Virginia Beach, VA Here is a report on the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association's "Race at the Base" which took place at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, Virginia on April 23-25, 1999.

The car was unloaded Thursday night at the track and one of the first things we discovered was that the nifty M3 wheels with new Yoko's mounted would not work on the front. Luckily I had another pair of wheels and tires left over from a drivers school in Charlotte. When we test fit the wheels they worked fine, apparently there is not much size uniformity between different makes of tires. Friday brought the first practice sessions, I took the car through tech and was assigned to the fastest production group, i.e. Shelby GT350 Mustangs, Greenwood Corvettes, Trans-Am Camaros. I pleaded my case that I had a fairly stock 4 door sedan, not a full race CSL.

I ran two sessions with the ground pounders, even passing a couple of vettes, but the car was running poorly. All the experts at the track were brought together and their theories tested, though nothing worked. Saturday brought qualifying and an afternoon race. The car was still running poorly and I qualified 32 out of 34. We changed fuel cell pickups, pumps, etc., but the car was still running lean. During the afternoon race I was able to pick off a couple of wounded but it was not very satisfying. Afterward I changed fuel pressure regulator, main jets distributor, ripped out the XR700 and rigged a T into the cell pick up.

Sunday morning brought one warm-up and then the feature race. In warm up the car finally ran well, at least until a hose came lose, my first tow-in in 10 years. I ended up gridded 25th out of 32 for the feature. This race I was assigned to Group C which was mostly sedans and middle displacement sports racers, i.e., Lotus 23.

At the start, I was able to pass three cars and was passing a couple every lap. I then got stuck behind a Cooper/Climax who was making it very difficult for me to pass. He was in his own battle with a Lotus but I figured he would give me a wide berth. After two laps of staying on his tail he locked it up at the end of the 3/4 mile straight, I in turn locked it up to avoid him and snapped a pretty hair raising 80 mph spin. I lost 10 seconds and one place. The place I lost happened to be a 2002. In the last laps pushing hard to catch him I went wide and demolished a large cone marker, denting my lower valance and damaging an oil line. I believe I ended up 15th at the checker, with the damaged oil line I would not have made another lap. A fun weekend and I met many former Bavaria owners and fans.

Some things I learned:

Yokohama AO32R tires are the worst I have ever experienced, I would have finished in the top ten if I had different tires, even starting 25th;

If you run a front airdam in a race, plan on replacing it every weekend, luckily I left it off;

- Al Taylor

Be sure to check out Al's report on the Pittsburgh Vintage race; the racing shots at left are from there (sans 2002 getting smoked)

Look for Al and his full race Bavaria at the Brumos Savannah Historic Races at Roebling Road, Savannah Georgia on October 22-24, 1999.


NOTE: This article originally appeared in Vol. VII, #28 of
"It's Not a Series," the Senior Six Registry newsletter published quarterly for SSR members. For membership info contact William Gau or Jim Bartridge



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