CSRG David Love Memorial Vintage Car Road Races 2016 Sunday

CSRG David Love Memorial Vintage Car Road Races 2016 Photos and Stories.

Vintage Car Road Races, 2016-04-01 - 2016-04-03, Sonoma Raceway, Sonoma, California, USA Sunday

CSRG David Love Memorial Vintage Car Road Races Sunday

Sunday was a high overcast and light coat cool. The light for photos was just right making the work of capturing the cars easy. Watching and photographing the quick cars on a damp track as they fought for control and maximum speed was a thrill. CSRG moves the event along with good precision. Even early in the cool morning there were many fans in the stands around the track which to me at least shows that this type of 'Club Racing' still holds interest to people out side of the Core People. Club events like CSRG are not heavily advertised as the large moneyed events like NASCAR and always been for the fun and enjoyment of the owners and drivers of the cars. CSRG and SCCA organizations were formed to run races not make stock investors rich and the still have some of the olden days informality and focus on an enjoyable weekend for 'Gentleman' Drivers.

The big event of the weekend was the Kastner Cup race for Triumphs. R.E. Kas Kastner was a racecar driver and manager for the US Competition's Department for the Triumph factory. Kas also published books which are considered the top source on Triumph performance tuning. Kastner and Pete Brock designed and built the Kastner Triumph TR 250K in 1968 which was at the Sonoma Raceway this weekend and literally out ran the field of Triumphs on each outing. I had the great pleasure to meet and speak with the very gracious Mr. Kastner and discuss his car.

Alfa Romeo Monza sn-2111037 1932 CSRG David Love Memorial Vintage Car Road Races 2016 Sonoma

Petter Giddings in his Alfa Romeo Monza sn-2111037 1932

Kastner TR 250K Prtotype 1968 CSRG David Love Memorial Vintage Car Road Races 2016 Sonoma

Kastner TR 250K Prtotype 1968
Kas Kastner with his Prototype
The Kastner Triumph TR 250K 1968 is a prototype made for Triumph in 1968. The car was designed by Pete Brock who later worked for Carol Shelby and designed the Shelby Daytona Coupe.

The TR 250K has a Triumph 2.5L six-cylinder and a modified TR4A chassis assembled in Triumph's Competitions Department workshop by 'Kas' Kastner who ran the Competitions team. Kastner also built the TR-4 for Bob Tullius' for his D Production titles in 1963-64. The body is a custom aluminum skin by Borth and Rose in Southern California.

The reason for the TR 250K's creation was to move Triumph to a new modern light weight aerodynamic car around their 2.5-litre straight six engine to compete with the Porsche 911. Triumph supplied some seed money for the project and the TR 250K competed at Sebring, but Triumph failed to follow up on the TR 250K. Triumph later failed as did most all the British Leyland companies.

The spoiler at the rear was cutting edge for the time as an electronically adjustable aerodynamic aid. Movable spoilers or aerodynamic aids were later band on racing cars. However fixed rear spoilers are used almost universally even on production road cars.