Shaun,

Steves car and John Targett! you make too much money, if there is such a thing. But you do have good judgement on how to spend it....

i helped john clean the gravel out of the bodywork on his B when he inverted it at Road America, and found him to have a two level brain. while trying to keep his good humor, he was toting up the cost of his late braking experiment. What a guy. I really miss he and Steve a fair amount.

Steve and i worked on his C for days on end when he first bought it, and after several years, i decided to get involved in IMSA, and moved to California to work at selling and fettling Lolas in Los Angeles. I got married, and returned to wisconsin to find Steve a vastly different guy, and it was never the same after that. Still fun, but very hard work, as Steves views on spending nescessary monies had shifted radically. We eventually parted ways, but remained friends at the circuit and in our part of the world, hunting and fishing together when we could.

The C originally was ordered by an old employer of mine, a BMC agent named Jerry Morewald. Morewald had a string of Mini's and was a steadfast ex-works patron, for cars that BMC wanted to promote in this country. You'll find notes on his racing thru the SCCA. He ordered the

MG because he felt it had legs in its class, with the homologated parts and its racing weight here. In the dealership, my job as a trainee was to clean it and tear it down, and make notes on what i found after each race. Morewald had a list of stuff to ck. and if he found something i missed, i got docked a days pay, and got my ears boxed.

Racing the C, we found the cams wouldn't live with the oil pressure we needed to keep the engine happy. we would crank up the oil pressure, and wipe out the drive gear on the cam and the spur gear. We had a standing order with BMC for cams and gears, and BMC suggested we lower the rev's and use lighter oil. We had monster valve springs, and headwork that only worked at higher rev's so that was a poor suggestion for our rules. We then foound that we couldn't supply enuf CFM with the legal carbs (two 1 3/4 SU) and first manifold. Then the second manifold came out, and things improved a small amount. But at this point, Morewald decided that he wasn't getting close enuf to the sharp end for the money he was spending, and the car was sold to Plater.

A year later, i was operating a small sportscar operation with a partner, and Plater showed up, looking for help and info.

COLLIER CUP MG RACE AT WATKINS GLEN 2002

Twenty-eight MGs raced for three days in nearly perfect September weather at Watkins Glen, NY, in SVRA's "Zippo US Vintage Grand Prix". At it, a featured race for the weekend was the 48th anniversary race of the "Collier Cup" race for MGs. All 28 MGs attending took the green, including two factory Sebring MGAs. This year's Collier Cup winner, as selected by the MG racers, was Mark Palmer in his red MGA. Mark is the first repeat winner of this prestigious award. Overall in the race, first place went to Jerry Richards in his MGB-GT, V-8 MG, followed by Steve Plater in his MGC, and then Mike Kusch in an MGB. George Shafer, piloting his well prepared MGTD, was the top finishing 'T' series MG, and was awarded the "T-Cup" trophy for 'T' series MGs. And a special award was presented to MGB racer Ginny Gibbons, recognizing her wonderful vintage racing spirit with her MGB. Ginny first watched MG's race at "Put In Bay" in 1952! The spirit lives!