Windblown Witness December 1998
Part 2 of 2
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Last month we ended Part One packed and ready to head to Laguna Seca for the Pre-Historic Race weekend, which would give us track time to sort and prepare the car for the Historics one week later. In conjunction with the Pre-historics we participated with the 356 Registry West Coast Holiday also in Monterey.
Wayne Baker giving Nancy a ride on a practice run up Torrey Pines Road at the San Diego
Concours weekend. Standing next to the RSK is Phil Hill sharing a quick story about the only time he drove a Porsche RSK at Nurburgring. (Photo: Skip Carter)
For the trip we borrowed Dr. Merl Ledford's 1982 Ford 11-passenger, 1 - ton tow vehicle, to which we hooked Mark Leonard's 2-car trailer. The trailer was loaded with the RSK and a 904 Berg Spyder, which Mark was going to drive. With tools and spare parts we were near y six tons and $1 million worth of cars and equipment tolling down the highway.
Tired from our four month ordeal, we were nevertheless pleased to get on the road and creep along at 50-55 mph. Leaving at 1:30am, Thursday, the 14-hour drive was necessitated by the fact that the van's 18 gallon fuel tank would only last about a hundred miles at 4.5 mpg, plus a few stops for antique shopping (to keep me happy). F-very time we stopped we would check the two cars, which we affectionately called "our babies."
At Laguna Seca there are several roads in. We took the road we thought had the shallowest grade. Once committed to pulling up the mountain leading to the track, the last 200 yards of this "shallow" grade turned into a 20% hill. Our speed dropped to 3 miles per hour. With 50 feet to go, 2 miles of downhill behind us, no place to turn around Wayne said "Jump and help push. Pretend this is our 1909 Model T." But, lo and behold, Doc Ledford's torky 460 Ford made the grade. Whew!!!
At this point we met Peter Dunkel with his beautiful 18 wheeler vintage race car hauler which was carrying a Porsche tractor, a '58 4-cam, Carrera Speedster, a '63 Carrera 2-liter Coupe and an 8-liter Can-Am car. The three Porsches were there for the 356 Registry event. Peter unloaded his rig, we unloaded ours and he moved everything to the 356 event so we could have his entire rig to ourselves for the pre-historics. I must note that this couple, Cheryl and Peter Dunkel, have many wonderful toys that they've always generously shared with their Porsche friends. We were so grateful for their accommodations and help. It made us look like a real "pro" team.
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Friday, after a good night's rest, our first in over a month, we returned to the track to warm up the RSK and take it through tech. That afternoon we had our first 20-minute practice session on the Laguna circuit. During this session we had a good look at our competition: Corvettes, Lister Chevy's, Scarab's, 9 or 10 RSK'S, etc. It looked like it would take a lot of sorting for one old driver with a skinny tired, 40 year old car on a much changed Laguna circuit from when he drove there fourteen years earlier.
After that session we changed jetting, tire pressures and exhaust stingers to improve turn speed and torque off the turns. We found our gearing very good but slightly higher RPM (7800) at the end of the front straight than the 7200 we had planned. But, due to the 4-cam flexibility, it will still run 8400 for short spurts. Our mechanic, Glen Roberts, worked with Mark Leonard on the 904 Berg Spyder that we also prepared for this event. They too had a good practice session.
We were early to bed and early to rise for the Saturday morning qualifying session for the Saturday afternoon race. We were grided 8th Out of 42 cars in our group and I" in the RSK group. The races are only eight laps long and if you make a mistake it's not like an endurance race where you can make it up later. In our first four laps we passed Old Yeller (a Chevy home built), a Cobra, a Lister Chevy and came up about ten car lengths short of catching the Scarab, who won the race. We were very pleased to have a good, clean, first ever Steve Earl vintage race experience.
After the race three German RSK driver/owners came to our pits and asked "What in the world did you do to make the Kupten Schnechen quick and reliable?" I said we just had a couple of yanks tweaking German engineering to make the car competitive. "Hey? Run Kupten Scbnecben by me again in English?" Well, they said for fifteen years prior to Bill Bauce buying it and bringing it to San Diego the car was known in Europe as the "Broken Slug," meaning it was either in the pits broken or slow on the track. They scratched their heads, checked out our unusual, never seen on an RSK, exhaust and went back to tweak their machines for the afternoon race. Wayne's confidence was returning and he felt like he was settling in with the intricacies of the RSK. With minor servicing after the race we again gladly retired early.
Sunday we were to miss out practice session as Wayne was judging Full Concourse 356 engine compartments for the West Coast Holiday at Quail
Lodge (I was helping at scoring). The judges breakfast meeting was at 5:30 in the morning. Assembled on the lawn were 386 of the 450 entrants that were to be judged from Street Class to Full Concourse. Wayne had judged 22 Full Concourse cars by 1:00 o'clock. At prior 356 events we'd never seen more than three or four Full Concourse entrants. Now we had to leave for our afternoon race.
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We were grided 7th and the big bore cars in front of us this time worked much harder to keep the RSK behind them. By the time Wayne got to 3" overall, toward the end of the eight lap race, he was hugging the back end of the Chevy Lister, who was bound and determined to keep Wayne behind him. When he got to the entry of the Corkscrew his late braking left him heading for Salinas in the dirt. As Wayne dropped into the Corkscrew he waved to the Lister and pointed to the left. The race again ended with the Scarab in the lead doing a great job. "He whooped me again, but I was catching him" Wayne said. Oh, for an endurance race of, lets say, 12 laps or more to catch him.
Peter Dunkel, with
Nancy Baker, use Peter's Porsche tractor to pull
Wayne and the RSK to pre-grid at Laguna Seca (photo Christy Eastridge)
With our homework done, theoretically we were to have a few days off to participate in 356 events. But we were at the track Monday morning checking things out again on the RSK and the 904. The 356 group had use of the track for low speed touring at reduced speed. We requested a twenty-minute session and were asked to lead a group. We gave rides in the RSK and putted around at about 30 mph. Every lap or two we'd stop and change passengers. I thoroughly enjoyed my ride and Wayne was very informative by pointing out the correct line, what gear he was in, etc. Even at a slow speed going through the Corkscrew was still a thrill. Our twenty-minute session turned into 2-1/2 hours. With fouled plugs, nearly out of gas and wind burned, we re-turned to the pits and turned to the pits and retired for the day.
The low speed laps were extremely beneficial to do a thorough study of the track's intricate details that would have been unseen at speed. This later translated into a 3-second plus improvement in lap times for qualifying at the following weekend's historic race.
Do you think Wayne is giving Brian Redman a few pointers on, getting through the Corkscrew? (photo Christy
Eastridge)
Tuesday and Wednesday were spent servicing the RSK, cleaning fouled plugs, fresh tires, cleaning in general, etc. Chris Stavros and a friend volunteered to wax and polish both cars. So much for our two days off. My dear Nancy was nearly in tears that we only had two hours off to go to Carmel for shopping and lunch on Thursday. Backing up to Tuesday night, we had a lovely closing dinner for the 356 Holiday at the Monterey Aquarium.
Friday we had qualifying without the big bore cars. We were on the pole with a 1:50 flat. In our race group there were seventeen RSK's and RS61's. There were over forty Spyders requesting entry, which would have been enough to make an event of its own, which competitors requested of Steve Earl. He declined because to be historically correct the field needs to be mixed with other manufactures' cars of the era.
Mark LeFriant,
Wayne Baker, Linda Leonard, Del Johnston (Chairman closed at 10:30 due to the of the 336 Registry's "West Coast Holiday) and John Straub (photo Skip
Carter)
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Saturday afternoon. Time to go racing! The gates at Laguna were capacity crowds of over 60,000 spectators who had filled all available parking. The pits were so packed with people that we knew we couldn't drive the car from Peter Dunkel's pit to the grid without burning out the clutch or fouling the plugs. So Peter suggested using his Porsche tractor to pull us to the grid. It was great. Nancy as a farmer's daughter riding on the tractor fender. Peter was the farmer. With a thirty foot tow rope we were pulled at about 2 mph to the grid. Low and behold, they allowed the tractor into the pre-grid area. The cameras and interest was great (Thanks for the great idea, Pete!).
Next to the pole was a new entrant, Brian Redman with a 1962 RS61 prototype with a 12 inch longer wheelbase to accept an 8-cylinder, Formula 1, 1 1,000 RPM redline, one of two built (this one was owned by the Collier Museum) with 226 horsepower to our 150 horsepower RSK. Well, we rolled out behind the pace car and, due to our very torky 4000 RPM second gear, we came onto the front straightaway for the start with Brian creeping ahead about six car lengths when he realized the field was not with him. He let off the gas and we stood on the gas before the green dropped, passing him with about forty mile an hour speed on him. Then the green flag dropped and as we went over the hill in turn one with a ten car length lead, by turn two Brian had passed us. Brian has been known to lay back and play with the leaders but, figuring we were sandbagging, he paced out about fifteen seconds ahead of us during the race. By turn five I was passed by one of three 2 liter RS61's. In lap two, full course yellow came out due to a three-car accident at the middle of the field involving two RSK's and one Elva. Three laps later, on the restart, Brian jumped everyone out of turn eleven and by turn two had a twenty car lead. This boy was getting serious.
Cheryl
& Peter Dunkel's rig at the Torry Pines HiII Climb last month. The Speedster
on the far right belongs to Skip & Leslie Shirley and is now in the
restoration process. The Speedster in the center is Cheryl's. Bill Bauce's RSK
is to the left (photographer Skip Carter)
The car in front of me developed an oil leak but his speed was not being affected by it. But in the next lap I passed him on the hill prior to the Corkscrew, where torque reigns. This competitor was black flagged three laps in a row but refused to leave the track until he couldn't continue due to an oiled slipping clutch. The track line was covered with his lost lubricant and on the fourth lap I figured it might had been rubbed away as the oiling flag had been removed from the corners. Upon returning to the line, on the left uphill turn prior to the Corkscrew, I and the following RSK went off in the dirt but worked our way back to the track after John Mortons RS61 passed us before
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the Corkscrew. At this point, and only at this time during the race, were there four RSK's in a row together, which showed up on the front over Autoweek magazine on August 31. By the time we reached the front straight, John Morton was running second to Brian. I was able to out pull him out of turn 1 land run next to him the full length of the straightaway before he yielded to us at turn two. On lap 8, Don Orosco's 1600 cc green Elva caught and passed Wayne on the outside of the downhill turn past the Corkscrew. Wayne dropped in tight behind him, and with extra deep braking at turn eleven, the RSK unnerved the Elva and he did two 360's to the right and one to the left as Wayne drove up the front straight to finish the Corkscrew. At this point, and only at this time during the race, were there four RSK's in a row together, which showed up on the front cover Autoweek magazine on August 31. By the time we reached the front straight, John Morton was running second to Brian. I was able to out pull him out of turn 1 land run next to him the full length of the straightaway before he yielded to us at turn two. On lap 8, Don Orosco's 1600 cc green Elva caught and passed Wayne on the outside of the downhill turn past the Corkscrew. Wayne dropped in tight behind him, and with extra deep braking at turn eleven, the RSK unnerved the Elva and he did two 360's to the right and one to the left as Wayne drove up the front straight to finish second overall and happy to do so.
Nancy and Wayne waiting for a run up the hill at Torrey
Pines
(photo Skip Carter)
Our Porsche Anniversary celebration and the months leading up to it were most rewarding to all involved. Saturday night we partied at the Porsche Factory 50th Anniversary invitational dinner at the Porsche pavilion. We were honored to participate. Master of Ceremonies was Sam Posey with guest speakers Wolfgang Porsche, Sterling Moss, and PCNA Chairman Fred Schwab. Also introduced were many famous Porsche drivers including Hurley Haywood, Vic Elford,
Brian Redman, Jurgen Barth and others. Throughout there was a big screen video graphics display showing clips of Porsches fifty year racing history in the background. With a good dinner and after Wayne downing three desserts we returned to our hotel. Our one disappointment was that our car owner, Bill Bauce, was unable to attend due to a family emergency. But we thank him and Mark Leonard for the opportunity to participate in and enjoy the Monterey Historics. Wow, what a ten days!
Sunday was the 904's race, which we were there
in support. Mark Leonard bonded and developed with a known difficult and evil
handling hillclimb car. But by the time of the race he had done a great job of
sorting and settling in. He was on the pole, made a clean start but upon
entering turn two spun, dropping to thirteenth place and sixteen seconds behind.
He collected himself and worked back to first place by lap eight of a ten lap
race. Congratulations, Mark! 
We
had fun watching. Upon the conclusion of his race we loaded up and by dark we
returned for a well earned night's rest prior to a very, very long, slow trip
home to San Diego on Monday. By Tuesday we had two additional RSK's at our shop
for new header systems. By the end of the week we had orders for seven, two
going to Europe for the German entries. Within one week we received Ted
Gildred's RSK to rebuild, dyno and test for the November 14-15 Second Annual,
Chrysler Speed Festival Vintage races in Coronado put on by Steve Earl's HMSA
group. What a thrill these last few months have been. Many thanks to all
involved. We couldn't have done it without you.