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Back in the early '70's during Saturday practice, my Formula Ford got punted by a spinning car in a typical Formula Ford Fuster Cluck, into the wall, driver's left going over the tunnel at Turn 1 at Riverside Raceway at about 130 m.p.h. Nose cone & radiator hit me in the face as it flew back over my head spewing water & oil, left front wheel & suspension landed on top of the steering wheel, bent frame, what a mess.
Red LeGrand (it was one of his cars, a Mk10FF) and I worked on the car back at his shop in Sylmar until 3 in the morning straightening the frame, welding in a few new pieces, re-hanging the radiator, fixing plumbing, fitting a new nose piece, reassembling the left front suspension, and then getting it down on the floor and doing a complete chassis alignment.
We got back to the racetrack and qualified Sunday morning somewhere mid-pack. In the typical 50 car field I think I finished maybe 10th. Now 50 years later I still remember LeGrand saying "come on, let's get this thing back to the shop, I've got all the parts we need."
What made racing fun then was that we all did our own work and the whole park was full of people of a like mind.
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