| Sometime in 1984 I had occasion to visit Baylands Raceway in Fremont Ca. I wasn't totally unfamiliar with Baylands as I had raced there several years prior. Back then the place was a little different and I was riding a flattracker. This particular night I was there to watch auto races. Like so many typical spectators it was easy to be critical of the competition - Especially from the grandstands after a couple of beers. But on my own behalf I can actually state that I had at least some credentials. Riding a fast motorcycle on a 1/4 mile oval, or short track requires a fair degree of skill. I had won some local championships and once a western regional. So there I am at Baylands watching beat up Datsuns ricochet off of equally beat up Toyotas and Volkswagens along with anything else that fit into that particular class. To some extent I felt like the old firehorse hearing the bell ring after a long absence. Something stirred in me. I thought:"I can beat these guys". Within a couple of days I had a rule book in hand and set about laying out a MORRIS racer. I was in the Morris business, so it had to be a Morris. Plus it was tax deductible! In the class that the Morris fit into the rules stated that the engine could be altered but not changed. The displacement limit was 1600 cc. The Morris was 948 with a 5 port head. If we were to go up against overhead cam engines of 1600 CC's we would have to get pretty creative. I say "we" because early on in the project I was fortunate to have two very clever guys come on board. To shorten up what would otherwise be a pretty long story, the Morris was a tremendous hit. We ran it on methanol rather than gasoline because of the small additional power increase. We used many of these kinds of tricks to try and make this little car competitive. I had a semi trailer full of Morris body parts. Every week we came back to race with a completely straight and shiny car. People couldn't believe it, as the body really takes a beating in this kind of racing. The engine was a classic "time bomb" as it was so highly stressed that it could let go at any time, and it did. This car was an absolute crowd pleaser. We either finished first, second or third, or blew up trying. Usually trailing a dramatic trail of smoke until ultimately expiring. The track announcer loved us. The promoters loved us too as we had quite a following. This one little car brought out scores of spectators every week. The Morris racer was well received by journalists also. It was a surprisingly successful underdog, which made for good stories and it was very photogenic. It looked great crossed up in the corners or sitting neatly on the Morriservice Semi. Stories and photographs circulated the globe. The Morris racer was one of my better efforts. I'm pretty proud of it's success as I built just about every part of it. BW |
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