| "The update on Vaca Valley and drag
racing reminded me of racing there again, years after I had given up sports
car racing for graduate school. I was at UC Davis, close by Vacaville.
One Friday evening, heading for the Bay Area in my Volvo 122S (stock then;
much faster in later years) I noticed a lot of activity at the track and
turned off there. Drag racing was in progress and I decided to join
the fun.
With the trunk containing a suitcase
and a heavy toolbox I made several runs down that familiar straightway,
the runoff area continuing around Turn 1 and the return to the pits using
the back part of the oval track, veering back onto the road course to the
staging area near Turn 7.
For a couple of the runs I was paired
with an even younger man in an MGA. The Volvo just barely beat him
(getting through the traps as I recall at about 83-84 mph) whence we wheeled
around Turn 1 and returned to the pits. After the second run the
MG driver commented to me that we had had a pretty good road race around
Turn 1. I demolished him by reminding him that we had taken the turn
at about 65 mph; when road racing there (in the DB3S) I was 40 mph faster,
passing XKEs and Stingrays on the inside.
Those were indeed the days, my friend;
we thought they'd never end. (Thanks, Mary Hopkins.)" |