Wilsons Sandbox

I've been going through an old Laguna Seca Raceway program from 23 August 1980 (7th Annual Monterey Historic Automobile Races). The TC's that were in those races were: #25 1948 MGTC E. Alan Moss #43 1948 MGTC TC 9042 Marvin L. Johnson (Car was originally owned and raced by Carroll Shelby) #95 1948 MGTC TC 5371 Earl Sargent #119 1946 MGTC TC 0930 Doug Lupton #148 1948 MGTC TC 5271 Phillip Sledge/John Dormer (Built by Ernie McAfee in 1950 and later raced in Oregon by Dave Coppel/Stan Huntley #209 1947 MGTC Arnold Verbiesen ( Built by Bob Menefee in 1949 for racing) I just went through our members list looking for the cars and the owners - the only one listed in the group is Alan Moss - wonder where the others (and their cars) are? Gene Gillam Saucier, MS TC7872 XPAG 8659

Old racers never die. They just re-tire. Badgerum

It seems to me that there may be at least two categories of "old racers." That is: old racing drivers and old racing cars. I am an "old" TD racer but in the mid fifties I bought the TC (5905) that gave me such a hard time in the local club events. It was owned by a Nadeau Borgault who was not only a fine driver and constructor but had the inspiration to "borrow" from another competitor (Bob Winklemann) a clone of my factory block 1500 that was (ahem) overbored and "enhanced" in order to compete with the P cars and their illegal 1600cc pistons and cylinders. We were of course running in the under 1500 class at that time. I was quite astonished to find that lovely engine and delighted to have two of them in the same garage. I ran into Bob W. at a party a few years ago and he was delighted to find out that Nadeau's car and his engine were still around and doing well. Borgault had two TCs which he raced. Mine was Clipper Blue the other Sequoia Cream and according to Bob it has the original engine for my TC5905. If anyone has a TC with engine XPAG 6643 I would love to know. And more importantly is Bourgault still with us. The last I heard of him was years ago, and that he was building Fiat based F-Jr cars somewhere in Northern California. Winklemann is I believe still living in Bolinas California. Best Regards and The Best of the Season to All Dick Shaler

Earl Sargent last raced at Laguna Seca at age 74, I believe - a fact not shared with the officials at the time. My favorite memory of Earl was the day he came to my office (late '70's or early '80's) absolutely livid. It was so uncharacteristic of Earl to be upset, I sat him down and gave him some coffee and asked what his problem was. He waved some papers in front of me and said "these are the new rules for Laguna Seca..they want me to put a roll bar in the TC or they won't let me race! - Bob, do you know what happens when you roll a TC with a roll bar in it???...YOU BEND THE FRAME!!!!!" Earl was the quintessential TCer. We still miss him. My garage wall has a picture of Earl and his #95 black racing TC taken at Willow Springs after a race..no roll bar unless you count a single Brooklands Screen