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The first USA automobile race

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I've only ever been to one race. When i was stationed at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas, Caesar's Palace held a Formula One race in their parking lot. Being Vegas and glitzy the local civilian skydiving club I was in was used to start the race. Our three most experienced members jumped in and onto the track from 10k feet. One of them holding the starting flag, which he handed to the official to start the race. (the pic is of the finish of the race) I was part of the ground crew popping smoke grenades from the top of Caesars and on the ground to show the divers the wind direction and speed. It was tricky because they had to land between a skyscraper and grandstand. But they all came down on the track. One, the club president was an ex-army Golden Knight and had over 8000 jumps. I had seen him land on a frisbee placed in a field as his target. :0
 
Open wheel roadracing is the ultimate in driver skills.
Not at all like the demolition derbies held on a circular track like they do in NASCAR :p

I built a Citation Zink chassis Formula V car when I was a pup.
We rode out to Indiana to visit the shop then trailered all of the parts of it home.
We did tons of machinework to the 1200cc aircooled VW bug motors to lighten them up and to streamline them.
They were like grenades with the pins pulled when they scattered :D


At Road Atlanta, I crossed paths with Paul Newman who was running a Datsun Z car in I believe SCCA GT1 class.
We were running a Datsun B-210 in GT4 class.
My boss scored enough points in his division to get invited to the national runoffs that year, so we packed up and went.
The scariest part of the trip was being put in the driver's seat of the motorhome /tow rig on the way there :eek:
The B-210 had a 1.4L pushrod motor.
We did dyno pulls at Alderman Datsun on two of the motors I assembled that reached about 175 horses at about 9500 rpm.
The tell tale tach would often record revs at 11,500 from downshifts.
That is really wound up for pushrod/rocker valve actuation.
It was a great experience to see those tiny engines turn up revs well beyond anything I had ever witnessed.
 
When I can find it, I will post a photo I took of Gil De Ferran's open wheel car in the parking lot of a former business I ran.
 
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