The way we where...

[horizenjob]

I thought i would post some thoughts abut my early recolections about COM. My first events were about 1973. I was young, just a high school kid. It turned out that sympathetic people would sign your waiver for you so I was off. With my Dad's 2002.

I loved the idea of racing, but I had no idea what I was in for. Let me emphasize the no idea part!

It's hard to describe the situation nowadays. The people just a few years older then me had invented everything from rock music to sex to whatever. My draft number was 16. People took me under their wing and taught me. There was a big Corvette that I was told had "dual rotten chesters" . I wasn't sure what that meant. An hour or two later during practice I heard a Huge noise. A really huge noise going into turn 8,which I think is turn 3 now, but the other direction. At that time we didn't do the wave by stuff. I just sink lower in my seat and prayed. Let me emphasize the part the first time something passes you with "dual rotten chesters" and you are 17, you are praying. Big time . I pulled off the track which thankfully was only a few hundred feet, I was shook up bad. I did learn to keep a predictable path. Let me say OMG, 40 years later.

People were great, this is a standout memory for someone who was just a kid then. The rumors I heard about members having sex on someone's house roof were probably true. I also believe that it is illegal to have a BBQ grill running in a bus in New Jersey because of COM.

I know I was just a kid, but I was awe struck. I want to share what I saw in ti=his club in that era. COM member where some of the best drivers in the world. You may be surprised by that. I saw some of this and recently came across this in Google. How many people know we took the pole in the first TransAM race in NH? With Mark Donahue etc. in the field behind? Anyone thinking this is easy? Just a different era with different budgets. Don't think Mark Donahue just gave this away though.

I got to see a real COM star really hit the course at speed. Getting to watch a Brabham BT38 used by an artist was an incredible experience. This car said it was a 2 time National Champion on it's wing. Loudon was Kenny's home track. Again, it's been forty years and I can't forget watching that. Attacking a corner doesn't even begin to cover the subject. I watched him, actually breathless at our local club event - it was a heart stopping performance, as he drifted up thru thew oval turn towards the cement wall ( turn 10 at Bryar ) at the exit. Real cement, real hard stuff. Every lap he ran out of revs, 15 feet from the wall and shifted. Every lap his car started a heart rending slide right to the wall and when he hit the next gear the car just plated itself and went down the straight. A whole 3 feet from the wall. I have never seen a better performance. One missed shift and it was all over. Being a national champion did not come easy if you had to run against Kenny at our home track, and you can ask some famous people about that.

A few years later Kenny got a 3rd place at Three Rivers in Canada agains an entire field of ground effects cars in his lowly Ralt Rt-1. A position like that against a field of more modern and superior wing cars at a real drivers course was a huge accomplishment. When he referred to that as a "turd place" in a conversation years later I decided not to pursue motor sports...

We also have a member that became a GT -1 champion. Against factory support from Nissan. After being run off the road by a factory car Doug decided caution was the better part of valour when doctors told him a second or third operation to fuse his back would be a bad idea.

If people are curious or want to contribute to a thread about our history, I'll continue. Again, I was just a kid and impressionable when this happened but there should be people that know more.

[DanDarcy]

Great thread Marcus !

You should have come to the June 30th event, I had the Chevron B64 FA, there was Larry Doe in a Ralt RT-1 FA plus 3 of the modern Formula SCCA (FE) cars. If you had showed up we could have had a 6 car formula field. 3 antique and 3 modern cars.

[Chrispy]

I'd love to hear more about the history. Being a relative new comer I think it is important to understand what the club was, has become and where it is going. Plus hearing about all the crazy stuff people used to do is always interesting. Old pictures would be cool too.

[Stynger]

Great stuff, Marcus. Keep it coming.

[Mick]

Thanks Marcus.
If you have time, I'd love to get your feedback on the COM history page. Let me know if you have any comments or additions.

[horizenjob]

I'm glad you guys enjoyed that. Honestly I was out very late playing poker with some old work friends and there was something to do with a large quantity of home made beer and whiskey. Honestly when I woke up the next day I greatly dreaded what I might have written. Just afraid that it might have been incoherent.

I got a note from someone who liked it and made a couple of quick comments. I wish I could really tell these stories, a good number are just things I heard. Some of which I am surprised I was told being only 17 or so at my first event.

In addition to not being able to run BBQ grills in buses on NJ highways ( really what could go wrong? ROFLMAO ). It seems it is also not legal for spectators to stand near the start line for Top Fuel races either. I think these things happened on the way to Sebring, but not sure about that.

Mai Tai memories were mentioned too. COM meetings used to be a bit like the scene in Blues Brothers where they play behind the chain link fence and people throw bottles at the band. They were very boisterous and rowdy. Large quantities of Mai Tai's and beer. And then a lot more. At the last meeting I went to I was the only heckler, so perhaps we should pick a meeting one of these days and try to get a bigger turn out.

[cuda6666]

BTW, the "Kenny" Marcus is talking about was Kenny Duclos. He was a character on and off the track. If you were not in his inner circle, or were a wise-ass kid he could be formidable. My best memory of him was when he was working tech inspection at an SCCA race at Lime Rock. I was running an Austin Healey 100 on a rather austere budget (some things never change). Anyway, during inspection, Kenny noticed that the straps holding in my stock gas tank looked loose and rusty. Five minutes later - and with the help of another tech inspector - Kenny had managed to rip the gas tank completely out of my car. He then informed me, with a grin, that I'd failed inspection.

Also, whille looking through the COM history page, I was surprised to see that COM didn't start running time trials at Bryar until 1970. I have a trophy lying around with the inscription "Bryar Championship, 1966, First Place, COM A.S.C.D.C"

And speaking of the early days of NHMS, as 16 or 17 year old kid, I got to drive my Healey around the track just after it was first paved. I'd been racing on airport circuits, but had never had the car on a banked corner. I had wire wheels, and going through what is now turn 6 (Bryar ran clockwise in those days), I started hearing a popping sound. Turned out to be the wheel spokes snapping from the force generated by the banking - time for solid wheels. Again, because of the tight budget, I figured out that Buick wheels would work - instead of the expensive mag wheels my competition was using.