BIR 40th Aniversary - Media Needed

[T Fuehrer]

I know there are some "experienced" race spectators on this site.....

BIR is going to have a 40th Aniversary event September 13/14, 2008. This will be the inaugural race event on the new BIR Club Course also.

Details are being worked out but plan on the event being very fitting for a track with the history of Donnybrooke/BIR.

I've been asked by BIR to gather photos and event posters from events at BIR/Donnybrooke throughout the years.

The material will be used for the event program and event banquet. We are mostly looking for photos of race cars, racing action and notable drivers at the track (bike stuff too). Photos and slides would be scanned and returned to the contributers as quickly as possible. Electronic format images would be great too.

Please contact me if you have something that can help this effort.

Thanks!!

Tom Fuehrer
952-937-8601 (h)
racer_tom_95@yahoo.com

[comicozzie]

Tom-

I think I might be able to help... ummm... more than just a little as I've been going to BIR since the 1970 Trans-Am race at age five. My basement is FULL of old racing, rallying, iceracing and auto-x photos. Reach me at comicozzie (at) juno (dot) com

Jerry

[phile]

I know there are some "experienced" race spectators on this site
Spectators, heck. Workers. I was even an "Official" for a time.

I went to a club race and a Continental in 1969, then became an SCCA worker. My specialty was Grid and I was chosen as the assistant. When the Grid Marshal was unable to attend, I was the Grid Marshal.

Here are some shots from Donnybrooke/BIR. You can use them with credit. The high-rez files and photo captions are on my Flickr site. I have more in my attic, stuff I have not seen for decades.

[phile]

Tom-

I think I might be able to help... ummm... more than just a little as I've been going to BIR since the 1970 Trans-Am race at age five. My basement is FULL of old racing, rallying, iceracing and auto-x photos. Reach me at comicozzie (at) juno (dot) com

Jerry
Your older brother Tim has to have tons of shots. He was shooting at Donnybrooke from the beginning.

[DCM]

I 'crewed' for a Formula Ford team.
Around 1969-70
And attended some of the first races there as well.
Sam Mario Andretti run a F-1 car there. the one with the Ford 3 liter engine banging gears all the way around the course.......

Then of course my 8 years crewing for Mark Brakke.

[phile]

I 'crewed' for a Formula Ford team.
Around 1969-70
And attended some of the first races there as well.
Sam Mario Andretti run a F-1 car there. the one with the Ford 3 liter engine banging gears all the way around the course.......

Then of course my 8 years crewing for Mark Brakke.
I saw Mario at Donnybrooke in an Indy car. They had the USAC stock cars on Saturday (I missed that) and the USAC Champ Cars on Sunday. I was there when they started Mario's car in the pits and the fumes from the "pop" fuel darn near killed me. Still have my USAC patch. Superstitious bunch. No peanuts allowed in pits. They tried to ban women workers, but LOL/SCCA put their collective foot down and said that if the women could not work, all the workers were walking. The weird part was Timing and Scoring. USAC demanded that qualifying timing be done to the hundredth of a second, even though the SCCA timing chief said that the hundredth was not significant on stopwatches. SCCA agreed to time to hundredth anyway. Then they discovered that USAC didn't care whether or not they timed every lap! There was a bit of a culture clash. Several of the SCCA workers sewed their USAC patches in disrespectful locations in their clothing. I don't recall that I ever sewed it on, and probably have it in a box somewhere.

The only time I saw an F1 car at Donnybrooke/BIR was a red Ferrari(?) driven by Skip Barbour(?) as part of the Continental. They allowed the 3-liter FI cars to run in the Continental against the 5-liter stock-blocks. The V-12 sounded totally different, as you can imagine.

When was Mario there in an F1 car?

Oh, and don't forget the final "e" in Donnybrooke. The track was not named for the suburb of Dublin, but for two LOL drivers who had died at Road America: Donny Skogmo and Brooke Kennard.

Early on, some folks started to refer to the track as "The Brooke", sort of in imitation of east-coast racers who called Bridgehampton "The Bridge". It didn't stick. Some of the local Brainerd people called it "Donny". That didn't stick, either.

[comicozzie]

Your older brother Tim has to have tons of shots. He was shooting at Donnybrooke from the beginning.

Tim has a bunch of stuff from 1969-mid'70's in his basement. Most of my stuff was from about '78 on as far as grids, results, and programs are concerned. I have quite a few pit/paddock shots from about 75-'79 and then started getting serious about the photography aspect of stuff when I got my first Pentax with paper route money at age 14 and damn, I haven't stopped yet.

I have a buttload of MAC and SCCA autocross photos from about '87 until I got married in '01. And UMSCC, 3MSCC, COM, etc....

Anybody know if I still have #69 still reserved as my Met Council #? I've had that number for about 22 years at last count. I plan on coming out of retirement at least once this year and running my '86 8-valve GTI. Is HST still a class? Man, I have a couple kids and leave the sport and things look like they're going nuts here compared to just a few years ago.

[phile]

I should talk to Tim about early BMC Club history.

>Anybody know if I still have #69 still reserved as my Met Council #?

Yes. Somebody knows.

No. You don't. You need to keep it up by paying a dollar a year.

Go to
http://forum.mnautox.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=4
and click on the Permanent Number Update.

>Is HST still a class?

Not exactly. All the regular-SCCA-class cars on street tires all run together, and are scored on PAX. Just this year, the rules changed on designations, so the car would now be THS or tHS.

[Jeff (The Alignment Guy)]

Hi Jerry Winker. Nice to hear from you.

JMF

From Dave Erickson I have the posters from the 76-7-8 T/A races (white Porsche, Tuck Thomas ' yellow Monza, and a G44 Jag), A Champion Sparkplug Challenge poster with an AMC Spirit, Datsun 510? and some other cars illustrated in paint, and the '78 "Uncola" Can Am race.

Gene? George? Anderson's book "Winning" has some cool paddock photos as well as Mr Winkers #69 Colt hard on the brakes at an A-X. Ron Olson, who used to race everything form a '40's Ford dirt mod to a '69 911S, gave me a stack of pics too.

I suddenly feel the need to go to Ikea and buy some frames.

[phile]

Hi Jerry Winker. Nice to hear from you.

JMF

From Dave Erickson I have the posters from the 76-7-8 T/A races (white Porsche, Tuck Thomas ' yellow Monza, and a G44 Jag), A Champion Sparkplug Challenge poster with an AMC Spirit, Datsun 510? and some other cars illustrated in paint, and the '78 "Uncola" Can Am race.

Gene? George? Anderson's book "Winning" has some cool paddock photos as well as Mr Winkers #69 Colt hard on the brakes at an A-X. Ron Olson, who used to race everything form a '40's Ford dirt mod to a '69 911S, gave me a stack of pics too.

I suddenly feel the need to go to Ikea and buy some frames.
Tuck Thomas is driving that yellow Formula A car in my picture in this thread.

I didn't know about the "Winning" book. I'd like to see it sometime.

George Anderson is Cliff Anderson's brother. George has been a formula-car racer. When I knew him he had a 350H and a Datsun 2000 roadster. Cliff was more-active in BMC club than George, and regularly autocrossed his MGB. Their father had a magnificent 1930 Packard town car. I remember riding in it with Jerry Katz. Cliff was driving, expertly handling the three-speed crash box.

I kind of remember the name Gene Anderson. I'd need a memory jog.

Group-44 Jaguar, eh? Don't make me retell the story about the Advance United truck at BIR.

[Don G]

The Gene Anderson many of us know was an early member of the Minnesota Opel Drivers (now MAC). He still has his Opel Kadett (he was at DCTC spectating a year ago). Raced Formula Fords (Crosle) many years in SCCA. The George Anderson I know autocrossed a '65 289 Shelby Cobra in the mid-70's. I remember he wanted $10,000 for it in the late '70's. He kept it for many years, and when I ran into him at BIR a few years ago he was racing a Formula Ford, and had sold the Cobra for enough to buy a house!

[sainzfan]

I brought my 69 Z-28 home on a Friday and the next day at a State Fairgrounds Auto-x, I believe, George offered me his Cobra for $10,000. I was always interested in what happened with the car. I remember it being dark green with wire wheels and Weber carbs. Oh well.