Quote:
Originally Posted by manbridge 74
From another forum poster with some deducing skill…
It's highly unlikely it was a Toyota Crown, it's far more likely it was one of the Toyota-powered Spec Racer cars owned by the club and being driven by Crown - that piece of information then went through the reblog information muncher. 100 hp and 1500 lbs from what I recall, which is perky.
I hope I'm doing the same thing on my 70th birthday. Well, the driving at the track part.
BTW, this track used to be known as Woody Creek Raceway, it's shoehorned in beside a gravel pit near Woody Creek/Snowmass. Near where Hunter S. Thompson lived. It's a hard one to get track time on because it's a country club track with a VERY high buy-in. I've been on it once, and I remember lots of jokes about "safety boulders". It wasn't known for its runoff and it was about as wide as a kart track. When I was there, we were running clockwise with a chicane on the straight - you can see why they might want to keep top speeds down if you look at the turn at the end of the straight. For scale, that's a 1.1 mile lap. This may be the end of the track, although only the club members would ever notice.
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My fading memory as well. The trick to a fast lap was a late apex at the right hander at the end of the straight. Back in '78, boulders where what looks like a wall is now. A space to spin if you overcooked it, but not a lot of space, surface hard packed dirt containing gravel. Wouldn't slow you down much. I didn't want to go there. My wild ass guess is that Crown had a bit of brain fade, or tried to late brake too late at the end of the straight.
Like I said, I didn't push it...it was a fun course, but thought the risk of dinging a car was more than I wanted....certainly not like a safely designed auto-x where there is plenty of run off for spins. I drove there twice..the '78 Parade auto-x and a multi region bicentennial event put on in '76 by Rocky Mtn. Region. For that event, remember watching Grady Clay, trying to learn the fast way around. Alan Johnson was there as a celebrity instructor, but I thought it was Grady who really knew the best way around. Buddy John Gilson & I drove out from Oregon for that one...John earning the nickname "honest John" after admitting he had 1800 cc in his '67 912...that placed him driving on street tires vs. race rubber in a higher class.
Miss my buddy John...he died quite some time ago..heart.