Saturday at the races!

Words and photos by JK

I had an invitation from ACCs Chris and Michelle Horn of Bullfrog Solutions in Pasadena to visit when in California(http://www.bullfrogsolutions.com/). Chris called me to say that he was racing his Datsun 240Z at Fontana Raceway, just 15 miles north of here, on Saturday 12th July. He said for $20 I could try out the track on my R1!!!! Off we went for a hot day's enthrallment with older racing cars of all sorts. I reckoned I had owned half the cars present from Alfa Romeo to Porsche 911s through Minis and Midgets to Volvo. Unfortunately a racing incident had cancelled the track try-out but it was still great to see Chris Horn take pole position and go on to take the 4th place he predicted. His brakes and tyres were not really up to holding first place (how he managed a 4th looked a miracle to me) and he was planning to fit those items new for Sunday's race. Well, he did, and was moving into second place on Sunday when a rear stub axle broke. Bummer! But "that's racing" as Chris commented. I met many interesting people like Frank Hanrahan (how Irish is that?) and his orange 911, and Greg Helms and his stunning AC Cobra #99 who did amazingly well in his first race. I loved the immaculate Volvo from that old Roger Moore TV show 'The Saint' and the little Minis were so cute. I had a '64 red mini on rubber cone suspension that went round corners like a go-kart tethered to a centre-pin! Loved it! I planned to play a little catch-up on Sunday...both work and rest!