Jack & Joe's Western Tour

Joe Alexander of Cedar Falls, Iowa and Jack Drews of Geneseo, Illinois are ISOA's two westernmost members, we think. We're members of the very fine ISOA because Irv Korey made us do it. We both race TR4's and we both have street Triumphs too. At the moment, Joe is restoring his TR3 because of a "total" highway wreck, and Jack is giving his TR6 engine new innards, having grown tired of dumping in a quart of oil per tank of gas. We wish we were closer to ISOA's nerve center so we could participate in more of the associated madness.

We've met lots of good people both in racing and on the Internet, and we decided to go to the Las Vegas Speedway for the vintage races 20 November. Our beast of burden was Jack's BMW 525i four door. Don't worry, just because we decided to travel in comfort instead of Triumph doesn't mean we've gone queer, since during 1999, our Triumph interests took us to Florida to spectate at the 12-Hour race, we both drove out to the VTR convention, and we delivered a TR3 to New Jersey and a TR8 to Ohio. We figured our Triumph friends would forgive us for one really comfortable trip since we are both approaching geezerhood.

It's 1600 miles one way and it only takes two days when you drive 80 to 90 all the way. This gave us the opportunity to have a professional meeting with a nice Oklahoma State trooper, and when I asked him for a senior citizen discount, he giggled and just gave us a warning ticket.

If you ever have a chance to visit the Las Vegas Speedway, by all means do so. It has seven racing venues on its 1600 acres, plus a racing-oriented industrial park on site. One of the resident companies is the Carroll Shelby factory where the Cobra Mark I and Mark IIs are built, and we took the tour. Nice collection in the showroom, too.

This speedway is also the home of www.driving101.com, a driving school using CART racecars on the big oval at about $1000 a day. If you want a lower priced thrill, suggest to your sweetie that your Christmas present could be a gift certificate for a four-lap ride in a two seat (stretched wheelbase) CART car for $200.

The racing was great. There were three TR4's, two GT6's, and I think four Spitfires. There has to be 'one in every crowd' and it was the Spitfire which was so blindingly fast that it won its race (how do they do that?). Our good friend and TR4 racer Mordy Dunst from California raced his car there, and on the final lap of his race he pulled out a three car-length lead over the hot MG on his tail. When I asked how he did that, he admitted to turning it 7500 rpm during that lap. This comes from the confidence inspired by a billet crank, Carillo rods, and Weber carbs. Those west-coasters are 'way fast.

We watched the races from the top of Mordy's car hauler trailer, and when I tried to videotape the race, the very strong wind blew on my front or back, so I also got several shots of the sky and the ground. But with about 250 vintage racecars in eight races, there was a lot of great racing to see.

We got in a little fun driving at the track, too. During lunch break, they have a "touring session" where crew members can take their street cars around the race track. We piled Jack and Joe and three of Joe's relatives in the Bimmer and I proceeded to learn the track and have some fun. The officials called us in and politely asked us to "please slow down, and please stop passing so many cars". The driver of the pretty green TR6 who was following us wouldn't speak to me after the session. I can't figure out why.

Maybe the most exciting moment of the weekend occurred late Friday afternoon. The Speedway is just across the valley from Nellis Air Base, and the Thunderbirds were practicing their air show all day long. At the very end of their practice, one of those hot dogs buzzed the race track at about 1000 feet, lit the afterburner, and put her into about a 45 degree climb - letting us look right into the tail of that baby at the bright orange fire. WOW!

Since we were in Las Vegas, we figured that we had to take a side trip to "The Strip". We did a little bit of gambling. Between the two of us, we put six quarters into one of those one-armed bandits, but quit because we didn't win anything. After all, we have eighteen hungry TR cylinders at home to feed.

Jack Drews and Joe Alexander
January 9, 2000