HSR-West Palm Springs Revival 2005
This was my first outing with the roadster. After purchasing the car, I petitioned HSR West to race with a provisional license at this event. HSR accepted and we loaded up the Roadster and set off to Janqueline Cochran Airport. Just outside of Palm Springs.
Upon arrival, I found out that there were two other roadsters on hand. Bob Klemme had brought out his 1967.5 2000 Roadster, and Tim Arnett had brought out his Datsun Roadster. My first event and there were 3 Roadsters!!
We passed on the first track outing due to inexperience and that we were not ready to go when it was our time to be on the track and went out on the second opportunity. This really was a shake down to see what we had to work with and it was HSR’s opportunity to see what I was capable of.
Everything went well, although the track was extremely dirty and threw all kinds of small rocks and debris if anyone got off line on the airport circuit. Many of us were sand blasted when we were passed by other cars. Including my roadster. Several cars and drivers left because of the excessive amount of debris on the track.
We qualified well, but some of my collegues did not fair as well. Mic Halbert lost his motor in dramatic fashion, and Tim Arnett’s truck was broken into and his driving gear stolen.
This left Les in his Datun 1200 and Jim in his 510 and my car grouped fairly close together on the grid for the small bore production race.
The race started, and we ran well, I could tell early on that the gearing in the roadster left a lot to be desired, as Les Cannaday was able to pass me after diving too deep into a corner and was able to still drive past me coming out of the dirt.
At one point in the race, Bob Klemme came up behind me and it was a great view, two period correct Datsun Roadster on the track at the same time. Something I will always remember.
We finished the race safely although I was not able to catch or overtake Les or Jim. It was a great first effort and looking at this in retrospect, I really learned a lot about the car and it’s capabilities.
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