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2001 SUMMER WRAP-UP
2001 has been a busy summer for tether car racing. The big news around the track is the new computerized timing system. Yes that's right, the computer age has finally reached the V.M.R.C.A. Loyd Torrey commissioned George and Roger Phillips to build the system. It is P.C. based and does all of the time recording , and speed calculations. As soon as the run is complete, it prints out a list of each lap run in miles per hour with the timed laps printed in red. The system also has a digital weather station that monitors temperature, humidity, air density, and barometric pressure and prints the information on the print out of the run. There were some problems in the beginning , but all of the bugs have been worked out.
Speeds in the World Class group were low this year due to a lack of replacement parts for the Picco engines. Most people were using old parts, saving good parts for the World Championships. The world meet was held at the Wantagh, New York track hosted by the Nassau County Miniature Racing Car Association and the A.M.R.C.A. The event was held Sept. 4th-9th, 2001. There was a strong turn out with 70 cars from all over the world.
Our local club was represented well with 9 V.M.R.C.A. members competing. Two of our members brought back trophies, Harold McCoy (3rd place 5cc) and Dan Bridges (3rd place 3.5cc). All of our guys did good and represented the U.S.A. well. Fortunately all of the competitors arrived home safe with some leaving before the tragedy of Sept. 11 and those stranded not getting home until a week after.
The A.M.R.C.A. nationals were held here at Whittier Narrows this year. This years nats. were different from past years. The event was held on one day instead of three, and because of the world meet, the world class cars did not participate. Only the A.M.R.C.A. class (open wheel) cars competed. A good group of "old timers" showed up to provide a very fun and competitive day of racing. Eight cars showed up in class 3 reinvigorating the old custom proto. class. The new Modern Nostalgia classes proved popular as well with 13 cars running is those hotly contested classes. It was good to see the diversity of cars that raced in the Mod. Nos. 40 & 60 groups. Everything from Dave Lundegard's McCoy hot rod, Fred Cruzen's K&G arrow, a couple of Marshall's coupes, and a couple of Hitech '34 roadsters run by John & Dan Bridges.
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