Yesterday we stopped at Barnes & Noble before a Dr.'s appointment. I picked up a copy of Vintage Motorsport Magazine and came across this photo. It brought back a flood of memories as I have documented below.
The Jerry Grant Ferrari Testa Rosa
I have a fond memory of this car When I got out of the Army I got a job in a machine shop and with help from my Dad's credit union I managed to buy a used 1959 Austin Healy Sprite. As I remember I paid $800.00 for the car. I had started reading all of the car magazines and car books that I could get my hands on form the age of 15 or 16. At that point I knew that I wanted to be a race driver. Once I got the Sprite I started to autocross it it and even a rally or two, but deep down I knew I had to race it in the SCCA. I started to make the car ready for racing. A work friend gave me a lap belt out of a B 25 which I installed, added a single hoop roll bar. Put on a front sway bay, beefed up the brakes with Formula Junior brake shoes. I also drained the oil from the lever arm shocks and filled them with DuPont Golden 7. I think it was as thick as STP. The usual hop up to the engine started with a slight bore job, balanced the internal parts and as I was working in a machine shop I lightened the fly wheel and installed headers and 8,000 rpm Isky cam and the cylinder head was ported and polished etc. Actually when I got to the head it had a crack between the 1 and 2 cylinders so for my head and $25.00 I swapped my head for one that was on a 1100 cc mini that the guy wasn't going to race any more. Oh ya, tires I used Dunlop R5 recaps of BF Goodrich cases. I think I could get 4 tires recapped for $30. I used mostly BFG tires as I thought they had a stiffer sidewall. But what did I know back then about racing tire technology.
Anyway back to the Ferrari. My first SCCA race was at the Newport Oregon Airport. I drove the car to the track and we slept on the beach. My number was 77. I picked that number as it was easy to put on the car with tape. The windshield came off the spare tire and all the crap I brought to the track came out of the car. I was ready for race time except for one minor snag I couldn't take the muffler off because of a broken bracket so I needed the muffler to keep the exhaust pipe from dragging on the track.
On Sundays Novice race there was five cars entered two Sprites and three Mini's. For some reason the Mini's were slower than us two Sprites and for speed we two Sprites were evenly matched up. Turn 4 at Newport went down one side of a runway and made a U turn around hay bales. Usually going into turn 4 I would get on the brakes at the two marker. The other Sprite was leading me, but just barely. I finally made my move on the inside and delayed my braking to the #1 marker. I sneaked past going into the turn but carried too much speed to complete the 180 turn. A 90 degree turn just didn't cut it. I ended up out in the brush off the track. A quick spin around put me back at the edge of the track. What did I see?
OMG at the apex of the turn is Jerry Grant in the ex Sebring Ferrari Testa Rosa. Oh crap. I sat there waving him to go on he sat there waving at me , no you go, no you go, no you go. Finally I took off and the Ferrari followed me and when he go to the pit in he entered the pits. Later I found out that he was given permission to go out and do a carb check or something but he was not to pass the novices. The image of that red Ferrari sitting at the apex of turn 4 in forever burned into my brain.
