 Hopefully Zora Duntov looked the other way when his eponymous race team temporarily entertained the Dark Side.
One of our winter projects was an SVRA Group 4 Cobra for Susan Patterson. To run in Group 4 the car has to run a 260 cubic inch engine and narrow wheels. It was ready by the Mitty, but Susan wisely decided to debut her new car at the slightly less competitive event at Barber Motorsports Park.
Our three-car hauler was filled with two more Fords, thanks to Steve Seitz. The plan was for Steve to run his ‘new’ blue hatch-back 1965 Mustang, with Alan to drive the white fastback Mustang that Steve has been racing for the last several years.
Susie brought one of her pet kangaroo babies, and her Cobra took a close second place to the marsupial as the star of the paddock. The Cobra ran fine and Susie did fine in it right up until the heavens opened up Saturday afternoon with gale force winds and about six inches of rain. The forecast for Sunday was for more of the same, so Susie and the kangaroo caught an early ride home.
The Mustang battle between Steve’s cars didn’t exactly work out. The fastback car developed a rear-wheel hop under braking that resisted every adjustment. Alan pulled off during the Saturday race when he decided the car was undriveable. Almost every braking area at Barber Motorsports Park is over the crest of a hill, so if a car has a propensity to wheel hop, it is going to show up big-time at this place. Steve’s other car ran perfectly and he ended up finishing third overall in both the enduro and the feature race on Saturday.
Sunday dawned overcast but dry, and although the sky was threatening all day to wreck havoc like it did on Saturday, it never rained. Alan called Susie to see if she had left yet and she confirmed that she was on the way home, and suggested Alan drive the Cobra to give her some feedback on the new car. Alan was only too happy to oblige. He started at the back of the field, but the car was perfect and in spite of its tiny powerplant, he finished fifth overall.
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