Hey folks, you shurly know that we have also races in germany for our old cars (and also motorcicles) 1/8 mile, 1/4 mile and dirt track races. Want to show you some pics from the Hindenberg Race, an dirt track event, wich is taking place every year in september in the east part of germany. Thers is even time a great atmosphere and feeling like at the race places in the 50´/60´....and the racing family is growing. But enough speaking, here are some pics. Hope you like it....
WOW!! I wish we had something this is the U.S. The vintage stockcars seem to fall into two groups. Period correct cars that never see track time, which seems pointless to me. The other group buy a band new chassis, engine,drivetrain than put an old body on it. Just west of me in central N.Y. someone just built a $60,000 "vintage" engine for the second type of car.
I have been once. I know most of the Oilers, just got off the phone with Jeremy Baye. I would like to see something for period correct stockcar oval racing.
Unfortunately, there is a reason for this. In Minnesota, at least, the tracks and clubs have rules that force this. I have a 60's era Modified (the engine is my avatar) that I used to run a lot (see my album if you're curious). The last few years, I haven't been able to run a a lot of venues for a lot of reasons. My car is a real car with a quick-change and an in/out box. Lately, more and more of the events are "clutch and starter" only. We generally run intermission during regular race dates. These days, they have so many classes (some of them real garbage" cars), that they don't have room for push starts and not enough push trucks. At some tracks, they won't let me run any more because I don't have a fuel cell, and I'm not cutting up my well preserved car to put one in. Other places won't let you run because my five-point belt, while in excellent shape, is more than 5 years old. I guess track insurance is getting more restrictive and expensive all the time. When I approached one of the "vintage" clubs that controls most of the races in my area, they basically told me they didn't want me even though I have one of the most authentic, documented cars around. They also allow IFS and BBC's. In a lot of instances, we have towed 250 miles one way to get in 10 laps, which ain't hardly worth it. Oh well, I'm getting too old for this shit anyway.
Thanks folks and cool that you´re having a good time during looking the pics!!!! @Robert J. Palmer: Yes, there are also some little movies at the web, nice, that you find one of them... @tubman: Oh, it´s bad to read this, safety is really important (I also have a better feeling with the cage inside the race car!), but even time some guys overplay a little bit with main rules....sometimes they shurely forget that we do the races for us... We have other problem in germany like overstated environment and noise rules....and this time ther are only 3 places to doing this kind of racing, must say i take my hat off to the organisers for the good work every year.... If i have the time will show some more pics from the other races, maybe telling some little storys about them...IF i have the time, cause having to much work in the end of this year... at last: We want to come next year to the race of the gentlemen.... Greetings from the now snow-and-saltfree Leipzig Winki
road zombi : I really enjoyed your thread. It took me back to the early days of vintage racing back here. In those days, vintage was a new thing and we "flew under the radar". We'd run a few intermission shows and have a lot of fun. In my opinion, the hobby was a victim of it's own success. When others saw how much fun we were having, they started dragging old cars out of long-time storage, or building replicas. Of course, rising car counts raised our visibility and also added to our desire for our own meets. This caused the track owners to reevaluate their insurance options. And then of course, there is a group that in my opinion are not true vintage racers. There are a bunch of folks out there who want to really race and to whom winning is important, that started bending the rules because they found the vintage races were a lot cheaper to run and there wasn't a lot of competition. Thus, the introduction, of the aforementioned BBC's and IFS. That pushed this into a whole other category. This is a bit of rant, but my advice to you would be to limit who can participate and with what, or you'll fall into the trap that we did. It was always, "Ah, let Fred run that non-complying car, he's a buddy of ours". Another problem is that vintage over here has had a long-standing rule that vintage meant anything older than 25 years old. Trust me, while my 1965 era car was a champion in it's day, it can't hold a candle to something built in 1990. The guys running TROG have the right idea about who fits and who doesn't.
Thanks for sharing. My buddy over there runs the wrecker and his other half runs number 44 the forty. It took good hit and trashed the rear end Great photos
@cs39ford: You know Mike the organiser of the race and his hot racing woman Peggy? How cool ist that! Well, then you shurly know the story of my crashing action (BLAME ON ME, i don´t wanted to do this, but i overrun the drift in the curve (my rear end had to hard suspension, must make it softer, cause Mike will kill me if i don´t do it.... )....Mike is a long time friend of me, know him over 20 years...We lived some years in the same town and had there also cool action... Peggy and me always having hard and funny matches at dirt track races, she is having a killer instinkt in driving (You know what i meen) @tubman: Thx for your words, there is a lot of truth in it. I know what you mean. The organisers of our races seting a limit, this way is the right!!! Greetings Winki
Yes. I know Mike. If he ever talks about his buddy in the states that he stays with. That would be me. Cliff I would say known him. At least 15 years. He loves his flattys
Yes, he has a very great knowledge about and build awesome engines...some people here call him the "flathead-pope" ...and in the rooms of his garage he is storing a lot of old stuff, every time i visit him i´m going to poke in this treasure chests
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