My first race car was an MGA. I knew at the time it was a special car. Bob Bucher, Sherm Decker and Bob Poupard were all mentors and I had spent hours at Morris Garage, so I was an MG guy. When I got a job after school I bought a brand new 1962 MGA 1600Mk II deluxe or “competition” in December 1962. Black with red interior, close ration gearbox, 4.1 diff, oil cooler and sway bar. Basically a leftover twin cam with a pushrod engine. It was gorgeous. I had good success with him (seemed like a male to me) but parted ways with it when I went to buy a Lotus 23… the bad news? The MG was gone and the Lotus deal fell through.
Fast forward to 2011. I am at Sears Point with the MG guys. Bob Schoeplein, the owner/driver of #76 Honey Bee says this is going to be his last year. I had seen Honey Bee for a while and loved Bob and Jane and told him when he was ready, I was first on the list. I helped out again at Lime Rock in the fall of 2011 and reminded him that I was the buyer.
Nothing ever goes as planned and Bob sold his house, was moving and had no time for this other old guy who wanted his car. After lots of pursuit we made a deal and in July of 2012 the check cleared. I figured my first outing would be the Lime Rock Historics over Labor Day. I had no competition license and because of my work schedule there was no possibility to get to one – unless I wanted to spend 4 figures for Barber or Bondurant school. I had to get a license or why have the car? Charles Bordin from the VSCCA, a pure enthusiast and racer, listened to my plea and agreed that with my history of racing they would allow me to compete under observation. I also agreed to go to Lime Rock the Tuesday before the Historics weekend to work the kinks out and get familiar with the car and going fast. Then another big surprise – Lime Rock was sold out in May! In my day you could just show up at an event, register and go racing but that is clearly not the case with vintage racing. The folks at Lime Rock are also pure racers and after pleading and joking and sending photos of me on the podium at the Camel GT race at Lime Rock in 1973 (complete with a lot of black hair) and promising pounds of Kona coffee and chocolate macadamia nuts an opening came up and I was in. Did I mention I live in Honolulu?
So I had a car, I had a temporary license and I had an entry. So how do I get from my house in Honolulu to where the car is stored in Culpepper, Virginia to a race weekend in Connecticut? Oh yes – my drivers suit and helmet last purchased in the 70’s were no longer valid for anything but a museum. I went round and round on what to do and finally got helmet, 3 piece suit, socks, sexy red shoes and gloves, balaclava, HANS device from Safe Racer. Oops – when delivered, the suit was big enough to swim in so I had to send it back and have the smaller one sent to my girlfriend in California as I was not sure it would not show up half way out in the Pacific Ocean before I left.
So now I had a car, a temporary competition license and entry and a spiffy new kit to go racing in. There was still the problem that I was 5,800 miles away from the car; my companion was in California and had the spiffy suit and the race was another 500 miles from where the car was. Not a problem.
I flew on Saturday from Honolulu to Los Angeles with all the gear I had. Met Rosemary at LAX and got the suit and a new Sparco bag to carry everything. We flew to Dulles airport outside Washington, DC on Sunday morning. I had rented a Mercedes based RV a few weeks prior and had planned on picking it up on Monday and testing at Lime Rock on Wednesday but found Lime Rock tests on Tuesday- oops. When I called the RV place to get the vehicle a day ahead of the original – it was rented and I could not pick it up until Monday, the day before testing. Oops. So I rented a car and drove it to Kevin and Heather Richards house in Culpepper to finally sit in the car for the first time and see if the seat fit and to get comfortable. The car fired up beautifully and I took it for a quick spin on some back roads – what a thrill. My buddy Michael Eaton had a trailer for me and Kevin had fixed up boxes of spares and tools and gear to go racing. I love it when a plan comes together.
Monday morning we drove from Culpepper to Dulles, returned the rental car and went to pickup the RV. Oops, it was not ready as the people who had it were late bringing it back. Finally we headed back south to Culpepper. I hooked up the trailer, figured how to get those boxes of spares and beer in the storage of the RV, put our clothes inside and drove the car on the trailer. Kevin gave me his system of locking the car in place and by late afternoon we were on the road to Lime Rock. The drive, from Culpepper it is about 9 hours towing – NY State does not allow trailers on their parkways so we had to go up the west side of the Hudson and cross over at Poughkeepsie.
Things were going really well. The M-B diesel purred and pulled strongly and delivered 11.5 miles per gallon at 65-70 mph. I got tired about midnight and we pulled over just before crossing the Hudson and caught a few hours of sleep in the parking lot of a great Greek diner. Up at 5am, breakfast in the diner and we finished the drive and parked next to registration at Lime Rock about 8am to catch a few hours of nap before the track opened at noon.
Did I mention that the VSCCA does not use email or electronic 21st century communication for membership? It’s all done by post. The result is I showed at Lime Rock without one shred of paper saying I was a member or that I had approval to race. Charles Bordin had done a great job including getting me a conference call with VSCCA president John Schieffelin. With me pestering them both, John had gotten word to Lime Rock that I was OK despite not having paper. Being a skeptical man I walked up to the entrance gate and was confronted by a white uniformed Lime Rock guy. He told me all I needed was my license and to drive my rig up… I explained I did not have my license with me, that it was being mailed. He looked at me and said “Are you the guy from Hawaii?” I nearly dropped and said yes. “I know all about you buddy, c’mon in”. Slick as can be we drove in, Scott showed us our RV parking place, I unloaded and got ready for the first session. Could that be the end of the story? Not by a long shot.
First test session I was a moving road block. No guts at all, the car telling me how much faster it could go, the brakes laughing at me saying “coward, go deeper”. But it was great. I came back in and parked near the RV. Rosemary was there and smiled but soon walked away. Odd I thought. She should be happy and smiling. She was walking around by the big tree in paddock B. Something was wrong. I got out of the suit and found her and asked what was wrong. “I lost the keys” she said and the RV was locked. We looked and looked but could not find them. Finally she heard a clinking sound, looked in her bra and there were the keys. Funny huh? Except we spent so much time looking I totally missed session #2. Not to worry, there were 3 more 20 minute sessions. I checked the car over as I had years ago. Checked fuel, lug nuts, oil, tire pressures and went out. Hey, for 20 minutes I wouldn’t need more than 3 gallons of fuel right? The session went well and I was getting much faster, smoother and was no longer getting passed on both sides. Near the end the car was breaking up at higher revs and I wondered why. At the checker the car was really sputtering and I knew the problem – I was running out of gas and I did on the back straight. This called for the wrecker to come get me and tow me back. I felt so stupid. I tried to get into the RV to get my wallet and go get fuel but it was locked. Oh NO!! Here comes Rosemary and I ask for the keys. She says they are inside. I nearly faint but she says the camper door isn’t locked. I say it is. She tries to open it and oops – it is locked. Here I am late getting in after the session because I had to get towed – I have to get gas, see if the car will start, check it over and the RV is locked. Fortunately I remembered the bedroom window was open, so I pushed the screen in, lifted Rosie up and threw her through the window (She only weighs 105 pounds). But after this saga, guess what? I missed the next session. The good news is we were ready for the last session of the day and I was feeling much, much better. Now I was passing cars and not getting passed at all. I was staying up with cars I knew to be quick. Finally getting back to what it was like in the old days. The session ended well and my first day back racing was done.
We had a fun couple days on Wednesday and Thursday with some old racer friends, Harry Reynolds and Fred Stevenson, who were up selling their memorabilia. Friday came and my license was at registration, got all the goods, went through tech and the paddock was filling with cars. We had a practice on Friday morning and qualifying in the afternoon. Now I would see where I stood with the cars in my group including another 10 MGA’s. The car performed really well and I was much better with a few days to think about what I was doing wrong. I felt about 80% and was shocked I was passing so many cars. I went later to see the times and was really happy that my times were almost exactly half way up the field and 6th of 11 MGA’s. I knew darn well there was a bunch of seconds I was leaving on the table. That afternoon Kevin, Mike Eaton and his son Jonathon, John Wright and the former owner good old Bob Schoeplein showed up at noon and it was great to see them. Especially now that I knew I was not going to embarrass myself.
Qualifying came and I felt great. Honey Bee was grinning from ear to ear and I was passing everybody. I finally got an open lap with no traffic and did a 9/10’s lap before running into a 3 car chicane. I was very courteous and did not push the subject (we vintage racers are gentile) until they spread 3 wide and there was no way past them. I finally did an old fashioned inside out-brake on the shoulder move and got by all three in big bend. By the next corner they were far behind.
You have to know that Honey Bee is not a podium car. Bob raced the car for 15 years and it is a solid competitor. I had no expectations except to be in the top half of the MGA’s and stay out of trouble. I had not driven in a race in 31 years (1981 Camel GT at Pocono was my last) and other than lapping in a formula ford and some go kart fun I had no idea if any of my old verve was still there. But it was. Friday eve the qualifying sheets came out and there was Honey Bee #76 – 5th overall and 3rd MGA. I was over the moon. I’ve never been shy and could be described as “confident” but after that performance my head was as big as a watermelon and I must have sounded like an arrogant jerk. But I was one happy fellow. (yes I saved that qualifying sheet)
It all goes downhill from there – at least as far as racing goes. Saturday morning in the warmup I was pushing through the corners pretty hard keeping the revs at 6200 but could not find a clear lap. On the next to last lap I checked gauges just before the top of the hill – 60lbs oil pressure, 190 water temp, 1100 exhaust temp. Flew down the hill and just about the start/finish line at 5800RPM – BAM – something broke. The back wheels locked but I corrected it and got it out of gear and coasted to the runoff area. Honey Bee and the old man came back on a flat bed. When we tried to see what had happened (it felt like the gearbox broke) Kevin looked under the hood and said “should I be able to see the crankshaft from here?” The crank had broken and poked a hole in the block big enough to put a cantaloupe through. We were done.
But it doesn’t end here. I put a sign on the back of The Bee saying “Need MG motor, have cash and beer”. Before you could walk the paddock I had offers. Amazing what wonderful folks the vintage crowd has. A few of the offers were motors that were simply too far away to get – one was an MGB motor at a very reasonable price but it was on Long Island. But the guy was sympathetic and said if we wanted it – he would drive to the ferry and take it across the sound and meet us at Bridgeport. Jeff Sienkiewicz, another MGA driver said he had a motor from a wrecked coupe – had no idea what shape it was in but I could use it. It was 20 minutes away. Kevin and I followed him and found it in a neat barn, on a dolly, next to the driveway. Honest, it could not have been easier to get in the back of the car. The next morning – they don’t race at Lime Rock on Sunday – the boys went to Bridgeport and the motor showed up – they were back before noon. We took a look at the motor and some things did not look right. We opened it up and with the help of a dozen friends and a borrowed engine lift, opened it up and checked everything. It took a few hours and a case of beer but by twilight it was ready to put in. Oops – this was a 5 main bearing motor and carried a much bigger flywheel than we expected – the flywheel would not fit the bell housing. We were done – again. Out the motor came and our attention went to Jeff’s engine. It was literally covered with dust, but in checking, it turned over and all the valve train worked.
We had it plugged in by about 10pm and I sent the boys back to their hotel. In the morning I started bolting it in and was just getting finished when the crew re-appeared. We did our due diligence, took the plugs out and turned it over. She cranked and before long I got 25lbs of oil pressure. But she would not fire. 40 lbs of pressure in #3 and only 90 in #2. Again, dozens of new, great friends had suggestions but it was really time to call it a day. We cleaned up the grass garage and started packing and watched the competition on track.
So here was the story. In July I bought a race car that was nearly 6,000 miles away. Went through the hoops getting helmet, suit and safety gear and then figured out how to get a license and somehow got lucky enough to bribe some wonderful folks into an entry at the Lime Rock Historics. One week before the race I came from Hawaii to Virginia to sit in my new steed for the first time. Got an RV, hooked it all up and towed it to Connecticut. I went out in a race car for real on Tuesday for the first time in 31 years. Practiced and qualified for the official event on Friday; blew the motor sky high on Saturday. Made a dozen fabulous new friends, was totally humbled by the kind of help, loaned tools, gifts of the motor and more. Frankly – I think it was more fun and maybe even a better time because of the blown motor. But don’t ask me to do it again.
What a team I have, what a lucky guy. We’ll be back and we’ll finish what we started. Keep an eye out for that yellow buzzer called Honey Bee. She still has some sting in her tail, just like the old man pushing her.
Dave Nicholas: Twelve Years After
The story of my return was written when I was 70 years old. There has been a lot of water over the dam since that article 12 years ago. The good news is it has been all good news.
We rebuilt Honey Bee after that first Lime Rock and over the next 8 years won 5 SVRA Group 1 season championships, the 2018 Bell Helmet national championship, the Collier Cup, the Bucher-Decker MGA cup and had over 35 wins. In 2021 Honey Bee took a rest for a few years while I started racing my old TransAm and IMSA BMW 2002. However, one cannot leave the girl you took to your first dance, and Honey Bee and I come out once or twice a year, even now.
Our journey took us thousands of miles from Sebring in Florida to Road America in Wisconsin and up to Mosport in Canada. We hit 18 different tracks, a few every year. Over those 12 years, we raced Honey Bee at 58 meeting weekends, went through 4 driver’s suits, 3 Bell helmets, 2 sets of racing shoes, 3 sets of gloves and two balaclava’s.
Now at 82 we’re still going. Not as strong as 2012, but still quick. It has been a wonderful journey. Dozens of new friends, reunions with old friends and experiencing so much of our racing passion.
