{"id":11269,"date":"2015-03-05T14:19:35","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T19:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.monocoque-metalworks.com\/main\/?p=11269"},"modified":"2015-03-05T16:55:36","modified_gmt":"2015-03-05T21:55:36","slug":"think-spring-part-2-sebring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monocoque-metalworks.com\/main\/2015\/03\/think-spring-part-2-sebring\/","title":{"rendered":"Think Spring! \u2013 Part 2 \u2013 Sebring!"},"content":{"rendered":"

After dropping off the ’66 FHC in Gainesville, FL, we headed down to Oviedo, FL – about 2.5 hours further south.\u00a0 One of our good friends from high school, Tammy, lives there with her husband.<\/p>\n

Tammy was in our class – 1989.\u00a0 In our school, there was about a 2-year split on dating between guys and girls, and while we got along great with the girls in our class, we all dated girls 2 years younger.\u00a0 And the girls in our grade for Senior year were already dating college guys, etc.\u00a0 And so it went on for years…\u00a0 I think this happens alot, as freshman and sophomore guys can’t drive, and so they don’t have a whole lot to offer in those first couple of years…<\/p>\n

So we were just good friends with the girls in our same grade.\u00a0 There was a group of about 5 Senior girls who were real hell-raisers, and Tammy was one of them.\u00a0 She was a wild one, and her and Graham were actually both voted “class clown”…<\/p>\n

Tammy went to U of D at the same time I did – which was only about 7 miles down the road from where we grew up.\u00a0 Every year, several kids from our high-school would go down there to college, and since you don’t know anyone at first, we would all gravitate to each other.\u00a0 And so I actually was better friends with Tammy during the freshman year of college than in high school.\u00a0 We had a group of 6 or 7 of us that we hung out with, and one of them was a guy on Tammy’s floor named Shaun – they got married and live in Florida, so he’s an old friend too!<\/p>\n

Some of the people in high school I see ALL THE TIME, but most, we only see at the reunions, and Tammy is one of those since she lives 1,000 miles away.\u00a0 When Graham contacted her and told her we were coming through Florida, she insisted we stop in, and we eventually made plans to spend Friday night with her and Shaun – it was lots of fun to drink beers and catch up – while also reminiscing about the good old days.\u00a0 And of course, they were BLOWN AWAY that the death-trap I drove around in is now worth a quarter of a million dollars (properly restored, of course – not in a pile downstairs on the floor…) – AND I quit my job to play with them!<\/p>\n

After visiting with them, we headed down to the SVRA vintage race in Sebring – one of the key reasons for choosing this weekend for the trip.\u00a0 I knew I would only be able to spend a few hours there at most, but I just wanted to see it one more time…<\/p>\n

In March of 1990 & 1991, I went to the vintage races at Sebring as “pit crew” for Bill and Trent Terry of terry’s Jaguar.\u00a0 I’ve probably talked about this before on here, but it’s worth mentioning again – this was GREAT!\u00a0 I have a pretty good imagination, and going to these races was as close to going back in time as I was going to get.\u00a0 The Terry’s were a great family and bunch of characters, and this whole experience was a BLAST!<\/p>\n

Bill was racing his red #88 1961 E-type Coupe, and Trent raced his #38 MG Midget.\u00a0 Bill’s car was pretty well sorted by this time, but Trent’s was constantly in need of attention – almost entirely due to Trent’s driving abilities being so far beyond the machine itself.\u00a0 In those days, Group 1 was a constant battle for 1st place between Trent’s Midget and a VERY fast yellow Mini Cooper S…<\/p>\n

Sebring in those days just felt so REAL to me!\u00a0 I was DEEP into the “inside” of the scene – everything seemed very fast-paced and intense – probably because unlike all of the other vintage racers, Trent, at age 19, had ALOT to prove…<\/p>\n

Trent and I were two peas in a pod…\u00a0 We weren’t “best friends” or anything – it’s just that at the races, we were the only two 19-year-old guys around, and we had ALOT in common.<\/p>\n