More Inspiration

We've already mentioned that the Classic Cougar racing heritage was a major inspiration for ELBRacing. We started with Open Tracking a couple of classic cougars. Well, here is the car that inspired us to go Open Tracking:

This monster of a '69 Cougar was built and is Open Tracked by “Cougar Bill” Quinlisk. Bill runs a restoration shop in Colorado and custom built the upper control arms on both of the ELBRacing classic cougars.

Cougar Engine Refreshes!

Though the race car has been dormant over the last couple of months, the folks at ELBRacing have been busy. Ralph Pagington worked with KTL Restorations on the build of a 331 stroker engine for his '67 Mercury Cougar. Ralph has installed this new monster in his Cougar and the package will be seeing track time at Summit Point Raceway sometime in the Spring of 2011.

Jim Karamanis also pulled the 351C out of his '70 Cougar. The mild 351C received a set of reconditioned heads and an otherwise cosmetic rebuild.

Stay tuned for more as ELBRacing prepares the Ford Pinto vintage race car for the final racing event of the year, the Vintage Racer Group Turkey Bowl @ Summit Point Raceway.

1970 Mercury Cougar Restoration

As mentioned in our very first blog post, ELBRacing was started with a dream of road racing vintage Mercury Cougars. Even though a Cougar race car was not in the long term cards, the ELBRacing crew have been Open Tracking & Autocrossing Mercury Cougars for several years now.

1970 Mercury Cougar owned by Jim Karamanis

1967 Mercury Cougar owned by Ralph Pagington








Both of our ELBRacing Cougars are currently under-going a refresh in the power department, which reminds us of the nostalgic days when our '70 Mercury Cougar first came into Jim's ownership (December 1998). Jim purchased the car as a painted shell. The following slideshow depicts what the car looked like when the previous owner purchased it and performed the restoration of the paint and body work and a final photo which shows what the car looks like today:

Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix

ELBRacing was formed with the goal of participating in vintage racing. This past weekend that dream became reality. Teaming up once again with Kingstowne Racing, The ELBRacing Pinto took to the track for a weekend of racing as part of the Historic Trans-Am Group, during the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix at the  Beaverun Motorsports Complex.

The weekend started with an advanced drivers school for those new to 'Vintage' Racing, where the emphasis was placed on respect and good judgment. After a half day of class time and a couple of lead and follow sessions the students blended into their regular run groups for the remainder of the weekend.

The ELB Pinto faced a series of mechanical issues that materialized during Friday afternoon practice sessions. The shifter linkage kept jamming making the car undrivable. Team driver Jim Karamanis and crew chief Ralph Pagington pulled the transmission from the car to identify the issue, but were only able to patch it back together. The car was back in one piece for Saturday morning practice with the realization that 2nd gear would be unusable for the remainder of the weekend. With ginger driving, the car was able to be nursed through race time on Saturday and as far as Sunday morning practice. Several times the car was stranded on track, but the BeaveRun workers happily towed the car back to the paddock and encouraged the team to keep band-aiding the car back together and continue on track.

The Kingstowne Racing BMW faired much better. Driver Krisjan Berzins participated as part of the Historic Trans-Am Group and also made an appearance in the Porsche – BMW challenge race. The car was rock solid all weekend and Krisjan ran progressively lower lap times throughout the weekend.

The team also met many wonderful people at this event, including the Schindel's who campaign a BMW 2002, the Wentz's who campaign a 1968 Mustang, McKie Racing with driver Brian McKie's beautifully prepared 1965 MGB, Tripod Racing with their immaculate Datsun 510s, Nial McCabe and his Spridget, as well as many, many others.

Special thanks to the Vintage Racer Group and the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix for putting on an extremely well run and unforgettable event.

ELBRacing is now working on correcting the transmission issues encountered during the race weekend in preparation for an appearance later this year at the 'Turkey Bowl' at Summit Point Motorsports Park.

Beaverun 2010 Slideshow:

Beaverun 2010 Race, Part 1


Beaverun 2010 Race, Part2

More Pinto history and a new logo

Thanks to ProPayne Graphics in Mechanicsville, VA, ELBRacing now has a logo. Thanks, ProPayne!

And to prove the power of blogging, the second owner of the ELBRacing Pinto found us via this blog. Allen Petrie campaigned the car for most of the races it appeared in during the 80s. Mr. Petrie was kind enough to send us the following photographs of the ELBRacing Pinto, and some of it's competition, from back in the day:

Allen Petrie in the ELBRacing Pinto @ Second Creek Raceway, June 1986 

Allen Petrie in the ELBRacing Pinto @ Second Creek Raceway, July 1986

Dick Elliott ITB Pinto, 1987. Mr. Elliott is the original constructor / owner / driver of the ELBRacing Pinto and also campaigned a Boss Mustang in the original Trans-American Series

JR McKnight ITB Pinto, 1986

Allen Petrie ITB Pinto, 1989

Open Practice Update & Spring Drivers School Videos

Friday Open Practice went fairly well, though technical issues with our in-car camera mount made for unusable (ie. very shaky!) video. Fortunately, fellow SCCA Spring Drivers School attendee Darin Treakle presented the ELB team with very usable video from the Spring Drivers School. These videos were taken from the dash of Darin's Treakle Insurance Agency ITS Acura Integra. There is a lot of footage of the ELBRacing Pinto as well as the Kingstowne Lawn & Landscape BMW:

End of an Era

Unfortunately, it is the end of the road for the Mercury Brand. Not a surprise to Mercury car buffs, as Ford has been exercising 'badge engineering' with Mercury for a number of years, which has absolutely killed the brand. But, fortunately for us, the Classic Mercury Cougar and other great Mercury cars of the past will live on forever in our hearts.

Here at ELBRacing we have been deeply involved in the Classic Cougar car scene for a number of years. We have open tracked and autocrossed these cars, and have been charter members of the Delmarva Cougar Club (www.dcconline.org). Check out Delmarva Cougar Club member Phillip Payne on camera explaining the demise of the brand:  

In racing news, ELBRacing will be making an appearance @ Summit Point Raceway, Friday June 4th for a day of Open Practice. Stay tuned for photos and video of that upcoming event.