Kastner Cup Reunion - Sonoma Raceway - April 21 2024

Fun race - kept the leaders in sight all race, got to watch a good battle between Walt Hollowell's blue TR-6 and Curt Johnston's black Huffaker TR-7.

[@kevstutting]

Great instructions I am sure!

[@Mtlmshr]

The track has the brake markers done, it’s simply been a schedule thing that has delayed them from being installed however they will all be installed on Monday the 29th or atleast that’s the plan!

[@andyrobinson7007]

I've become a big fan of your videos. There are lots of vintage racing videos on KZbin but yours are more informative through things like the on-screen comments. It makes it feel like we are a bigger part of your race experience since we know what is going on during the race even though you're adding them after. Great to get more background that is not apparent from the video or to someone who has only dreamed of racing - sort of like the professor of vintage sports car racing. Watching the video, there's no "seat of the pants" feeling and when I don't see a lot of over-steer correction in the video I wondered about the limits of the car. Not that we want to see you drifting all the corners but the comment about turn 10 and the racing suit brings it home - there's a lot of the experience we don't get from the video even with the G-force display so the comments help. Would it be possible to get updates on stuff with the car - like what was / how did you resolve the shifting / transmission issue with it popping out of 4th gear we saw last season? What about tuning and setup changes for different tracks (if there is any and if it isn't giving away trade secrets to your competition) and stuff like that. And while I'm making you a to-do list (haha), would it be possible to get some background and a walk-around about the car. For example, the "Ok to race" appeared on the glovebox between 2013 and 2014, what's that signify? Your steering wheel changed from red-orange to black around the same time. What's the engine, any mods or Triumph engine gurus been inside it, the rules for the classes you run in for originality (or not) of the car, even why did you pick a TR4 originally compared to the more common TR3 or TR6 or even Spitfire - stuff like that. Thanks

[@TonyDrews]

Andy, thanks for the kind words. I originally started adding the comments for a specific person who is not a racer to give her an idea of some of the subtleties going on, and people seem to really like them so I've continued in that vein. I have enough fellow competitors watch these that I've had to mildly self-censor my comments which is kind of funny. For turn 10 last weekend, I thought I could take that turn with just a lift and tried it in practice. I came very close to a big moment doing that and decided to back off a bit to race another day. For the popping out of 4th gear at the end of last season, I ended up replacing the entire guts of the transmission - which turned into a bigger deal than I thought it would be when the parts finally showed up 3 days from when I was due to leave for California. Had three long days of building the transmission and installing the drivetrain. As far as the handling stuff goes, when I got the car in 2002 as a former autocross car, all I needed to do was disconnect the rear sway bar and get the tire pressures right for it to be a sweet handling ride. Hint of oversteer so I can get good rotation through the turns, but nothing alarming if I have to lift suddenly (which causes cars like the Porsche 356 to go sideways). I don't really change anything from track to track. The "OK to Race" deal is a decal of Kas Kastner's famous phrase / signature that we got at one of the Kastner Cup events, I was happy to know Kas even in passing. The steering wheel change was just due to wear from my fat butt rubbing the seat belt against it. I picked a TR-4 because that's what my dad was racing at the time so if I beat him it was the DRIVER, not the CAR. :) We had some great times racing each other. The transmission is a factory case with a Quaife dog-box gear set. Probably wouldn't have been legal back in the day but it's pretty stout so I don't have to keep chasing OEM tranny parts. Switched to it after I trashed a stock internals box with an overdrive. The engine is semi-period correct, but with some "reliability" upgrades that would not have been allowed back in the day. It's got a billet crank, carillo rods, ported head with roller rockers, hot cam, very light flywheel, weber 42 DCOE carbs. Most of that came with the car when I bought it. So the only really "stock" items in the engine are the block and head - and the head has been ported for better flow. It also has a Speedway Engineering Ford 8" diff based rear axle which was an early fix to the tendency of these cars breaking rear axles and rolling when the wheel came off (my first youtube video is of my wild ride when that happened). That also came with the car and is a really trick piece although it leaks a little which is annoying. I thought just the British stuff was supposed to leak. That rear end does have disk brakes which is definitely not vintage, but I have no way to retrofit drums without a very expensive rear axle replacement, so that's stayed. The clubs I run with take different views of that detail - with SVRA I am normally not allowed to "podium" except in special races like last weekend. Slicks are technically not allowed either, both cars in front had those so it's all good. It's not like we win any prize money or anything. We are pretty much supposed to prepare the car to 1962 or 65 SCCA regulations, so that's the starting point. I try to be open about the stuff that is beyond the rules. I do have a brief walk around of the car with the 30 second-ish click of startup a couple of weeks ago. Come to think of it, that was just on Facebook, not on KZbin. I could see doing one with the car not running with a verbal description or something like that if you think that would be enjoyable.

[@davehogye576]

2:00 is flying! Turn 4 is the trickiest. Nice driving. Thanks for sharing the vid. Cheers!

[@cyklopath]

Great to watch. Love your commentary Tony!

[@indyme2]

Awesome! Great finish. Hope this is on the east coast next year. Enjoyed the video.

[@TonyDrews]

Next year is Lime Rock over Labor Day weekend.

[@indyme2]

@@TonyDrews Awesome. Thanks.

[@podd372]

Good to watch. I was on holidays in SF about 10yrs ago and went to Laguna but passed Sonoma on my way there and am so sorry i didnt make the time to go in. It's a very underrated circuit.