Virginia International Raceway – June 6th to 8th, 2008


This last weekend was special; I had (as readers of these articles may remember) last visited Virginia International Raceway in September 2007, where George Tuma and I had a great time racing his Jagermeister RSR there. It’s a fabulous track, a real throwback to days gone by with long straights, elevation changes, camber changes, the lot – and it’s fast! Of course, it is a track first used in the 1950s and resurrected in later years by Harvey Segal and friends. I thank them for their courage in pouring the money into it and hope they have been/will be rewarded. They deserve to be.

I had been invited to attend VIR by Bill Thumel, who had bought an ex-Penske Lola T70 through me a couple of years ago. Bill runs his own race and restoration shop in Virginia Beach and he and “the lads” – Chuck, Charlie, Jared et al, had labored hard, restoring the car from the pile of parts (chassis, bodywork, suspension, engine, gearbox, brakes, pedals, in fact the complete car but dismantled in 1974) that I had sold him.

Not only had Bill bought the ex-Penske T70, he had also been well and truly bitten by the “Lola bug” and bought another T70 Mark III, SL73/104, which had been originally driven by Mike Goth in the 1967 Can Am races and then sold to Bud Morley to race in 1968.

I arrived at VIR on Thursday afternoon and swiftly found the “Abacus Racing” Truck, with Bill’s cars, including the Lolas and a very special Austin Healey 100M and an ex-works Healey 3000 (Bill's other passion) parked beneath the awning.

The Lolas have been beautifully done, particularly the Penske car! I found myself looking at all the small details on the cars, such as the beautifully fabricated, drilled aluminum dashes, which neatly contained all the wiring from the instruments within them and the polished alloy faring on the inside of the gear change on the Penske car, which prevented the driver’s overalls from getting snagged in the exposed right-hand gear change.

Bill had also invited Dick Kantrud, who met us at the hotel that evening. SL73/126 had belonged to Dick in 1968 until 1970 and he had done rather well in it. He took a 4th and a 5th place in 1968 and then installed a 440 cubic inch “big block” for 1969. He then took in three Can Am races when the car was, quite frankly, well past it’s “sell by” date. Dick still managed to take a 13th and two 14th places though, not bad for a 1965 design.

Friday morning saw me take out SL73/104 for a “shakedown” cruise, after Bill had tried it in the morning. Like most cars “straight out of the box” it suffered small teething problems, such as a very stiff to operate clutch and a tendency to wander, which I put down to too much negative camber in the front suspension. The engine was very impressive, giving lots of very usable torque and the brakes were excellent. As this was the first weekend for this T70, I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and brought it back in for adjustments after just two laps.

Paul Wilson brought his lovely Mark II T70, SL71/18 over to join Bill’s T70s and, looking around it, I’ve come to the conclusion that this ex-Buck Fulp T70 just has to be one of the most original T70s left running anywhere in the World! The car has a wonderful patina and those original side draft 50 mm Weber carburetors are to die for. Of course, they make removing a valve cover a lengthy job but they’re worth it!

On Saturday, I wandered over to the spectator area to watch some racing and was particularly impressed with the three Ferrari 250 GTs, an SWB, an “Interim” LWB and a GTO. All of them sounded exquisite and Bob Bodin handily won his race going away.

Sunday morning saw a twenty minute “warm up” session for the group in which the T70s featured and Bill Thumel very kindly let me drive the ex-Penske SL73/126. The temperatures over this weekend were in the high 90s and I found myself dripping in sweat in the shady staging area, before going out on the track, although the thought of how much this T70 was worth probably had something to do with that!

Staging area stewards’ arms whirled, whistles blew and it was start up time. There really is nothing like a small block Chevy exploding into life just behind you to bring your awareness to a high level. Out onto the track and I attempted to follow Paul’s T70 but swiftly fell back. In T70s, I’m now very “rusty” behind the wheel but all the feelings soon came flooding back; the torque of a good Chevy smallblock, the low-speed power-off understeer in slow corners and the necessity to push the gear changes through quickly, not wait till the revs died off!

All too soon it was over and I drove back to the trailer, parked it, switched off and thanked Bill profusely. How can you thank someone enough who will trust you with such a valuable car? Then it was photo session time with “the lads”, get changed and drive back to Raleigh/Durham airport in time to catch my plane. As soon as I got home, I switched on the telly and watched the Canadian Grand Prix, which Su had thoughtfully recorded for me. Great weekend and it’s off to Watkins Glen for this weekend on Wednesday. Talk to you soon! (I hope.)