Four of us decided to drive 450mi to Long Beach to see Jilles Villenueve in his rookie year and Jody Sheckter finish 1, 2 in the T4 Ferraris. Patrick Depallier (my favorite that year) was in a Ligier. Keke Rosberg was still in Formula Atlantic. Jody was on his way to the World Championship. There was a Karting exhibition Race too. Friday night after closing down one of the local bars, we decided to get in a little track time. Bieng Kart racers ourselves, we just couldn't resist the temptation to remove the wooden barricades (security was pretty loose then) and get in a few laps at 2:00 in the morning. My friends were in a '72 RX2. We were in a Dual 45mm Weber, 11:1 compression, 3/4 Norris cam, '67 1600. After a warm up lap, we were driving hard and dicing pretty good! The RX2 had more top speed. (geared taller) Mine had gobs of torque for coming out of corners, especially going out of the Queens Hairpin, and onto the Ocean St. chute. On the second lap, (I still can't believe we went around again) we saw lights flashing behind us coming onto the main straightaway. I passed him coming out of the Queens hairpin and held him off through the esses 'till we got back onto Ocean street and off the track! I remember how we laughed when the cops were chasing us. My pulse is racing from just thinking about how crazy we were. Things were sure different back then.-R
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