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dougie
Luke Skywalker
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[h=2]Healey Racing History[/h]
Here's a great piece of Healey racing history. Bill Maloney shares his experiences racing the ex-Hollywood Sports Cars big Healey that Ronnie Bucknum campaigned. I think someone on the forum said the car still belongs to a AHC member in Cali. I would love to see it back on the track. Article credit to the Motor Press Guide.
WHAT WE RACE(D)
Bill āRedline Muldoonā Maloney and his āOle Blueā
(photo below right by Ron Nelson)
Iāve owned and raced about 15 sports cars in the past 40 years: Turner, Triumph Spitfire, Jaguar XK120MC, Bandini, Elva Courier, Alfa Romeo Spyder and four Austin Healeys.
My favorite ā the one that really kept me broke ā was my ex-Hollywood Sport Cars 1962 Healey 3000 that Ronnie Bucknum (later a Honda F1 driver) drove to 31 straight Cal Club victories. Then the two-seater was sold to Seattle hot shoe and import car dealer Monte Shelton, who scored a bunch of SCCA wins in the northwest.
I was handling the advertising for BMC at this time and wanted to compete for a divisional SCCA championship and an invitation to the Runoffs, then being held at Daytona International Raceway. āIf you canāt beat āem, buy āem.ā I wanted the fastest Healey in the U.S., so in 1965 I had Monte ship the blue beauty to me in Chicago.
I named it āOle Blue.ā At 2800 lb. the car was a handful to drive, and on tighter courses the really hot Porsches and race-prepared TR-4s of Group 44 had me for lunch. But, like most race cars that take a ātraining periodā in order to get into a rhythm, it finally became a hoot to throw around and could be pretty intimidating to some smaller cars in our class, like Lotus Super 7s, Elvas and some Porsches.
At Midwestern road courses with long straights, such as Wilmot Hills, Lynndale Farms, Blackhawk, Brainerd, Indianapolis Raceway Park, Mid-Ohio, Gateway, Grayling and the infamous Meadowdale Raceway in Chicago, the big Healey was right at home, as I could use all the gears.
Speed costs money. With every race we continued looking for it. So hereās what you must do to transform a nice but bulky, slow British sports car into a nationally competitive Porsche beater:
Chassis-wise: Competition springs, Koni shocks, custom Bob McKee front sway bar, rear Panhard bar, four-wheel disc brakes with Mintex pads, shrouded rebuilt oversize radiator with no fan, Detroit Locker rear end, close ratio gears given to me in person by Sir Donald Healey, steel scatter shield over transmission, rebuilt (Tullius) overdrive with six forward gears and OD switch mounted on gearshift, 72-spoke Dayton wire wheels, quick fill racing fuel cap on 20 gallon fuel cell tank/bladder. The car ran on Goodyear Blue Streaks with wheel spacers to accommodate the increased width.
Motor-wise: Billet crank, Weslake aluminum cylinder head, special harmonic balancer, Jahns Pistons, Carillo racing connecting rods, reworked valve train w/ sodium valves, 8-quart sump, oil cooler, MSD electronic ignition, Isky Cam, Tilton clutch, racing valve cover, three 2-inch SU carburetors on polished intake manifold and reworked exhaust manifold, lightened flywheel, no generator. Oh, and the whole motor was blueprinted. Stock, it gave 136 hp, but by the time we were done with Ole Blue she made 214 on a chassis dyno.
We did qualify for the SCCA Runoffs in Daytona 1965 and really looked forward to racing on hallowed ground. My first encounter with the steep banking wall left me numb. Jeez ā¦ what am I doing here? C and D Production ran together and we qualified in mid-pack on a day so hot 13 cars got sidelined with overheating. In the third lap I blew a tire and was actually able to scramble back to the pits, get a spare and a floor jack, drag it back across the track, slap the new wheel on and finish seventh in class.
While that should have been a highlight of my amateur sports car racing career, I got more satisfaction out of winning the Badger 200-miler in a monsoon at Road America. I utilized a turbo visor (designed by Graham Hill) on my helmet to disperse rain and passed 19 cars in the first lap. In the Competition Press photo Iām lapping the second-place car and on a four mile course thatās haulinā.
I sold Ole Blue to a Chicago artist who promptly crashed it, then took it to Northern California and sold it. Every time the racing urge grips I make a futile attempt to find the car. Even though I imagine speed still costs money.
WHAT WE RACE(D)
Bill āRedline Muldoonā Maloney and his āOle Blueā
(photo below right by Ron Nelson)
Iāve owned and raced about 15 sports cars in the past 40 years: Turner, Triumph Spitfire, Jaguar XK120MC, Bandini, Elva Courier, Alfa Romeo Spyder and four Austin Healeys.
My favorite ā the one that really kept me broke ā was my ex-Hollywood Sport Cars 1962 Healey 3000 that Ronnie Bucknum (later a Honda F1 driver) drove to 31 straight Cal Club victories. Then the two-seater was sold to Seattle hot shoe and import car dealer Monte Shelton, who scored a bunch of SCCA wins in the northwest.
I was handling the advertising for BMC at this time and wanted to compete for a divisional SCCA championship and an invitation to the Runoffs, then being held at Daytona International Raceway. āIf you canāt beat āem, buy āem.ā I wanted the fastest Healey in the U.S., so in 1965 I had Monte ship the blue beauty to me in Chicago.
I named it āOle Blue.ā At 2800 lb. the car was a handful to drive, and on tighter courses the really hot Porsches and race-prepared TR-4s of Group 44 had me for lunch. But, like most race cars that take a ātraining periodā in order to get into a rhythm, it finally became a hoot to throw around and could be pretty intimidating to some smaller cars in our class, like Lotus Super 7s, Elvas and some Porsches.
At Midwestern road courses with long straights, such as Wilmot Hills, Lynndale Farms, Blackhawk, Brainerd, Indianapolis Raceway Park, Mid-Ohio, Gateway, Grayling and the infamous Meadowdale Raceway in Chicago, the big Healey was right at home, as I could use all the gears.
Speed costs money. With every race we continued looking for it. So hereās what you must do to transform a nice but bulky, slow British sports car into a nationally competitive Porsche beater:
Chassis-wise: Competition springs, Koni shocks, custom Bob McKee front sway bar, rear Panhard bar, four-wheel disc brakes with Mintex pads, shrouded rebuilt oversize radiator with no fan, Detroit Locker rear end, close ratio gears given to me in person by Sir Donald Healey, steel scatter shield over transmission, rebuilt (Tullius) overdrive with six forward gears and OD switch mounted on gearshift, 72-spoke Dayton wire wheels, quick fill racing fuel cap on 20 gallon fuel cell tank/bladder. The car ran on Goodyear Blue Streaks with wheel spacers to accommodate the increased width.
We did qualify for the SCCA Runoffs in Daytona 1965 and really looked forward to racing on hallowed ground. My first encounter with the steep banking wall left me numb. Jeez ā¦ what am I doing here? C and D Production ran together and we qualified in mid-pack on a day so hot 13 cars got sidelined with overheating. In the third lap I blew a tire and was actually able to scramble back to the pits, get a spare and a floor jack, drag it back across the track, slap the new wheel on and finish seventh in class.
While that should have been a highlight of my amateur sports car racing career, I got more satisfaction out of winning the Badger 200-miler in a monsoon at Road America. I utilized a turbo visor (designed by Graham Hill) on my helmet to disperse rain and passed 19 cars in the first lap. In the Competition Press photo Iām lapping the second-place car and on a four mile course thatās haulinā.
I sold Ole Blue to a Chicago artist who promptly crashed it, then took it to Northern California and sold it. Every time the racing urge grips I make a futile attempt to find the car. Even though I imagine speed still costs money.
ā Redline Muldoon
