Real Winners Finish Without a Scratch : Grand Prix: For many vintage racers, keeping a valuable, fully restored car out of trouble is more important than taking the checkered flag.
They call it a Grand Prix, but they don’t really call it a race. With that in mind, the promoters would not have been happier with Saturday’s featured event in the second Rodger Ward Invitational had they written the script themselves.
With more than 150 vintage racing automobiles entered, none less than 18 years old but many completely restored and looking as new as the day they were built, representatives of the San Diego Automotive Museum were promoting anything but daredevil tactics on the 1.7-mile course in the San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium parking lot.
When 14 cars lined up for a race billed as Pre-World War II, a 1911 Pope Hartford was on the same line with a ’37 Jaguar Roadster, and Spring Valley’s Randy Reed and his 1914 Tahis Special had no chance of challenging Peter Giddings’ top qualifier, a 1925 Bugatti.
What started out as a two-car duel between the newest--Pancho Kohner’s ’49 Cooper MG--and the swiftest--Giddings’ Bugatti--proved to be no more than an exhibition, a five-lap parade of nostalgia, after Bugatti, who led on the second lap, sputtered off the course on the third.
Kohner, of Santa Monica, cruised on to win while the rest marched behind nearly in single file. Two of the three fastest cars never made it through a race in which the only purpose was to finish. Two of them were Bugattis, rare cars that dominated 1930s European Grand Prix racing and now cost in the neighborhood of $500,000. During qualifying, Richard Riddell of San Clemente lost his Bugatti for the day with a broken clutch.
Greg Naive of San Diego finished eighth with his 1911 Pope, beating out a ’35 Wolesley Hornet, a ’32 Alfa Romeo and a pair of MGs, one from 1929 and one from 1934. Reed and his original-condition Tahis Special chugged in sixth.
Then there was Oakland’s William Cross, 77, who coasted across in 10th, looking dignified in his big, black 1929 Bentley.
Giddings, who blamed two burned spark plugs for his untimely exit, might have been the only one a tad frustrated with the result.
“It’s bloody hot out there,” said Giddings, a native of London who lives in Walnut Creek. “We’ll get ‘em tomorrow.”
Temperatures reached the 90s and were likely over 100 degrees for drivers roaring down a black-top straightaway at 100 m.p.h, but the heat didn’t affect Cross, who looked cool in a red jumpsuit and a Sherlock Holmes hat afterward.
“I had my radiator reconditioned two years ago,” said Cross, another London native who has raced for 11 years and will turn 78 in June. “If I hadn’t, five laps out here today, and we’d be throwing water everywhere.”
Two years ago, Kohner and his son raced 120-m.p.h. Go-Karts. He decided that was too dangerous and invested $200,000 in his red Cooper MG. He has not lost a race with it in three tries. Not bad for a guy who had to rebuild from scratch.
“It was a total basket case when I got it,” Kohner said. “The chassis was there, but the engine was hanging in a cradle of chains.”
Grand Prix Notes
The racing continues today, with seven more events starting at 1 p.m. . . . In other races: Dennis Wood of Tarzana won the D Production race in a ’62 Lotus; Rick Cole of North Hollywood won the A, B and C Production race in a ’67 Porsche; Fred Cziska of Pacifica won the Super Sports A and B, Formula A event driving a ’71 Shadow CanAm; Reg Howell of Corona del Mar drove a ’69 Brabham to victory in the Formula Ford B, C and D class; Ron Hlavka of Alta Loma won the E Production race in a ’57 MGA, and Bob Dawry of Las Vegas, driving a ’67 Lotus, won the G and F Production class.
