Anyhow, Marc is the current owner/thrasher/caretaker of the Tojeiro/Climax that was found by, restored for and belonged to my late, great Kansas City racing friend John Muller. John started vintage racing in a bright blue, incredibly low ground clearance Porsche Speedster that wasn't the friendliest thing to drive, and in those early days it occasionally found its way off the black part and into the trackside scenery (hey, it's part of the learning process, right?). But John persevered & got better with more seat time and a bit of mentoring (I was responsible for some of it, but he came right anyway) and by then he'd fallen in love with the Coventry Climax-powered mid-fifties English sports racers running around in the SVRA's Group 4. Ultimately he found & restored (or, to be more accurate, had Brian Haupt restore) this absolutely wonderful Tojeiro, and I was fortunate to co-drive it with him a couple times. Including once at Road America and once at Watkins Glen. In the rain. See pic below (note: I had just gotten a new helmet and friend/helmet painter extraordinaire Al Ribskis hadn't had a chance to paint my well-known bright red/asymmetrical yellow stripe color scheme on it yet).

As you can see, the car is absolutely gorgeous. And unusual. For those who may not know the history, John Tojeiro was a successful but very small-volume British constructor/special builder back in the fifties, and he's probably best remembered for the Bristol-engined special (LOY 500...see pic below) he built for Cliff Davis that dominated British club racing in the early 1950s and became essentially the prototype for the AC Ace, AC Bristol and, ultimately, Shelby's iconic 289 Cobras.

Tojeiro also built a few Jaguar- and Coventry Climax-powered racers, and John's car was one of the latter (think there were but four made). They were beautiful and beautifully built, but never enjoyed great success because they were a tad heavier than the best of the similarly-powered Lotus, Cooper and Lola opposition and never enjoyed, IMHO, the same level of driving talent behind he wheel.

But just LOOK at the damn thing. It's gorgeous! And no question John Muller's artistic sense took over and made the finished restoration far handsomer than it ever was back in the day. Good friend John is gone now (seems hardly fair, as he was always lean, fit-looking and disgustingly handsome, and had the sunniest of dispositions) but the car has found a good home with Marc, who surely appreciates it.

 

In any case, Marc very kindly asked if I wanted to co-drive the Vintage Enduro with him and, needless to say, he didn't have to ask twice. And, just to complete the deja-vu-all-over-again feeling, it was raining--albeit gently--as wife Carol and I drove up Highway 414 towards the track. "Be careful" she cautioned for maybe the tenth or twentieth time.

"Hey, I've driven here in the rain before. In this very car, in fact."

"That was twenty years ago."

To be honest, there is no proper, snappy comeback to that one...

 

The sky was brightening and the rain had stopped by the time we were marshaled to the grid, but the track was still quite damp, and I was just as happy that Marc had assigned himself first stint. After all, if dents, shame, paint and blame are to be traded, it's more likely to happen early on when the pack is all bunched up and the old adrenal glands are pumping to the max. Plus the weekend had already seen (again, IMHO) entirely too many yellow flags, double-yellows with pace cars and black-flag-alls. In fact, SVRA Major Domo Tony Parella had preached at length at the drivers' meeting about PUH-LEEZE not spinning out or crashing or causing incidents that might prompt yellow, black or red flags and rob the rank-and-file, entry-fee-paying participants of precious green-flag track time on what was most assuredly a jam-packed weekend schedule. Although the sanctioning body did manage to find time for an hour and 30 minute lunch break on Saturday so sponsor Jaguar could present "Jaguar Consumer Pro Laps," where prospective-customer types could be chauffeured round the circuit in the latest sporty Jaguars with pro hotshoes like Roberto Guerrero and Davy Jones at the wheel. Don't get me wrong, I think it's grand that a company such as Jaguar has chosen to become involved in vintage racing here in the states. I believe that their products and heritage are a perfect fit for our sport, and I furthermore believe that they are indeed making contact with  genuine prospective customers. So good on them. And I think their enthusiastically received race-driver autocross ("Try your hand in one of the new F-Types, mate? Set fastest time and you win a free entry to an SVRA event!") was a superb idea.

But all that said, the rank-and-file racers, who are the true backbone of the sport, come to these events for the cars, the camaraderie and competitive track time more than celebrity rock bands or to rub shoulders with racing royalty, and those things should never be subordinated to sideshows or commercial concerns.

Mind you, I think Tony Parella's stewardship of the SVRA has brought a lot of good things. He created events at two storied venues, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and C.O.T.A. (although I don't believe either track is as interesting, entertaining or challenging to drive as some of our established "natural" circuits like Watkins Glen, Road America, Lime Rock, Road Atlanta, V.I.R., Sears Point, Laguna Seca, Mosport, Mount Tremblant...I could go on) and the SVRA's "Rain Insurance" concept is both overdue and brilliant.

But some of the other stuff, well...

You can take my soapbox new, sonnyboy.

 

So comes the start of the enduro under leaden skies and they all get away reasonably cleanly, but it isn't four laps later that yellows are out at Turn One. Seems the only Corvette in the field (and what the hell is a '72 C-3 Corvette doing in the "Vintage" enduro anyway?), which was running 3rd or 4th overall, has looped it and come to rest more-or-less perpendicular to the flow of traffic but thankfully off to drivers' right in the pit-lane exit. Oh, wait...isn't that SVRA Grand Poobah Tony Parella himself driving the 05 Corvette that's sitting semi-backwards in pit lane? And isn't that him selecting a gear and reversing back onto the racing surface before the rest of the field has gone by? And isn't that some poor fish in a small sedan taking evasive action to avoid the reversing Corvette and crashing into a guardrail?

 There is no sharper arrow than irony...

 To be fair, I did not personally witness the incident described above (I was in pit lane, and all I could see was the stationary yellow for the spinning Corvette followed by the wildly waving yellow after the small sedan had crashed), but I did  talk to several eyewitnesses--both on and off the track--and if I have gotten anything wrong, please make me aware of it and I will set the record straight publically and immediately.

BTW, I also heard from a fly on the wall that Tony, to his great credit (although after a bit of lobbying), admitted that he was at fault and agreed to pay for the necessary repairs to the bent-up sedan. My hat's off to him for that.

 

And now, to our race:

As soon as I saw the full-course yellow hung out and the pace car mustered, I donned my helmet and got ready for a strategically brilliant mandatory pit stop. And then watched Marc sail past with a finger-wave indication that he would pit next time around. I'm glad he couldn't hear what I was muttering into my helmet lining right then!

So we made our stop (see pic below) and I took off...