My 1973 911 "Carrera RS" at the SCCA SOLO-II Divisionals.
My '73RS and it's younger brother, Michael Donohue's '74 Carrera, at Lime Rock.
The Double 50 was presented to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the American road racing renaissance at Watkins Glen in 1948, and of Porsches first car. I entered my bright green/yellow 73 911 RS clone which runs as a stock RS lightweight in D class in PCA racing. I wanted to run in the vintage group to experience the real RS/RSRs etc in my class, and feel the 908s/917s etc go by that were also in my group. I am glad that I made that choice. Other Porschelisters (!?) attending were Mark Forrester who was flying in his F class SC until his tranny broke. Mark teamed up with fellow Plister Cal Calamari in Cal's F class 3.2 Carrera for the enduro. Bob Scotto was also one of the top drivers in a similar F car, winning the sprint. Jim Lewis also did great in his G class SC, I think he did well in the enduro and was second in the sprint. I knew the event would be special when my car and tow rig were photographed a mile before getting to the track, turning the last corner onto the main road! That was the first of hundreds of pictures that were taken over the 5 days.
The 1973 911 "Carrera RS" along with LeMans winning 962 and 917s etc etc.
I was not super fast but somehow managed to qualify 2nd out of 15 in the 2.7 - 3.0 vintage class, in the only street registered car in the whole group. I managed to run 2:21s, about 7 seconds faster than the only other time I drove at the Glen, and there were at least a few more easy seconds out there due to traffic. My car was finally set up decently with corner balancing, correct ride height, no sway bar preload and less slop on the end links, new shocks, all new ignition system, new K & N, and open supertrapps which really allowed my little 2.7 to scream. I also ran some rear toe in which seemed to help. I had previously (wisely!) spent all my time on safety items for the car before trying to make it fast. Qualifying Sat AM was waived as it was wet, so we used the best time from Friday's practice for qualifying times. This was an excellent idea for safety - no need to push it in the wet (and it surely helped my 2nd place position!). I did not bother to practice Sat AM as I have driven the Glen wet for two runs and was sure it would dry by my race at 4:30 (which it was). There were VERY few cars in my group that took advantage of the wet practice. Wouldn't want to get our vintage cars WET would we?? My car stayed dry but was covered in oil once thanks to Hurley Haywood's Brumos 917/10 which took a few laps while spraying everything with smoky oil until he pulled off the track. The next day it was observed in the garage still bellowing clouds, too bad as it would have been great to see on the track. Saturday afternoon was the sprint race, shortened to 8 laps from 10 due to delays. I blew the start of the race - as I turned the last corner before the start/finish the cars started to accelerate so I did too. I looked up to see the green flag waving, then looked down to see my car was hitting the rev limiter - DOH!!! I could not hear it as the other cars were VERY loud... So I lost about three places there, then another three a lap or 2 later when a group of cars went by. Then I repassed one (A PCA GT3S car) but could not pass the ex-Bobby Allison IROC 911RSR. I chased him for about the last 3 laps and had a few good chances to pass. His corners were not real good and neither was his power and he even missed a shift which I should have taken advantage of. I guess I should be happy to have finished mid pack with no damage in my 1st vintage race. Well actually there was minor damage which I got flying into the chicane gravel trap on the Thursday practice. I learned that the gravel slows you down REAL FAST and you can't get unstuck even in a non-F1 car. Also gives you free bead blasting on your $2000 Fuchs wheels and nice gravel marks on your fender flares. Took about an hour to remove 10 pounds of gravel from my steering rack cover, suspension, air cooling ducts, and brakes. A cheap learning experience to take it easy your 1st few laps until you get in the rhythm and your brakes/tires warm. The "blue bushes" would not have been as forgiving. At least I got it on video and learned that my car flies very nicely (the curb/berm into the gravel gets you quite airborn at 90 MPH).
The 1973 911 "Carrera RS" with Jurgen Barth in the 1972 911ST.
There were a few people not as fortunate as I was - a car rolled in the same gravel trap. If you go in sideways rather than backwards like most 911s you can roll. He was later booted from the event for wild driving as he continued to go off the track. If you are going to go off into a gravel trap (or dirt for that matter) do not try to turn the car or you may dig in and flip it. Also one of our fastest drivers in the Northeast was black flagged in his sprint race and DQd and denied running the enduro by chief steward Ken Fengler (from PCA) for blocking. Brian Redman likes to run a clean event and does not tolerate unsafe or unsportsmanlike conduct. Brian's son James was the ringleader, and did a splendid job!! James has the perfect disposition for this high stress job, taking all the questions about changing classes, registration, etc, etc with a smile. Nothing seemed to irritate him. James had about 10 radios and used them all! A 356 driver's seat came loose and his old 1980 helmet contacted the roll bar giving him a slight concussion. Please keep your safety equipment up to date! I was working tech for the event and noticed MANY loose seats, mostly due to attaching racing seats to stock seat rails. These seats are only tight on 2 of the 4 mounts. Please remove your rails when you add racing seats and bolt the seats to the chassis (not the floorpan). Also most seats did not yet have a back brace which will be required for PCA racing next year. A 993 was smashed (to keep the one 993 wreck per event streak going). Also in my race group were the 907/908/910/917/934/935 historic cars and Chuck Stoddard's 917K was destroyed in a practice session (he was OK). Please help him reconstruct it by buying your parts from Stoddards! Drivers in attendance were Brian Redman of course, Hurley Haywood (won the GTP race in a 962), George Follmer (917 Can Am and trans am champion), EFR, Milt Minter, Vic Elford, Jurgen Barth (Lemans champion and Porsche Factory racing dude, very fast and SMOOTH in a 911 ST), David Murry, Bob Akin, Joe Buzzetta, and several others. The cars were unbelievable, from the 1st racing 356 Gmund coupe (alum body tube frame Lemans class winner I think) to a recent 911GT1 (993 style). Some REALLY clean original RSs too that were not running. Overall a VERY well run and enjoyable event. Working tech I got to meet and work with many great people like E. Paul Dickinson who ruled SCCA Solo-II AS a decade before my time. Several Porschelisters also stopped by and said hi, and Bruce Anderson was out and about with a camera. I certainly plan on running next year if they have an event (please do James!!!) and running in the vintage sprint race and the PCA enduro. This year I skipped the enduro as I thought I would have had enough by then and the 908s flying past at high speeds would get to me in an enduro. But it would have been fun to run the PCA enduro where I could run alongside the similar HP E and F cars in my D car and only have to worry about GT4S cars lapping me which were much slower than the 917s etc. Now I'd like to sit back and watch my practice groups and race on my in-car video but the camera expired sometime during the race... yet another expense of racing! Here are some great pictures by Kreg Ulery taken at the Glen5050 race, of my race. See you at the track! Regards, mike piera AnalogMike@aol.com '72 911S Targa, '73 911RS Replica ~^v^~ aNaLoG.MaN ~^v^~ vintage guitars http://members.aol.com/AnalogMike/stock.htm
Platz.com has more info and pix from the double 50, as does gorace.com .
My 1972 911S At the Drop Zone, 1987.
Paul Foster's Race report is also posted on this site.
Paul Foster's 944 Turbo at the Glen :
Press HERE for Mike's Main Racing page with links to his other races.
