The Kastner Cup all Triumph race at Road America, a GREAT weekend

Mini Cooper S

Mini Cooper S

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Every year the biggest Vintage racing event in the country is the WeatherTech® International Challenge with Brian Redman at Road America. One of the activities for this event is the Race Car Concourse on Friday night. This has been something that my son Daniel has always wanted to do. The entered cars line up at the track and are judged by teams of judges. There are 10 classes (How they decide what cars are in what class is anybody's guess). At 6:00 PM the cars drive into Elkhart Lake and line up on the streets around Sebkin's hotel and a 2 hour street party starts. You then show off you car and socialize with people while waiting for the winners to be announced. Long about 7:30 one of the judges came over and told my son that he may want to head over to the area where they were going to announce the winners! We thought that he was going to get the First Reserve award, needless to say we were all shocked when someone else won that one and they announced that the 1st. Place Winner was Daniel Gehweiler and his 1969 Triumph GT6! What a great night.

Daniels friend Alex has been consistently a second or so per lap faster than Daniel so his goal for the weekend was to get a lap time faster than Alex. During Saturday morning's qualifying session, Daniel set a personal best lap time of 2:47.417 just beating Alex's best by about .5 Seconds. The afternoon qualifying session came and something happened to Daniel, he drove like a man possessed, shattering his morning record by almost 3 seconds a lap at 2:44.777 and qualifying on the pole for the Kastner Cup All Triumph Race! Being on the pole is a first for our group of racing friends, we are just not used to being on the pointy end of the grid. Sunday morning and the Kastner Cup all Triumph came and Daniel was lined up on pregrid before the race (in the pole position) they then brought up the Triumph TR250K (A purpose built prototype race car built by Kas Kastner and Pete Brock to run at Sebring back in the late 1960's). Okay, I get it, it's Kastners car but It didn't have a qualifying time.

Race time comes and the green flag drops, there is no way that Daniel is going to beat the TR250K but he again drives like a man possessed and manages to finish only about 7 seconds behind the TR250K and about 7 seconds ahead of Alex who was in third place! A podium finish for both Daniel and friend Alex.

Friday nights award.

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From the local Sheboygan News Paper
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Podium. Red white and blue cars and oddly enough the drivers ribbons matched their cars.

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.L to R: Me with Sophie, Nancy my wife, our friend and crew member Brian Smith, Daniel, Daniel's fiancé Sarah Moore with Sebastien

I couldn't be more proud of the whole group!

Richard
 

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Brought a tear to my eye, you must be sooooo proud!!!!

My friends Dick & Rochelle Nyquist used to campaign a blue GT6 in SF Region SCCA, I was on the crew. That car had been a race car it's whole life until they finally retired it and bought a Mazda RX7 (fastest car I've ever driven). Sadly both cars were lost in a wildfire that claimed everything they owned. But, good memories for sure.

Congratulations to the driver and crew chief!!!!

John
 
Congratulations to your son and the entire family. I have always been a fan of all the races held at the Road America course. We attended many in our younger years and always loved to see the vintage races. Somehow life got in the way, and we haven't been to a race in 20 years. It's good to hear things are still going strong and your son has done so well.

Hopefully we can get to some of the races in the next few years. There's really no excuse not to other than laziness and lack of planning on my part. We've often visited my brother and his family and heard the far-off sound of the cars on the track. It's less than 20 miles from their front door to the track.

On Edit: As a kid I always wanted a TR250. I was dating a girl whose father had a Triumph dealership. I got to drive them several times and fell in love with them. Unfortunately, in those days it was a bit out of my price range at $3,800.00. I was driving Chevys and Fords that cost about $50.00. each.
 
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Doesn't get much better than that. Congrats to your son, you, and the whole crew. I have two TR 6's that I'm hoping to get to in the next year or so. Cheers, Mike
 
projectnut said:
Congratulations to your son and the entire family. I have always been a fan of all the races held at the Road America course. We attended many in our younger years and always loved to see the vintage races. Somehow life got in the way, and we haven't been to a race in 20 years. It's good to hear things are still going strong and your son has done so well.

Hopefully we can get to some of the races in the next few years. There's really no excuse not to other than laziness and lack of planning on my part. We've often visited my brother and his family and heard the far-off sound of the cars on the track. It's less than 20 miles from their front door to the track.
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Thanks, there is another Vintage race at Road America this September, 15-17. It is a club race so it is not too expensive to get into. We usually paddock along the main paddock road on the west side shortly after cresting the hill. We would love to see you there. Let me know if you want any more info.
Richard
 
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