, unless it was a set-up by Ferrari to "hand off stuff". A "plant"? Incredible, you say? Unbelievable, you say? Unheard of and most certainly, if this was the case, it would be absolutely unsportsmanlike and plain "Just not British"!! Well, at Ferrari, if you can't beat them, threaten, file a law suit and whine a lot. It worked when the Commendatore ran the shop and it worked when Schumacher was there and it will continue.
Hey, back in knuckle-walking land, anyone see Jacques V. in his Talledaga intro/debut? He finished better than almost half of his nay-sayers... Who cares.
Just my opinion...
The MGVMan