by Bill Rinke
Rocky Mountain Vintage Racing once again invaded Motorsports Park Hastings on the edge of Hastings, Nebraska. The 2011 Labor Day weekend event was Co-Sponsored by Heartland Vintage Racing and drew a large variety of vintage race cars from all over the Midwest.
It was a dark and stormy night – lots of lightning and some rain Friday night but on Saturday morning the lightning was popping and the rain was really coming down. Not good for workers on corners or even vintage cars on track. So, activities did not begin until very late morning. A sunny Saturday afternoon brought all the cars out and the workers enjoyed the cool breeze across the flat 2.15 mile, 14 turn road course that was encapsulated in alfalfa.
Race chair, Roger Hively, and his crew were, somehow, able to get things close to being back on schedule. Quick practice sessions were held followed by qualifying races which set the field for Sunday’s main events. Several cars were victims of various problems, most of which were taken care of before Sunday’s feature races.
Motorsports Park Hastings owner, George Anderson, wasted no time in transporting the corner workers to their stations on Sunday morning. He does this jovial chore in a somewhat converted school bus and he does know how to “drive the line”.
The Big Bore cars took to the recently washed track in Session 1. Ken Petrie demonstrated the power of his “69 McClaren M6-B and claimed first overall in A-SR and was quickly followed by the ’70 Ford Boss 302 driven by Tony Shores in AS. Bob Rowley took third place driving the ex-Dan Gurney ’67 Lola T70 3.B in A-SR.
The Formula Vee’s sprang to life in the second Session and were led by Lynn Fangue in his ’78 Vista 2F after he fought his way through the pack. Chasing Lynn was Jeff Mortimer driving a ’71 Zink C-4 and he was followed closely by Gary Kopp in a ’69 Zink C-4. There was lots of typical dueling in this session which made it exciting to watch.
The blue 1963 GSM Dart/Delta driven by Chris Thompson running in class CP was really fast but was chased hard by the bright yellow class CP ’67 Lotus Elan of Jim Askew. Mark Hansen ran his ’66 Austin Healey in FP as hard as he could but had to settle for the third spot
Ken Petrie was a glutton for punishment as he brought out his bright orange, ’72 McRae GM-1 F-5000 to show how fast a car can really go. It seems he ran 13 laps while the others in this session completed 12 laps. Jame Stiehr was the closest to Ken in driving his ’69 Winkleman WDF-1 FF-LP to a second place finish. Close behind Jame was the ’70 Titan MK6A FF driven by Pete Sabeff.
The Small Bore Group wrapped up the weekend’s festivities with a great show. Dave Williams in his FP ’59 Bugeye Sprite gave Mark Cory’s ’60 Bugeye Sprite all the battle that he could but had to settle for second place as Mark pulled out ahead for the win. This duo was quickly followed by Pat Weber driving a ’91 Mazda Miata in the Exhibition class and Terry Anhorn was right behind in his EP class ’71 Porsche 914.
A good time was had by all with great camaraderie, storytelling, paddock food and, of course, a bit of brew.
