VSCDA Blackhawk Classic XXIV-June '16

This has taken way too long. How many excused would you like? First there was the dead Dell computer. There there was the new dead Dell computer. There there was a number of board meetings ... well, so be it!

VSCDA’s 31^st Blackhawk Classic may have seen the largest assemblage of vintage racers ever to occupy Father’s Day Weekend, an amazing 160 cars of all stripes. This on a weekend where SVRA was holding its Indy event just down the road. Considering the track time and cost on the lesser known venue of Blackhawk Farms Raceway, we should not have been surprised.

For our P and B Motorsports team, it was a mixed bag weekend. #1 Red ran flawlessly and we had some really good lap times, but the Sunday Feature Race got a little bumpy.

An opportunity for Crew Chief Buettner to show off his body working skills

It’s always a risk, and by comparison with some of the things I’ve seen this was a pretty minor occurrence, but it’s the first time I’ve been in a situation that arguably should have been avoided. It took a couple laps for me to get back to the mental space I needed to be in, but we still finished well.

The Swedish Pavilion had all the usual suspects plus a new addition. Tim Detwiler caught the bug from hanging around with us, mostly helping out Jeff Babcock. Organizing the Volvo Nationals I’ve learned of a number of Volvo race cars for sale. Long story short, I put Tim in contact with Pennsylvania Bruce Saunders and we now have another 1800 in our fold.

Fresh from PA, a new 1800 part of the Swedish Pavilion

Tim did not race but got to spend some time playing with the car in the paddock with all sorts of useful and useless advice. He has since gone through the Midwestern Council school and it looks like we are going to have a new strong competitor being part of gang.

A highlight of the weekend was rekindling competition with my friend Cana Comer. The arrival of Briggs Comer, now a bit less than a year old, caused Cana to take a two-season hiatus from the track. Far as I could tell, the stint at being a mom instead of a race car driver did not slow her down much. OK, in all honesty, not at all. No doubt Colin Comer is never going to hear the end of Cana’s beautiful little Bugeye matching the times of Colin’s equally gorgeous screaming ’66 GT350 Mustang.

Here's Cana, and my position seems to be consistent. 

Here’s a little video of some of the more exciting time of our Saturday Sprint Race.

And finally some pictures that represent some of the weekend.

 The Group 1 boys were really out in force over the weekend. And Bill Goulette's J2 MG Group 1 car won the Dad's Day Handicap Race by about 10 ft. over Colin Comer's GT350! The handicap race starts cars at different times based upon best lap time (slowest cars first). In theory all should finish the race at the same time. Bill set a blistering pace of 63.339 mph. Colin's 84.291 mph was not quite enough.

This is John Ullrich in his incredibly beautiful Darracq Roadster

Rick Kardos and Alex Christopher share the good times. (David Farrington photo)

Dale Schmidt invariably comes around to kibitz with his old Volvo friends. Alex Christopher now runs Dale's 1800. (David Farrington photo)

Ray Freiwald's car is still be worked back from a nasty run in with a tire wall last October, but Ray was with us all weekend taking care of us. (David Farrington photo)

Doug Senk made it down from his Iron River home. I'm sure we're talking about something important, like beer. (David Farrington photo)

Jeff Babcock leads the Volvo crowd, with Rick Kardos and Alex Christopher in hot pursuit. ((David Farrington photo))