[Jeff Higgins]

All of those cars had left by Sunday, when we (R Gruppe) were there for the car corral. Even our racing member, Eric with his Irish green '69 #65 was gone by then. A couple run groups only went out with two cars. Raining cats and dogs much of the day. Some poor guy with a gorgeous Datsun 1600 lost the rear end going through the kink (at maybe 50 mph) and tagged the end of the jersey barrier on the left with his left front, then proceeded to pinball his way down the straight, tagging all four corners in the process. A crying shame - the only "straight" panel left was the hood. Kind of put an exclamation point on why no one else was going out.

I have to say, too, that participation is the lowest it has been since they started in the late 1980's. Is vintage racing dying? Cars too "valuable" to race? There was only one long hood even registered, R Gruppe die-hard Eric. Very few (maybe two or three) 356's. I remember seeing fields of over 30 long hoods, and at least as many 356's. I remember my good buddies Gary and Rod Emory driving two full 40 foot semi trailers full of cars and support equipment up from McMinnville for their 356 racing customers. Those truck/trailer combinations are long since sold, Rod is down in Hollywood building some bytchin' 356 outlaws, and Gary is sitting with his feet up in the old barber's chair back in the old barn, mostly "retired".

One of the best races I ever had the pleasure of watching was some 15 years ago. That Tyrell Ford of Jackie Stewart's was racing one of the old Shadow Can-Am cars, with its 500 inch aluminum Chevy "rat" motor. That little Cosworth DFV motivated Tyrell would run away and hide down on the bottom half, pulling out several car lengths. Then going around turn eight, that big ol' "rat" motor would damn near suck it in through its Hildebrand injection stacks. It was glorious.

McLaren Can-Am cars racing Formula 5000 cars racing Lola T70's. 904's, 906's, 908's, even a 910 used to compete regularly. Vic Edelbrock's split window 'Vette and his black and gold Trans-Am Camaro. The old Sunoco Donohue/Penske Camaro racing their old red, white, and blue AMX's. Lister/Chevy racing Lister/Jaguar racing Caddilac powered Allards. Pre-war Alfas. Birdcage Massaratis. The Lola "Frisbee" car, essentially an F1 car hiding under a fiberglass Can-Am style shell. Ferrari 250 GT's being raced, as were a couple of 512's.

All gone. What a shame. I wonder if it will ever come back.