12 replies to this topic

[Gary C]

lads, just found this website : http://www.nationalroadrally.com/ , go into the 'Historic Photos' section and check out photos from 1955 - 1970 at the Cumberland Airport Sports Car Races. Anyone have any info on this circuit and races???

[mickj]

Gary
Interesting site, photo 69-034 is a Aussie Elfin 300 sports car. I wonder if it left Australia fully built, or went in bits.

[normbeechey]

It went fully built. Landed in New York in September 1967.

Garrie Cooper tested it at Mallala before sending it t distributors Donald Mansell and Chuck Kruegar. Carl Haas waited 2 years for a car, but Garrie set up the distributor in the meantime so Carl cancelled his order, not being impressed.

Source: "Australia's Elfin Sports and Racing Cars"

Note that the badge on the nose does not seem to be an Elfin one.

What a great web site.

Chris.
www.drive.to/beechey

[David M. Kane]

Gary since I grew up in Washington, D.C. Cumberland was the only track remotely within striking distance other than Upper Marlboro, so it was a
very big deal in the New York, Maryland, Virginia and Penn. area. It was very close to the Maryland/Penn border.

It had this great big hill where most of the spectators put down their blankets or lawn chairs, from that point you could see the entire circuit.
I only went there once, drank a lot of beer, behaved like an American College student and generally had a blast. I think it was one of the better
airport circuits around, at least in the USA. In its day, EVERYONE raced
there, Penske, Bob Grossman, Gaston Andre, etc.

I can't remember much other than they had a very, very competitive Corvette
race with a bunch of Shelby Corba GT-350s. Those guys REALLY got it on!
It was basically a VERY loud FF, F3, FSV-type of affairs with guys swapping
the lead two or three times a lap with some very brave braking moves.

[Stefan Ornerdal]

I have Cumberland FJunior results, 1963 here:
http://user.tninet.s...1w/FJ63_W10.htm

Stefan

[David M. Kane]

Stefan:

Warren Shamlian is the father of Sandy Shamlian a well-known engine builder
out of Frederick, Maryland. He provided the majority of engines for F2000
over the years here in the States. He also was the crew chief for Quicksilver Racing when Jim and Chuck Sarich ran March 72Bs in Formula Atlantic and a F5000 McRae in F5000.

We've already talked about Charlie Hayes in other topics as he went on
to do some West Coast big-bore racing.

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by normbeechey
It went fully built. Landed in New York in September 1967.

Garrie Cooper tested it at Mallala before sending it t distributors Donald Mansell and Chuck Kruegar. Carl Haas waited 2 years for a car, but Garrie set up the distributor in the meantime so Carl cancelled his order, not being impressed.

Source: "Australia's Elfin Sports and Racing Cars"

Note that the badge on the nose does not seem to be an Elfin one.

I think it is an Elfin badge all right...

But a question for David Kane (and others...) where is this little Elfin 300 now?

[ggnagy]

Originally posted by Gary C
lads, just found this website : http://www.nationalroadrally.com/ , go into the 'Historic Photos' section and check out photos from 1955 - 1970 at the Cumberland Airport Sports Car Races. Anyone have any info on this circuit and races???

... ya mean aside from popping out 9 months after the 1969 cumberland nationals?

The brother of the guy who set up the National Road Rally website also has some historical documents up on the web. Try out this site for some maps/programs/articles/entry lists/etc. Something makes me think the author of the website has posted to TNF.

I have a number of pictures I took at the 2005 event that I kept meaning to post to one of the tracks revisited type threads, but have not gotten them all online and documented as of yet. The airport had a runway realigned some time after the races ended, and part of the pit straight is now missing. About the same time, they built a new terminal building that sits just inside the track at the final turn, and made the section of pavement between the new terminal and the old into a parking lot, seperating it from the rest. The current revival event consists mostly of an autocross (slalom), car show and Road Rally (regularity run), the latter of which someone has a pretty good record at.

[David M. Kane]

I believe it is in Upstate New York, maybe Rochester. A guy visited us at The Zippo GP and I hook him up with Michael Vigneron in Mittagong. What the guy did from there I'm not sure. It needed a lot of work.

[Ray Bell]

Thanks, David, you're a champion!

It's a very classy little car, in my opinion. It should have wiped the board against the (by then...) aging Lotus 23s and gone on to become a long term successor to the 23 style of car.

But history shows that all the interest swung to larger cars. Its big brothers, the 350 and 360, got all the attention. I cannot recall how long it is since I saw a 300. But I doubt that I have in over 30 years, probably 35 years. Even if I was at the same race meeting as Bruce Lynton's just a few weeks ago!

[ggnagy]

I just uploaded a few pictures taken from the spectator hill in 2005. I have marked out a rough outline of where the course went. Warning, photos are 1280x960.

Map:


cmb-hill-1
cmb-hill-2
cmb-hill-3
cmb-hill-4
cmb-end

[klemcoll]

Amusing post. I raced at Cumberland in 1963 in an ex-Ian Walker Lotus 23. I believe that the course had been set up by the then-famous M.J.R. "Doc" Wylie who raced, at that time, a Lola-Climax 1100. As I recall, after you came out of the esses, as can be seen on the track map, there was a white line painted by Wylie on the airport runway. The rule was that you were allowed two wheels over "Wylie's line" but more would result in a black flag. Exactly why this rule existed I cannot remember, if in fact I ever knew! Going through the pics for 1963, there I was in my 23, with #37 on it, just avoiding a spinning Oscar Kovaleski.

Real amateur days...

[Krueger]

I'm happy to report that the Elfin is still together and is owned by my dad, Chuck Krueger. I'm (his son Pete Krueger) currently in the Philippines running the family recycling business but my mom & dad could probably take/post some current pictures. She will use this same login 'Krueger'.

My dad is pictured in 69-034 mentioned in the beginning of the thread - he's on the left. George Lyman is on the right. Here's the link.