[DeTomaso] PVGP recap

[Kurt Byrnes]

I raced my MG last weekend at the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix. It was 
quite the eventful weekend.

I met Pantera owner Matt Harkis and his friend Paul who were both 
driving Matt's 1965 Wolseley Hornet.  Paul drove in the under 1 litre 
class and Matt was driving in the under 1.5 litre class. Their car 
overheated significantly during Matt's practice session and when they 
brought it back to the paddock, it started spilling the nastiest milky 
slime I've ever seen come from a radiator overflow.  The strange thing 
was the engine oil looked perfect. After a compression test and a bit of 
investigating, we concluded it must be the Setrab oil/water heat 
exchanger.  They pulled the Setrab and thoroughly flushed the entire 
cooling system.  Their car ran great the rest of the weekend.

During my first full lap of qualifying, my clutch pedal jammed to the 
floor and I never got a time so would have to start from the back of the 
pack.  A floorboard screw had come loose and fallen into the pedal box.  
Due to a Nash Healey loosing most of its oil during the session, several 
driver's chose to come in early and didn't set very fast qualifying 
times as well.

Although Sunday morning practices are not typically timed for gridding, 
a friend and I went out to set fast times in hopes they would use our 
Sunday times.  We were pushing hard.  We got separated lapping some 
slower traffic and I lost sight of him. Unfortunately, he had total 
brake failure at one of the fastest parts of the course and hit a jersey 
barrier and rolled.  I came passed him and his car about 5 seconds after 
he crashed, his car upside down against the barrier.  Fortunately, he 
walked away from the crash but was taken to hospital for scans and 
tests.  His car is repairable and he was back at the track a few hours 
later. Thank goodness for all the safety gear.

Sunday's final race came and there were now three of us who would be the 
front runners and George, who used to dominate the class but has been 
slowing down the last few years.  Although I was supposed to be gridded 
at the back, they moved me up to third where my friend who crashed was 
to be.  As a group, the three of us decided to secretly allow George to 
win and try to put on the best show we could.  We traded positions 
numerous times and allowed George to work his way past us.  Although I 
think he figured out what we were doing, he was grinning from ear to ear 
on the podium.

I didn't get over to the DeTomaso display at the Cortille but Matt, Paul 
and my son all did.  They said there were about 8 Panteras which is many 
more than usual.  If you made it, hope you had a good time.

I posted some footage here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLLaFXaOPmo


Kurt