13 replies to this topic

[Keith Tanaka]

Last Saturday was another historic event at Buena Park Raceway.
The First Annual Legends race was held. This inaugural race was presented by Rick Salvino, Mike Aguirre, and Team Who?
Thanks, Rick and Mike, it was a terrific event! Thanks to Mike Hudson for the great BBQ! And as always, thanks Chris and Lenore Gallegos for hosting this event at their great raceway.

The format of this Legends race had one car assigned for each lane. These cars remained on their assigned color lane. Every driver would then drive each lane, thus every participant drove all eight cars on the same color lane. After the end of each heat, the cars would be returned to the same starting point for the next heat and so on.

The race results:

Paul Sterrett 186 4.77
Monty Ohren 186 4.72
John Tore Anderson 185 4.82
Mike Steube 185 4.77
Gil Gunderson 184 4.93
Beuf 184 4.77
Eddie Shorer 182 4.87
Pete Zimmerman 179 4.98
Keith Tanaka 178 4.88
Dennis "Foamy" Hill 178 4.77
John Cukras 176 4.82
Bryan Warmack 172 4.88
Philippe De Lespinay 168 4.76
Roger Uusitalo 162 5.15
Lee Hines 162 5.05

Beuf, although too young to be considered a legend, showed the oldtimers why he's a star today. Paul Sterrett, who didn't get the opportunity to race against the Legends in the '60s, showed why he is among the fastest racing today.
Fast Eddie Shorer and Pete Zimmerman surprised everyone by jetting immediately! Monty Ohren was as fast as ever.
John Cukras, Mike Steube, John Tore Anderson, Bryan Warmack, Lee Hines, Pete Zimmerman, and Philippe de Lespinay brought back a lot of memories of the great pro racing days in So-Cal. Almost 40 years later and the Legends are still fast and still very competitive even though this was suppose to be an "exhibition" race.
Gil Gunderson and Dennis "Foamy" Hill were fast in the past and still fast today as they race regularly at BPR. Roger Uusitalo and myself represented a ghost racing team (Team Rolling Hills) and were just lucky to race against these Legends.


Front row (L-R) Keith Tanaka, John Cukras, Mike Steube, Gil Gunderson, Eddie Shorer, John Tore Anderson
Back row (L-R) Paul Sterrett, Pete Zimmerman, Roger Uusitalo, Philippe de Lespinay, Beuf and daughter, Lee Hines, and Monty Ohren.

Again, thanks Rick Salvino, Mike Aguirre, Chris and Lenore for a great event!

Keith

[Keith Tanaka]

I failed to mention a very important person.
Many, many thanks to Barry Obler for putting together this First Legends Race!

Thanks for your hard work, Barry. It was an historic racing day!

Keith

[S.O. Watt]

To truly make it legendary, Pete and Lee would have had a go with it racing across town in their MGBs!

Too kewl.

Hi, Fast Eddie!

[Keith Tanaka]

The loaner cars for this race were prepared by Barry. These cars were Can-Am inline chassis with Falcon type motors. The fast race laps by Monty Ohren (4.72 sec.) and Philippe de Lespinay (4.76) shows how fast these cars go compared to the old days.
If you haven't tried D3 Can-Am cars yet, give them a try, they are a lot of fun.

During this race Philippe had controller problems and lost a bunch of laps, but he was as fast as anyone. Only one car had problems at the start of the race (white car) - no bite! This car was eventually replaced with the silver Steube car. Even though there were some minor car problems during the race, everyone had a great time.

Can't wait for the next Legends race. Hopefully we can get other Legends (Morrissey, Schmid, Henline, etc., etc.) to attend.

I still can't believe how fast these old pharts race!

Keith

[Pappy]

I can't wait till they hold a "Legend in my own mind" race, so I can compete. :mrgreen:

That's neat, wish I could have been there to turn marshal.

[Keith Tanaka]

Tom, I remember Lee's and Pete's MGBs. Lee gave me a ride one time in his MGB. He drove it like his slotcars - FAST!

Keith

[flarimer]

Too funny!

I'd forgotten about Pete and Lee and their "B's".

I remember riding with Pete in his "B". Once. Life hasn't been the same . . .

For that matter, I remember riding with either Pete Z. or Dave Grant in an old Dodge something-or-other with broken motor mounts that let the engine move left-right and where the fan would make a horrible noise as it hit something or other . . .

Heck, I remember goin' somewhere with Ron Q. and Len V., in Ron's VW and nearly rolling the thing going around a corner on the way to Paramount. 'Course, then there's the old bugeye (frogeye to PdL) that Len had with the small-block Chevy in it.

And who could forget the Morris that Mike S. had. Nor the 409 that Mike M. had (before he went motorcycle racing and got the Econoline instead).

Amazing stuff and a kick in the behind to see photos of these guys after all these years!

Cheers and happy holidays to all!

[S.O. Watt]

I remember (do-do) . . .

Pete and Lee having at it after a race (maybe J&Js?) and racing across town for the usual poker game. I was following with who knows who else (Grant and his mom's "Panhard" (that is another story or two) Plymounth, Tore and Brian with the black and white Volvos (?) and Bogut with his folks' Corvair and me with my 1500 VW sedan. Anway, on one of the countless freeway cloverleafs I remenber coming up on this hugh dust cloud requiring me to slow waaaaay down. Out of the cloud came Lee and Pete in their killer Bs and then this Mustang fastback which was totally unexpected, all coming out of the ice plant! Cross town racing was a way of life back before all the traffic of the last 30 years.

OK, back to the regularly scheduled balderdash.

[idare2bdul]

It does make you wonder how we all survived our driving from back in the day. Revtech's Jeff Gilbert missed a turn on a mountain road and plunged into a driveway landing his Cortina on top of a recently-restored sports car, totalling it. Merc, a talented African -American racer riding with him offered the terse comment, "You blew it."

Fast cars and motorcycles kind of went with the territory. 8)

[Pappy]

That's why I started flying airplanes. I knew all you guys were on the road.

Much safer up there. :mrgreen:

[flarimer]

Say, that Mustang fastback wouldn't have been yellow would it?

I remember a guy we raced with that had bought one - might just have been he and the "killer B's" having some fun.

'Nother memory - going to races in the S.F. Valley with Pete and John - riding in Pete's Fiat 600 sedan - going up the hill into the valley on the freeway and it being so bogged down that we wanted to get out and push. Went a lot better downhill . . .

'Course that was sometime before the Volvo that Pete had . . .

Yea, good thing traffic was much lighter back then.

Remember going to Santa Ana raceway - down on Main street - when the 405 freeway ended at what is now the Seal Beach curve and the only way to get there was to take Westminster Blvd over to Main street.

Good memories.

Airplanes - what goes up, must come down. Hopefully under the pilot's control . . .

Cheers,

[Pappy]

What most people don't realize is, you can land an airplane anywhere . . . one time. :mrgreen:

[Keith Tanaka]

This is an online video of the First Annual Legends race held at Buena Park Raceway 12/16/2006.

Flash video part 1 of 2 (plays immediately, lower image and sound quality)

Quicktime video part 1 of 2 (better image and sound quality - can be downloaded - *see note below for download instructions)

Flash video part 2 of 2 (plays immediately, lower image and sound quality)

Quicktime video part 2 of 2 (better image and sound quality - can be downloaded - see note below for download instructions)

*Note: If you would like to have a copy of this video on your computer, follow these instructions: Select a "Quicktime" link above. The quicktime logo will be shown on your screen. Wait until the video image appears on your computer screen. This can take from 3-10 minutes (if you have Cable or DSL) depending on the speed of your internet connection (dial-up will take a long time!).
Once the image appears on your screen, "click" and "hold" the mouse button on the image. A drop menu will appear. Select "Save as Quicktime Movie" and download to your computer.

Keith