Steve Church Races Rika at the 2003 SVRA Blue-Gray Challenge
- Charles Christ
- Steve Church
- Stefan Vapaa
- Mary Anne Fieux
- Randy Cook
- Ed Diehl
- George Vapaa
- Jon Ewing
- William Harding
- Chris Moberg
- 1960 93F
- 1973 97 Sonett III
- 1968 97 Sonett V4
- 1964 Quantum Formula SAAB
- 1967 Brand'X' Sports Racer
- Racecar Group Photos
Crews
- Tom Cox
- Chip Lamb
- Sune Nilsson
- Laura Briggs
- Don Wollum
Last Updated: Mar 26, 2006
1/23/2004
The Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) Blue-Gray Challenge is a 1-hour vintage racing ‘enduro’ event held annually at the Summit Point Raceway in Summit Point, West Virginia. Located only 70 miles west of Washington, D.C., Summit Point has become one of the best known road racing courses on the East Coast. It’s a challenging 10-turn, 2-mile long asphalt track that supports almost every form of motorsports competition.
Steve Church competed in the 2003 event, held on September 25-28.
(Photo credits to S. Church unless noted)
With my heart firmly set on participating in a vintage racing event sometime during 2003, I "leaned into the wind" of formidable challenges (a pun; more on that later) to reach the SVRA’s "Blue-Gray Challenge" at Summit Point Raceway September 25-28.
The most important topic of this story is about financial and crew assistance. I couldn’t have even reached the track without the financial support of my friends at Viking Automotive, in Gaithersburg, Maryland. And mechanical challenges couldn’t have been overcome, or track sessions completed, without the real-time, hands-on assistance I received from the VSRG crew: Chip Lamb (owner of West of Sweden, Williamsburg, VA); Laura Briggs (who traveled nearly eight hours from Connecticut in her SPG to attend); and Maryanne Fieux (of NJ).
Pursuing a Goal
I’ve captured the story of my development as a vintage race driver, and how I’ve been evolving my autocross-legal 1973 Saab Sonett "Rika" for the purpose, in prior articles.
The car needed only a few additions to make it safe and legal for historic racing, so I picked away at a ‘to-do’ list throughout 2003. I added a fuel cell, hand-held fire extinguisher, and power cut-off switch. Additionally, I refreshed the five-point harness and strengthened the roll cage.
The fuel cell bolted into its custom cage before the alumimum covers were installed
When the refrigerator calendar flipped over into September I untangled my family schedule, paid the SVRA event fees, and mailed the necessary forms. The only remaining questions had to do with the preparedness of the car: finish the OEM fender flare remounting process and paint them; mount the window net’s top rod; and, maybe install an alternator. All doable! Oh, and I still needed to find and mount vintage racing tires!
I was ALMOST READY, ALMOST THERE, and then something happened -- just one week before the big event -- that was beyond my control.
Hurricane Isabel
The evil Ms. Isabel knocked out our electric power and telephone service, and dropped a very large hickory tree onto our house. The good news was that we suffered miraculously little damage to the roof. The bad news was that I still had projects to complete on the racecar that required electrical power.
OK, enough moaning about it - - here’s the condensed chronology of the last two weeks before the event:
- The replacement stock fender flares had been mounted and blended (somewhat) into the body, and quickly spray-can painted, just before the 2003 Saab Owners Convention (September 4-7). However, they still needed to be properly filleted, shaped, sanded, primed and painted. The shaping, priming and final sanding efforts were completed the day before Isabel arrived. Unfortunately, I lacked electric power thereafter, so the Rika-yellow paint job was completed (or most of it, anyway) using a borrowed electric air compressor (with 110 psi already stored in the tank), and a utility spray gun, in the failing light of Tuesday, September 23.
The replacement right rear fender after initial bonding and filling
The right front fender, just about done, before the 2003 SOC
- How was I going to weld the window net’s upper mount without electric power? I needed to find a friend somewhere in the area who had electricity and a round, locking receptacle on a 20-amp circuit to power my 135 amp/120V welder. It seemed impossible … and, it was! Fortunately, my home’s electricity came back on during Thursday afternoon … the day I wanted to leave. Well, I didn’t leave on Thursday, but I did complete the welding job Thursday night around 11 P.M.
- Three used vintage racing tires were found and received via mail order in early September, and a fourth used tire, from a different supplier, was trucked directly to Summit Point. A mobile tire supplier mounted all four tires at the track the Friday morning of the event weekend - - just before my second practice session (I missed the first session because of the alternator install, described next). We discovered by the end of Friday that one of the used tires had a puncture in it, and two of the ‘Jackman’ rims wouldn’t hold air. Therefore, three of my four tires required refilling immediately before, and once during, on-track sessions.
Sometimes its 'The Pits' (But nice fenders!)
- An attempt to install an alternator at the last possible moment became "The Little Task from Hell." I tried to find a modern 1-wire alternator but ran out of time to research a solution. An OEM alternator’s mounting position ‘bulges out’ beyond the vertical plane of the inner fender wall (as all Sonett owners know), so I had to modify a previously mounted, custom aluminum fender wall to accommodate the alternator’s trespass. Being an OEM unit, I needed to supply a minor electrical load (i.e., dash ‘idiot light’) to energize the charging circuit. I bought what I thought was the right size pulley, but it was too small by two sizes. The final pulley purchase, and the final alternator wiring effort, wasn’t completed until Friday morning, during the event weekend, because I ran out of time…
Sleepless in Sea … uh … Summit Point
If you’ve been following this chronology closely than you might have noticed that I didn’t sleep the Thursday night/Friday morning of the event weekend. I quietly winched the car onto the trailer at 3:00 AM, and drove away at 4:00 AM, to reach the track at 7:30 AM, and the start of the Rookies Meeting.
Friday afternoon, Turn 3, with a Group 3 1969 Jamaican GT (W. Pietrowicz photo)
Racing a car while nearly comatose from exhaustion is not a situation that I’d recommend to anyone. However, adrenaline can conquer almost any physical challenge on the body, and I can assure you that I had plenty of adrenaline coursing through me the first time I went out on track! Off the track I relaxed when I could, and stayed well hydrated, so the exhaustion that I felt when I first got to the track was not a factor the rest of the day.
One Good Turn…
Vintage racing is for most drivers a gentleman’s non-contact sport that is largely predictable and has few risks. Sometimes, though, a combination of unanticipated circumstances can lead to a hairy situation. I’ll describe one here that included me.
While I was running down the Main Straight, playing 'clean up' in a pack of four cars, another pack of faster cars was quickly closing on us. I decided that, because of the faster group's imminent arrival on my bumper (if I had one - Ha!), I would take an outside line through the upcoming Turn 1/Turn 2 right-hand combination. That would let them pass me on the optimal, inside line.
Friday afternoon, in Turns 6/7, with some very close company (a Group 3 1963 MGB and a Group 1 1959 Austin Healey Sprite) (R. Harrington photo)
As my pack entered the Turn 1/Turn 2 combo our leading Porsche 911 overshot Turn 1 and rumbled through the grass outside the turn. Nevertheless, he maintained his speed as gravel and grass flew in the air behind him. I could tell from his behavior that he wanted to get back onto the track as soon as he could. However, he didn't know, or was too busy to see, that seven cars now covered the pavement, two-cars-wide, when he worked his way back onto the track near Turn 2.
I could see that something Not Good was about to happen - - the Porsche was going to re-enter the track at my position. He either didn't know, or didn’t care, that I was there; or, he felt sure that I'd move over for him when he veered onto the tarmac.
I was busy staying on the outside of the turn to keep the inside line clear for the faster cars. I lost count of how many of the passing cars had gone by me during the second or two that I watched the Porsche closing in toward me. And, I was momentarily occupied with trying to not hit the rear end of the car in front of me; he had slowed his car mid-turn to watch the antics of the Porsche. I touched on the brakes lightly, and, in doing so, increased the speed differential between the passing cars and me.
There was no time for me to look and check if another car was passing inside me - - the Porsche was coming fast from trackside! So, I made a leap of faith, applied near-full throttle, and guided my Sonett toward the inside of Turn 2.
My heart and breathing stopped sometime during all this. Was there another, faster car about to hit my rear? Was that car’s driver anticipating my maneuver and getting ready to back off? Was my racing weekend about to be over, my car’s fiberglass spread all across Turn 2?
I don't remember.
Nothing hit me, so I nailed full throttle and aimed for the turn-in point of the upcoming left-hander, Turn 3. I remember that I 'pointed by' (acknowledged an imminent pass and allowed it) several faster cars over the next half-lap, so there were, in fact, other cars behind me back in Turn 2 at the time of my heart-stopping, near-miss incident.
All's well that ends well.
Zooming along in Turn 3 (R. Harrington photo)
Looking Ahead
I had a blast racing my car in the Blue-Gray Challenge event. Historic racing is more than old racecars going fast, though. It’s also the camaraderie, the food, and drinks, and the friendships rejuvenated or found for the first time. It’s the rumbling of massive V-8’s and the shrieks of finely balanced small-bores. The smells, sights and sounds are unforgettable.
Saturday Enduro fun in 'The Carousel' (Turns 8/9), being overrun by a Group 5 1963 Elva Mk VIIs (W. Pietrowicz photo)
All of that is why I’m pressing on to repair or replace the problems I had with my racecar when I played a part in this memorable event .. Because there are more events to come in 2004!
Steve