Winter has been busy for ELBRacing. ELBRacing supported Kingstowne Racing on the shakedown of their BMW 2002 Vintage Racer during a test / PDX day @ Summit Point Raceway, March 13th. ELBRacing was also out in full force during the SCCA Double Spring Drivers School @ Summit Point Raceway, March 18th – 20th, in support of new ELBRacer Jerry Boyer.
Jerry purchased a former SCCA GT Pinto, a 1976 equipped with a 2.3 liter from Bruce Shelton of Automotive Enterprise. Bruce Shelton has been campaigning SCCA GT Pintos for over 20 years and was kind enough to lend assistance throughout the weekend, along with three GT Pintos that Bruce had rented for the school. Jerry is a long time friend of ELBRacing, from the Classic Cougar crowd, and is very excited to be starting his racing career.
A slide show of Jerry's Pinto as well as SCCA school photos:
Qualifying for the SCCA school race, from Jerry Boyer's ELBPinto:
School Race, from Jerry Boyer's ELBPinto:
Jerry will be converting the car to Vintage Race Specifications in preparation for a vintage racing career with the Vintage Racer Group (VRG). The VRG board recently voted to extend their rules, allowing for 2.3 liter powered Pintos to participate in vintage race competition.
ELBRacing crew chief Ralph Pagington has also taken the plunge, having purchased a former SCCA GT Pinto (a 1979) from Bruce Shelton. Ralph will be restoring his car over the next couple of years to vintage race specifications.
A slide show of Ralph's project Pinto:
Adventures in Vintage Racing with an Extremely Low Budget
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Another Vintage Racer!
Over the past year we have featured many photos of Krisjan Berzins and his Kingstowne Racing 1987 BMW 325is race car. Krisjan has become so enthusiastic about vintage racing that he has purchased a vintage racer of his own, a 1976 BMW 2002. This former SCCA ITB race car will soon be undergoing a restoration in preparation for a new lease on life as a vintage racer. Krisjan plans to run the car along with the folks at ELBRacing at numerous racing events with the Vintage Racer Group (VRG).
Thursday, December 2, 2010
VRG Turkey Bowl @ Summit Point Raceway
The Crew of ELBRacing again teamed up with Kingstowne Racing for the last track event of the year. The Turkey Bowl (November 26 - 28, 2010) @ Summit Point Motorsports Park was sanctioned by The Vintage Racer Group and featured something for everyone. With a variety of vintage classes and groups for late model and legends cars, there was plenty for every racer & spectator to enjoy. Darin Treakle and his SCCA ITS Acura Integra also joined the gang in the Paddock for a 3 car line-up. All three cars made it through the weekend incident free, even through sessions that featured snow flurries. A variety of photos and in-car video are included for your viewing pleasure:
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
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.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
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:
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:
Thursday, July 22, 2010
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 Race, Part 1
Beaverun 2010 Race, Part2
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
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