We wanted to bring you this first hand account of our friend (and US Ambassador) Dave, 84 years young and living the (Suixtil) dream – at life speed! Here it goes, a first hand account of living in the fast lane:
“I’m back home after a great race weekend at the Summit Point track just an hour from Washington DC. The event is an old standard called the Jefferson 500. I am not sure why (probably because I am old and forget things) I did not do any race reports. So here it is.
Last fall a fellow I knew named Steve Smith came up to me and said he had heard about HoneyBee being destroyed. He told me he was a teenager when the AutoSport team was racing IMSA and TransAm and had always wanted to race a BMW2002. He was a good track racer and bought a car from well known BMW driver, Bennie Bish. Steve spent some money on it and took it to drivers school but did not like racing as much as track days. At the Glen gave me a price that I could not refuse with the promise I would have it on the track in 2026. He took the car to Apex Vintage in North Carolina, the guys who were taking care of my cars for a couple years, and over the winter they started going through the car. I went there after the Daytona 24 hour and found a bunch of things I did not care for. Malcom and Rod did a full maintenance on the car, fixing several issues and worked hard on the list we made in January. We knew Steve had the engine gone over but also knew it was not as hot as the engine in Nazdar. On the dyno she ran nicely but was about 26hp down on the other 2002’s Apex took care of.
The weekend could not have started worse. My first flight from Palm Springs to San Francisco was delayed by hours and I was rebooked to Denver two hours later. In Denver everyone is on board when an announcement is made that there is a mechanical problem. For the second time of the day, I am taken off the plane and wait another few hours for a replacement. I never arrived at Dulles airport until 12:45 am. Thankfully Dave and Susan Zych were there and drove me to their home where we finally got to sleep at 2:30am. Practice Thursday was out of the question. I was so buzzed and out of synch I decided it best to just go to the track, register and say hello then back to the motel and sleep. Friday we got going and the car was very nervous. The rear end was not happy and kept trying to tell the front where to go. We were very slow. I had the boys take off the rear sway bar to soften it up and in the afternoon the car was transformed. I was pretty rusty and was far too cautious braking and going quick in the fast turns but we weren’t last and I was happy with the car! The car came with a 3.9 rear end ratio which is great for Daytona but severely lacking anywhere else. The other BMW’s were running 4.2 and 4.3 differentials. In layman’s terms it meant my gears were so long I never got into 5th. The lower the number the higher the top speed but the slower the acceleration. But lacking a spare, we soldiered on. I have always been good at adapting to the situation and driving around mechanical troubles and it helped in this case.
For the race Saturday morning we started 22nd. It was a mess going into turn 1 and I cooled it losing a couple places because the other cars outdragged me (damn 3.9). But somewhere inside the fire started burning and Old #6 and I began to get friendly. I picked off a car before the first lap was over and then another and just kept gaining confidence as the race went on and finished 9th. I cannot tell you how pleased I was to be back in the saddle and actually doing well. The next race they gridded me 13th and again, after a slow start (damn 3.9) roared through the field to finish 8th. As with the other sessions my best lap was 2 seconds faster and within two of the leaders. Sunday morning was supposed to be sunny and hot but turned out cloudy with a bit of rain. It sprinkled just enough to get the rubber slippery and it was like driving on ice in some places. About half the field of 30 cars had either gone home or decided not to go out. I got up to 4th with the leaders easily in sight. But rather than go after them, I just kept comfortable and a great young driver caught and passed me and we finished 6th of 16 starters.
You could not get the grin off my face. I had so many doubts coming into the weekend; was I crazy to have bought another car and thinking I could be quick at 84? Was this car any good? Was it safe? Not enough power? And everyone of those doubts were proven unnecessary. The motor ran without a hiccup, once the sway bar was gone she handled beautifully and despite the wrong rear end I used everything the new car had and drove like I was 60. What a treat to show up with a new car that I had barely sat in much less driven and finish every lap and in the top 10. A great tribute to the Apex guys for making the car safe and comfortable. We’ll get a few things updated and be back for the Lime Rock historics and maybe another race in the summer. I guess my “sell by” date isn’t quite here as yet and I am ready to go again.”
