Summit point vintage race meet

[Mike M.]

spent the last two days at Summit Point Raceway working for the sponsor of the SVRA meet and there were several old Vettes in attendance. a 55, yellow old ex-drag car ,the owner of which stated the old 283 60 over was running up to 140 mph in the staights.the other interesting c-1 was a real 57 Fi( a black exterior with triple nickle decals--ie, # 555) with significant so cal late 50's early 60's scca pedigree. said to be ex-bob bonderant 57. had original fi throttle rod and correct palcment of fi emblems. curently running a 307 sbc with holley carb. don't get much bettter than seeing these old warriors out running full throttle.mike

[Don H.]

Re: Summit point vintage race meet

It is indeed getting rare to see these old cars racing. I can't imagine going 140 in a '55, I am doing almost 100 at the end of a quarter mile in my '60 and that is scary enough. Don H.

[Jim L.]

Re: Summit point vintage race meet

.the other interesting c-1 was a real 57 Fi( a black exterior with triple nickle decals--ie, # 555) with significant so cal late 50's early 60's scca pedigree. said to be ex-bob bonderant 57.

That car was vintage raced out here on the left coast at least through the late '80s. I remember the owner/driver being "counseled" regarding an on-track incident. Soon after that, it disappeared.

In any event, whatever Bondurant connection 555 may or may not have, it isn't the '57 that Bondurant actually owned and raced. That car is still out here and hasn't changed hands in the last 47 years.

Jim

[John N.]

Re: Summit point vintage race meet

Mike
I saw #555 at VIR in 2007 the week after your fun Cumberland Historics. My best memory of the car was the 1987 Monterey Historics when the #555 (known as the Doc Holliday sp car) dueled with Dick Guldstrand in Fred Yeakels 57 for class. Guldstrand won by a narrow margin. There were a number of great duels and memorys that day.
Regards

[James G.]

Re: Summit point vintage race meet

A Southern California racer from the mid 60's, Sy Laretz built that car and raced it in vintage Corvette events in the early 80's. I have a picture of it painted white with black interior. Sy was Dick Guldstrand's CPA and raced many cars back in the day. In 1985, he tired of the old 57 fuelie, and sold it to the well know racer from Ventura, Batt Masterson, who also was a car dealer from that area. Batt raced Corvettes in the 50's, and restored this car back to 'his' style of dark blue with 555 on the door, and named it his old trade mark "Tripple Nickel".

Batt was a very colorful guy, and drove hard and won a lot. In 1987, or 88 (I can't remermber) he had an over agressive incident and was asked to sit down for a year. He sold the car to Bob Harvey in St. Michaels Maryland and Bob has had fun ever since.

Car is listed in our REGISTRY OF CORVETTE RACE CAR at www.registryofcorvetteracecars.com

[Jim L.]

Re: Summit point vintage race meet

Batt was a very colorful guy, and drove hard and won a lot. In 1987, or 88 (I can't remermber) he had an over agressive incident and was asked to sit down for a year.

My memory, dim as it tends to be, is that this was the incident that placed Bryan Hill and his '56 against the wall between the then-new turns 4 and 5 of the reconfigured track.

That couldn't have been '87; the old track configuration was still in place. Maybe '88..... depends on when they changed the track and the timing of that detail escapes me at the moment.

Jim